My hand: ♠ 7 ♥ Q J 5 4 ♦ Q 3 ♣ A K Q 9 5 3
I open 1 club, West passed and partner responds 1 spade which gets alerted. Likely because we bypass diamonds to bid a major, I will have to find out after the hand. I bid 2 clubs. Partner jumps to 5 clubs. Part of me wants to keep bidding (his clubs suck so he probably has my losers covered, right?) but I pass. West leads the A of hearts.
North ♠ A J 4 3 ♥ 3 2 ♦ A K J 5 ♣ J 8 6 | ||
West ♥ A | ||
| SOUTH ♠ 7 ♥ Q J 5 4 ♦ Q 3 ♣ A K Q 9 5 3 |
| West | North | East | South |
| 1♣ | |||
| Pass | 1♠1 | Pass | 2♣ |
| Pass | 5♣ | All Pass | |
| 1Walsh | |||
Well, it sure looks like I have 6 clubs, a spade, and 4 diamonds. They have 2 hearts off the top. They cash one of them and then switch to a trump. I draw trump and play A and ruff a spade in case I can catch someone with KQ or KQx to set up my J. I don't, so I lose the second heart. Making 5.
| NORTH ♠ A J 4 3 ♥ 3 2 ♦ A K J 5 ♣ J 8 6 | ||
| WEST ♠ 9 5 2 ♥ A K T 7 ♦ T 8 6 ♣ T 4 2 | EAST ♠ K Q T 8 6 ♥ 9 8 6 ♦ 9 7 4 2 ♣ 7 | |
| SOUTH ♠ 7 ♥ Q J 5 4 ♦ Q 3 ♣ A K Q 9 5 3 |
Professor Jack complains about my 2 club bid. He thinks I should have bid 2 hearts because we haven't ruled hearts out as trump yet. This hand doesn't feel like a reverse to me, and I think we have ruled hearts out as trump unless partner can bid them over 2 clubs. The alert for his 1 spade bid was Walsh, showing 6+ points, 4 spades and fewer than 4 hearts or showing 6+ points, 5+ spades, and hearts shorter or as long as spades. So, he could be 5-4 or better, but then I don't think he's going to sell out to 2 clubs. Or if he is, because his hand sucks, I'm happy playing in our 6-1 trump fit with my good suit.
On the replay the auction goes off the rails. It starts 1 club - pass - 1 diamond. They're not playing Walsh so they don't bypass the 4 card diamond suit. This lets East get in with 1 spade. South does reverse and bids 2 hearts. West bids 2 spades, alerted as preemptive. (He took away exactly 1 bid and opened up double as an option so I don't know how 'preemptive' that was.) North jumps to 4NT, alerted as ace asking for no trump. South bids 5 diamonds to show an ace and West doubles for penalty. North bids 6 clubs and West again doubles for penalty.
West leads a low spade to start. Declarer wins on board, draws 3 rounds of trump, and plays a heart. West wins his K and switches to diamonds. West is doing everything he can to avoid cashing the setting trick except pitch his A of hearts. Eventually he is forced to take it. Down 1.
Nick: 400
Jack: -100
IMPs: 11 (3 total)
13 comments:
I don't particularly like looking for 6C. He needs 4/5 honors in non-clubs, with maybe a little room for error for pitches (but not much!) With that kind of strength, he probably should take action, even over 2C.
Of course, part of the difficulty is his bid is conventional... so I don't know if 2H is actually a reverse... it could be signing off in either 3C or 2H, or really, whatever. Who knows when its a convention you don't know :P
I just can't agree with the computer's bidding. Over 1S, where's the double to show your 4H? Or pass if you think your hand has devalued (I value it more!).
I'm glad to see you make up the IMPs from that last hand, where I felt like Jack's bidding was a little bizarre. Though I guess if he leaves you in 3N it goes a lot worse.
So I've done some reading on Walsh and it turns out it's actually really hard to get information on conventions from the internet. I can find out what the individual bids mean but not really what continuations would mean.
From what I can gather, my continuations after 1C-1S are pretty much unaffected. The only reason 1S is alerted is that we could be suppressing partner's diamond suit when he has a bad hand. So he either has a normal 1S bid in a normal system or he has a longish diamond suit but a bad (9-) hand. In a normal bidding system, 1C-1S-2H should show a much better hand than what I have, I think, and I really don't want to reverse if he has a bad hand with diamonds, so I think bidding hearts is dangerous. Partner can still bid hearts over my clubs if he has both majors.
