[andy_h]

Not sure if these will affect any decisions, but here's the story. You're playing with your regular partner and the opponents are quite good as they've been in the open team before, but they are a totally fresh partnership. Both sides are playing 2/1.

1st couple of boards you witness your LHO do these few things:

Scoring: IMP

---

He is in 2nd seat and auction goes:
p---1C---1H---1S
3H--3S---p----4S
All Pass.

You wonder why he had bid 3S.

Few boards later on, he held:

Scoring: IMP

---

He's in 2nd seat and auction goes:
1S---p(?)---p---3H
3S--4H----4S---p
p---5H--All Pass.


Now here comes the hand.

Scoring: IMP

---

You're in 1st seat at all vul and auction goes:

p---1H---X---2NT*

2NT is explained as INV+ with 4+♥'s. You decide to bid 3♦, agree?
Let's say you do, and the auction follows:

3D--4C---4S---5H
5S--6H----X-----p
?

Is this the most obvious wtp pass?

[Apollo81]

I'd pass, and I don't see what the previous hands have to do with anything, nor do I see what's so strange about the actions taken (except maybe 3♦)

[Rossoneri]

I may be missing something, but it seems right to me to pass.

[skjaeran]

Yes, this looks like an obvious pass to me.

I don't see that the previous hands affects this at all.
As it is, I totally agree with LHO's previous auctions. 3♠ looks pretty obvious to me, though I can see some would bid 4♠. I'd not consider passing over 1♠ with the second hand conservative at all - in fact I don't know many who would make a t/o double with a subminimum and xxx in hearts. I do know many who would overcall 2♣ however. I don't like that at all though.

[benlessard]

My style is that if I X and bid 4S I show a great hand with defensive values. With purely offensive hands powerhouse I prefer to bid a direct 4S (at the risk of missing some slams) or to overcall 1S knowing the bidding wont stop. So X and 4S clearly setup forcing pass and after 6H if I was interested in slam I would have made a forcing pass.

Even if not playing forcing pass i would expect 5H to go down so im not afraid of 6H making. bidding 6S seems is just a big gamble.

As for the previous hand i would have bid 4S but 3S isnt that bad. In MP this is a clear 4S bid because 3S is only competitive (3S down 1 over 3H making is a good deal) but at Imps you are never bidding 3S to "sacrifice over a partscore" bidding 3S means that you are going to make 3S some amount of time. So that why 3S is always showing extra playing strenght.

The 2nd hand is about the same thing its a clear X for me (2C is terrible) but i dont think pass is a big mistake.

[the hog]

Andy 3S on the first board is obvious, as to me is pass on the second. I hate a 2c overcall on that and a x, while I can live with it, is not de rigeur.

I pass on your posted hand.

[benlessard]

Quote

Andy 3S on the first board is obvious

I think 4S is the proper bid Our hand make 4 facing AKxxx,xxx,xxx,xx and even AQJxx will lead to a good game.

[gnasher]

benlessard, on Jun 8 2008, 10:45 AM, said:

Quote

Andy 3S on the first board is obvious

I think 4S is the proper bid Our hand make 4 facing AKxxx,xxx,xxx,xx and even AQJxx will lead to a good game.

And it's no play opposite KQxxx xx Qxx xxx. Partner is more likely to have two hearts than three, and there's no particular reason to expect his spades to be so prime. As you said in your previous post, 3♠ shows more than a minimum in playing strength. I don't think that this hand, with half its strength in a short suit, is such a great hand as to be worth 4.

This post has been edited by gnasher: 2008-June-08, 04:10

[gnasher]

andy_h, on Jun 7 2008, 02:55 PM, said:

1st couple of boards you witness your LHO do these few things:

Whilst I prefer my opponents to do something completely loopy and concede 800 and 670 on the first two boards, I don't think we have any cause for complaint when they don't.

[benlessard]

Swith the Q of D for the Q of C or give him a 6th spades. I think it mostly depend of the extra playing strenght expected for 3S & with what hands do you expect partner to raise to 4.

[andy_h]

gnasher, on Jun 8 2008, 08:13 PM, said:

andy_h, on Jun 7 2008, 02:55 PM, said:

1st couple of boards you witness your LHO do these few things:

Whilst I prefer my opponents to do something completely loopy and concede 800 and 670 on the first two boards, I don't think we have any cause for complaint when they don't.

Sorry. My initial intention was not trying to look for a complaint or anything, but wondering if there is any possible case to overrule his X, as you are unsure whether he would X with AKQJxx Qx AKx xx or alike, thinking we may have something useful in terms of high cards. And when there are huge double fits around not knowing who can make what, is it always down to bidding over the opponents to take the insurance or X'ing them and it can pretty much never be passed out?

I guess the point of the previous hands, were to see how you take LHO's conservatism into account in making your decision over partner's X on the 3rd hand. To me, I thought the 1st hand looks pretty good, 2 losers in hearts with a very nice side suit and partner promising 5+S. I forgot to add that he suggested/asking, while putting his hand down as dummy, that X of 3H would be a cue raise. If 3S in the partnership was agreed that it does show extras, then it is definitely fair enough, but if he thought he had no such agreements, I would think at vul imps he would bid 4S.

As for the 2nd hand, to me it looks like a very clear X. Isn't this hand like worth better than in this thread's one? http://forums.bridge...topic=24139&hl=
AAK with a shortage, it's not like you are going to risk coming back into the auction later so you might as well get in early and get out early. LHO didn't even really consider X'ing when his partner suggested he would definitely X after the hand was finished. If my LHO did look like what he was bidding conservatively, then that's fair enough.

Which brings back to the last hand. If LHO has a really good 2suiter, and bid slam pretty confidently (maybe 3-0 in the pointed suits or something?), I am wondering if that's any persuading factor into passing or pulling partner's X?