Hand 1: 2H is light by about a king. The general rule here is "don't preempt over a preempt". After that, 2NT should probably still not be to play, and I'm fine with a 3H bid. Were I your partner on the auction given, my double over 4D would likely crack eardrums and/or dent the table depending on whether bidding boxes were in use.

Hand 2: This is a legitimately tough bid, with three reasonable choices: double, 3H, and 3NT. Of these, I think I prefer double (and 3NT over 3S). 3H will likely be passed by some hands which make game very good. A direct 3NT is probably also a good choice, but precludes getting somewhere else.

Partner's pass is completely trivial. The other general rule for bidding over a preempt is "expect seven points"--which is why bidding game (or forcing to game) is generally better than a 3H call. Partner has fewer than the seven points you're to expect, so he doesn't go further.


Edit to add: on hand 1, I really despise partner's 2NT bid. Where are you getting tricks from even opposite 13 points or so? This is a great hand to pass and hope the opponents come back in.

I don't think I have much to add to what's been said. Quickly: the 2H overcall is light (someoen said a king; I think it;s lighter than that). Advancer's bidding is bad (he should pass the overcall imo), but most of the fault lies with the overcaller.

The second hand has little choice but to double the first time, imo — even a spade advance will not be embarrassing. Over the actual 3H overcall, pass was the correct advance.

So, you'll bid 5D over 4S after the X? I toyed with this, but I'm really not crazy about it. I think this is a really tough hand and sympathize with X and 3N.

5H you mean?

I think I'd pass and pray partner has a fine spade suit if I were put in that position. I do recognize that it could be very very ugly (which is why double is problematic).

If I get a 4S advance, I think 5C is the way to go... but I understand the followups are not obvious from there either.


If partner comes up with a 5S bid he has a decent suit, a decent hand, or both, and we are heading into the slam zone. Unfortunately I want to be declarer (probably at notrump), so 5H may be better than 5C... but I don't see passing.

I would double planning to pass a 4S bid from partner.

I quickly dismissed a double as we play it for takeout and though I am short in clubs I am also short in spades. I also quickly dismissed 3NT because I am 2542 and if 5422 is not good enough shape for 1NT...



Thank you for the above tidbit. I will implement this. It seems 4 may be best of all for the reasons you have given.

I did not mean 5H. I don't know that I want to force 6D if partner has the pointeds.

If I'm that attached to my hearts, I should just bid 4H.

I'm not totally surprised that you and fmk vote to X and pass 4S, but I hadn't considered it. But I am now.

1nt bids are about information. 3nt bids are to play, so it doesn't matter what your shape is as long as it can work.

Get over quickly dismissing double. When you are that strong, the question is often not whether you love the unbid suits, but whether you hate them. Give partner a fairly weak hand with five spades, and you are perfectly fine playing three or four spades, and more importantly it will be the right strain. Take away a king from your hand and you can't afford the luxury of risking spades.

Note that on the actual hand you will play 3NT (which is what you will bid after partner's 3S advance) or 4H (if you elect that rebid, which I think would be an error but not a gross one).

That is the very point. Are we not worried about opener just reeling off trick after trick in clubs if we bid/play 3NT or is our one stopper enough? And I still need to find partner with a hand that complements me for 3NT. Even if partner only has two hearts. I still make at least four trump tricks.

Can someone please clarify a touch more?

Opener rates to have pretty darned close to none of the outstanding non-club honors. Give partner a random half of them and you are odds-on to have good play for game. A lot of the time you will have nine tricks off the top; some of the rest of the time you will have to lose a trick to your LHO but he will have no clubs remaining. Sometimes you'll go down, but 20 HCP, and a partner who may not be able to say anything but probably has some points means you bid 3NT a lot of the time.

Opener doesn't reel off clubs unless (1) they are led at trick one, (2) we can't run nine tricks when we get in, (3) and the opponent we lose to either is RHO ( quite unlikely) or is LHO and he has a second club (assuming RHO ducked the opening lead, which isn't even clear — he might win and shift, or even win and continue, or LHO could hold Ax).

I still like double, for the reasons I gave above, but the advantage of rightsiding just in case LHO has Ax of clubs does weigh in favor of 3NT.

