Your Move!

[Masse24]

Prior to your first morning coffee, you sit for a couple of hands and see this:

KQ6 AJT73 AJT86 --

LHO is dealer and passes. Your partner OPENS 2 !

WoWWWW! This has possibilities!

Your RHO overcalls 3 . No worries, you have support for any suit partner bids. With this powerhouse, opposite a 2 opener just pass to show values (double would be a double negative) and see what develops. You pass (alerting it as "values"), and wait . . .

What will partner do?

Your partner trots out 4 .

WoWWWW! So far the auction has been:

(P) - 2 - (3 ) - P
(P) - 4 - ( P )  - ??

Do you use science? Jump? You're already at the 4-level . . .

Your call.

[kenberg]

I have had my morning coffee and then some but I am still not sure I can cope.

i start by asking why pard bids 4 . I guess he has clubs! If he had a decent (and given my hand it could not be all that great) suit other than clubs surely he would have bid that suit. So he has clubs. If he could have doubled 3 for penalties that might have been good, but surely X when 3 is passed back to him is for take-out.  So I assume he has clubs.  And something else, I hope. But it does not follow that he can run clubs without loss.

In weird situations, I try for natural. I think 4 should be fine.. If he has a heart fit he will be happy. If not, he will probably rebid 5 . Then 5 sounds right. He can then do as he thinks best.

Maybe this is pessimistic, but with a void in partner's suit a little pessimism seems in order.

[jcreech]

Partner has opened 2 , and I have 1st round control of three suits and 2nd round control of the fourth.  I cannot believe that we do not belong in a grand.  I will start with 5 and throw things back to partner.

I suspect that partner has a 22+ balanced hand, so we are still looking at a minimum of 37 HCPs.

[Masse24]

i start by asking why pard bids 4 . I guess he has clubs!

This never occurred to me. After all, RHO bid 'em!

I think 4 should be fine.. If he has a heart fit he will be happy.

But if he has a heart fit, don't you want him to be more than just "happy," especially since you have 15 HCP opposite a 2 opener? Or are you content to play this hand in game?

[kenberg]

I figure if he has a heart fit then this will not be the end of the matter.

About the clubs: We have 15 high in non-clubs. So pard has at most 15 highs in clubs. Moreover, our highs are really good highs, including two aces and a king. Pard has to have some good clubs. So now here I (your pard) sit, 3 passed back to me. With a balanced hand, say a 22 count with the AK and all the missing side suit honors, I bid 3NT.  But no, I bid 4 . I think I have , and not just AKxx.

But I could also have hearts, say KQx.  And maybe A, I did open 2 .  So I think I am not ready to stop. 4 sounds right if I have the A. A little risky maybe, but if we agree that the 4 showed long strong clubs, then I think 4 is an A, not a suit, and presumably heart support. I accept this is open to interpretation, but if we agree that 4 shows clubs then I think it follows.

The above is pretty much what I was thinking when I posted. Afterward, I looked up the hands so I will not go on. The main thing with 4 is that partner, by bidding 4 , has put me in this spot. He has to be prepared for me to do the best I can.Had he doubled 3 I would be free to bid 3 and we could explore further from there. But no, he bid 4 . This cramps me, but I will bid my suit and hope it works out.

I do not claim this logic is air tight. It is what I think I would do at the table. If partner could have made my life easier and didn't, he must have a reason. I think he has clubs.

[Masse24]

Many things should have occurred to me this hand, but didn't. The combination of HCP, void in opps suit, and controls had me thinking we had the first 19 tricks! My head was swimming with thoughts of "Grand Slam-Grand Slam-Grand Slam."

