[ahydra]

Five quick ones for you guys. Throughout it's weak NT and 4cM. These are just some of the highlights (lowlights?) from the disaster of a pairs game I just got back from.

1) First hand of the evening - your call after (uninterrupted) 1S-1NT-2D-2H? For bonus points guess what I picked and what the result was.

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2) Which opening lead here? ♠Qxxx ♥Q ♦10x ♣KJ9xxx after opponents (who aren't particularly strong nor do they play together often, if that helps) bid 1S-2H-3D-3NT. 1S is 4+, 2H is 5+ and 3D is a reverse.

3) What's gone wrong here?! ATB. 1C is 4+. No real agreement about responsive Xs.

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4) Open this a weak two 1st seat NV vs V? ♠9 ♥KJ9xxx ♦KJ ♣Jxxx

5)

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2H is weak, 2NT = OGUST, 3C = rubbish (lower end of weak two range with 1 of the AKQ only), 3H to play. Small heart lead which you play to the 7, Q and Ace. Now what?

I don't think I've ever misplayed so many hands in one night. At least my defence was pretty good, I suppose.

Thanks for your input!

ahydra

[Bad_Wolf]

1) pass, you are in a reasonable spot, no guarantee of improving it

2) who knows, presumably a club blows a trick

3) east's double is silly, bid your hearts

4) 2h ok but wimpy, 3h more like it first at fav

5) easy pass of 2h, where are 10 tricks coming from?

[quiddity]

1. I think this is close between pass and 2NT. I'll guess you bid 2NT and went down.
2. club
3. I blame East's double.
4. 2♥
5. I think ogust is ok, if East has AQ-6th of hearts then you have a decent shot at 3NT. In 3♥ I suspect there's a better line but I would try the club hook; if it fails we may not have lost anything since we can discard a likely spade loser on the ace of clubs.

[ggwhiz]

On #3 double instead of 2♥ sucks but why 2♠? I would bid 2♥ but would pick 2♦ before that 2♠ bid. Passing 2♠ is pretty bad too so I'll give east 150% and west 100%.

As Billy Eisenberg said to Eddie Kantar after a mixup, "That's ok we deserve each other."

[Codo]

1. I would pass and guess you passed too and wrote down 230 on your score sheet because partner hits with Kx, KQxxxxx,-,xxxx and they failed to lead a club.

2. Ten of Diamonds. Most suits seems to break bad for them, I won't gift them a trick, which a club lead will "surely" do. At imps I am not sure what will win in the long run.

3. I dislike the responsive double. Yes, you will play 2 Diamond in the 4-4 fit, instead of 2 Heart in a 4-3 if partner has 4342. But this is pairs, so bidding the major is much better then doubling.
And I dislike the 2 ♠ bid without prior discussion.

4. ? Looks like a quite obvious and normal weak two.

5. I guess I had won the first trick in Dummy and finessed in hearts. The auction did not scream for a trump lead, so I guess he did not lead from Qxx or a singelton, but from xx or xxx. And in this case I would like to unblock the Heart king to draw trumps before I go for the spades. Of course this had been not without risk, but most often it had worked.

[ahydra]

Getting some useful responses here, so gonna give it another day or so before I reveal the gory details ;p

ahydra

[gwnn]

3 - West should bid his 4-card suits up the line. I don't understand 2♠. I like East's double. Of course this depends on what East's double means and what West is supposed to do over it. yes, I think doubler should rebid 2♠ if he has 4-3-3-3 exactly, but that's only one shape.

[quiddity]

gwnn, on 2012-February-24, 07:46, said:

3 - West should bid his 4-card suits up the line. I don't understand 2♠. I like East's double. Of course this depends on what East's double means and what West is supposed to do over it. yes, I think doubler should rebid 2♠ if he has 4-3-3-3 exactly, but that's only one shape.

I guess we must have different ideas about what the double shows. I thought it was pretty standard for the double to mean "both majors", and with only one major East should just bid it. Why volunteer to play in diamonds and possibly miss a 4-4 heart fit?

