[Winstonm]

rhm, on 2016-June-18, 02:01, said:

Tough hand
I abhor people raising with such rubbish.
In my experience this leads to over-competing much of the time and sometimes opponents will double you on power.
East will bid again with much less suitable hands and almost always incur a minus score
I also do not think 3♦ would be anything but natural. What else is West supposed to bid with 3♠-1♥-6♦-3♣ and a weak hand.
I would not blame anyone missing this game, but East might bid 4♥ since he needs very little for game.
It is not as risky as it sounds and it does not pay to assume partner is completely broke and it Looks like West meager values are outside of clubs.

Rainer Herrmann

I quite agree that this hand is rubbish and is not worth a call - if RHO passes. But once RHO has made a free 2/1 and LHO has shown an opening bid, the partner's I play with usually understand that there is not a lot of value left in the deck for me to hold so the only thing of value I can show is a fit.

If you can't make a simple raise to show a fit in a contested auction, the system is at fault IMO.

[rhm]

kenrexford, on 2016-June-18, 07:30, said:

Really? You are giving up any ability to make game tries in the majors to avoid the discomfort of choosing between two tolerable major contracts with a call into a suit that could be facing a void in a rare, unfortunate situation?

Really?
When the bidding starts

---

game tries are the least of my worries.
On frequency grounds alone competing effectively for the part-score is and the forms of scoring does not matter here.
If you are reserving important bids for game tries on this occasion you are getting your priorities wrong and it looks to me your judgement got compromised by the outcome of the actual deal.
Such an occurrence is likely to occur every second leap year.
North after all opened the bidding, South responded forcing at the two level.
East might raise 3♥ to game, based on his exceptional controls and distribution, but I said it is a tough deal for East-West.

Rainer Herrmann

[rhm]

Winstonm, on 2016-June-18, 22:09, said:

I quite agree that this hand is rubbish and is not worth a call - if RHO passes. But once RHO has made a free 2/1 and LHO has shown an opening bid, the partner's I play with usually understand that there is not a lot of value left in the deck for me to hold so the only thing of value I can show is a fit.

If you can't make a simple raise to show a fit in a contested auction, the system is at fault IMO.

Sure your high card points tend to limited, but your distributional potential values are not severely restricted by opponents bidding.
If I held ♠Kxxxx ♥Qxx ♦x ♣xxxx I would raise and I guess you would as well, but with 3334♣ ?
♠Kxxxx ♥Qxx ♦x ♣xxxx will play 1-2 tricks better than the actual West hand
How your partner will ever find out what you really got escapes me.

Rainer Herrmann

[aguahombre]

rhm, on 2016-June-18, 02:01, said:

I abhor people raising with such rubbish.
Rainer Herrmann

I am happily in the abhorrent camp.