[aguahombre]

2/1 ...IMP Pair....your toys,.

---

Your call.

[jmcw]

I only have 1 toy for this hand!

4♥

[Hanoi5]

4♥.

[Phil]

If I had 3N to show a 'good' 4♥ call, I'd use it. If I played Bergen, I would bid 3♣, and then bid 4♥.

Otherwise, a direct 4♥.

[aguahombre]

Hence, "your toys". I made up this hand in search of the fine line between a direct 4H decision and a hand too good for that.

[broze]

I would bid 3♠ as splinter. You gain room and I don't think it's over-calling your hand since your splintering suit is a void and you have 5 good trumps.

[aguahombre]

Phil, on 2012-January-05, 11:11, said:

If I played Bergen, I would bid 3♣, and then bid 4♥.

Let's not revisit that thread, where partner broke tempo before rebidding 3♥..but the humor was noticed.

[ggwhiz]

I like Bergen, but constructive maybe? I'm torn but raise 3♥ to 4♥ BUT......

In f2f Bridge I'm bidding 4♥ to avoid any flicker of thought by pard before they sign off. On BBO there is no problem with what may well be a connex issue rather than UI.

[Statto]

2♠ mini-splinter. Though it allows LHO to double to show ♠. 4♥ if there's no R in the month.

[rduran1216]

4H is immediate and automatic

[ArtK78]

I would bid 3NT as a good 4♥ call. A direct 4♥ is not unreasonable.

I find the other proposed calls - 3♠ splinter, 2♠ mini-splinter, 3♣ Bergen - to be ill-advised (particularly 3♠ splinter, a gross overstatement of the values of this hand).

3♣ Bergen followed by a raise to 4♥ is interesting, but, as previously noted, it could lead to a UI problem if partner thinks for a while before signing off in 3♥.

[TWO4BRIDGE]

1H - 2S! ( Zel's splinter "toy" -- mini-splinter option ) *

* see recent thread ( Splinter, Jacoby 2NT...posts # 13 & 16 ), this forum [ http://www.bridgebas...by-2nt-or-what/ ]

[neilkaz]

No toys here. I prefer 3NT to show some type of splinter and I want the opps to not find 4♠ easily so I just bid 4♥. I don't hate giving a Bergen limit raise and then 4♥ as the limit raise might guide PD's actions over 4♠ but still I prefer 4♥

[mike777]

4h

if not now then never vul at imps.

btw my failure to bid a Bergen 4d/3h limits the hand to this box.

less than ten hcp
5 trumps
less than one quick trick.

more than:

0-7 hcp
4+trumps
Preemptive

[aguahombre]

Will drop some of the other shoes now; it is, in fact a fun hypothetical.

It seems even if we use a toy, we are going to bid game after a rejection; and if partner accepts game over our toy, we can't really move again either. So, the toys don't seem to accomplish anything.

It gets to be more fun when you consider a high spade bid coming back around to you:
Maybe 3D Bergen established a FP, maybe no. But the others probably have not.

[ArtK78]

From our point of view, this hand is worth a game bid but is not interested in anything more.

The point of using a "toy" is to inform partner that there is something about our hand that is not just a preemptive raise to 4♥. Perhaps partner can make use of this information to lead to a good slam.

[Fluffy]

I don´t think we have a particularilly good 4♥ bid, I´d just bid it as soon as possible. given the sapde void.

[FM75]

Opponents have at least a 9 card fit in spades, but they do not know that yet. The deal is a 19 or more trick hand. Letting them try to figure it out below 4 spades seems counterproductive to me.

A 3 spade splinter suggests 4+ trump, where a direct bid suggests 5+. I think partner will be in a better position to judge whether to compete above 4S, if you make the direct and more limiting 4H bid, plus it gets you to a game contract and sends the message to opponents that you are playing in a 10+ card fit.

If you splinter, then your LHO absolutely knows that they have minimum 8 card fit, and that you have a 9+ card fit, even if he has only 3 spades. If he just bids 4S directly based upon that info, you do not have any chance of making 4H game. Further, splintering alerts them to the bad split should they compete. Let them figure it out after their first spade trick or after the dummy comes down.

my $0.02

[ggwhiz]

4♥ is the practical call for sure but having got past rho, I'm not inclined to give up on slam in case pard has the big one.

♠ Axxx, ♥ AKxxx, ♦ x, ♣ AQx is enough.

I lean to a constructive Bergen raise (and game after a sign off) rather than limit to not get pard too excited.

[aguahombre]

So, now you have decided how you will respond. You get to choose what you would do next/
how you feel about doing it depending on the choice you made. Don’t be clever enough to figure
out what all the hands are by inference from the separate scenarios.

If you bid 4H,

1H (P) 4H (4S)
5H (5S) ?

If you chose 3C Bergen with a plan for the future:

1H (P) 3C (4S)
P (P) ?

If you used a mini splinter or Bergen 3D two passes of 4S will come back at you. Are we forced?
What now?

BTW, by now you might have guessed I lied about hypothetical.

This post has been edited by aguahombre: 2012-January-05, 18:01