[Hanoi5]

All white, butler:

♠AKQ2
♥AQ83
♦QJ5
♣98

You're in 4th seat trying to remember whether you play better minor or short club when you see:

(Pa)-1♣-(2♥)-???

You decide to double and try to find the slam in spades:

(Pa)-1♣-(2♥)-X
(Pa)-2NT-(Pa)-???

You can't believe what you see, so for lack of anything better:

(Pa)-1♣-(2♥)-X
(Pa)-2NT-(Pa)-3♥
(Pa)-3NT-(Pa)-???

What would you do at this stage?

6NT, no way you're staying out of the slam
4NT, let's see what partner opened with
Pass, if RHO entered the bidding he must have something in a suit which is not hearts (for apparently he doesn't have good hearts)

Would your decision depend upon your opponents? Is it the same if you're playing against the best pro in the club than against some random player?

[the hog]

I need to know what 2NT means in this auction. What agreements do I have?
If none, I would bid 4NT quantitative. I could be playing against the best technical player in the world, Michael Rosenberg, and I would bid the same way. I prefer to trust my partners rather than the opponents.

[aguahombre]

nonsense deleted out

This post has been edited by aguahombre: 2011-October-08, 00:31

[cloa513]

the hog, on 2011-October-07, 22:59, said:

I need to know what 2NT means in this auction. What agreements do I have?
If none, I would bid 4NT quantitative. I could be playing against the best technical player in the world, Michael Rosenberg, and I would bid the same way. I prefer to trust my partners rather than the opponents.

I agree with 4NT,
Partner could have something mediocre like
♠xx
♥KJx
♦AKxx
♣xxxx

I'd imagine the 2♥ bidder has something like so the minor is difficult to bid

♥xxxxxx
♦xxx
♣AKQJx

[whereagles]

Pard is 12-14 bal and there should be some heart wastage. 4NT I guess.

[aguahombre]

cloa513, on 2011-October-08, 01:11, said:

I agree with 4NT,
I'd imagine the 2♥ bidder has something like so the minor is difficult to bid

♥xxxxxx
♦xxx
♣AKQJx

If I had that imagination, I would pass 2NT.

[gszes]

agree with 4n and the lighter you like to open the bidder
the more necessary 4n becomes

[ahydra]

If partner had bid spades then I'd be definitely interested in slam, but he hasn't... My experience is that balanced 18s don't play 6NT very well opposite a weak NT - particularly with no trick source. You need partner to show up with 6 tricks which is a little optimistic!

Partner could have the perfect ♠Jx ♥xxx ♦Kxx ♣AKQJx, but anything less and there's only 11 tricks. Hence, I'd have bid 3N over 2N (against anyone).

Not sure I get 3H - why ask for a heart stop when you've got one (most likely two, in fact) already

ahydra

[gnasher]

Partner's possession of a heart stop isn't very good news. There are lots of hands where he will accept after 4NT but slam is hopeless - Jx Kxx Kxx AKxxx, for example. Hence I would pass.

[lamford]

aguahombre, on 2011-October-08, 00:26, said:

nonsense deleted out

two tautologies

[gordontd]

lamford, on 2011-October-09, 05:08, said:

two tautologies

Maybe you could double-check that?

[lamford]

Giving partner 12-14 balanced with a heart stop makes 6NT very poor. I had 17% of 12 or more tricks using Bridge Analyser, with the criteria that partner has 2-3 spades, 2-3 hearts, and 12-14 points, which seems reasonable. I would also pass.

[lamford]

gnasher, on 2011-October-09, 04:40, said:

Partner's possession of a heart stop isn't very good news. There are lots of hands where he will accept after 4NT but slam is hopeless - Jx Kxx Kxx AKxxx, for example. Hence I would pass.

I think you are misusing "hopeless" to mean very poor, which is surprising as you tell us in another thread that your English is well-above average. To make the contract opposite your example hand you require the WJO to have six hearts and four clubs, which is around a 7% chance (even assuming it has six hearts). This ignores the chance that partner has the 9 or 10 of hearts, when the contract is 100%. I agree with the rest of your post, however.

[han]

I also think that pass is clear. Might partner have jumped to 3NT with a nice 14?

[Hanoi5]

So far 4 vs 4. Nobody cares about opponents, only partner. Partner has 12-14, he wouldn't get to 3NT with 14.

[gnasher]

lamford, on 2011-October-09, 05:34, said:

I think you are misusing "hopeless" to mean very poor, which is surprising as you tell us in another thread that your English is well-above average. To make the contract opposite your example hand you require the WJO to have six hearts and four clubs, which is around a 7% chance (even assuming it has six hearts). This ignores the chance that partner has the 9 or 10 of hearts, when the contract is 100%. I agree with the rest of your post, however.

Yes, you're right, but my error was nothing to do with my English: I added ♠J after writing the text, then didn't bother to consider whether the contract was still hopeless.

By the way, an "x" in a bridge hand is generally used to represent a card that is too small to be relevant.

[JLOGIC]

gnasher, on 2011-October-09, 09:06, said:

Yes, you're right, but my error was nothing to do with my English: I added ♠J after writing the text, then didn't bother to consider whether the contract was still hopeless.

By the way, an "x" in a bridge hand is generally used to represent a card that is too small to be relevant.

My opps sometimes lead the jack of hearts from JT97xx vs 6N fwiw! I view that as my main chance and it probably makes my odds better than 50 %!

[JLOGIC]

han, on 2011-October-09, 06:24, said:

I also think that pass is clear. Might partner have jumped to 3NT with a nice 14?

No?

[P_Marlowe]

4NT.

It is either 4NT or 6NT, but 4NT is enough.

We play a 15-17NT? In this case p can still hold a weak NT, 12-14, this makes it 30-32,
so it would be great, if p thinks, he holds a better than min.

I am not so interested in my opponent, I am more interested in my partner.

With kind regards
Marlowe

[the hog]

gordontd, on 2011-October-09, 05:14, said:

Maybe you could double-check that?

That is not a tautology. You can check something twice.