Your Call?--Updated

Red on white you hold in 1st seat: x x AK98x AQxxxx. You open?

I chose 1 Diamond...this hand is plenty for a reverse if you could be guaranteed a fit, but life is not always great with hands like these, and until you get some good news from partner, my experience tells me to start cautiously. The auction did not develop particularly well for me. LHO overcalled 1 Heart, partner bid 1 Spade and RHO jumped to 4 Hearts. You have your 10 seconds, but must act then or you could put your partner in a tight position at his next turn...what's your call?

Thanks guys...no traps on this one, Mojo--it looks relatively obvious to bid 5 Clubs, and in retrospect I agree with that bid. I was about to do it at the table but in my 10 seconds of waiting after the skip bid I talked myself out of it. Bidding can certainly be wrong...often you will turn a plus position into a minus one and it would be nice to hear some input from partner--his range of hands is enormous at this point. Also sometimes even if you can make, partner will correct, blissfully unaware that clubs is your 6-bagger. One problem with the pass comes when partner does show signs of life with a double. Now you got the input you wanted but it's back to you and can you really bid just 5 Clubs now? Wouldn't you do that with xx x AQJxx KJTxx? You've endplayed yourself into a guess--my guess might have been 6 clubs but if the hand is good enough to bid a slam when partner reopens with a double, it should be good enough to bid 5 Clubs now. Also if you've made up your mind that you are never passing a double (and with 6-5, who really would?), there is no way you are going to get them on this auction if they are stepping way out of line. So you are drawing a bit thin with a pass...you can play 4 hearts undoubled, possibly 5 diamonds, or a slam (if that is your choice over partner's double). And that's without considering what you may do if partner bids 4 spades. I hadn't seen this situation before and certainly wasn't capable of all of this analysis within 10 seconds--actually i only got as far as the point about partner correcting to diamonds when it was wrong. So I made the 2nd best bid, pass. Fortunately it was in tempo and my partner brought a smile back to my face by reopening not with a double, but with an aggressive 6 diamonds. His hand was AKxxx Axx QT9x x. The play was as easy as it looks...I made 12 tricks for a major swing against 5 diamonds at the other table. One possible moral--in some of these tough situations, if you don't know exactly what to do, at least do it in tempo!

Gambling at the 4-Level--Updated

I'm not sure what my fascination is with high-level bidding decisions. I guess part of it could be an overall love for excitement, gambling, and adventure, which all play their parts when your bidding space is sparse. I just got back from Lake Geneva--it was a fun weekend and generally successful tournament. I got some solid practice time in with my partners for the upcoming NABC in San Diego. Hopefully this will be the first of a few posts about the tournament.

I'll do this one in the form of a poll...what do you like on this auction?
Love all-
xx
QTxxxx
x
AQxx


Ax
AKxx
xx
KT9xx

The above hands are North and South respectively. West opens 4 Diamonds (natural) in front of the North hand. The scoring is IMPs and here are your options for entering the auction (I'll let you know my own opinions later, which could certainly change...actually i don't think any of these choices are insane, so please don't feel bashful about stating your opinion!)
a) North should overcall 4 Hearts.
b) If North passes, South should balance with 4 Hearts
c) If North passes, South should balance with a double
d) Everyone should pass--the preempt worked this time
Let me know what you think...if you choose a, let me know if you would also agree with b or c! This is fun. I must be sick :).

Thanks for the comments. Situations like this don't pop up all that often, but my general experience has told me that it's right on hands like these to bid aggressively with distribution. That is why, though most of you seem to shudder at the thought of overcalling with the north cards in this example, I personally don't think overcalling is that bad. In fact, throw in the jack of hearts and jack of clubs and I would call the hand a sound minimum 4 heart overcall. The reason I think bidding with distribution is important is that often your partner will have some kind of decent balanced hand, perhaps with 3 of the enemy suit and have no safe-looking action available. Picture Axx Axx Axx Kxxx. I would feel very nervous bidding over a 4 level preempt with this, even in balancing seat...opposite the north hand with the two jacks thrown in, you will be odds on to make 6 hearts, and opposite the actual north hand 4 hearts would be a very resonable contract. The consequence of this line of thinking is that as partner of the overcaller in this type of situation you have to give a lot of leeway. It's a little bit analagous to responding to a 3rd seat opening...be careful not to hang your partner for acting aggressively. If a slam is there, you know that the other table may well face the same difficulty and guesses in the bidding. Indeed on this hand getting to game would have been plenty. At my table I help the 2-4-2-5 hand and faced the auction 4d-p-4s-?. I should probably have doubled, but I passed...we set it 3 for what looked like a horrible result. We gained 3 imps when the auction was 4d-p-p-p at the other table.

Rebid Problem/Possible Solution--Updated

You hold:
AKQJ9
ATxxx
K
xx

You open 1 Spade, partner responds 1NT and you bid?

