[MrAce]

On this board Antonio Sementa thought, rightly or wrongly, that his pass was forcing, a good gift to our team from opponents. (West : Gnasher East:Han North :Sementa South:JEC) This is open room

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In closed room auction was a little different ( North : MGoetze South:Gszes )

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A missed slam or grandslam but we came on top in the exchange, open room NS misunderstanding costed them 10 imps.


Any comments about Sementa's forcing pass ? Looks like a good ATB hand for both tables.

[mgoetze]

I thought I showed a pretty good hand by bidding a new suit before supporting partner but I admit that looking at just the South hand it seems like a lot of cover cards are needed.

[han]

 mgoetze, on 2012-April-16, 00:57, said:

I thought I showed a pretty good hand by bidding a new suit before supporting partner

Why would this show a good hand? What if you just had a x xxx AKJxxx xxx, would you bid differently?

[han]

Before you misinterpret me, it's not clear to me that either of our teammates should have bid differently at any stage.

[mgoetze]

 han, on 2012-April-16, 01:41, said:

Why would this show a good hand? What if you just had a x xxx AKJxxx xxx, would you bid differently?

Well good is relative, I mean the hand I held is not really that much better than the one you gave is it?

Of course it would be very nice to have an agreement that one of these hands is a 3♦ bid and the other is a 4♦ bid, but we had nothing of the sort of course.

[han]

OK, I just don't think that bidding diamonds first sounds any stronger than supporting clubs initially. I think it merely shows diamonds.

Of course, assuming that 2D was multi, you didn't have a convenient club raise anyway.

[Fluffy]

south is at fault for not doubling 3♠

[Phil]

1. Very nice 5♠ by Andy. I think its a very good question is a FP is on. I think it should be over a weird bid at r/w like 5♠. Over a 4♠ call, I'm not so sure. If its on, JEC has 5N call I think. I doubt they would get to the grand in any case, but they would at least collect their 500 (mildly interesting play) against 6♠.

2. Its hard to judge these multi auctions, and I would estimate that the Serbs wouldn't let you play 6♣ anyway. Maybe not even 7♣. It is clear to me that the confusion that multi causes offsets a lot of the preemptive value of a natural preempt. Sometimes more, sometimes less. Furthermore, the lack of a cuebid also makes things tricky - how are these auctions coped with? What if West passed and I have a big raise of clubs?

I think Michael should have made a FP over 4♠. 5♣ doesn't seem to do justice to the hand. Gszes seemed to make a conservative pass over 5♣ too - you are very likely getting a spade lead, which gives you time to set up diamonds on other layouts. And, at these colors you are frequently getting a 6♠ phantom.

[hrothgar]

I found this hand amusing.

When I saw Andy's hand, my immediate thought was to try a penalty double and see how things developed

[gszes]

OPEN ROOM
While I would x over 3s the 4c bid vul/nvul
is more than reasonable. The question of forcing
pass at IMPS (where doubling the opps in a making
contract is not so gross) is at what level does
it begin.

IMO anytime your side contracts for a 4 level
or higher contract at this vul-FP should be in
effect. That measn south should be able to
compete to 6c with the spade void and p showing
a willingness to compete. I would not be concerned
about 7 since 6 might easily go down on something
as simple as the dia A lead and a dia ruff.

CLOSED

I realize I am defending myself (sigh) but here goes.
2d (major preempt) 3c x (asking for major) I am not
clear at all why 3d--is the dia suit supposed to be
better than S vul/nvul 3c bid?? I would xx to show club
support. Now having bid 3d E bids 3s and S bids 4h
w/o having a hint that p has club support. Not only did
N not pass (FP) over 4s the bid was 5c. This bid should
have a reasonable shot at making given the vulerability
but it can be a much more tepid hand.

x
xx
KQJTxxx
xxx

starting with xx vs 3d changes the entire picture of the hand
from S point of view and slam should be easy to reach (though
a grand reasonably not).