[ahydra]

More ATB for you. This one is from the Cadets and Intermediates championship and we got a bottom (MPs, small field) for this.

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Opps playing weak NT 4cM. 3D = weak jump overcall

I was West and thought my hand was better suited to defence. 5D/5H are stone cold and 3S was only one off. :/ Did I misvalue my hand, or should partner have done more with his 7-5?

Cheers,

ahydra

[rduran1216]

West's pass is unheard of. 3D may not be everyone's cup of T either, but pass of 3S is awful.

[jillybean]

I don't like 3♦ but West in on N/S's team.

[Cthulhu D]

Not sure what's worse: East making a weak jump shift with a 5 loser hand with a 5 card heart suit or West passing with his strong NT. Double perhaps?

Even a michaels cuebid is a better start for East's hand - both bids are absurd.



vvvv yeah, but LTC is simplistic. I'm just making the point that P doesn't have to have much to make 5D or 4H ice cold, and if it's a misfit you need to let partner in on this ASAP so he can defend spades X'ed. The guys from partnership bidding at bridge advocate specific 2 suiter overcalls here and I like it for exactly this reason.

[chasetb]

First off, a quote from a BridgeWinners post: "7-5, I'm taking the dive".

Second, I honestly could never play with West again, sorry mate. Even if you swapped Diamonds and Spades, I would still support partner.

Third, saying it's a 5-loser hand is a tad optimistic, but 3♦ is also very pessimistic. That Heart suit is pretty ratty, I would just bid 2♦ planning on rebidding 3♦.

[SteveMoe]

The 3♦ bid is bad in several ways: 1) a side though anemic 5-card ♥ suit will be lost, 2) The loser count is too low, and 3)the ♦AK are valuable on defense.

West should reason that a raise to 4♦ is about right if partner has the traditional 6 winners at this vulnerability. Not speaking is not an option. However opposite a disciplined East I would only bid 4♦ not 5.

Holding East's cards I would make the Michaels Cue bid. Yes, the ♥ suit is awful, but it is about right on playing strength and will get us to ♦ at the right level when that's the right strain. If partner bids 2N to ask, I am bidding 4♦. Partner will know what to do.

[655321]

The West hand heard partner make a vulnerable WJO. As long as partner doesn't do this on AKxxxx, i.e. if partner has AK to 7, which I would expect, then West can count 10 rock solid tricks. It is true that if the opponents cash the first 2 spades (as seems likely), and if partner has no other useful cards, then you might end up relying on a heart finesse into the opening bidder for the 11th trick. That is the worst case though, so bidding 5♦ seem right to me. If you do habitually make vulnerable weak jumps on AK to 6 then I guess it is not so clear.

The East hand is obviously unusual, I don't much like 3♦ (which you would bid with these diamonds and less extreme shape), it is a committal bid that describes a hand you don't really have. If you want to give up on the hearts then 5♦ or even maybe 4♦ seem better. Otherwise showing a 2-suiter, or even just bidding 2♦, are possible too.

[ahydra]

Would X of 3S not be penalty? (c.f. opening 3D-3S-X) I was waiting to double 4S, but never got the chance

Partner would WJO on a 6-card suit, something like x xxx AK10xxx xxx would be fine (but minimum).

ahydra

[mikl_plkcc]

West should definitely compete to 4♦ according to the law of total tricks.

However, I think that East also underbid. He should bid 2♦, if South continues to bid, West should cue-bid to show interest (a simple raise would show no values and 4 ♦s, but not a strong hand).

[han]

I would bid 2D with the east hand and if the bidding comes back to me at 3S I would bid 4H.

It wouldn't come that far though because west should bid something.

[ahydra]

Thanks for all the opinions on this. It raised a lot of discussion at the table as well.

Full hand:

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A different bid from East certainly would have made my life easier:

* If East bids 2S (Michaels) it goes 1S-2S-3S, now I go 4H as West and North may put in 4S (but would probably pass), so problem solved. If North does go 4S then East has a clear 5D, I correct to 5H for a joint top.

* If East bids 2D it goes 1S-2D-2S. That makes my life easy as West - I have a clear X (3S to show a good D raise is just plain ugly). North bids 3S but the heart fit's found now so we can't fail to get to the top spot.

But the more I think about it, on the actual auction I should have raised to 4D. My partner said he probably have then bid 5D over 4S, but passed over a pass from North. +150 unfortunately still gets us a bottom.

ahydra

[ArtK78]

If East bid a vulnerable 2♠ Michaels cue bid, then 4♥ by the West hand would be an underbid.

What contract would you like to play opposite:

x
Kxxxx
AKxxx
xx

And that is not much of a Michaels bid.

5♥ by West, if understood as asking for a spade control, would not be an unreasonable call.

It turns out that due to the unexpected duplication in values (AK of clubs opposite void) slam is a poor contract. But, even so, it is not a zero contract.