[elwood913]

This hand came up recently at the club...

After RHO opens 1H, none vulnerable, how should you bid this hand?

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The bid that most naturally fits in to my system is to Pass and bid hearts at your next bid, but with this strength I'm afraid you won't have a next bid.

Next choice is to X and then jump in a new suit to show a big hand and a self-sufficient suit. If you switch the spades and the hearts, X then 3S seems like it would describe this hand. But X - 3H? Since the suit I am jumping in is the opp's major, can I expect p to believe this? Or should that show a splinter in support of whatever suit p has chosen to bid?

To put my questions succinctly:

Does X and rebid 3H show this hand?
If not, is there a normal systematic way to show a major and a strong hand after your RHO opens in it?
If not, what would you do?
Also, should you be more interested in playing in hearts or investigating NT?

[P_Marlowe]

#1 X, followed by 3H does not show this hand, the seq. asks about a stopper, or is a splinter,
depends on partners response to the X.
#2 No
#3 Pass
#4 Do you want to play in a trump suit with a known suit break to be 6-5-1-1 or 6-6-1-0 around
the table?

If you cant stand pass, overcall 1NT, or make a T/O followed by rebidding NT as cheap as possible.

With kind regards
Marlowe

[vuroth]

elwood913, on 2010-November-03, 03:52, said:

Does X and rebid 3H show this hand?

No. I would assume that you're showing a big hand, asking partner for a heart stopper to play 3NT.

elwood913 said:

If not, is there a normal systematic way to show a major and a strong hand after your RHO opens in it?

No, and why should there be? I have 6 hearts, RHO has 5 hearts. Even if partner has the remaining 2, do I really want to play in a hearts contract? Quite possibly not.

elwood913 said:

If not, what would you do?

Double. If partner has either black suit, I'm in good shape. If partner has diamonds, ugh, I guess I'll try NT.

elwood913 said:

Also, should you be more interested in playing in hearts or investigating NT?

NT, but honestly, be more interested in playing in a black suit than either of those.

[mtvesuvius]

Quote

Does X and rebid 3H show this hand?

No, that should be a splinter (or Western Cuebid) depending on agreements.

Quote

If not, is there a normal systematic way to show a major and a strong hand after your RHO opens in it?

There are two ways - Passing and bidding a lot later, or bidding 4 of their major, which should be to play.

Quote

If not, what would you do?

I would pass and later come to life depending on the auction. Passing then bidding 3♥ could perhaps be taken as such a hand. I am not too concerned about this hand being played in 1♥ since if partner cannot take a call with what we know to be (very) short hearts, we probably cannot make too much.

Quote

Also, should you be more interested in playing in hearts or investigating NT?

Generally I would say Hearts, however if partner shows some life in diamonds, 3N seems reasonable.

I would start with a pass, if the auction does not come back to me again, I'll be fine with that.

[bucky]

elwood913, on 2010-November-03, 03:52, said:

The bid that most naturally fits in to my system is to Pass and bid hearts at your next bid, but with this strength I'm afraid you won't have a next bid.

If partner couldn't reopen, what's wrong with defending against 1♥ (and hope to get plus score)?

[1eyedjack]

Odds are, the 1H opener was a psych.
If so, there is nothing RHO would like more than to go quietly in 50s at the 1 level.
As Reese remarked, "the more I lose, the more I gain".

You need to decide whether you want to build in systemic agreements to cope with opponents' psychic manoeuvres. Personally I think it is sensible, unless you only play in no-psych tournaments (which are only available on BBO).

You can't expect to cope with all psychs. The psycher himself is also pitching in the dark a bit, because he cannot rely on his partner passing. Trouble is, on this particular hand he hit pay dirt, because a pass out in 1H is a high probability. If it does get passed out you may have to pat him on the back. But I think that the most appropriate starting point is probably to pass, or otherwise give up entirely on exposing the psych.

Others may have a different take.

[gwnn]

I think I'd pretty much pass throughout. Tough luck with this hand. I wouldn't say odds are RHO psyched unless he has a serious history of doing stuff like that. I would say that odds are if RHO hasn't psyched, we can't make anything.

[nigel_k]

Pass.

If 1♥ is not a psyche we probably don't make much and could collect a penalty if LHO bids or partner can reopen.

If he has psyched, chances are either LHO or partner will call. Either of those could lead to a nice penalty or at least we will get to show our hand type accurately by bidding hearts after having passed.

If it does go all pass and we can make 4♥ then the psyche will have succeeded and we'll just have to be content with gaining on other hands where their psyche doesn't work so well.

[NickRW]

De ja vu. I held a similar hand tonight with 6 good hearts and heard a 1H (4cM) opener from righty. Nothing for it but to pass. Nothing for it but to pass on the 2nd round too, after a response from lefty and pard passes when opener rebids hearts. They played 2NT. Would be off if pard had made a singleton heart lead - chance would be fine thing - but we really didn't have anywhere to play the hand ourselves - pard had zilchio.

Nick

[vuroth]

I hate pass, because I don't think 4♠ is that far off.

I also don't think B/I strategy should be to expose a psyche. If you're B/I and the worst problem with your game is that you can't field psyches well, you're not B/I any more.

[Cascade]

1eyedjack, on 2010-November-03, 15:10, said:

Odds are, the 1H opener was a psych.
If so, there is nothing RHO would like more than to go quietly in 50s at the 1 level.
As Reese remarked, "the more I lose, the more I gain".

You need to decide whether you want to build in systemic agreements to cope with opponents' psychic manoeuvres. Personally I think it is sensible, unless you only play in no-psych tournaments (which are only available on BBO).

You can't expect to cope with all psychs. The psycher himself is also pitching in the dark a bit, because he cannot rely on his partner passing. Trouble is, on this particular hand he hit pay dirt, because a pass out in 1H is a high probability. If it does get passed out you may have to pat him on the back. But I think that the most appropriate starting point is probably to pass, or otherwise give up entirely on exposing the psych.

Others may have a different take.

I normally play (1♥) 3♥ shows about 8 tricks with hearts as trumps. It is especially valuable against comics in third seat.

This hand would be minimum for that action.

[bucky]

vuroth, on 2010-November-04, 05:02, said:

I hate pass, because I don't think 4♠ is that far off.

Although partner is likely short in hearts, so is LHO. I don't think there is guaranteed spade fit. Even if you think 4♠ is odds-on (which is pretty bizarre to me), what is your plan to uncover it? Overcall 1♠ with 3-card?