[pescetom]

MP both vulnerable, as East you hold:

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NS are playing 2/1, no Walsh but South would bypass 4 card diamonds with a major.
Playing opposite yourself nullve style, which of these would be your auction so far?

(A.)

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(B.)

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(C.)

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(D.)

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[mike777]

A but expect B to be most popular for all the usual arguments , pretty conservative here vul.

[jillybean]

WTP?

who voted for pass?

[pescetom]

For the many who did not vote D (waiting for mycroft), with what hand if any would you bid that way?

[smerriman]

 pescetom, on 2024-December-08, 16:15, said:

For the many who did not vote D (waiting for mycroft), with what hand if any would you bid that way?

4 spades and longer clubs? May depend on whether an initial 2♣ was natural though.

[mike777]

 pescetom, on 2024-December-08, 16:15, said:

For the many who did not vote D (waiting for mycroft), with what hand if any would you bid that way?

I did try to vote for A and D but not an option. ��

[pescetom]

 mike777, on 2024-December-08, 16:22, said:

I did try to vote for A and D but not an option. ��

Not sure what you mean? A and D are alternatives.

[pescetom]

 smerriman, on 2024-December-08, 16:22, said:

4 spades and longer clubs? May depend on whether an initial 2♣ was natural though.

The initial 2♣ was alerted as 2+ cards, must be 5+ after the rebid.

[mike777]

 pescetom, on 2024-December-08, 16:43, said:

Not sure what you mean? A and D are alternatives.

Went with A, really considered D since pard is short...

Ideal hand for D on this auction?
shapely hand, short D, less than opening Hand
why? pard with long D may not balance over 2D in pass out seat, maybe....

Again this may just be intermediate level thinking here, but it just seems the hand with short with D should act...even in pre-balance seat, all the more so since I know the field is bidding one spade vul here and I am not...edit

two competing ideas, get in and out fast and early, have an opening hand vul very often to overcall....

[smerriman]

 pescetom, on 2024-December-08, 16:47, said:

The initial 2♣ was alerted as 2+ cards, must be 5+ after the rebid.

Agreed. But having denied a 1♠ overcall, to want to compete now, I must have 4 spades, short diamonds, and not enough hearts to double.. so long clubs is all that's left, hoping to (over)ruff our clubs in dummy. Whether I'd ever actually bid it, I'm not sure.

[mycroft]

I very much like "they have a fit, we have a fit" at matchpoints. 2♠ in that auction means I didn't want to double and I didn't have the hand to overcall 1♠ the first time. Yeah - 4=2=2=5, something like that? Or a really ratty 5-card suit - Txxxx? I think, even with competitive hand with not enough strength to overcall, I might give up on 2♦.

Oh there's one more hand, I guess; "I want a spade lead into 3NT, but not enough to overcall before." AQT7 and a card or something?

But, "balance in direct seat" and all that, it's still safer to bid at the 1 level than "balance" at the 2 level, so that's what I'll stretch to do.

[steve2005]

C and D are non-starters
C - bad time to preempt, vul only a 5 card suit, 2 outside honours, all strikes against preempting.
D - you wern't good enough to make a very safe 1♠ overcall you are going to stick your neck out vulnerable when your partner has passed and they are playing in your second best suit, very unsafe to overcall

[Tramticket]

A more interesting question would be how much worse would the spade quality be for you not to want to overcall 1♠ over a 1♣ opening with a nine count and five spades? ♠K10432 would be acceptable for me, but ♠K5432 would not.

Passing then choosing to compete at the second turn makes no sense. We know that the king of diamonds is duplicated opposite partner's singleton/void, so we have six working points. If 2♦ is passed round to partner they will be in a good position to compete if that is correct since partner is the one short in diamonds.

[helene_t]

Tramticket, on 2024-December-09, 02:52, said:

A more interesting question would be how much worse would the spade quality be for you not to want to overcall 1♠ over a 1♣ opening with a nine count and five spades? ♠K10432 would be acceptable for me, but ♠K5432 would not.

This is roughly how I play with Shogi.

With David we are a bit more aggresive, I would say that K5432 and JT432 are OK but J5432 not.

[pescetom]

Thanks all for the thoughtful replies. The consensus on A is near total, as I expected.

What actually happened is D. In South I held spades Axx, so I tentatively excluded the most obvious explanation of lead directing.

EW are a long term steady pair playing a homebrew 4cM strong club system. They are scrupulously honest and good in disclosure of mainstream things, but they don't provide detail about overcall requirements. They are fairly conservative and I could imagine East passing with a hand like the one indicated (vulnerable, well below opening strength, two losers in suit and defensive values outside) but not backing into the auction at 2 level (even if spades).

Yes the 2D bid is an eye opener to him because it marks his partner with at most one diamond. So she may well be sitting on clubs that deter balancing, but also a good spades fit in a weaker hand. With hindsight that may well be his reasoning. Or just "they have a fit, we have a fit (and in the boss suit too)", as mycroft suggests.

I held clubs Kx as well as the pointy Aces and so things were looking quite promising except for the overcall. So I bid 2NT (which would have been forcing without the overcall, 3C being a weak signoff).

Now West bid 3S and North (in tempo) 3NT, all passed. West led S6 and North laid down three hearts AJxx, four diamonds QJTx and six clubs AJ9xxx