[Foxx]

2/1, promising pickup partnership.

Scoring: XIMP

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West [space] North [space] East [space] South
 [space] [space] [space] [space] [space]1[di] [space]- [space]P [space] - [space] 1[he]
 [space]2[cl] [space]- [space] 2[he] - [space]5[cl] [space] - [space]5[he]
 [space] P [space]- [space] [space]P [space]- [space]6[cl] [space]- [space] ?

You were seriously thinking about launching the Key-Card Blackwood, then your RHO blasted away your visibility.

(A) Do you agree with 5♥?

(B) What dost thou deau?

Do we play support doubles? I have no idea, my partner's profile wasn't detailed enough.

[han]

I would have bid 6H last round. I'll bid it again.

I do assume support doubles when undiscussed.

[whereagles]

han, on Feb 19 2008, 08:08 PM, said:

I do assume support doubles when undiscussed.

I don't. Hate those

But I'd also take a shot at 6 now.

[kfay]

I'm going slamming, my hand kick's booty.

Unsure what I would have done last round, THAT is a good problem. Will think about it.

[Trinidad]

Foxx, on Feb 19 2008, 02:52 PM, said:

You were seriously thinking about launching the Key-Card Blackwood, then your RHO blasted away your visibility.

(A)  Do you agree with 5♥?

No, since it is inconsistent. You considered your hand good enough to bid 6♥ (why else would you think of launching RKCB?).

Usually, if you think you have 12 tricks, the opponents don't have two keycards. But is a good idea to check with RKCB for those few cases where you happen to be so unlucky that you would have had 12 tricks if it weren't for the fact that the opponents had 2 first.

So, it would have been handy to be able to check whether this is one of those unlucky deals, but you can't anymore. So just bid what you think your hand is worth. You thought it was worth 12 tricks, so bid 6♥.

Rik

[P_Marlowe]

A) Yes, but 6H would also be ok, I have even considered X,
but my first goal is to go plus, if we are talking about the
5 level or higher, so I usually take the money,
... and a X is certainly taking this to the extreme

B) X, for whatever reason, I did not believe in 6H the round
before, I dont see any new information on the table,
which should influence me to change my previous decision
now

With kind regards
Marlowe

PS: You dont need RKCB, unless you are dreaming about 7H,
and 7H is a long way to go oppossite a min. opener, and if you
dont even know, if 2H showed 4 card support or not, I would just
forget about reaching 7H

[helene_t]

whereagles, on Feb 20 2008, 11:29 AM, said:

han, on Feb 19 2008, 08:08 PM, said:

I do assume support doubles when undiscussed.

I don't. Hate those

That's not the point, Nuno. I hate 3-card minor openings, strong notrump, transfers, penalty doubles in FP situations, SJS, and Blackwood. I still assume them when undiscussed, though.

[whereagles]

well, my point is that supp dbls are a plague that needs to be erradicated off the face of the earth

[Apollo81]

han, on Feb 19 2008, 03:08 PM, said:

I would have bid 6H last round. I'll bid it again.

yeah, take that RHO

[brianshark]

I would not expect my pard to treat a double of 5♣ as a support double even playing normal support doubles, unless explicitly agreed that it is in this auction.

Anyway. 6♥ looks worth a shot. Opps seem to think you can make something.

[655321]

brianshark, on Feb 20 2008, 12:25 PM, said:

I would not expect my pard to treat a double of 5♣ as a support double even playing normal support doubles, unless explicitly agreed that it is in this auction.

Anyway. 6♥ looks worth a shot. Opps seem to think you can make something.

(1) The question is whether 2♥ showed 4 card hearts, because if you play support doubles the answer is yes. No-one suggested double of 5♣ is a support double.
(2) I bid 6♥ (previous round) because I think we can make 12 tricks. If you rely on the opponents to judge how many tricks you can make, when you are looking at your cards, and they are not...

[inquiry]

I don't like to second guess myself, so in positions like this I tend to back my initial decision. So the question is why did I choose to bid only 5♥? If I meant it to play (and not walk the dog), then I am going to back "my" initial decision to bid only 5♥ with a forcing pass here. It should be noted, that partner probably lacks an ACE and will be very hesitant to take the push with his aceless wonder. If you think he will pass any aceless hand, then maybe you should reconsider and bid 6♥.

There is also a seperate reason to bid 6♥ here. If you were walking the dog with 5♥, expecting the opponents to take the 6♣ sac at this vul, then your plan was to bid 6♥ figuring they would not take a cheapish safe in 7♣. You can bid 6♥. The one thing you should get into the habit of NOT letting the opponents make your decisions for you.

This post has been edited by inquiry: 2008-February-20, 19:50

[mikeh]

This hand is more powerful than the point count... look at all those Aces!

Admittedly, I'd like to know about support doubles, but even if we don't play them, partner should NOT be raising in competition on a 3 card suit with a minimum, and we know he probably has no Aces.

I am a believer in not allowing the ops to push you around, but here I was already in the slam-interest zone when partner opened a suit in which I hold Axx and a ruffing value. So I would have swung high last hand.

I am also a believer in not changing one's view of a hand unless and until one gains new info justifying a change in valuation. No such info appeared here.

But, I am of the view that 5♥ was the wrong bid anyway: it was a misbid (a mis-evaluation) rather than a valuation about which I have had second-thoughts. If it were the latter, I'd make a forcing pass. If it were the former, I am free to 'do the right thing'. I bid 6♥.

That doesn't mean that I am at all sure that I will make it. I do expect to have a decent play, or better, more than half the time.

BTW, I wasn't planning on using keycard last time had they passed. I was going to start with 3♣ and see what happened: had partner bid 3N, that would have slowed me down.

[Foxx]

Okay then.

I wanted to bid 4NT after partner's heart raise because I didn't want to get too high and go set if we were missing the ♣A and ♥K.

The blast to 5♣ on my right didn't make the slam any likelier, so absent the key-card tool, I plodded on and bid what I could make. Upon receiving competition at the 6 level, I was strongly tempted to, and probably should have, gone on to 6♥ but I didn't want to jeopardize our plus-score on the hand. So I cracked it.

I was peevish at the sight of the dummy that came down:

Scoring: XIMP

Notice that my hand is now East, to make south declarer.

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LHO was a Young Turk, who took advantage of the colors to bid on nothing whatsoever. God only knows that if I ever tried this myself, I would hit 2=5=6=0, not 0=2=5=6, and I would go for a huge number and never be able to pick up another partner again.

We got three tricks and +300 against 6♣ doubled, for a loss of about seven IMPs on the deal.

This should have been the par score: A spade ruff defeats a 6♥ contract. However, enough tables were in 6♥ making six, or even seven(!) that it was a very soft result. Should I have put us in there? I still don't know. However, most players here apparently would have gone on, so it appears that is the right action. Thanks for the input guys.

[han]

The blast to 5C does make slam likelier. It makes it less likely that partner has his or her values in clubs.

Look at partner's minimal hand, an aceless 12-count without ruffing value for us. Still, 6H is really a very good contract.