Sometimes You're a Max, and That's Okay

Whenever I hold borderline hands, I always feel like no matter how I bid, it's wrong. You know the ones -- too strong for this, too light for that, not shapely enough for the next alternative...

Here's one I held yesterday in second seat, all hot:

KT4 A AJ52 KQT74

At first glance, this is a really pretty hand... Until it's time to bid the thing, and it gives you a headache. I felt that opening 1D and rebidding 2C over any of partner's 1-level actions would show a worse hand than I actually held. But starting with 1C and planning to reverse might not work so well if pard responds with 1H -- now my hand's not really pretty enough for a reverse -- is it worth 2N now? No, I don't have any transportation. And 1N shows at best a bad 14 count.

I figured that given the likelihood of a 1H response from pard, I couldn't start with 1C, and I started with 1D, bidding 2C over partner's 1S, but feeling really bad about it. I was heartened when he kept the bidding alive with 2N, and happily pulled to 3N, though in retrospect I think this would have been the perfect opportunity to show my third spade -- I was just so glad we were going to get to game that I steamrolled right past my best call. McKenzie scored 10 hard-earned tricks for a 7 on an 8-top, though 4S comes in much more smoothly, and one pair found an 11th trick in the contract. Oh well -- live and learn.

After the hand, I lamented that surely there must be a better way to bid this moose.

"What's wrong with the way you bid it?"

"I never got to show you my real strength. I hated that 2C was non-forcing."

"Would you have hated it so much if I'd held Qxxx of spades and a few stray jacks?"

Point taken. I never denied holding as many as 17HCP, after all, and as my good friend Chris likes to remind me, "Your partner has heard about the game bonus." If there's a chance it's there, he'll keep the bidding alive. And sometimes it's right to stop in a part score, even when you are in love with your hand.

As a sequel, McKenzie will be writing up a request about valuing and overvaluing your distributional hands. Keep an eye out...