[gwnn]

Trinidad, on 2013-October-29, 07:39, said:

It may have been a pretty stupid pass from 3rd hand. But you should accept the presents that you are getting. Don't look a gift horse in the mouth.

If you have this hand in the pass out seat, you can expect that you are handed a present.

Rik

My point was different. I was basing my judgement on partner's actual hand. Normally I expect partner to be stronger than just A-A-K, so 1♠ will work better. But probably it will still work out fine on the actual hand too, since I don't think opps will bid to 4♥ if it starts 1♣-p-p-1♠. So +140 (or +620 if partner has a bit more) is probably much better than -70 or +50 or whatever.

If I have this hand in the pass-out seat, I do indeed feel like someone who got a present - I get to show my spade suit very cheaply (compare it to 1♣-p-1NT-?).

[Fluffy]

This position is a bit weird and its hard to say if pass or 1♠ is best.

But it is important to point to people on this forum the following:

2♠ shows at least opening strenght with a good suit
3♠ shows around 8.5 tricks
4♠ shows around the same as 3♠ but with extreme ODR

None of this bids is remotely possible with this hand.

[RSClyde]

Must be some pretty skewed distribution if we can't beat 4H on club ruffs. And how is 4♠ down only 1 on such a distribution? An inspired view in trumps I assume. I'm not saying that I can't conceive of the hand where 4H makes, but are we sure that this wasn't just misanalysed?

Anyway: why is it standard that balancing seat jumps are strong hands? I've never been convinced of this.
I agree with POS jumps when the alternative is passing out the hand. But POS and balancing seat aren't the same. If no one had bid and I held this hand (impossible) then I would say the hell with and throw it back. But the alternative is letting them play 1♣, so I may well want to take a call on a weak hand: maybe this specific hand is too weak for your liking but ad the spade Q and now no one wants to pass. Once we agree that bidding on weak hands with long suits isn't illogical, why reverse the meaning of jumping vs 1♠ and then 2♠?