[AL78]

These hands are from a friendly multiple teams match against a Dutch club I think. We lost unfortunately, but there are a handful off oddities where I may have misread the situation:

Hand 1:
https://tinyurl.com/yh2zhwsq

I admit to not knowing what was going on when partner made a 1 level overcall and then bid over the opponents 2NT. I placed her with a seven card suit and too good for a double jump overcall, something like a minimal opening hand in HCP. I wasn't expecting a four loser hand so I didn't raise to the cold game that was bid at the other table. This brings the question of what is the maximum you should expect for a simple overcall and what is the minimum you should respond with.

Hand 2:
https://tinyurl.com/ygqdujhj

2♠ alerted as showing hearts and clubs. Partner raised and I raise to game. Opps compete to 5♥ (as usual), partner passing. I decided 5♥ has a fair to good chanced of coming in especially if they have a spade void and a double fit, so bid 5♠, thankfully undoubled. Unfortunately 5♥ is off so I should have shut up, the five levels belongs to the opponents. At least it was a flat board.

Hand 3:
https://tinyurl.com/ydrxpech

Arguably the most ridiculous one. We were playing Lebensohl and I judged my hand to be worth game if partner has a standard TOX of a weak two with a spade suit. Unfortunately partner held a rock crusher and my points shmoints bid propelled us to a failing slam off two aces. I don't know why she raised me to six when she had just found out we were missing two key cards. I confess I have no idea what 5♥ meant, hence I made what I thought was the most practical bid of 5♠.

Hand 4:
https://tinyurl.com/yhptqhxq
Nothing we could do here, our opponents bid to the cold grand whilst our teammates stopped in five. 17 imps out.

Hand 5:
https://tinyurl.com/yztx4f28
I think we bid reasonably on this hand, but I have five unavoidable losers. It did at least give me a chance to practice elimination and endplay technique. 8 imps out when teammates bid to a hopeless 5♦-3 (https://tinyurl.com/yfx2j8u2).

I'd be interested in your views on hands 1-3 in particular. I seem to have a habit of misreading the situation and occasionally taking a view that goes badly wrong. I feel somehow I need to improve my judgement.

[pescetom]

Hand 1: for me E is too strong to overcall at 1 level.

Hand 2: your 4♠ is quite reasonable, just that it should have been the end of it.

Hand 3: again, you realise your mistake, but more precise agreements would help. The 4N bid is explained as 'QS ask' where I imagine Q is Quantitative, so 5♠ would at least have limited the damage.

[AL78]

 pescetom, on 2021-April-20, 09:13, said:

Hand 3: again, you realise your mistake, but more precise agreements would help. The 4N bid is explained as 'QS ask' where I imagine Q is Quantitative, so 5♠ would at least have limited the damage.

I didn't realise you could click on the highlighted bids and see the expanation. I have no idea what QS means, I thought it was RCKB agreeing spades, hence I responded 5♣ showing 0 or 3 key cards (must be 0).

[mikestar13]

Hand 1 would be an old-fashioned strong jump overcall if you were playing them. So east should double first and your are well worth game. The failure is one of hand evaluation. East has 15 HCP but a good seven card suit and a void. On values, East is worth shooting 4♠ herself but the double is better in case you are dead broke on the one hand or have the right cards for slam on the other.

Hand 2 is a classic the five level belongs to the opponents hand. Maybe opponent have a perfecto and can make, but not too likely. Anyway three tricks are easier to scrounge than eleven.

Hand 3 is actually the easiest. East become enamored with her rock crusher and had a brain fart. Could she have thought you were playing 1430? Or were you playing 1430 and you forgot?

Hand 4 you might have stuck in a diamond bid at some point, but if they have decent methods, they are likely to get there anyway.

Hand 5 the ♦Q is likely to be waste paper, but this is less certain than if the suit involved were a major. I will charitably not comment on your teammates' auction--though you can be certain I don 't approve.