The more I think of it, the more I dislike 3H. It's an underbid, and it practically commits the partnership to one of the four strains that look like they could work out, with no particular reason to believe that more tricks are available there than elsewhere. Hearts is better than notrump only when it's necessary to stop the run of a black suit but you don't lose control after one ruff (i.e., the hearts don't break terribly). I'm thinking I want to play in notrump, spades, or even diamonds (at the six level only) at least as much as I want hearts.

I would like to thank everyone for their input.

Results:

Hand 1: 4xx went down 3 tricks giving us top for 16.13 IMPs.

Hand 2: I make with an overtrick. The big winners were those who bid 4 and made. The big losers were those that bid 4 and went down a trick. No one got to 4 after a 3 opener as opener should not have been bidding 3 (he had 13pts with a six card club suit)! We made 1 IMP. 3NT did not make in this instance.

Hand 1: I was obviously awful but then I was quite ignorant of the correct play but it is clear now that I should have just passed.

Hand 2: I have found an online authority (other than yourselves) who gives 4 as the correct response over 3.

I post the results for closure.

Moral: bridge results are about as reliable as poker results.

Link?

Sorry.

I went through page after page of google in relation to michaels cuebids and stumbled upon this.

I just copied and pasted it into a word document.

He does not appear to be an expert but his advice made sense.

Just some guy who put up some advice on the web.

He confirmed what DWetzel wrote.

How are Michael's cuebids relevant? I think your conclusion -- that 4H is the "right" response -- is wrong, for a number of reasons, and I don't recall DWetzel saying that 4H was the right bid. In fact, he was between 3N and X if I remember correctly.

4H is, however, better than 3H.

In relation to the Cappelletti Convention, I have discovered some material on what to do when partner opens and RHO overcalls 1NT. All fine and well.

Then there is a short bit which advises pulling partner's double of a 1NT opener.

So: Partner doubles 1NT Opener (Strong/Weak). RHO passes.

I may bid:

2 any one suited hand
2 both majors
2 hearts and a minor
2 spades and a minor

Question: In Cappelletti, a double over 1NT is for penalties, so why would I wish to pull partner's double? The obvious answer seems to be that the underlying maths of bridge makes it more proifitable to find a contract to make than merely hope to set 1NT. Correct? Standard Cappelletti insists on the double being passed by myself. Being able to pull the double is better, yes?

Question: We are hoping to play at three level, yes? If so, I need about 8HCP to pull the double, yes? What about having 6HCP when a Weak No Trump has been doubled?

Question: Pulling penalty doubles is generally wrong, yes?

Apologies for all the tag questions.

Looking forward to the replies.

Bit confused by the post. You can always pull penalty doubles, you just need a good reason. This hand for instance would qualify as a good reason:

x
QJxxxxx
xx
xxx

ChrisV,

I had the understanding that penalty doubles were sacrosanct.

I guess they are not.

But I had better be sure of my reasons for pulling, yes?

At this stage, in my bridge career, I don't think I have the judgement required to pull any of my partner's doubles. Also, a good understanding would be needed with partner would it not?

Thanks for providing an example with your answer.

If you have a hand with zero defensive value, but has a play in a long trump suit, then it could be safe to pull.


Old bridge question:

What do you call a 7 card suit headed by the 9?

We just had a "What do you call a guy with a 9 card suit?" auction the other day

I was researching Michaels and came up with material on this question. Hence, no link.

The authority had four level response as a good five card suit with 17+pts and a 3N as 16-18 with a good stopper.

I qualified for both.

Leaving the results aside, which I have already given and should not influence anyone, how is this not simply a matter of something as nebulous as preference?

First hand at the club yesterday I was dealt the following

R/W

xx
AKQJT9xx
xx
x

Third seat, 2 passes to me.

I bid 4

LHO doubles, RHO hesitates and bids 4

I end up down 1 at 5X

Best trump suit I have ever been dealt.

Here's one in the 'best trump suit' category: Against good opponents you hold (vul vs not-vul) AKxx --- Kx AKQJxxx. The auction goes (P) P (6H) to you.

I raise one for each ace of trump I have.