Well, I bid 2 Hearts as well and we did miss a cold game this time. Partner had: x xx AQJTx J9xxx. One of the biggest problems I've had with standard bidding is this exact situation--opener's simple rebid in a new suit has a very wide range. One possible solution is the Gazzilli convention. Stacy Jacobs has a nice write up on her blog here:http://stacyjacobs.com/system-notes/major-suit-openings/. Basically a 2 Club rebid on this auction could be arificial, encompassing your jumpshift hands but also the problem-range hands. It starts around a good 16 points and responder's 2 Diamonds is a relay, game-forcing if opener has 16+. Our auction on the given hand would go-1S-1NT-2C*-2D**-3H***-3NT
*-Gazzilli--either semi-natural or 16+
**-8+ points any (gameforcing opposite 16+)
***-16+, 5-5 majors

Too Strong?

I kibitzed this hand during the Bermuda Bowl round robin USA2 vs Norway match--dealer held:
Q9x
KQJxx
AQ
KTx

How good is this holding and what's your approach?

Close One?

Vul vs not you hold:
A
Kxxxx
AJx
KQxx
You open 1 Heart in 3rd seat and LHO leaps to 4 Spades, passed back to you. Do you act?

Part 3--Updated

This was my favorite hand of the tournament--it is a great hand on a lot of different levels.
Vul vs not you hold:
Axx
ATx
KJxx
AKx
As you sit counting your points, RHO opens 1 Spade in front of you. You double, LHO passes and partner bids 2 Clubs. RHO rebids 2 Spades and it is your call. A case can be made for 2NT, but I think another double is a standout, and that is what you do :). LHO passes again and partner bids 3 Clubs. This is passed to LHO who looks anguished and eventually bids 3 Spades, which becomes the final contract. This is a multiple-part problem--first, though, what is your opening lead?


I felt like I had some table feel on this one...my LHO had passed all too happily over each of the doubles, but when 3 Clubs was passed back to him, he looked like he had a real problem. I had a strong hunch that he had an awkward hand with modest spade support and club shortness, so I decided to lead a trump. I thought about a small one like some of you suggested, but ended up leading the ace, prepared with apologies if my partner had the stiff king. I knew that I had struck gold when this dummy hit:
32
Kxxxx
Axxxxx
void
I wasn't hard-pressed to get another trump on the table--my partner followed suit both times. Declarer drew the last trump, my partner throwing the six of clubs. Then he led the jack of hearts. Consider what you'd do now.


I won the ace of hearts (partner played small) and cashed the king of clubs, my partner following with the jack and declarer with the deuce. Now I tried to imagine declarer's distribution. It seemed consistent with everything that had happened for declarer to have 6-2-1-4 shape and if that was the case, I could beat the contract for sure by playing back the king of diamonds. After one final re-count, I decided this was definitely the best move, and gave it a shot, hoping for down 1, but really hoping to see declarer's stiff queen fall on this trick. I got one out of two--partner followed with the ten and declarer with his small singleton. When the dust settled the contract was down 1 and I felt like Garozzo, even if only for a few moments :). Declarer's hand: KQJTxx QJ x Qxxx

So, on this one--if you led the ace of trump and shifted to diamonds after winning the first heart, you get +50 and 90%. Sorry--I know how unlikely that is, but I have to trumpet an occasional success story. Any other defense is -140 but you still get an above average score because many bought the contract your way in notrump and went down multiple tricks.

Part 2--Updated

At game all you hold:
KQJ2
875
QJx
xxx
The auction begins with a pass on your right, you pass, and LHO opens 2NT (20-21). RHO transfers to spades and bids 3NT, which becomes the final contract. Your parner leads the queen of hearts and this is what you see:
98754
9
T9x
KJxx
------KQJ2
------875
------QJx
------xxx
Declarer wins the lead with the ace and thinks for about 2 minutes. Hopefully you were thinking too, because next declarer plays the ace of diamonds and a small one. You are in with the jack--what do you return?

Thanks for the comments, guys. Perhaps thg is right about this being a suit-preference situation, but it may be a little obscure, especially in a new partnership or one that doesn't play regularly. Absent that agreement, we are left to our own devices to figure the hand out, and I think Weinstein hit the nail on the head. Assuming partner's hearts are Q-J-Ten, a low spade return is only wrong when declarer has both the ace and ten of spades. So, in my best Kelsey impersonation, if you returned a low spade, you achieve a satisfying down one and 90% of the matchpoints. If you did anything else, you are -600 for a 30% board. At the table I got this one right though I admit that I didn't have all of the reasons worked out. It took me a long time to find the play, so it was nice when the hand was over 2 seconds after :).

Declarer's hand: Tx AKxx AKxx AQ9