Shocking my loyal readers, I'm actually finishing my report on the Seaside Regional in the same month as the tournament! Here's a few problems that Paul and I faced at the table. Check out the Comments to see what we decided and what others would do. Feel free to leave your opinion too!(A) All white
AK Q53 J85 J9842
You pass in first chair. LHO opens 2H. Pard doubles, and RHO passes. What's your decision?
(B) All white
J963 K876 A9853 none
Partner passes in first seat. RHO opens 1S. Do you bid?
(C) All white again
J96 A98653 QJ Q9
LHO opens a strong notrump. Partner passes, and RHO bids 2H, transfer to spades. What's your call?
(D) All red
AKJ5 T8 4 QT9743
You open 1C (do you?), and partner makes a game-forcing raise of 3C. What's your bid?
Posts
2 comments:
(A) I decided to go whole hog and bid 3NT. By agreement this showed exactly one heart stopper ('one' might be an overbid, of course) and I knew since I was a passed hand partner wouldn't put me overboard. He did bid a lot, though-- he cuebid 4H. Over my 5C, he bid 5NT, choice of slams... I assumed the choice was between clubs and notrump. I chose 6C, and pard rained down with the earth including AKxx of clubs. When LHO had stiff queen, we racked up +940.
(B) I made an awful, awful overcall of 2D. Pard was able to make a preemptive raise of 4D, pushing them up to 5C down one. Results aside, it was a horrible bid.
(C) I didn't make a lead-directing double. I know a double would be automatic for most people, but in my opinion, QJ and Qx were good enough holdings that I wouldn't want to talk partner out of a natural lead in a minor -- and if he led a heart without the double, I'd be able to read it as a singleton, which I wouldn't know for sure with the double. I'd certainly make a lead-director with this hand: J96 A98653 82 74. A lead from a broken holding in either minor would give up a trick, so I definitely want a heart lead and no other with this hand.
(D) I decided that even with the low point-count this was a slam-positive hand, so I bid 4D (splinter). This got us to a good 6C and +1370.
(A) 3c if playing Lebensohl, 3n otherwise
This is a pretty poor 11-count, but if I can't show a "good" 3 bid, I have to bid game. A natural 2NT is wrong because this is likely to be a "1 or 3" hand.
(B) Pass
Bidding with this here has almost zero merit, IMO.
(C) Pass
The upside of double is that partner will sometimes compete to 3h when it is right. The downside of double is that partner will often get off to the wrong lead.
(D) 3s
All things considered I think I'll pull 3NT to 4c, and then try to sign off after that. I don't think I can sit for 3NT which might be down when 5 or 6 clubs is cold.
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