[barsikb]

Dealer: East, Vul: North-South

Also would like to hear about declarer's plan in case of 3NT by South and H2 Op Lead

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[Codo]

The bidding
One possibility:
1 ♥ pass 2♥ X
3♥ 3 NT pass pass

But of course there are several ways to bid the hand different: Some south may bid 2 ♦- maybe just to make it trickier for them to find spades, a lot Wests may pass with a balanced 4 count, north may not bid or try 2 ♠, south may not choose 3 NT....


For the play: They do have 15 HCPS and east usually 6 hearts for the opening and rebid. After you see the King of hearts in the West hand, you know that the spade finesse will not work. So: Take the third heart and take your 5 diamond tricks. You can notice that East has troubles. He needs to discard 5 times. Two spades and a club are easy. But what to do now? If he discards hearts, you can exist with your fourth heart. He may cash two rounds but has to give you an additional black suit trick with his return. If he is triky and just discard one heart, you better know which suit he still holds and cash the ace of the other suit to get his now singleton king.

[Antrax]

I don't think Codo's auction is very realistic. As W I won't raise to 2♥ if S passes, as N I would bid 2♠ and not X if W does raise, and as S I would overcall 2♦. Do agree E will open this 1♥.

[Zelandakh]

1♥ - P - P - 1♠;
P - 2♦ - 2♥ - 4♥;
P - 5♣ - P - 5♦ perhaps. This is a difficult hand to give a specific auction for since there are options at many of the turns.

For the play in 3NT, hold up in hearts and then run diamonds. East will probably come down to
♠KJ
♥Q
♦-
♣KJ

and then you just need to play a heart so that East plays away from one of the kings (♣A + a second ♣ would also work, inter alia). If East tries to keep 2 hearts then you can cash a black ace to see if the king drops. If you guess right and the king drops then you can revert back to the previous line and throw East in on the last heart (for an overtrick). If not then the king will drop under the second ace. Either way, you make your contract.

[hrothgar]

I suspect that this auction won't get too many votes (especially in the Novice and Beginner forums) but I'd bid this as follows

(1♥) - 1NT - (P) - 2♥
(P) - 2♠ - (P) - 3♦
(P) - 4♦ - (P) - 4♠
(P) - 5♦- All pass

[barsikb]

hrothgar, really not used to calling NT with a singleton (especially in a Major)

Zelandakh, what is the meaning of 4H bid here? What is the reason for South not to overcall 2D after 1H opening? Hearts holding? How bad is 2D Overcall?

Antrax, can you give me the whole bidding sequence?

Codo, Zelandakh, thank you for declarer play comments!

[hrothgar]

barsikb, on 2013-April-23, 07:16, said:

hrothgar, really not used to calling NT with a singleton (especially in a Major)

Zelandakh, what is the meaning of 4H bid here? What is the reason for South not to overcall 2D after 1H opening? Hearts holding? How bad is 2D Overcall?

Hi Barsik

I understand that the 1NT call is not to everyone's taste. However, I prefer this to either Pass or 2♦.

Let's start by considering 2♦. Personally, I prefer better Diamonds for a vulnerable two level over call.
Either a sixth Diamond or another Diamond honor would be sufficient.
If you look at the other auctions that are being suggested, you'll see that no one so far has suggested a 2D overcall
(I"m noting this not to indicate that 1NT is right, but rather than a number of people have concerns with 2D. I'll also note that I know plenty of good players who would call 2D with this hand)

Let's switch over to consider pass.
I don't like pass because I don't think I have a good descriptive call following a reopening double by partner.
My trumps aren't quite good enough to convert for penalty.
3D seems to be an underbid
3NT seems very unilateral

The 1NT overcall lies about my spade length, but otherwise its a good description of strength (and arguably a stiff isn't that much worse than xx)

[Zelandakh]

The 4♥ bid in my auction was a splinter showing diamond support, heart shortage and a good hand. It is an aggressive bid since it bypasses 3NT in a minor fit auction and would certainly not be everyone's choice (it is quite possibly too aggressive to be honest). I am not keen on a 2♦ overcall because the suit is so poor. Changing a low ♦ to the 10 would improve the hand enormously for overcalling. That said, an overcall is not a bad bid per se; the majority of club players would probably make the call.

I rejected hrothgar's 1NT overcall because the combination of the minimum strength, spade singleton and badly positioned heart stopper is just too much. Give me ♥Q instead of a low ♥ and the singleton spade would not stop me from making the bid.

Passing first essentially treats the hand as a balanced 14. A 1NT overcall treats the hand as a balanced 15. Overcalling treats the hand as unbalanced. All of these are reasonable positions to take.

[Antrax]

Quote

Antrax, can you give me the whole bidding sequence?

I would, but I don't want to mislead you. As Zel said, there are several possibilities, and I honestly don't know what's "right". There are some very good players who read and reply in this fourm. I'm not one of them.

[mikeh]

Edited to remove nonsense based on miscounting E's hand

As for richards' 1N overcall, I find myself very much on the same page as him in, say, the watercooler threads, but 1N is awful imo.

For one thing, 1N is usually played as 15-18, and while I probably like Aces as much as anyone, this is still only 14. Upgrading into a narrow range, say 15-17, is far more playable than is upgrading into a wider range. I am not saying don't do it, but I am saying that one needs defensible grounds for doing it. For example, holding AJ10x in hearts would be a good reason: holding A9xx is not. Add to this the stiff spade and the mind boggles.

If E opens, then S uses the green card, as does West. North shouldn't double. A void in opener's suit is a terrible holding with which to make a double that is sometimes passed out. Obviously we can see that S isn't passing 1♥ but we should be trying to put ourselves into N's position at decision time. The reason it is bad is that skilled declarers, aware of the trump stack behind them, will often be able to repeatedly endplay S in trump unless S has a solid sequence. We can reduce the chances of that happening by leading our stiff trump through declarer, almost always gaining at least one trick. We can't do that with a void.

In addition, N isn't quite strong enough to double and then bid spades (doubling in balancing chair, followed by bidding a suit, can be lighter than the same sequence in direct, but this hand doesn't reach even that modest bar), and the risk of missing the 5-3 spade fit is, imo, too great, especially when combined with the risk of partner converting the double.

Edited for same reason

If East opened 1♥ and we reached 3N, which is probable, then the play is trivial....East is placed with the black Kings and has to make a lot of discards. On an earlier thread I pointed out that East could avoid the squeeze by stiffing his club K behind dummy's AQJ10, but that was plausible only because E had merely overcalled and was able to show overcalling values without having the club K. Here, once West shows the heart K, which he will do eventually, it is trivial to place the black Kings.

[Zelandakh]

mikeh, on 2013-April-23, 08:48, said:

I am astounded that everybody opens the East hand. A 10 count with no Aces and only 2 controls, and not much defence. Is everyone playing a strong club method?

Check the floor Mike - I think you dropped a knave.

[mikeh]

Zelandakh, on 2013-April-23, 08:53, said:

Check the floor Mike - I think you dropped a knave.

oops: that's what comes from posting before I drink my morning coffee.

[MrAce]

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These are my prefered auctions, 3♠ showing (a single jump new suit vs a overcall) 5 card suit +4 card support and invitational or more values. (forcing) But i am aware this is not suitable in novice-beginner forum. Having said that, my prefered auction for beginner and novice level is pretty simple.

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[Codo]

I shiver if someone suggests 2 ♦ or 1 NT for the south hand.

[barsikb]

Thank you, dear experts!

I thought I was too cautious overcalling with minor suits at the 2-level but now I know I was actually too aggressive

What about Diamonds play by Declarer? Safest way to play them?