[jules101]

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Your bid.

Please explain your decision.

[Hanoi5]

4♥. Or 4NT. Looking forward to more educated bids, I need support and spade control for a slam (in fact 3 small spades in partner's hand, even Kxxx, means possible 3 losers in the suit) so I think 4NT might be a bit too much. But maybe that's just pessimistic.

[VM1973]

If we assume that the opening bidder has 8♦ to justify his bed and you have 0 that means the opponents should have a 10-card fit (I assume that responder would have raised if he'd had 3+♦) so assuming partner has an uninspiring 4♠-3-3-3 you should still bid because there will be 18 trumps on the deal. If 18 trumps = 18 tricks, then you can assume that if responder will go down 2 (+500) you're still better in 4♥ (+620).

As to WHAT exactly you should bid, I think that depends on your partnership agreements. Some people play doubles at that high level are penalty, while others play it's takeout. If 4NT means 2 lower unbid, then that could work too, but some people might think it's Blackwood. Holding 4 Quick Tricks I'd say pass is out.

[ggwhiz]

4♥ for me. Pre-empts work.

If pard is looking at a few ♦ and the cards I need for slam, she might be able to move, maybe not.

More importantly, if pard bids 4♠ I'll know they mean it and I can move. If I start with Dbl and pard bids 4♠ I have no idea if we are in a good spot.

[mtvesuvius]

4♥, passing when we have at least 9 maybe 10 tricks in our own hand is insane. Bidding 4N or double could work out, but they will leave us with much worse guesses on the next round -- If we bid 4N, and hear 5♣ or 5♥, we still won't know whether to raise (Although it will in theory be rightsided). If we double, and hear 4♠ from partner, what now? If we double and partner passes we aren't very happy either, since all our HCP and tricks will have to come from our long suits, which LHO rates to be short in. Even if partner bids 4♥ over the double, we still might not have 5 level safety, although I think 5♦ is definitely warranted then.

In any case, this is an interesting problem, and pre-empts do work sometimes... Especially 4m ones, which I find very rarely backfire, and often win a lot of IMPs.

[Hanoi5]

Quote

Holding 4 Quick Tricks I'd say pass is out.

Was this the original post or did it change while I was out?

[mtvesuvius]

Hanoi5, on 2011-June-15, 10:32, said:

Was this the original post or did it change while I was out?

I'm pretty sure it was "this" when I made my post, but perhaps I am hallucinating...

[jules101]

mtvesuvius, on 2011-June-15, 10:42, said:

I'm pretty sure it was "this" when I made my post, but perhaps I am hallucinating...

Yes - no changes to original post!

[billw55]

4NT, two places to play, and pull 4♠ to 5♣.

[pooltuna]

Basically IMO you are screwed into Xing because you have 3 places to play

[jjbrr]

I'd double because it's the most flexible action. If partner passes we don't necessarily hate it, and it's possible that spades is the right strain. No matter what we do, we won't be in a good spot to judge what to do next, so I'll let partner in on the decision.

[Antrax]

billw55, on 2011-June-15, 11:55, said:

4NT, two places to play, and pull 4♠ to 5♣.

Do you mean you'll pull 5♠ to 6♣?

[billw55]

Antrax, on 2011-June-15, 12:10, said:

Do you mean you'll pull 5♠ to 6♣?

LOL @ me

I was confusing auction after x ...

[Free]

4♥, we might miss a better ♠ fit, but sometimes preempts work. Dbl is definitely an alternative, but I don't want partner to bid 4♠ with 4♠-3♥. 4♥ will usually be playable even if he has 5♠-2♥.

[nige1]

IMO_X (take-out) = 10, 4♥ = 9, 4N = 7.
You aim for the best result possible, rather than the best possible result.
Double is flexible - With equal length in the majors, you hope partner will bid 4♥
4♠ on a 4-3 fit is not necessarily any worse than 4♥ on a 5-1 or 5-2 fit because. with ♠ trumps, partner will be ruffing in the short hand.
4N may improve the chance of playing in the right strain but increases the level.
Sometimes partner will pass the double and that may even be the correct decision.

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[mgoetze]

I agree with 4♥, but X is not absurd. 4NT will get us too high for no particularily good reason some of the time.

[VM1973]

Hanoi5, on 2011-June-15, 10:32, said:

Was this the original post or did it change while I was out?

No, that was in the original post. As I said, pass is out, by which I mean that passing is not a viable option.

It appears as though 4 people didn't like the post. I don't know why.

[han]

I'd often double with this shape but here I think that 4H is considerably better than double. If partner bids 4S over the double I think you often belong in 4H, more often than not.

[Phil]

4♥ is clear (to me anyway). 4N is natural for me over a 4m preempt, so that is not an option. Even if it were is everyone really comfortable that 4N-->5♥ shows this kind of hand?

I don't understand double unless I were planning on taking another call over 4♠.

[AlexJonson]

VM1973, on 2011-June-16, 10:17, said:

No, that was in the original post. As I said, pass is out, by which I mean that passing is not a viable option.

It appears as though 4 people didn't like the post. I don't know why.

It looks like at least one read the post as 'pass it out' rather than 'pass is out'.

Also it may be that talking about things depending on partnership agreements attracted disapproval.

You may have committed other crimes I don't know about.