Better Bidding? - #2. You decide.

Late night sess on BBO with humans.

It's one of the few opportunities I get to hang out with the Swedes anymore.

The expletives have been flying from across the pond as opponents rotate in and out frequently, criticizing each other's weak 2 bids, yelling at each other for not leading stiff Queens and passing forcing bids. 

My partner is a fellow yankee, calls herself 'intermediate' and plays all my favorite gadgets. She's stuck around for 8 hands or so and we've done pretty well according to my standards of discipline and reason. We set 4HXX two, made 3HX (that'll teach those Canadians to double my balancing bids - lolz) and set 2NT (after a 2S opening on 5 to the King - 2NT by his partner, swish. Great time to lead my doubleton club, hitting partner with 6 to the Qeverything)

And then I pick up this puppy...

Woof!

Not vulnerable in 2nd seat, pass by Righty.

Think about your bid for a moment....

Make a decision...

No cheating....

Don't scroll ahead.... cheater...

Among the other BBO'ers there was a wide spectrum of bids. 

Everything from pass, to 2D to 5D. I guess the logic to pass is let partner describe his hand and then see what happens. That's great, but you're probably never playing 4D undoubled anymore. Not something I want to give up. I can open in 4d and everyone might pass, or I can sit in the bushes and try to figure out something smart to do later.

There will be plenty of opportunities to bid a bad Sac if my opponents find 4S or if I make them guess at some other contract I'm 60% sure they can make. This may be a rare instance where I can take second bid after pre-empting, but only if I open it 3d. 4 or 5, and I have to trust that partner will do the right thing.

5D is a huge stab in the dark. Partner might have two black Aces and QJx of hearts, making 3NT a cake walk and 5D would set itself. Or partner could have the perfect 12 count where you go down 3 undoubled and pre-empted your opponents out of 2S. Yay.

Personally I'm not huge on lying with my pre-empts. I still do it occasionally, more often in 3rd seat, but I feel dirty about it. At least I know it's wrong, right? Suit quality plays a role too. 

Earlier our opponent bid 2S with 5 - K5432 - 10 highs, but in first seat. smdh.

Many people fudge this with minor pre-empts and the jury is still out on that. I've found it's usually better to just describe your hand and let partner do something intelligent. The hand should have more than 6 diamonds to the Q for me to open it 3D, etc..

I guess with a rule of 17 I can open this 1D. Tehe. 

My shape is intriguing, but not amazing.

4D describes my hand but then we are never playing 3NT.

By this logic, I settle on 3D, which I am not alone on in BBO Late Night Land, but well in the minority. 3 out of 15 or something.

Pass to partner who bids 3NT. 

Yes! I'm awesome! Think of all those suckers playing 5D! 

I type something in the chat box that doesn't have bad words in it, explaining that this is the perfect hand not to bid 4D on.

Some banana (a card no one cares about) hits the table and this is revealed to me.

For my 3D bid not vulnerable partner can't bank on much outside of 6, hopefully 7 diamonds with 2/3 or 3/5 top honors. There's only one forcing bid over 3D, my buddy, 4NT and as partner counts 2 black aces, 2 hearts and 6 or 7 diamonds, 3NT is her only (good) bid.

Side note: People did play this in 4S and 6S so maybe that gives you a better sense of the field.

As she carefully plays out every card, I eat my words and type back a suggestion that she would probably go to 6NT if I had opened it 4D. She says maybe. We would have been the only pair in 6NT.

But then again people open 4D all the time with only 7. I think if you pre-empt with one less than you have, you should have a little extra - not my hand (above) with a diamond switched to the jack of clubs or something.  Like an Ace of KQ or a club void or 3/3 honors.

With a regular partner who I trust, I think I would always bid 6 with the East hand over 4D, but I might fall back on 6D instead of NT.

I guess it depends if anyone else in the room was talking about it loud enough for me to glean any information and if I can BS some excuse as to why I bid 6NT over the much safer 6D.

I don't think there's an easy answer to this, but I found it pretty interesting and brings up an interesting discussion... at least more interesting than why we shouldn't redouble as a passed hand who raised partner's weak jump overcall to game. 

I'll never understand that ACOL stuff.