Bridge: 7 No Trumps baby!

The Game Room
721

Think your partner needs to pipe down, as if they had anything to say a competitive double was required over 3H. As this did not appear, and this is not a forcing pass situation that most people would recognise, then pard’s giving you no help so you have no bid.

Don’t mind an immediate 4C raise but a delayed raise seems very unsound just on general bidding principles. Either pass or bid 4, don’t like backing in with 4 after you’ve permitted the 3H bid.

Anyhow, seen as pard is mad as hell and it was IMPs, I take it game was missed?

722

Partner’s hand:
:spades: KQ962
:heart: KT
:diamonds: 63
:clubs: AK63
Opponents had no singleton. We get five tricks in 4HX and eleven tricks in 5C or 5D. 4SX was lucky to escape for down one.

Our auction was
S W N E

      • 1♠
        2♥ X Pass 3♣
        Pass Pass 3♥ Pass
        Pass 3♠ 4♥ Pass
        Pass 4♠ Pass Pass
        X Pass Pass Pass

It seems possible that partner bid 3C with just three, no? Something like Kxxxx xx Axx KJx

My 3S bid was OK, I think. We play 5-card majors so having declined to support spades twice, Partner can be sure I have only two. I must have fair clubs also, I think, or I’d have passed 3H.

But then 4H came back around to me. What do I do? Partner insists I should double 4H, but this seems wrong to me. I bid 4S thinking this was the “consistent” bid. :smack: — what if 4S is our best shot for game? (Or is it silly to think that way since I’d already given up on game?)

Partner insisted that 4S was my 4th best call at that point, behind X (best), 5C and 5D (odd that he didn’t consider pass). The fact that he passed 4H instead of X or 4S might suggest that he’d welcome a club bid by me.
When I did bid 4S and it got doubled I had a chance to save the day by pulling to C, but I failed. to do so. Both then and when I bid 4S I was gritting my teeth, “knowing” my calls were wrong but somehow feeling locked in by a sense of “consistency.” :smack:

Bidding 4C at once over his 3C might have been an overbid, I think, but at least it would have made any subsequent bidding better informed.

Go ahead — flagellate me.

723

Yes, partner could have 3 clubs. But he had 4 good ones and 15 points (he probably discounted the heart king)

This is a very strange result - opponents had half the deck and an 11 card fit in hearts but could only take 8 tricks in hearts. You won’t see that very often.

724

Yeah 4S is not right but your partner is not facing up to his responsibilities there - he’s shown a minimum opener with 5 spades and 3+ clubs, he’s stronger than that but neglected to show it two times, then thinks you’re the one who should be doubling the final contract [for takeout, presumably].

I’d say it was time to start dishing out some reprimands of your own, Septimus, but you shouldn’t really be clashing over a murky sequence like this, tbh. Easy to mis-evaluate hands like this in context so it’s not the sort of thing that really merits a sit-down with partner.

725

We missed 7NT last night:

RHO opened 3H. Having 13 HCP and a singleton heart, I doubled. I was 5-1-3-4. LHO passed. Partner bid 4D and I passed, 4D being a minimum response. We went 1 down thanks to a 5-1 trump distribution. Afterwards I found that my partner had 17+ HCP, including the Ace and King of Hearts.

Here’s another one for you:

Partner held S: KJTxxx H: KQxxx D:xx. We are playing 3x weak 2s, so 2D indicates a 6-card diamond suit. Do you open? How do you plan the bidding?

726

Unless partner was something like 1-2-5-5, I’d think a NT response was correct for the first hand. It would be a little hard to fault him for only bidding 3 NT. Even with 17 HCP, he’d have to envision you with 18 HCP to make a small slam. Sometimes preempts do just what they’re supposed to do.

But 4D can’t be the right response with with 17 HCP. At the very least he can bid 4H telling you to pick the suit if he doesn’t want to be in NT and had no suit to mention.

For the other hand assuming I’m dealer or second seat after a pass, I’d open based on the rule of 20 (HCP + length of two longest seats) definitely NV and probably even V against NV. That hand should definitely not be opened with any kind of weak 2 bid (or Flannery if you were thinking of something like that.)