My thought process as it evolved:

1. Saw hand, counted 15 HCP and a void, thought to myself, "nice hand."
2. Partner opened 2 !
3. Visions of sugarplums grand slams danced in my head!
4. RHO bid 3 . So what---I'm void.
5. Should I bid a red suit, showing length and values? Maybe. In hindsight, that may have worked. But wait . . .
6. I chose to wait, so passed, presumably showing values--a rather standard treatment over an overcall of a 2 open.
7. Here is where I got smacked upside the head: PARTNER BID 4 !
8. Surely this is some sort of "Bid your best Major, partner, because I have both."
      8.(a) Remember when I said this was pre-caffeine? Here comes my excuse making . . .
9. I thought for about 3 seconds, wondering if there was a scientific way to get to the grand if it was there. I decided there was no way to do it so . . .
10. I snap-bid 7   ------ which was not a resounding success.

PARTNER'S HAND:

5 - - KQ - AKJT987642

RHO's HAND:
AJT73 KQ9862 3 Q

Yes, a bit of contemplation before bidding the grand might have helped me work out the weirdness of the auction.
Tomorrow. First thing. Coffee. 

[kenberg]

This is not one of those things where I think the answer is at all clear. that 3 bid was wildly successful in creating a problem. looking again at the hands I see that 3 was itself intended to show both majors. Was this explained? It would have helped if it were known that 3 was artificial. Or intended as artificial.

Often in IAC we are winging it. When I was choosing my calls, I was assuming 3 showed clubs, but sometimes opponents get very optimistic in their competition over 2 so it seemed that maybe Rho had xxxxx or some such and pard had the rest. It happens.

Bridge requires a sense of humor. Or a sense of the absurd. Or a stiff drink.

[Masse24]

Fortunately, I had a sense of humor about this one, which is why I posted.

The word "Tragicomic" comes to mind.       

[kenberg]

Yes. I thought about this a bit more. Your Lho passed the 3 call so clearly he thought 3 showed clubs.

Misunderstandings happen even in partnerships where you might not expect it. Many years ago I was playing against a strong pair. The woman on my left opened 2 , her partner alerted and on being asked explained it was Flannery. She thought they were playing 2 as a weak two. She made certain to not take any advantage of the alert. Her partner bid 2M, I forget which M, and she treated it exactly as if her partner had made a forcing new suit bid over her weak 2 , and when the auction was over she explained what had happened. We got a good board, of course, but mostly I remember that she instantly got a lifetime pass from me on any question of propriety.

There is a problem playing in pick-ups that is pretty much unavoidable. Bridge is a game where we are to disclose our agreements. But often we have not discussed the matter at all. Anyone can forget an agreement, that can happen, but playing online it is far more often the case that I have not forgotten, we simply have never discussed it. We hope for accurate communication, sometimes the hope is fulfilled.

We should try. But we also need to relax a bit when it all blows up. Usually it is unintentional.

[jcreech]

Ken,
 
The scenario you described has also happened to me, though it was mini-Roman not Flannery and it happened twice.  The first time was against Nick Nickell and Ralph Katz and the second against Walter Johnson and Doug SImpson.  Both times I opened a weak two and heard the alert.  Both times I explained partner's calls as though they were mini-Roman and bid as though the bids applied to the same weak two structure we had in place for the majors.  At some point in both auctions, partner made a non-forcing call for mini-Roman that was still forcing for the weak two.  At that point, my partner (different players) informed the opponents that I had made an impossible bid. 

It can be difficult bidding based on what your system says you should do given your misbid, while explaining you partner's bids as though you not made that mistake.

In the two cases, one was a quick diagnosis - partner bid a new suit that was supposed to be a pass or bid the next suit if my singleton.  As I had no extras and no fit for partner's suit, I returned to diamonds, bypassing a suit. Impossible for the mini-Roman.  In the other, it was harder - partner bid 2NT, asking, I showed a feature which in our mini-Roman system showed certain shape and strength characteristics.  At this point partner signed off in one of the now known suits, and I bid again because it was a new suit and forcing from the weak two perspective.  Again, impossible for our system.

I think the hardest part is keeping a straight face because it feels ridiculous lie and tell the truth at the same time.