This hand caused me a problem at the regional in Lake Geneva. Playing IMPs I held
Tx
KJx
AQJxx
Qxx
I opened 1 Diamond, my partner responded 1 Spade and I rebid 1 Notrump. Now my partner bid 2 Diamonds showing some game-forcing hand. This is a nice convention because it allows you to pass information back and forth at a conveniently low level to decide on a strain for your game, or perhaps to investigate slam. Still, you can't be lazy with your bids here. This is apparently a very simple situation, but what do you bid at your 3rd turn?
I didn't think much about this one beyond the fact that I held 5 diamonds to the ace-queen-jack and hadn't shown them yet. So 3 Diamonds it was. I failed to imagine my partner's possible problem on this auction...over 3 Diamonds, his 3 Heart bid looks natural here and 3 Spades is definitely natural, so space is suddenly at a premium. Forced into a guess, my partner reasonably went with 5 Diamonds holding Qxxx x Kxxx AKJx. This was a silly contract, down off the top with 3 Notrump cold on most layouts and difficult to defend on the layouts where it is beatable. What was the problem?
On the theory of game before slam, my hand looks very well-suited to notrump play. I have slow honors in both of the unbid suits and really don't want to play diamonds unless my partner suggests it (and insists on it over my 3 Heart continuation). I now believe that I should have continued with 2 Notrump over 2 Diamonds--the auction is still low enough that we can reach diamonds if that is where the hand belongs. I thought this was an interesting problem because it is so easy to get lazy during these auctions--even when it looks like you have plenty of space, you have to imagine partner's problems and make sure you are making the most descriptive, economical bid.
Captions only
4 years ago
4 comments:
Yes, when you gave me this hand I said 3D but I agree with 2nt now.
If you open 1C with any balanced hands and 1D with more distributional hands, rebidding 2N is normal and partner expects 5 diamonds. I don't want to sound like Nik but 1C short is a really good approach. May be it's time to convince Joe to play it.
On this deal, you got to a crummy contract, too bad. You have a system and you stuck to it.
I see 2NT, I see how it can work, I don't like it.
On other layouts, partner may need to know about your fifth diamond (picture Kxx of diamonds and a stiff heart and a good hand -- or other constructions). I'm not sure you should go changing how you bid because of one bad result.
Switch your hand to:
10x, Qxx, AQJxx, KJx.
Would you rebid 2NT or 3D? If you bid 2NT, what is your partner supposed to do with:
Axxx, x, Kxxx, AQxx
I suppose he would bid 3D, now what?
I've heard about an old-timer who often says: Sometimes a hand is destined to end up in the trash can. Maybe this is one of them.
GL in the team trials.
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