What should I bid? - Best enquiry for March 2012
The best submission for March came from Pele Rankin.
Hand: I am South, Dealer - West, Vul N/S
| Bidding:
|
West
|
North
|
East |
South |
|
1
|
Pass |
2 |
2
|
|
2 |
3 |
3 |
Pass |
|
3 |
4 |
4 |
Pass |
|
Pass |
Dbl |
Pass |
? |
Comments: Should I pull this double? We
play intermediate jump overcalls (when vul) therefore my 2 passes suggest I am
a weak 6 card suit. We open good 11s. Red against Green, I thought I'd bid my
hand and 5 would surely get doubled; but I also think 4X is going to make. Awkward moment :)
Andy's Reply:
Hi Pele!
I am assuming partner's 3 was understood as a good diamond raise. I'm not quite sure
what you mean by "...therefore my 2 passes suggest I am a weak 6 card suit" -
partner's 3 bid was only suggesting a good raise and by no means are you
forced to take an action over 3 or 4 (even when partner took another bid of 4).
One thing you have to look at in this type of situation is that - when
interfering the opponent's auction when they have opened and made a 2-over-1
response, is that the "normal overcall philosophy" has changed. The reason for
that is because the opponents have announced the majority of the deck (and even
more so if the 2 over 1 was GF). Weak jump overcalls still exist of course (say
you had bid 3 or 3 over 2) but sometimes they do not resemble a "pure pre-emptive hand"
because when the opponents have announced strength you sometimes take a
different strategy to "preempt" with an average hand in order to put pressure
onto their auction. A typical 3 bid over 2 may be made with as little as x xxx AKJTxxx xx or maybe as
strong as x Ax AQJTxxx xxx - your intention isn't to separate the "weak" hands
from the "intermediate" hands, but to disrupt the opponent's auction given that
you most likely do not have a game on. You may have other intentions too for
interfering such as finding a good sacrifice or simply a "noise bid" to direct
a lead. For example, if I was favourable I would bid 2 on xx Qxxx KQxxxx x because not only does it direct the lead
but you would not mind if partner sacrifices with 5 (obviously the vulnerability takes into a huge account whether
you should come into the auction at all or not).
As for the auction you provided I would definitely pass. I'm very happy to have
made a noise with the 2 as partner now knows what to lead and also, the opponent's
didn't have a very convincing auction to 4 (partner could easily have 2 trump tricks along with a side
Ace). Having said that it's certainly not the time to be pulling partner's
penalty double - we've got our bid and we should respect partner's decision. If
this is IMPs it won't be the end of the world if it makes - it's only 5 IMPs,
but 5X looks to be a minimum of 2 off.
Hope that helps :)
Andy
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