727

On the first hand, I’m with OldGuy - partner has no business bidding only 4D with 17 HCP. He’d do that with 7 HCP.
If he has only 4 Diamonds he presumably had no 5-card suit, so his bid is 4H (if he sees slam potential and can support Spades over a 4S response) or 3NT (otherwise).

(On a side-issue, I’m mildly interested in how he managed to go down in 4D. If 7NT was on, there can’t have been any black-suit losers, there’s no Heart force with AK opposite a singleton, and even if opener’s partner started with D KQTxx, he’s only making 3 of them)

For the second hand, it depends on seat and vulnerability. If I’m first or second to speak and I’m playing Michaels cue-bids, I probably pass first round - the hand has enough playing strength to come in with 3C/3D on the second round. In 3rd/4th seat I open 1S planning to rebid 2H (and hope I don’t push opponents into a making 3C/3D).

728

Same as Merrick I’d pass 1st and 2nd and await developments - although 1S is OK in first. Cannot be opened a weak 2 under any circumstances.
Sitting 3rd I think I’d venture 2D multi, as partner can show a H or a S raise, but if that was not available I’d go 1S. Boss suit n all.

1S in fourth as well. Playing weak 2s you can open 2S in fourth to show opening hand strength with 6 spades that just wants to place the contract at this level, and good expectation of making. This hand is clearly too shapely, lacking in strength for that, though.

729

On the first hand, if he bid diamonds with only 4 then he must be 3343 or have 4 hearts. Given that, unless you were vulnerable against not, I would say that passing the double is a decent option. If you play trumps at the first opportunity, they may be held to 5 tricks (even if they make 6 tricks, at equal vulnerability the penalty still beats game).

I don’t know for sure without seeing the hand, but I might bid 3S over 3H rather than double. If you double you are unlikely to get to a 5-3 spade fit.

On the second hand, my vote also goes to pass and await developments.

730

We had some bidding failures in London yesterday. (No, I didn’t jet over to the U.K. Invitational Pairs Championship :smack: — I’m speaking of Room #700 (London server) at playok.com.) I’m thinking of e-mailing my partner but first want to be fortified with SDMB opinion! :slight_smile:

We play 2 Clubs as the only forcing opener and have procrastinated on firming up responses. Partner makes a positive response to my 2C with a weakish suit while, in the absence of detailed agreement, I lean toward “2D semi-automatic.” At one point we agreed on some variation of “Herbert second negative” but I don’t think either of us remembers the details. :smack:

septimus is South on each hand.
(A)
:spades: AQ54
:heart: AKQ
:diamonds: AQ7
:clubs: A74

:spades: K83
:heart: 95
:diamonds: J5
:clubs: KQT632

I passed in 2nd chair and bid 3C over partner’s 2C. Partner jumped to 6NT. Grand slam is excellent but the playok field is so weak we got 5.5 imps for 6NT. In the post mortem, partner mentioned my passed-hand status as a reason finding 7 would be difficult.

I’m a conservative bidder and wouldn’t have had much less for my 3C positive response. Do any of you get to the Grand?

(B)
:spades: Q7
:heart: 87
:diamonds: 8752
:clubs: QJ965

:spades: A42
:heart: AKQJT4
:diamonds: A9
:clubs: K7

The auction with opponents silent was 2C - 2D - 2H - 3C - 3H - Pass.
Four Hearts is excellent. I think 2S, if anything, would be Herbert 2nd Negative, no? If so, does partner’s 3C establish a game force? Did I underbid? Should partner with a couple of queens and a useful doubleton have bid 4H? It was after this hand that partner announced “Last round. One of is zigging while the other is zagging.”

(C)
:spades: AT6
:heart: 42
:diamonds: Q82
:clubs: KQ862

:spades: KQ
:heart: AT76
:diamonds: T965
:clubs: AT7

North opened 1C, I responded 1D (is 1H or 2NT better?), Partner bid 1NT, I jumped to 3NT. Pass, Pass, and East doubled. Pass, pass, partner pulls to 4C. :eek: Nine tricks are made in either clubs or NT. It would never have occurred to me to pull the double.

