[easy]

Quote

Actually this brings up an intersting point. If I hold something like:

109x
9xx
x
AQJxxx

and my partner opens 1nt, I am more likely to pass and come in later with my club suit than to immediately transfer to clubs. I don't know, maybe I have played too many MP games in my life, but I have found that this hand usually plays better as a NT hand than a suit hand.

If the opponents do come into the bidding, I am not embarassed to bid 3c opposite at least 2 clubs and 15 points (and a quite possible King of clubs in partner's hand).

On the other hand, change my ace to the 10 and I transfer every time. I have no source of trix without clubs as trumps and when I do a minor-suit transfer its because I have garbage. Maybe everyone wont treat this hand the same way, but I have bid this hand this way for as long as I've played transfers, and I do this ONLY for the minor suits (change the clubs into spades and I texas the hand, expecting partner has a good chance to make 4).

This certainly was the type of hand, or suit, anyway, that I expected in my partner's hand when this occurred.

In imps im sure i would shoot out 3nt and never consider playing in clubs. actually in mp also i would take that approach. My style is that when my hand has the potential to make a game opposite a fit i bid game.

[bglover]

It is the lack of an outside entry that made me create that particular example. Experience has taught me not to immediately bid 3nt on a 6 card suit without a possible 2nd entry to my hand (I used to automatically bid 3nt with the given hand on the assumption it would produce 6 trix most of the time). But, experience (read: too many bad boards) broke me of this habit after a while.

I would be much more inclined to bid 3nt with a hand like this:

Qxx
9x
10x
AJ10xxx

on the theory that even if clubs don't break the queen of spades is an additional entry (1/2 the time at least) once the suit has been set up.

I realize my way be a tad idiosyncratic, but I was just getting too many bad results in 3n jumping to game on AQjxxx and nothing else.

(I admit, I don't track hands, I just know my own tendencies, and I will do something again and again until I feel the results prove my thoughts wrong. A good example of this has been my experience with staymaning 4333 or 3433 hands. The books say bid 3NT with 10 points and forego the 4 card major. I did this for a while and found the results weren't as good most of the time when an 8 card major fit existed. Now, I stayman these hands whenever I have an honorless suit in my holdings and bid 3nt whenever I have at least 1 working card in each suit... I have found this to work out better than always bidding 3nt)