[kuhchung]

masonbarge, on 2015-January-22, 12:26, said:

1. If you play "non jumping Michaels" you deserve your predicament. How in the world can you have a system where you can bid a 2-suiter at the 4 level, but not a long, strong suit?

2. At IMPs, if you can't bid 4 clubs, you have to pass. Your swing is potentially disastrous. And 3NT is absolutely insane - you HAVE to be kidding me! You don't want to lose a match over an opponent's part score bid! The style these days is to bid 3 and 4 of a suit with an outside Ace or King. Can you imagine your teammates in an IMP contest finding out you went -12 or -15 defending a part score? They would never play with you again.

3. At Matchpoints, bid 3NT if you are behind late in a match, want to shoot, and you know your partner is okay with it. It might make for a top.

You have to have enough maturity to realize that pre-empts often work. If you normally do well, you can't let them stampede you into disaster. And who says the opponents are going to make their bid?

i think you're really underestimating your chances in 3N. your opponent made the mistake of preempting. if you declare, you have a road map of the hand

[the hog]

masonbarge, on 2015-January-22, 12:26, said:

1. If you play "non jumping Michaels" you deserve your predicament. How in the world can you have a system where you can bid a 2-suiter at the 4 level, but not a long, strong suit?

2. At IMPs, if you can't bid 4 clubs, you have to pass. Your swing is potentially disastrous. And 3NT is absolutely insane - you HAVE to be kidding me! You don't want to lose a match over an opponent's part score bid! The style these days is to bid 3 and 4 of a suit with an outside Ace or King. Can you imagine your teammates in an IMP contest finding out you went -12 or -15 defending a part score? They would never play with you again.

3. At Matchpoints, bid 3NT if you are behind late in a match, want to shoot, and you know your partner is okay with it. It might make for a top.

You have to have enough maturity to realize that pre-empts often work. If you normally do well, you can't let them stampede you into disaster. And who says the opponents are going to make their bid?

I think your post is amusing. Do you know WHY people play Non Leaping Michaels? Because stopping at 4C is setting too narrow a target. 4m is a nothing bid.
3NT is actually perfectly logical. If my teammates lost Imps because of a 3NT bid I would have the utmost sympathy. It would have happened to me had I been in their seat.

[wank]

masonbarge, on 2015-January-22, 12:26, said:

1. If you play "non jumping Michaels" you deserve your predicament. How in the world can you have a system where you can bid a 2-suiter at the 4 level, but not a long, strong suit?

2. At IMPs, if you can't bid 4 clubs, you have to pass. Your swing is potentially disastrous. And 3NT is absolutely insane - you HAVE to be kidding me! You don't want to lose a match over an opponent's part score bid! The style these days is to bid 3 and 4 of a suit with an outside Ace or King. Can you imagine your teammates in an IMP contest finding out you went -12 or -15 defending a part score? They would never play with you again.

3. At Matchpoints, bid 3NT if you are behind late in a match, want to shoot, and you know your partner is okay with it. It might make for a top.

You have to have enough maturity to realize that pre-empts often work. If you normally do well, you can't let them stampede you into disaster. And who says the opponents are going to make their bid?

i suggest you examine an imp conversion table. missing a vulnerable game is -10 or even -11 is possible when you score up your +150 with -660 at the other table. to think 4c is 'safe', assuming it was natural, is just mistaken.

[nige1]

masonbarge, on 2015-January-22, 12:26, said:

1. If you play "non jumping Michaels" you deserve your predicament. How in the world can you have a system where you can bid a 2-suiter at the 4 level, but not a long, strong suit?
2. At IMPs, if you can't bid 4 clubs, you have to pass. Your swing is potentially disastrous. And 3NT is absolutely insane - you HAVE to be kidding me! You don't want to lose a match over an opponent's part score bid! The style these days is to bid 3 and 4 of a suit with an outside Ace or King. Can you imagine your teammates in an IMP contest finding out you went -12 or -15 defending a part score? They would never play with you again.
3. At Matchpoints, bid 3NT if you are behind late in a match, want to shoot, and you know your partner is okay with it. It might make for a top.
You have to have enough maturity to realize that pre-empts often work. If you normally do well, you can't let them stampede you into disaster. And who says the opponents are going to make their bid?

Obvious quibbles wtth Masonbarge's interesting arguments:

• If you play non-leaping Michaels, you can bid 4♥/4♠/5♣/5♦ with your long strong suit. Two-suiters are quite common, however. Then it's advantageous to be able to reach the better strain, economically.
• When you have a good minor suit, then 3N is often quite playable and requires 2 fewer tricks than 5m. If opponents double 3N, redouble is available to express general or specific doubt. You can even consider removing to 4m, unilaterally.
• Opponents' pre-empts require you to gamble but they don't always work. They can sometimes be defeated by several tricks, perhaps even doubled, to save a partscore. They can keep you out of a reasonable game, doomed my bad breaks. Passing an opponent's pre-empt is often just as big a gamble as doubling or bidding. If the pre-empt does stampede you into an unlikely game, you sometimes make only because the pre-empt reveals so much about opponents' distribution.

[whereagles]

kuhchung, on 2015-January-22, 16:02, said:

i think you're really underestimating your chances in 3N. your opponent made the mistake of preempting. if you declare, you have a road map of the hand

Provided you can use that map. Double dummy won't save you from 5 inescapable losers

[masonbarge]

Vampyr, on 2015-January-22, 12:55, said:

Your opinion is certainly welcome, but tone it down. People who come on to the forums and try to teach everyone how to play bridge tend to become very unpopular very fast.

Criticism noted. I apologize and will tone it down in the future.

[masonbarge]

ArtK78, on 2015-January-22, 12:58, said:

Well, that settles that. I don't know why we are even discussing this hand.

Sorry.