[cinvent77]

Before I knew my wallet was stolen at BBO - and my partner's too!
We were seated NS and these were our hands:

Scoring: IMP

---

The bidding goes:

West North East South
1♦   pass 1♠ pass
2♣ pass 2♠ All pass

Would should North and/or South do? All our actions still seem reasonable to me. Any suggestions?

[mike777]

Many play strong 1nt in 4th seat to combat light responses.

I do not, so I must make a takeout x with the 15 hcp hand with 4 spades and 3 tiny hearts to not be stolen blind, ugg.

Choose your poison.

[pbleighton]

Playing standard methods, your bidding seems fine to me. In my 2/1 partnership, we would have done the same thing. South's hand is good, but so flat, and he has no encouragement from North.

In my other (crazy) partnership, I would have overcalled 1H as North, then 2NT from South, passed. This is an unusual arrangement. It blows up in our faces sometimes, but is too much fun to stop playing

Peter

[pbleighton]

"Many play strong 1nt in 4th seat to combat light responses."

Sandwich NT is a LOT more frequent, if you play it as 4-4 or better.

Peter

[han]

I would bid 1NT with the south hand, and we would get to game not knowing that there was any danger at all.

If you play a modern gadget like sandwich then you are stuck and I think you have to pass (I cannot believe double).

[cinvent77]

Playing a strong 1NT in the sandwich maybe has its uses. This was a pick-up partnership so 1NT definitely was natural. Even if 1NT is natural I don't think South's pass is a crime.

Of course East is the culprit: not only did he try to relieve us of our money with his light 1♠ response, he even rebid his jack-fifth suit rather than choosing between his partner suits. Perhaps the money will be coming my way next time.

Thanks for the replies.

Vincent

[pclayton]

Sneaky bastards!

[Apollo81]

Both of you made reasonable decisions. The problem is that both went on the conservative side at the same time.

If you moved 1 of North's HCP to South, then North has a clear pass, South has a clear 1NT bid. If you play sandwich NTs then you're screwed there too....what a bad convention.

[mike777]

Yep on this hand I got to double, ugly, horrible, horrible.

Thank goodness this has never come up in real life, only my nightmares.

At MP, next board please.

[awm]

Yeah people love to complain about sandwich notrump, despite the fact that even if you're not playing sandwich you sometimes can't get into the auction! And it's relatively easy to give hands like:

Scoring: IMP

---

West opened 1♣, north passed, east bid 1♥, south passed (1NT would've been strong, and surely a random nine-count isn't a double or a two-level overcall), west raised to 3♥ and east bid game. And now we defended 4♥ making and we're cold for 4♠......

Despite the fact that people do open light and respond light, I bet that:

(1) You're more likely to have a weak hand with the other two suits than a 16-18 notrump after 1m-P-1M.

(2) You're more likely to be safe at the two-level when you have a shapely hand rather than a flat hand.

(3) You're more likely to have a partial making your way when the points are roughly equally divided (as they often are with both opponents bidding) if you have the two suits they didn't bid, rather than some flat hand.

For every time I get "robbed" when opponents bid on 14-15 hcp and I can't get into the auction with a balanced 16 in sandwich seat, there are at least half a dozen times I win a partscore swing because of sandwich notrump showing the unbids. I'm in no rush to give it up.

[Gerben42]

And then there is that thing that RHO decided that his response to partner's 1m was not that weak after all and doubles you. At least he cannot lead a trump...

I think you were robbed in broad daylight, but I would be too.

[hotShot]

South (non vul all )holds AQx in both suits opps bid and has a balanced 15HCP hand. Whoever thinks there is no need to tell partner about it, deserves to get robbed.
I would have bid a simple 1NT here, knowing (hoping?) that a weak partner (less than 5 HCP) will run to his longest suit and we can play a 7+ card fit.

[gwnn]

Raptor NT (4 in higher, 5(+) in lower) seems to work wonderfully in sandwich seat. On any useful 8+count (awm's example is very good).

If you really have to bid, you can double. It's not a horrible idea. But it's a much better idea to pass.

But yea. Pickpockets are real and they can be effective sometimes. That doesn't mean they're not evil

[jtfanclub]

cinvent77, on Feb 14 2007, 08:55 PM, said:

Before I knew my wallet was stolen at BBO - and my partner's too!
We were seated NS and these were our hands:

Scoring: IMP

---

The bidding goes:

West North East South
1♦   pass 1♠ pass
2♣ pass 2♠ All pass

Would should North and/or South do? All our actions still seem reasonable to me. Any suggestions?

Ummm...

I'm certainly no expert, but with a non-fit auction in which both hands are limited, if I had been sitting North and gotten an X from South after the 2♠ bid, I'd expect this sort of hand. He couldn't be much weaker and inject himself into an auction where it sounds like nobody has a fit!

We wouldn't get to 3NT, but we'd at least we'd get 300.

[Apollo81]

awm, on Feb 15 2007, 03:03 AM, said:

Yeah people love to complain about sandwich notrump, despite the fact that even if you're not playing sandwich you sometimes can't get into the auction! And it's relatively easy to give hands like:

Scoring: IMP

---

West opened 1♣, north passed, east bid 1♥, south passed (1NT would've been strong, and surely a random nine-count isn't a double or a two-level overcall), west raised to 3♥ and east bid game. And now we defended 4♥ making and we're cold for 4♠......

Despite the fact that people do open light and respond light, I bet that:

(1) You're more likely to have a weak hand with the other two suits than a 16-18 notrump after 1m-P-1M.

(2) You're more likely to be safe at the two-level when you have a shapely hand rather than a flat hand.

(3) You're more likely to have a partial making your way when the points are roughly equally divided (as they often are with both opponents bidding) if you have the two suits they didn't bid, rather than some flat hand.

For every time I get "robbed" when opponents bid on 14-15 hcp and I can't get into the auction with a balanced 16 in sandwich seat, there are at least half a dozen times I win a partscore swing because of sandwich notrump showing the unbids. I'm in no rush to give it up.

I would rather double on the given South hand than on a 4342 13 count.

[inquiry]

Bidding seems "normal". I would probably have gone the same way.