Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Interesting hand from the Buffett Cup


This hand from the first segment of the Buffett Cup, played this morning, interested me. This auction was repeated several times, and, of course, all declarers made at least six. The West hand, in my opinion, is way too good for a 4S call here.

Why preempt when you have such an immense hand?

Why preempt when you have spades?

Couldn't you have a hand more like AQxxxxx x x Qxxx?

Does the board-a-match scoring affect your thinking on this hand?

Several excellent players made this decision, so I may well be in the wrong here. Would you bid 4S on this? Why?

4 comments:

Noble said...

I'd bid 3s on your example hand since it has no spots. Fill in the hand a little (AQ109xxx x x Q109x) and I'll bid 4s I guess.

Kevin said...

with West's 4-loser hand, I'm not going to shut my unpassed pard out of the auction.

How to proceed? 1S might work. Do I paint a better picture with 2H Michaels ("Sorry, Pard, a small Spade showed up in my clubs.")? On the E-W cards alone, 6S is less than 50%, while 6C is a safer contract.

Noble said...

I guess my comment about 4s is that hindsight is 20-20. I'm sure there are plenty of good players who use a mixed strategy for this 4s bid.

Memphis MOJO said...

I don't think it's a good idea to bid 4H or 4S in 1st or 2nd seat with an opening hand. the fact that they opened 1H doesn't change that.

I discussed the hand with two other players and they both doubled. I asked what if it went all pass and they didn't really give me a good answer.

1S is a possiblility, but I suppose it is possible to go all pass on some constructions.

I admit I'm a 1S bidder. If I'm able to bid 4S at my next turn, at least pard will play me for this type of hand.