[thepossum]

Hi all

Recently playing with a regular partner (not GiB) with E_W GiB. We were playing vugraph archive team games and this hand had an intersting bid by one of the teams, which may have raised some eyebrows from their opponents but I thought was a smart bid

What would you bid. Both vulnerable, IMPs

I didnt take long to consider the options and regarded it as an overcall 1D but ..... what are the other considerations in terms of balancing, hand evaluation, risks etc. Clearly you would only make a part score etc. Its a very ordinary hand but most advice I read online and hear about balancing is that normally you would balance??

regards P

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PS On the subject of Vugraph, I was rather pleased last week to notice that one of the team hands we played was against Hamman and Soloway, Katz and Jacobs, Cohen and Berkowitz etc and their teams many years ago. That's a nice feeling

[smerriman]

I double. Doesn't promise much in points, but partner most likely has a good hand with clubs.

[thepossum]

smerriman, on 2019-April-03, 18:22, said:

I double. Doesn't promise much in points, but partner most likely has a good hand with clubs.

Thanks. I did consider double but thought maybe I had to be stronger for the double than the 1 level overcall. Any other bid than pass would likely end in the same result in this case I think.

I'm wondering if the opponents of the team that bid differently (ie passed) had a different meaning for the opening bid (eg precision)

Would people get upset with a pass or is it close enough not to upset anyone

[helene_t]

I would pass. Double could work if partner has a strong 4-4-0-5 or such and opps have nowhere to go. I think that with a 4-4-1-4 or (43)-1-5 he would have overcalled 1NT, but it's obviously good to know our style wrt such issues.

dbl could lead to partner overbidding, or to opps finding a major fit that plays better for them than clubs.

[hrothgar]

I think that any of the following bids is reasonable and would not fault partner for choosing

Pass
Double
1♦

[BillPatch]

Thinking of balancing over 1♣ with diamonds reminds me of the story in his book on balancing reported that he had balanced with an intermediate 2♦ overcall(minimum opening bid strength with a good 6+ card suit), the opponents found their major fit, bid slam, made 7, and debated in the post mortem who was responsible for not bidding the grand. While the spade ace in this hand is probably good enough to set a grand, an opposing slam is possible, an opposing game is only slightly rare, a switch from a losing part score contract to a better result common, and also your partner may overbid. I would pass.

Incidentally, Lawrence's jump overcall was quite proper.

[Tramticket]

The usual way that this is taught is to transfer a king. But you still end up with a balanced 11-count with an ugly five-card suit and I don't want a diamond lead. If I do anything, I double.

It is marginal, but it is possible that partner has a good hand and a club stack, so I double.

[gszes]

Pass in a heart beat. What in the world do I think I can accomplish by bidding here? Hoping against hope partner has clubs and a strong hand and will leave a tox in
is scary and probably useless since the opps may easily have many places to run to. We should have almost no chance at game and clubs might be our best spot and I prefer the opps play 1c. I jus do not see us making anything much and there is always the risk the opps opened 1c with a great hand and can back their way into game. Leave well enough alone when you have garbage hands like this.

[TheoKole]

I would pass after thinking about it for a bit. Either opener has a tremendous hand with long ♣ and we cannot out bid them or opponents have a major suit fit which they can run to if I give them a chance, perhaps even making a game or partner has quite a good hand with ♣ but he could not or would not want to overcall in NT.

In any of these cases I want the ops to play in a 1♣ contract especially since it is red vs red.

Regards T

[apollo1201]

Lacking some shape (more majors) to X with an unexciting 8-count. Partner would have acted with some thing to say, even a 4-cd major if his likely lack of D or of the other major prevented her to X. More likely result is we’ll play 2 or 3 something in a 4-3 fit. Or reinstate opps into their major fit or any NT scoring better than C.

1D with Q to 5 is not so appealing. Although we could buy out at 2D if opener bids 1NT.

I’m an easy « balancer » but I think I’ll (reluctantly) pass this one after those considerations. But I wouldn’t be surprised X or 1D worked out better. Ans wouldn’t hold it against p if she doesn’t pass.

[rmnka447]

I'm passing although I'm normally a pretty aggressive balancer at both IMPs and MPs. Partner couldn't find a major suit overcall with likely at least an opening hand, so an 8+ card major fit seems unlikely. Unless I have a very shapely hand, double shows values and this hand I neither. 1 ♦ gives opener a chance to bid major and potentially find a better contract. If ♦ Qxxxx were ♠ Qxxxx, I'd have no problem reopening 1 ♠ as the opponents wouldn't be able to bid further at the 1 level.

Likely there are about 27-28 points between partner and opener. If opener has a decent opener, than game is unlikely our way. This is part score battle that feels a little dangerous to get in.