[sailoranch]

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Both vulnerable at IMPs. Thanks in advance.

[aguahombre]

All b.s. deleted. I miscounted your hand. Think I will let this one slide with a pass opposite a partner who passed.

[RunemPard]

aguahombre, on 2012-August-26, 16:19, said:

All b.s. deleted. I miscounted your hand. Think I will let this one slide with a pass opposite a partner who passed.

I would double...

If partner replies 1♠, I will rebid 2♣ hoping to show 5/4 in minors and value. Why we want the opponents to buy this so cheap is beyond me.

[aguahombre]

not concerned with them buying it cheap. More concerned with us buying it expensive. It's IMPS, and we really have an ugly 18 which turned uglier.

I realize I am against all the forum posters who must be doing something at every opportunity; so, touche and well done, if action works better here.

[chasetb]

The only question I have is if o.p. plays Inverted Minors, because then we might need to be competing in a minor suit. Otherwise, partner passing is a bad omen, so I am just going to be quiet.

[aguahombre]

I have a hunch that if we are playing 1C-3C as "mixed", rather than crap, partner will come back in if it is convenient. If partner had a diamond response, she would have made a diamond response. Still, what I know at this time leads to Pass.

[sailoranch]

Yep, inverted minors are on, with 3♣ being appropriate for the vulnerability. Hands with responding values and no convenient response would bid 1NT.

[the hog]

Pass. Partner did pass 1C, did she not?

[rmnka447]

Pass, the worst we can lose is a partial swing at IMPs. Like aguahombre said, you don't want to buy it expensive at IMPS. It's just possible if the 1 ♥ balancer is fairly weak that LHO has opening values behind you. If so, it means that there's a ♣ stack behind you as well.

[quiddity]

I would try 1NT. Not ideal, obviously, but I'm not going to pass with half the deck and a doubleton heart. If we get hit I can consider redoubling to have partner pick a minor.

Say partner has something like SK and out. They might easily take 7 or 8 tricks in hearts and we might be on a club finesse to make 1NT. It would not be surprising at all to lose a partscore swing by passing.

[RunemPard]

Just thought I would mention that I want to continue because I feel fairly confident about making 7. If I can get 1 entry to partner I feel confident about making 8...(If partner has 2-3 clubs). If I cannot manage to make 8, I feel fairly confident that opponents can easily make 2H..(If partner is not sitting on a heart stack).

At this point, I would rather double and leave it open for us.

Note: I mostly bid considering MPs. At IMPs, this is only a matter of pushing them to a point where I feel we can possibly set their contract. 1H for them, I would rather push a little more.

If MPs, I really do not want to be sitting at the table after explaining to partner why their 1H= is a top when most are playing 2H-1 or we are making a club contract.

[mcphee]

Partner has passed 1C, they have nada. Bidding again with this hand is courting disaster.

[sailoranch]

Thanks for your replies. In real life, I wanted to contest the partscore despite the diminished values, but all of the actions seemed flawed so I passed. Lefty raised to 2♥ and I resisted the temptation to come back in with 2NT.

I thought the decision to concede a possible 5-6 IMP swing was hard. I didn't think this was wtp as partner's pass isn't just scary on its own. But I am concerned about the suitability of the clubs and the ability to safely explore for a minor suit fit. The suggestion that West has a likely club stack over me is interesting. I also thought that East was likely to have something in spades for her balance, which with the lack of double would suggest a greater chance of diamond shortness and, as a result, of a diamond fit. But I wasn't so confident in this inference to do anything.

I do like the idea of bidding 1NT and getting to 2m through the back door though.

[lalldonn]

1NT to show the nature of my hand. Call me simple minded, but I have 18 and partner has 0-5 with the higher end being more likely a priori, so we more likely have more than they do. I won't just give up at the 1 level.

[han]

Same for me. 1NT is safe and I don't want to give up at the 1-level. I cannot compete if they raise to 2H, but partner may be able to if we show our hand now. He doesn't need to have a yarborough, he might just have king fourth of clubs for example.

[FrancesHinden]

This actually depends quite a lot on how standard your methods are.
Playing a short 1C opening, and in particular playing transfer advances (I know this is the I&A forum, but transfer advances are quite common now outside the ACBL), partner basically only passes with a very weak hand with length in clubs, and basically never passes with a 5-card major and not with short clubs either.

That means that we have a minor suit fit and they have a major suit fit; I'd pass because we won't win the partscore competition however hard we try and we're vulnerable and partner has basically nothing.

Playing more traditional methods where partner only responses with 5 (or 6)+ HCP I agree with 1NT. I don't think that will get to 2m 'by the back door' because they will bid 2M, but it might slow down the auction and let us play there.

[phil_20686]

FrancesHinden, on 2012-September-01, 06:11, said:

This actually depends quite a lot on how standard your methods are.
Playing a short 1C opening, and in particular playing transfer advances (I know this is the I&A forum, but transfer advances are quite common now outside the ACBL), partner basically only passes with a very weak hand with length in clubs, and basically never passes with a 5-card major and not with short clubs either.

That means that we have a minor suit fit and they have a major suit fit; I'd pass because we won't win the partscore competition however hard we try and we're vulnerable and partner has basically nothing.

Playing more traditional methods where partner only responses with 5 (or 6)+ HCP I agree with 1NT. I don't think that will get to 2m 'by the back door' because they will bid 2M, but it might slow down the auction and let us play there.

I was thinking this. Seems completely safe to bid 2C, but then I am used to a short club and transfer advances, where partners pass basically always has 4+ clubs. (3343 can be a problem though ).

I would hate to be undercompeting when partner has some (341)5 hand for example.