Lesson hands often show that something is clear. I think that when playing it is often not clear. I will give one example out of many.
White against red, imp scoring, 8 board match, playing with the bots, you hold:
: Q5432
: QT4
: KT
: A62
Rho deals and passes. The auction goes
Pass - Pass - Pass - 1
1
1
- 3
X
Pass - Pass - 3
- Pass
Pass - ?
Some might have opened this 11 point hand 1
on the first round, in which case the subsequent auction would have gone very differently. Not necessarily better, but different. But I passed first round, and here we are. Some of the bids were natural, some not. The explanatins:
1
natural
1
, you see the hand, seems normal. It showed five spades, bid over 1
.
3
: Mixed raise in
: 4+ hearts, 7-9 total points, forcing to 3
.
X: Rebiddable clubs including the KQ ]I assume it also could be including the AK but I have the A, so including the AK, 11-21 hcps (so not very precise about strength) [Not a support X at the 3 level]
I presume that when partner passed the 3
this narrows the range considerably, we are not in a forcing auction.
So: What to do? The options seem to be:
X, for penalties I should think
Pass, we play 3
4
Passable
Or you could try 3NT. Seems like we have a running club suit.
Is the right choice at all clear? Does it matter that this is imps rather than matchpoints?
And if you pass, or if you double 3
, what will you be leading?
Myself, I do not see this as clear except that at imps, I think X is out. You get 200 instead 100 if you set 3
one trick, but you get -730 instead of -140 if 3
makes. So at imps I think it is between Pass and 4
, or perhaps a very daring 3NT. . But at matchpoints surely a double might be right. 4
making is +130, beating 3
off one for +100, but +200 beats both of those.
Consider LOTT: They surely hold 9+ hearts, we might well hold 9 clubs. If 9 in both suits LOTT says that the number of tricks in hearts plus the number of tricks in clubs adds to 18. If both 3
and 3
make then 4
is off one, better than letting them play 3
making. If we can make 4
then that's better than letting them play 3
off one, but doubling is even better.
My main point is that I don't think it is clear. And I don't think any conventional agreement would have made it clear. A fun hand I think.
Note: Looking at the hands, I don't think anyone did anything weird. Bots sometimes go off track. Not as often as some claim, but sometimes they do. Not here, I think. So if you look at this as a human auction, that will be about right.