[AL78]

 mikestar13, on 2021-April-20, 11:16, said:

Hand 3 is actually the easiest. East become enamored with her rock crusher and had a brain fart. Could she have thought you were playing 1430? Or were you playing 1430 and you forgot?

No, we definitely play 3014 RCKB so I don't know what she was doing raising me to the slam, unless she intended her 4NT bid as something else and thus interpreted my 5♣ response as something else.

[mikestar13]

 AL78, on 2021-April-20, 11:24, said:

No, we definitely play 3014 RCKB so I don't know what she was doing raising me to the slam, unless she intended her 4NT bid as something else and thus interpreted my 5♣ response as something else.

That seems the most likely of all. After 5♣ the queen ask is 5♦, then she bid 6♠ after your tried to sign off. That sound more like somone who was looking for a grand but got a bad answer. A thorough, non rancorous discussion of this auction seems merited, to be sure you are on the same page.

[DavidKok]

I think you had too much defence for 3♠ on hand 5, I would have bid 2NT or 3♣ instead. But that gets me to the same contract.

I think something interesting is going on on hand 3. You have extreme shape (6=1=1=5) and almost no values. Given your hand and the auction, there is a huge chance partner has a strong hand instead of a standard takeout double. This is increased a bit more by the fact that North bid 2♥, not 2♠ (it was very kind of them not to bid 3♥). Partner will typically have only 2 hearts for a normal takeout double, which gives North four of them and some preemptive raise.

Unfortunately that puts you in a "damned if you do, damned if you don't"-situation. If you want to cater to partner having a strong hand you could try underbidding with 2♠. This is masterminding (although you can win the post-mortem by pointing to your lack of HCP) but may well be the percentage action. Alternatively you can make an invitational or GF spades bid, or even break out some two-suiter convention if you play it. This will at least get you to game and paint a solid picture of your playing strength, but it does require some creativity on partner's end if they have a strong hand.
On the given auction I would also bid a quantitative 4NT with that East hand over 3♠ - not keycards, because a whole level of cue bids were available. It seems you did not have an agreement on the use of keycards in this situation. Other than that I don't really disagree with the auction.

[Winstonm]

Hand 1: If east is good enough to bid 3S in this auction the hand was too good to bid 1S - IMO double followed by spades is better. Over 1S, there is no reason for west to bid if south passes or makes a negative double (unless overcalls are basically unlimited in range). As it turned out, west has to bid 4S if he trusts his partner - basing assessments on a perfect partner (who would not overcall 1S) is not winning bridge - one must take into account an occasional lapse of judgement. How to determine when a lapse has occurred? The issue is really this: partner bid 3S after expecting AQx(x) in the North hand with a partner who has not shown any reason to believe he has an entry or even a spade and has done all this against a non-game contract, meaning it is not a sacrifice. Now, if you trust partner not to be crazed you have a better idea of the hand - it's pretty darned good.

Hand 3: It's hard to comment without knowing your agreements but my general impression is that a direct 4S after the double is (in my view) more descriptive - a shapely hand rather than HCPs.

[akwoo]

Hand 1: Your partner is wrong. This is a 4 loser hand, 4.5 or 5 losers if pessimistic. It's too strong for a 1 level overcall.

Hand 2: I think 5♠ is right at IMPs. You're -5 IMPs, maybe when very unfortunate -7 IMPs if wrong. You could be +16 IMPs if right.

Hand 3: You obviously had a mixup - though it's true 4♠ instead of 3♠ is better. You could also consider 2N followed by 4♠ to mean this hand.

[AL78]

 akwoo, on 2021-April-21, 19:26, said:

Hand 3: You obviously had a mixup - though it's true 4♠ instead of 3♠ is better. You could also consider 2N followed by 4♠ to mean this hand.

Yes, it is obvious now, I didn't think of it at the time. My mind covered 2♠ (underbid), 2NT then 3♠ (doesn't get the length across), and 3♠ (misleading, strength is in shape not HCP), and I decided 3♠ was the lesser of evils.