[dokoko]

mikeh, on 2018-October-15, 14:50, said:

Well, it's tough to argue with you insofar as we both rebid 2H on the given hand.

However, I expect we differ somewhat in our expectation of partner's actions. You seem to imply that you expect a 3H bid to reach a lot of losing 3N contracts. Now, if I bid 3H on this hand, I'd tend to agree with you, but even then it would be close. Were I to have a holding where I think 3H would be correct....such as making the suit KJ109xx....and one of my handful of serious regular partners over the past 20 years (there have been only 4 such) were to bid 3N, I'd expect him to make far more than half the time. In contrast, were he to bid 4H, I would be far less optimistic, to the point that I'd expect there to be quite a few layouts where the contract had little, if any, play, but that I'd be making about half the games on average.

Why? Because, imo, responder should only bid 3N, as opposed to 4♥, with significant extras and, obviously some values in all side suits. Indeed, to bid 3N with a stiff heart requires considerable values, since one would tend to downgrade a stiff heart, and upgrade, for 3N as well as 4H, a doubleton heart, especially an honour. IOW, when it is close, and game is going to be bid, one should usually bid 4H even with a stiff rather than 3N.

I do know, from having defended a lot of dubious 3N contracts, that most players don't understand (or agree?) with this idea, but my experience has been that it is clearly best to raise if one is going to game, doesn't have extras, and has only a stiff heart. Not only does a thin 3N usually have at least one suit stopped at most one time, but a skilled declarer has more tools available, in the play, in a trump contract than in a notrump contract. In addition, a below strength 3N has a tendency to fail by more than a thin 4H.

I hope this explains, at least in part, why I value the heart 10 so highly I'm used to playing 6-1 fits here.

Very good point!

[Dumoti]

mikeh, on 2018-October-15, 13:05, said:

Is your bidding philosophy 'invite aggressively and accept conservatively' or 'invite conservatively, accept aggressively' or do you either not understand the difference or think that your style is 'down the middle'?

I strongly prefer 'invite heavy, accept light' and have elaborated on the reasons before. In essence, the two conflicting approaches generate the same number of bad results in terms of missing good games, but the invite heavy approach stays at the 2 level on hands where the invite light method plays at the 3-level, and on some of those boards a bad lie of the cards makes the 2-level a better spot. It is subtle, and so too are the differences.

Here, the opening hand is on the border between inviting via 3H and simply rebidding 2H. Given my style, it is clear to bid 2H, since I expect partner to raise 3H to game aggressively and this hand is just a tad too weak for my style.

How close is it? I would bid 3H if vulnerable. Note that I already expect partner to accept aggressively, so he should not be 'extra aggressive' because of the vulnerability. He simply looks at his hand and bids game if it is close, and passes 3H is it is clear to pass.

I would bid 3H not vulnerable if I had KJ109xx in hearts as opposed to KJ98xx.

Since you mentioned at https://www.bridgeba...post__p__960392 that you open pretty much any 11-point hand, presumably holding

♠xx
♥Kxxxxx
♦xx
♣AKJ

you would open 1♥ and later rebid, I suppose, 2♥ because, as you pointed out, "You are a bridge player."

Apparently, you would also bid the same way with the hand in question, which is fully an ace stronger. I can't help but wonder how partner knows what to do with your bids considering the range is so wide.

[dokoko]

Dumoti, on 2018-October-27, 06:45, said:

Since you mentioned at https://www.bridgeba...post__p__960392 that you open pretty much any 11-point hand, presumably holding

♠xx
♥Kxxxxx
♦xx
♣AKJ

you would open 1♥ and later rebid, I suppose, 2♥ because, as you pointed out, "You are a bridge player."

Apparently, you would also bid the same way with the hand in question, which is fully an ace stronger. I can't help but wonder how partner knows what to do with your bids considering the range is so wide.

I guess mikeh and his partner are good enough to be able to handle that (btw I claim that for me, too). If you think you can't you'd better open conservatively.

Bridge isn't played in a perfect world. It's all about doing things that work out well more often than not.

[phntmshark]

I like my fair share of offshape 1NT openers, but laughing at the people who suggest opening 1NT with a 6 card major and 2 doubletons, 1 of which is worthless and the other of which is the other major. Can almost guarantee you are getting transferred into the doubleton spade.

[nullve]

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