[ArtK78]

Playing in an ACBL IMP pair game on BBO last night, I picked up:

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Do you act over 4♠?

[daveharty]

I'm not really happy about it but I will pass.

[whereagles]

Yes, I'll act. Dbl.

[caky_]

4 nt..

[MrAce]

I would just say "uncle" to the preempt and pass. I am not happy about it either but look at colors, pd may take our action more seriously than we intended (at least i would take it serious if i were him at these colors over a preempt)

I am aware it doesnt need much for us to make game, but also it may get ugly real easy at these colors since there is a good chance we may end up playing doubled in the wrong suit and sometimes even in our best fit.

[hrothgar]

At the table, I'd bid 4NT

Would not be surprised to discover that pass or 5♦ worked better

[mikeh]

Pass

I'd be interested in Justin's take, since high level decision making is the area in which the very best are generally so much better than the run of the mill player, but, to me, bidding here is problematic mainly because, even if we have a good spot, we have no assurance that we can reach it. Make this 0=3=5=5 and I'd be happier about bidding.

Consider:

Double: most of the time, partner will have nowhere to go and we'd better hope he has defence. If he does bid, he'll often bid 4N, two places to play. What then? if we bid our 6 card suit, maybe we find that he was 3=4=2=4 and now he corrects to hearts. Ugh.

4N: we show 2 places to play, and he bids 5♣, which gets hammered....what do we do? We can't pull to diamonds, because that promises 4+ hearts. And what would you bid over 4N if you were partner, looking at, say, 3=4=3=3 We'd play 5♣x'd on a 4-3 with the good, long trump tapped at trick one and no ability to take diamond tricks.....can you spell 1700?

5♦: all of our not very large eggs in one somewhat frail basket.

We seem to have a choice of being a chicken or a lemming.....I'm being true to my nature......chicken.

[nigel_k]

My nature is lemming and I would double though it is close. I will bid 5♣ over 4NT.

This is the sort of hand where there could easily be a double game swing or we may just increase the penalty when they are sacrificing. I'm not that worried about partner pulling when both sides are not making. The way I play he definitely will not pull with 3424.

Of course we could concede a big penalty or partner could bid too much, especially if he the spade ace. But I just think the cost of these is less than what we stand to lose by passing.

[Statto]

Pass, smoothly. Partner can still do something (tho did not act before). If not, defending 4♠ may be best - it could be a value raise with as little as 2 card support. 5♦ second choice (placing partner with some values in a balanced hand) but it doesn't look like the hand I have.

[quiddity]

Passing feels awful. I would double - we're not that far off from making 5m, but more likely partner could be there with 4 ok spades and a heart honor or two and waiting for us to pound them. They are w/r after all and have not shown any values.

[ggwhiz]

I am more inclined to bid if you reverse my majors but with pards hoped for surprise in the ♠ suit, we may beat this and the colours are wrong.

Wrong for anything except making 11 tricks somewhere and I don't have enough tickets.

[Zelandakh]

I usually play X as values and 4NT as a general take-out, not necessarily 2 places. I think playing that I can venture a 4NT call. I agree this could get ugly quickly and the more I read Mike's post the less certain I feel about the decision .

[mcphee]

Arggh, just the sort of hand to annoy you. On a lot of holdings where partner is not able to bid (many with 3 small S)it is possible we could score up a slam. If this was a table match I would try and guess what the other guy would do, imp pairs pass and die with the field. There are other considerations, like who bid 4S. If it was a player who bid like they expect to make it passing is the bid of choice. Tuff problem against a good pair.

[gnasher]

I'd make a takeout double, assuming we play them. If partner passes and they make, it's only 5 IMPs, compared with 11 or 14 for not bidding game when it's making. And the times when we lose by acting can be offset against the gains from converting +50 or +100 into +100 or +300.

If double were "cards" or "values", I have no idea what I'd do. Luckily that's somebody else's problem.

[mikeh]

Do you reach over and remove the redouble card from RHO's bidding box before you make your call?

gnasher, on 2012-January-13, 07:02, said:

I'd make a takeout double, assuming we play them. If partner passes and they make, it's only 5 IMPs, compared with 11 or 14 for not bidding game when it's making. And the times when we lose by acting can be offset against the gains from converting +50 or +100 into +100 or +300.

If double were "cards" or "values", I have no idea what I'd do. Luckily that's somebody else's problem.

[gnasher]

In my experience they don't redouble much on this auction, especially at this vulnerability, where RHO will tend to assume that it's his partner who has been a bit frisky. Of course, if helps if I manage to double without looking scared.

If RHO did redouble, I probably wouldn't sit it. Let's hope that nobody I play against is reading this.

[MrAce]

So what happened ? Did we the passers miss a game or slam ? Or did they redouble the doublers ? Or did they Double the bidders ?

[ArtK78]

Here is the hand:

http://tinyurl.com/78um9vp

The actual result was -800, but it could have been worse (much worse - there was a chance for 1400).

Spades makes 11 tricks.

Pretty peculiar 3♠ opening by the North hand (in fact, of the 40 or so times the hand was played, this was the only instance of a 3♠ opening, the others being 2♠ or pass), but that is just a comment. It certainly is not relevant to the result.

There was one instance of 5♦x -1100. In that case, the West hand had the opportunity to bid diamonds at the two level and clubs at the four level. Over 4♠, opposite a silent partner, the player holding this hand unilaterally bid 5♦.

[MrAce]

WoW

As i said in my post, it may get ugly real quick at these colors. Did they take you to emergency room immediately ? Was the ambulance on time ? (joking m8 )