Of course, at the other table they _did_ reverse on a normal auction. And ended up in a terrible slam. Give South an extra K to have a real reverse and things get a lot closer...
I tried to look some stuff up, but it was also a bit vague. From what I can tell though, 1S shows a limited hand (which he can upgrade) and is semi-forcing. What would be wrong with bidding 1N? Can't he bid 2D as some sort of check-back staymen then?
1NT is definitely an option, and if my club suit was worse I would have done just that. I think AKQ-6th is good enough to bid instead of 1NT though as it hammers home my best feature and may be our only way to score positive on the hand.
Take away a club or spread out my points and I definitely go for 1NT.
If 2D is a check-back stayman, I think you should give him the option. From what I could tell, 1x-1N-2C is a way of showing support (but not 5 card support) for clubs as well. It also allows you to right-side the contract (in hearts).
True, but I don't need him to support clubs. Even if he has a singleton our best spot may well be 2C. A doubleton for sure makes 2C the place to be. Consider if he has:
AKxx
xx
xxxxx
xx
I'm probably going down in 1NT but can make 2C.
The advantage to bidding 1NT is that we can play in a 4-4 heart fit when he has a bad 5-4 hand. The advantage to bidding 2C is we can play clubs when he has a bad hand without a club void. When he has a decent hand he's going to bid on anyway. And sometimes the opponents will get around to bidding and partner will need to lead and then bidding clubs twice pounds home what I want him to lead.
On the hand as it was he likely just raises 1NT to 3NT and I take the same 11 tricks so I gain 60 points which would be a big deal if the opponents hadn't gone down in a slam. So it would have worked out better here... I just think it works out better more often when I bid 2C.
If he has a weak hand, why do you prefer to play in clubs? Your hand is very likely worth 6 tricks in either NT or clubs, but NT is more valuable.
One of the values of this system (as I understand it) is it hides the strong hand in 1NT. I don't think this hand is the right hand for 2C simply because I think it has too much strength in NT.
It's that I have no reliable outside entries. Maybe I get in with a heart, maybe I don't. If partner doesn't have multiple diamond/spade stoppers they're going to take 7 tricks before I do if clubs don't break. And if they don't break I go down less in clubs than in no trump. (And sometimes still make clubs.)
Also, the value is in right-siding 1NT, but it does so on the auction 1C-1D-1NT. Because responder's 1D denies a 4-card major or promises a good hand opener can freely bid 1NT even with a 4 card major of his own. Responder will bid his 4-card major over 1NT if he has a good hand or pass if he has a bad one knowing you didn't miss a major fit. (Opener will still bid a major with a distributional hand, so responder doesn't need to worry about missing a 5-3 fit.)
You say you have no reliable outside entries, but if your partner has 2 clubs, he can duck one round to virtually guarantee 5 club tricks (not on a 5-0 break). So in the situation where he passes, what can his hand be?
If he has 6 spades, he can rebid them (his 6-1 might well be better then your 6-1), and if he has 4 hearts, he can checkback staymen. So the danger hand is when he has at most 5 spades, 3 hearts, 1 club which still gives him 4 diamonds, of which you are supporting by having the Qx.
Yes, if he has two clubs AND two entries before they take 7 tricks then you can set up your clubs. But you won't know if you need to or not until you have to commit.
You say when he has 4 hearts he can checkback stayman, but will he do that with a terrible minimum? What happens when I don't have a hidden 4 card suit if he does? If so I think we get into a lot of trouble on a lot of hands and I'm not sure what we gain.
You may be right at matchpoints where the extra 20 points for playing in notrumps may make all the difference (assuming we make both 2NT and 2C or both 2H and 2C) but at IMPs I think the best way to a plus score when he has any bad hand is to play in 2C. I'm risking 0 IMPs when 2H and 2C make exactly and 1 IMP when 2NT and 2C make exactly vs 4 IMPs when 2C makes and 1NT doesn't. That seems like a pretty good bet to me.
My math was terrible and I lose the IMP when 2H and 2C makes too.
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