[bd71]

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IMPs

[whereagles]

3... of a perfect pair.

[bigbenvic]

Call me crazy (cos I am) but I want to punt 3nt here. The Ajx should be 2 stoppers, and 9 tricks is easier than 10.

[StAnne]

Without 10 points I won't bid game over a pre empt

[the hog]

3S for me.

[whereagles]

Just a note: this hand is about what pard expects on average and the club length may hint that pard streched to double 3C.

[JLOGIC]

4S obv

[Codo]

whereagles, on 2012-February-03, 04:42, said:

Just a note: this hand is about what pard expects on average and the club length may hint that pard streched to double 3C.

As doubler I would expect some random 7 or 8 HCPS and hopefully four cards in a major.
I have 5 spades and 6 working points, which is better then what partner expects.

[gnasher]

I'd bid only 3♠. Partner will play me for about a working 7-count, and I don't think I have more than that. The extra spade is good, but the spots are bad, and the club honours aren't very useful.

Everyone would double 3♣ with KQx AKxx Kxxxx x, where game is pretty poor. If we knew we were facing four spades we could expect game to be a lot better, but partner often raise when he has four spades and a singleton club.

[Zelandakh]

gnasher, on 2012-February-03, 08:31, said:

If we knew we were facing four spades we could expect game to be a lot better, but partner often raise when he has four spades and a singleton club.

Indeed the hand opposite might have only 2 spades (see the companion thread...)

[ArtK78]

I have to admit that I would only bid 3♠.

I am a little surprised at Justin's comment that this is an obvious 4♠ call. I don't doubt that 4♠ is a reasonable call, and it is tempting. But I wouldn't go so far as to say it is obvious.

[HighLow21]

Codo, on 2012-February-03, 07:57, said:

As doubler I would expect some random 7 or 8 HCPS and hopefully four cards in a major.
I have 5 spades and 6 working points, which is better then what partner expects.

I disagree entirely. Aces are always good but to paraphrase Orwell, "some Aces are more equal than others." The A♣ is the least valuable ace you can have in a suit contract because it cannot possibly contribute to the establishment of length tricks in any suit. Any other Ace would have that potential.

• You have 7 HCP, slightly below the standard expectation of 8, and 5 of them are in the opener's suit. Contrast with ♠AJxxx ♥Qxx ♦xx ♣xxx.
  
• If partner is void in clubs, you only have 2 working points.
  
• You have 5-3-3-2, one of the 3 worst shapes you can have. (OK 4 if you side with Reese on the idea of 4-4-4-1 being not good for offense.)
  
• Your long suit is emaciated.
  
• Your partnership's finesses will be into the hand most likely to hold the missing honors, unless we're talking specifically about Axx(x)♥ and playing RHO for the K♥.
  
• Your spot cards basically stink.
  
• You have every reason to expect bad breaks and your hand won't handle them well.

I agree that 4♠ is possible, but it usually won't be there unless partner can raise me, and sometimes he WILL raise me to game and I won't make it anyway.

The fact that the opponents preempted does NOT make your hand any stronger than it actually is. You have no unexpected assets. Your hand will not be unexpectedly pleasant to partner however he bids over 3♠.

Expect 3♠ to fail sometimes; expect partner to raise you to 4♠ often and for it to fail about half of the time that he raises you.

[wank]

i'm with justin. we're a passed hand. a good 6 count with a 5 card major is about as good as most random 9s or 10s so we're pretty much maximum for our opening pass.

[pooltuna]

ArtK78, on 2012-February-03, 09:51, said:

I have to admit that I would only bid 3♠.

I am a little surprised at Justin's comment that this is an obvious 4♠ call. I don't doubt that 4♠ is a reasonable call, and it is tempting. But I wouldn't go so far as to say it is obvious.

Looks like you need that Meckwell Back Brace worse than I originally thought

[S2000magic]

3♠. A good rule of thumb over preempts is to discount your first two tricks (or 6 - 8 points), assuming that partner's already bid those values. After deducting the average of 7 points I have nothing but a crummy 5-card spade suit.