(D)
:spades: AKT965
:heart: AT96
:diamonds: 32
:clubs: J

:spades: 3
:heart: K852
:diamonds: QJ65
:clubs: KQ97

This hand may be less interesting bidding-wise; I’ll mention it to partner for a different reason.

Partner opened 1S; I responded 2C(*); partner rebid 2H; I bid 4H (though wondering if 3H was ample). West doubled. **At trick 1, East underleads his Ace of Diamonds to West’s singleton King! ** This was almost the only way to beat 4H. A 2nd-round ruff by West’s Qxx would be with his natural trump trick, and a 3rd-round uppercut ruff would fail.

(* - Best? Normally the suit above the singleton should be avoided.)

Can we agree that East-West were using Skype or some other private channel to cheat? playok.com makes it easy to check stats, and I see this East West usually play as partners and do much better as partners than when playing with others.

731

NETA: I see that ©, with its strange double, was played against the same cheating pair as (D). With Skype, they would have thought they had easy tricks in hearts – neither of us had shown 4 hearts for a double-stopper (not that it turns out to be needed in NT).

732

Your partner should not have jumped to 6 NT in the first hand. There’s plenty of bidding space for Blackwood.

On the second auction, it should have started 2C-2D-2H-2N and you can then bid either 3N or 4H.

On the third auction, partner has only a 5 card suit and 11 HCP so should have passed. You bid 1H or 1N. If you bid 1H, partner bids 2C, you bid 2D, then partner bids 3N. Over 1N partner will bid 2N and whether you go on to 3N is up to you.

A partnership who play together regularly will do much better than random pickups so I wouldn’t read anything into it. And West did double.

733

Here’s a query for y’all.

Partner opens 2C. I am holding S: xx H:xxx D:x C: AJT98xx. All the xs are very low cards so basically there are no entries into my hand apart from clubs. I respond 2D. Partner rebids 3D. Should I bid 3N or 4C? I bid 4C and partner pulled to 4N, I rebid 5C and gave up after partner bid 6N which went down. 5C, of course, made handily.

734

Cheaper minor (usually 3C, of course) as a second negative is more common.

Nonsense. It should not be dificult to find out about KQ clubs and another king. The challenge is finding out about the sixth club for the 13th trick. If you play specific kings response to RKCB, you can find out that partner has KS, in which case you might bid the grand, which will make if:
[ul]
[li]partner has 6 clubs[/li][li]partner has 3 spades and they are 3-3[/li][li]partner has JS[/li][li]diamond finesse is on[/li][li]or spade/diamond squeeze if you prefer that to taking a diamond finesse[/li][/ul]

Yes

Yes

No. As you were in a game-forcing auction, there is no need to jump around.

Yes

1D or 1H is partnership style, but I would bid 1H. With weaker hands I respond 1H even with 4 hearts and 5 diamonds as otherwise I might not get the chance to show my hearts (e.g. LHO bids spades and RHO raises).

Whether to open the North hand or not is also a matter of partnership style. Either way, by opening and then bidding 1NT, he has decided it is an opening hand and should not pull a double.

I think 2C is correct in ACOL. You do not want to open the suit above a singleton, but responding is different. Biddng 2C leaves open the possibility of finding a fit in any suit.

Defence was highly suspicious. Any way to report it to playok?

735

This must be directed at residents of the south of the United States. I qualify.

I think 4C is correct. What do you play as the requirement for an immediate 3C bid? You have at least 5 playing tricks opposite a 2C opener. You are going to game. Maybe after 2C - 3C - 3D - 4C - 4NT - 5C partner would get the message. Mind you, I do not know what caused partner to bid 6NT after s/he was happy to settle in 4NT and all you did was remove that to 5C. There must be holes in the club suit because if you had long, running clubs, you would have bid slam.

736

playok.com is very informal and possibly full of cheats. (How are other sites? BridgeBase ?)

I could send messages to the various people playing with them and warn then. Or just click the box that prevents them from sitting at my table in future.

737

Partner had a singleton club.

738

This. You have no evidence.

739

This was 4 years ago. I do not know if anything has changed.

740

Then I don’t understand 6NT at all.