Saturday, March 27, 2010

On in competition? (bridge)

Ok, so there were more bridge hands of interest from Reno than just one. The first two have the same theme.

1. Imps vul vs nv
AKxxx
Qxxx
xx
xx

You pass in first seat, partner opens 1C, RHO overcalls 1D, you bid 1S (do people double here?). Partner now bids 2H. What do you bid now, and more importantly, is lebensohl over reverses on in competition? With a clear long suit threat from the opponents, should we worry about using 2NT as a natural bid?

2. Imps vul vs nv
The auction goes 1H-(1S)-2C-(p)-3D

What's 3D? In an uncontested auction, 3D would be a splinter in support of clubs. Is that still on in competition? I personally don't think so, since 2C is not G/F, and so the auction should revert to a SAYC type auction. If the auction had gone 1H-(1S)-2C-(p)-2D-(p)-2N/3C-(p)-, would 3D now be forcing? I think it's more important to be able to set up the game force with a natural 3D bid immediately.

3. Imps both vul
You hold
xxx
Kxxxxx
x
xxx

LHO opens 1S, pd X to you.

A) What do you bid? 2H seems normal to me, but I can see someone arguing for 4H (would probably need to play in conjunction that any values-based jump to 4H goes thru the cuebid first)

Let's say you bid 2H. LHO bids 3C and partner bids 3D.

B) Now what? There's still a good likelihood that hearts are the better strain, so I think 3H here is normal.

Partner now bids 3S.

C) What does he have? Is this in support of hearts? Or is he showing a spade stopper and missing a club stopper?

You bid 4H and it goes around to RHO who now wakes up with 4S.

D) Now what?
i) double
ii) pass and pass partner's double
iii) 5H
iv) pass and pull partner's double
v) other?

3 comments :

Anonymous said...

On hand 1 I kept going back and forth between system on and off. Close call. It seems like the right siding issue is so severe you want to avoid artificial 2NT. Also opener is almost certain to have 4 hearts, because 2D Q is available.

On hand 2, 3D showing slammish 5-5 is a fine meaning for the bid contested or otherwise. Of course, it's more useful in contested auction which might go 1H (1s) 2C 2D 3C 3d and who knows what the second 3D shows in terms of overall strength.

Hand 3 - no idea => defer decision to partner.

Best Regards,
Alex

Becker said...

One comment on the 3rd hand (sorry I'm just reading this now). You do not need a lot to make a game, so it's tempting to just bid 4 hearts, but 2 hearts is wildly unlikely to end the auction. Any other bid, as you mentioned, could confuse your partner as to your overall strength. Ok to walk the dog on these types of distributional hands!

The Pretender said...

I still have no idea what's best on hand 1, but I think lebensohl off makes more sense to me.

On hand 2, I'm beginning to think that it's best in these situations in general to play as if SAYC. ie. the 2/1F1 promises a rebid, and a 2M rebid by opener does not promise extra length, but anything over that promises extra strength.

On hand 3, the doubler had x AQx AKxxxxx Axx. Assign the blame for a 4SX-2 result?