[lalldonn]

 han, on 2013-February-21, 18:05, said:

To me the most likely explanation is that partner wanted to bid 2S on the previous round and grabbed the wrong card, only to discover it a round later.

I would certainly pass.

Presuming that 2♠ is weak, wouldn't it be much more clear of him to bid 3♠ then 4♠ if he insists on trying to run back to spades?

[han]

If 2S was weak then my explanation doesn't make any sense. In any case, I think we should assume that partner has made some kind of mistake and try to figure out what it is.

[the hog]

The bid cannot be KC. Explain to me how you can make a nf raise and then bid kc. It is not possible unless you are playing with a fool.How would he look if the bidding proceeded with 3 passes after the simple raise?

[Cyberyeti]

 the hog, on 2013-February-22, 02:51, said:

The bid cannot be KC. Explain to me how you can make a nf raise and then bid kc. It is not possible unless you are playing with a fool.How would he look if the bidding proceeded with 3 passes after the simple raise?

Because he has so many hearts he knows it won;'t be passed out.

Opps got what they deserved for W not bidding his suits, 6♦ by W is cold.

[fromageGB]

Interesting hand. My explanation stands. 2♥ was a deliberate bid. If partner took the 4♠ as kickback then nothing lost, it's not a bad hand for it. If he didn't, and opponents X, then you have the actual result as a fallback option. (But partner should have known it was kickback.) A good ploy.

Or it may not be a ploy. We are told that they have this agreement. Maybe they have no others related to the advancing situation, and can't be sure whether 2NT or 2♣ would show support.

[barmar]

 fromageGB, on 2013-February-21, 12:06, said:

You're on thin ground here. It is the opposition who are supposed to pause. Even if they pass in a split second you should take no longer than your typical tempo. To do otherwise is giving UI.

The last bid in the diagram was the jump bid, so I thought the suggested pauser was his LHO, not CHO.

[aguahombre]

 barmar, on 2013-February-22, 09:16, said:

The last bid in the diagram was the jump bid, so I thought the suggested pauser was his LHO, not CHO.

No, it was Gnasher way back on page one who mentioned the pause ---by CHO ---to allow for a substitution of an unintended 4S before it would be too late. Most of the rest of us believe that pause would happen for other reasons. However, as LHO, I would be pausing specifically to allow RHO to wake up.

[fromageGB]

 barmar, on 2013-February-22, 09:16, said:

The last bid in the diagram was the jump bid, so I thought the suggested pauser was his LHO, not CHO.

You have raised an interesting point, here. We do not know whether it is we or the opponents who have bid 4♠. I took the hint from "your agreements say that 4S is keycard for hearts if hearts have been bid and raised" but, yes, it could be a deliberate red herring to put us off. Our agreements of course have nothing to do with why the opponents bid this way. Sorry I was so presumptuous. As the next bidder, I would indeed pass after a suitable pause.

[lalldonn]

 han, on 2013-February-21, 23:31, said:

If 2S was weak then my explanation doesn't make any sense. In any case, I think we should assume that partner has made some kind of mistake and try to figure out what it is.

That is where I disagree. For one thing, you can't be sure he made a mistake. On the real hand he didn't. (I assume by "mistake" we mean accident, not bad bid.)

Even if he did make a mistake we don't know which one. He could have seen his hand wrong, seen the auction wrong, pulled the wrong card, or thought the agreement was something else and then realized he was wrong. I think it's fruitless to try and figure out which one it was and further what he actually meant to do. That is an enormous parlay to try to get right.

Then on top of all that, if he had made a mistake I doubt he would try to wriggle out of it by making the partnership's keycard bid! That's usually the one bid that least causes us to consider what he was up to since we have a prescribed response no matter what.

I prefer to think of this (my idea of) sensibly. Partner has made our keycard bid by our agreements. It doesn't make sense in the auction, but neither does any other meaning. So I won't presume to know more about his hand than I do, I will just continue to follow our system and pray he knows what he is doing. This time he did in the sense that, whether we like it or not, his eyes were wide open to his chosen strategy. How cruel to then drop him in keycard because we suddenly decided we could read minds, or because like the hog we have a perverted sense of justice and a righteous mission to punish all bad bridge.

I would go so far as to say that of all the times that I've ever disagreed with Justin on a subjective bridge matter, this is the most strongly that I can recall.

[JLOGIC]

Calling it a bridge matter is a stretch

[the hog]

"because like the hog we have a perverted sense of justice and a righteous mission to punish all bad bridge"
Josh(?), I can honestly say that I have never played with a partner who is such an idiot as this one. Hence if pd bid 4S, it would be to play. Not that such nonsense would ever happen.

[fromageGB]

I don't see it as bad bridge, and even if you do view it that way I don't think it entitles you to flagrantly ignore the agreement you have that 4♠ in this sequence is kickback.

[the hog]

Read my post. It CANNOT BE KB IN THIS SEQUENCE UNLESS YOU ARE PLAYING WITH AN IDIOT!

[gnasher]

 lalldonn, on 2013-February-21, 18:34, said:

Could you please explain why partner "deserves" to get a bad score just because you don't like how he bid his hand? I usually think people have to be rude or offensive to deserve negative outcomes, not simply play what I consider bad bridge.

I think that bad bridge deserves a bad score, and people who're rude or offensive deserve to have no friends. Both of these seem to happen, though not as reliably as one might wish.

[manudude03]

Maybe partner is a bean counter and has x KQJxxxx KT9x x . My gut tells me that this is semi-natural and he is 7-3 in the majors, and bidding 4S first time to make it harder for the opponents to find a 5C bid.

[Trinidad]

 the hog, on 2013-February-23, 23:16, said:

Read my post. It CANNOT BE KB IN THIS SEQUENCE UNLESS YOU ARE PLAYING WITH AN IDIOT!

The guy just scored +1000 (despite the fact that partner misunderstood him!) where he was entitled to -100. I guess he doesn't mind if someone far away shouts that he is an idiot.

I find that this guy is remarkably similar to Mollo's Hideous Hog. Maybe the hog should read a couple of Mollo books to appreciate this style of bridge.

Rik

[the hog]

"I find that this guy is remarkably similar to Mollo's Hideous Hog."
More like Walter the Walrus. The Hog could play bridge; this guy should take up tiddlywinks.