[mikeh]

1. 2N is silly. Partner was willing to see us pass 2♥ with 5=1=4=3 shape and a minimum, so Jx has to be good news. The question to me is whether to take the plus by passing or to risk a minus (in 3♥ when he passes or 4♥ when he accepts). At imps, you have to bid, imo. I assume that we don't play 2/1, so he will have been able to respond 2♥ on some of the hands against which 2/1 bidders have to guard, so I think at mps, pass is best.

2. Club, even at mps. Sometimes these auctions force declarer into 3N on Qxx (of course, then dummy may have Ax). It's not as if anything else appeals, and other leads may give away even more than this one does when this one is wrong.

3. E has a baby 2♥ bid: the double is bizarre. West could and maybe should have saved by bidding up the line, but E gets virtually all the blame.

4. yes...why not?

5. spade J. Maybe I need to hook a club, but this is matchpoints and a losing club finesse will get us a VERY bad score...meanwhile, some pairs are probably in game, so I'm not panicking here. Nor am I pulling trump, which will allow them to find out more about the hand, not to mention that I don't want to be in dummy at trick 2. BTW, against most opps, it was perhaps best to win the heart K in dummy and then hook the Q...who leads from the heart Q on this auction?

[han]

1) I'd pass, alternatives of 2NT or 3H seem too aggressive at pairs. I'm guessing that you bid 2NT, partner raised to 3NT on a poor 7-count and you went -1 while 2NT= would have been a top. To make matters worse, you made the last trick with the diamond 7, and it was the third consecutive club game in which you did so, if not for partner's misbid which made the beercard invalid. Your LHO smurked when she saw dummy. Am I close?

2) Low club, I see no reason to do anything different.

3) What's gone wrong is that east doubled with 4 hearts and two small spades. The good thing is that you'll keep pointing it out for a while so he won't forget easily.

4) I would, I don't like 3H on this hand although I don't consider it completely insane. It's not my style on such a suit though.

5) Very strange lead. You could finesse in clubs immediately, or you could draw trumps and come back to hand by ruffing clubs. If the club king doesn't fall you have some squeeze possibilities. I'd guess that south has a single honor in every suit for this strange lead and finesse in clubs.

[han]

It's not clear to me that a losing club finesse will get us a very bad score Mike, our discard could easily be useful, especially if they have 3 top tricks in diamonds but don't cash them.

I strongly disagree that west could (or should!) bid diamonds instead of spades. It's matchpoints Mike!

[han]

I see that my Dutch friend gwnn also suggested that west should bid his suits up the line on 3. I don't think this style can be right. Do you guys also think that west should bid a 3-card diamond suit when he has doubled with a 4-3-3-3 shape in order to avoid the 4-2 spade fit? And if west is 3-4-4-2, they'll get to diamonds instead of hearts, a big disaster at MPs. No, this isn't playable in my opinion.

[mikeh]

han, on 2012-February-24, 16:28, said:

It's not clear to me that a losing club finesse will get us a very bad score Mike, our discard could easily be useful, especially if they have 3 top tricks in diamonds but don't cash them.

I strongly disagree that west could (or should!) bid diamonds instead of spades. It's matchpoints Mike!

Sorry....I looked quickly at the hands, and focused only on West's 2♠ bid, rather than 2♥. I was looking to see why they missed hearts, and I agree that West, in 'bidding up the line' ought to start with hearts, not diamonds.

[quiddity]

mikeh, on 2012-February-24, 16:18, said:

1. 2N is silly. Partner was willing to see us pass 2♥ with 5=1=4=3 shape and a minimum, so Jx has to be good news. The question to me is whether to take the plus by passing or to risk a minus (in 3♥ when he passes or 4♥ when he accepts). At imps, you have to bid, imo. I assume that we don't play 2/1, so he will have been able to respond 2♥ on some of the hands against which 2/1 bidders have to guard, so I think at mps, pass is best.

Doesn't 2NT show 16-17 semi-balanced? That is exactly what we have. It's not like we're going to run to 2NT with a stiff heart; we would just pass right?
I think bidding at all is debatable, but choosing 3♥ instead of 2NT is bizarre.

[mikeh]

quiddity, on 2012-February-24, 20:03, said:

Doesn't 2NT show 16-17 semi-balanced? That is exactly what we have. It's not like we're going to run to 2NT with a stiff heart; we would just pass right?
I think bidding at all is debatable, but choosing 3♥ instead of 2NT is bizarre.

I think the prototypical 2N is a good 17 - 18 hcp and 5=1=4=3. A lot depends on what we expect for 2♥. To me, partner will usually not be 2=5 majors, since he will often choose 2♠ to avoid the possible 5-1 heart fit. So if he has 6 hearts and a weak hand, with the club lead coming through our AJ tight, I think 2N is not a good move...I concede that 'silly' was an overbid

[ahydra]

Here's what actually happened:

1) I bid 2NT with the 16 count (should be 3H, since partner really should have 6 hearts) and it went two off. BUT it was a second-top because everyone else managed to do even worse than that! All but one were in game - some in 3NT, some in 4H and one in 4S (on a 5-2 fit), all going 3 off.

I think pass is probably sensible at MPs, 3H at imps.

2) Partner led a club into declarer's AQ and that was a top for them (well, except for the pair that somehow managed to make 6♥!). However, the main reason they got a top was because of their dodgy bidding landing them in 3NT rather than 4H on a 9-card fit. :/

3) I was East. I'd never learnt that responsive X showed "majors or minors" (depending on what opponents opened, so majors here) - I thought it was just "two suits, 8+ HCP, no clear direction". So I'm going to write on the CC for next time that it shows majors or minors, and prevent this happening again

Yes I agree that, in absence of prior agreements, perhaps partner might have gone with 2H - if I actually have D and S, I can bid 2S.

4) I opened 2H and we got to 6H-1, missing the cold 6C when partner hits with a 5215 21-count. We have now agreed that a new suit after a weak two is forcing, since here 2H-2S-3C-4C... would have done the trick.

5) Looking at the hand again, if partner's going to tell me off for pushing on hand 1, I'm tempted to tell him off for pushing on a balanced 15 opposite a weak 2 at green! But anyway, I also tried the spade J only to realise too late that the finesse against the KQ wasn't going to actually help since I don't have the 9. The club finesse was on and I got a rubbish score for -50.

Agree with those who said that I should win the K and then finesse hearts. But you'd be surprised - there are some players at the club who would lead away from the HQ because they don't know it's a bad idea, and some who would do it because you'd never suspect it.

Somehow we ended up with over 55%! Imagine what could happen...

ahydra

[FrancesHinden]

ahydra, on 2012-February-25, 06:41, said:

Here's what actually happened:

3) I was East. I'd never learnt that responsive X showed "majors or minors" (depending on what opponents opened, so majors here) - I thought it was just "two suits, 8+ HCP, no clear direction". So I'm going to write on the CC for next time that it shows majors or minors, and prevent this happening again

Yes I agree that, in absence of prior agreements, perhaps partner might have gone with 2H - if I actually have D and S, I can bid 2S.

No, I've never learnt that either, and I still play that double shows two places to play. It's certainly neither obviously right nor obviously superior to bid 2H on the East hands and restrict double for a hand with both majors. I believe very strongly that it's right to double on all 2-suiters: you can always resolve this after they open a minor, and (with a bit more discussion) after they open a major.

The problem was not thinking that double was just "two suits", the problem was that your partner thought it meant "both majors". I believe even more strongly that it's right for you and your partner to play the same way.
If you have to bid 2H on this hand, then you end up playing in 2H opposite, say, a 4=3=4=2 - while this might be right at matchpoints, you generally want to play in your fit if you can.
If you double to show any two suits, then with a 4441 your partner can bid 2H (yes, it's matchpoints). If you have hearts, you pass. If you have spades and diamonds you bid 2S.