[foobar]

IMPs, 24 board match in the top bracket regional KO semi-finals, you are South.

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Your standards for opening 2♠ are slightly better than this collection even at this vulnerability.

What's your bidding plan for the hand?

[wank]

i'm not letting them play it. i'd bid 6c the first time, just in case it puts them off.

[Cyberyeti]

The problem with 6♣ is where partner then leads one from the jack and lets through an unmakable 7N.

I'm not bidding 6♠ as if they've just left themselves in a hole with opener void in hearts and responder with a stiff, this allows him to show it with a FP, but I need to bid to potentially take away an ace/void showing response, therefore a prosaic 5♠ for me.

I think I sell out to 6♥ as I might risk them bidding a making 7 and may be going for 1400 anyway if I bid, over a confidently bid 7 I probably save.

[rmnka447]

Partner almost certainly holds ♠ KQJxxx and not much else. But holding 6 trumps, you know they can't have a ♠ loser.

Bid 5 ♠ immediately to make them make a decision with limited information. Most of the time they will go, but occasionally the opponent's resources will be divided so that bidding the slam looks uncertain. That's where the "preempt" may profit you. (Yes, I do recall a similar preempt situation in a KO match where two 10,000+ MP players couldn't push on to a slam while our partners bid it. [And against good players, making them make some tough decisions may get them out of their comfort zone which can only be good for you as the match progresses.])

Once they bid 6 ♥, I subside. On a bad day, we could be going down 1700 or pushing them into a makeable grand they might not bid on their own. The time to sac further is when you know its unlikely they will be able to penalize you enough to gain. That ultimately means complementary distribution in your hand. I'd be more apt to bid on with something like 10xxxxx x xxxxx x where 1400 looks to be the limit of the penalty, but it will often be much less.

[ggwhiz]

wank, on 2016-February-18, 11:48, said:

i'm not letting them play it. i'd bid 6c the first time, just in case it puts them off.

If I'm going to put them off I'll do it with 5♥, takes away a landing spot and although dopi or depo (whatever applies for them) can still show their kc response it's a rare enough bird that they have room for an accident. Might get cold feet owning a 5♠ response showing 2 with no Queen or be unsure which applies.

If they double that I should be buying it in 5♠ doubled and if they bid on I think it's up to partner to save at the 6 level which would show a profit on some 6-4 hand but not so much if it's flatter.

[gszes]

It is untrue that slowly walking the dog will generally be far more effective than immediate blasting. We expect zero spades and only with huge luck will we generally score 1 defensive trick. It seems to be that the best bet is an immediate 7s and be happy with =1700 and -1400 if p has some nice distribution. This will generally guard against the opps managing to bid 7n, which is a bid we can do nothing about if the opps can effectively use FP to get there, so we do what we can to guard against that.

[bigbenvic]

All I think 5♠ does is give N a chance to show the void (why would South bid 4nt if he has the void?) pass gives them all the room they need to use their best judgment so my best chance at forcing a guess and possibly a mistake is 6♠.

Will the guess be right? I don't know but I am not 2nd guessing them if they bid over it.

[zillahandp]

6s tina. Cannot answer the other questions as it depends how they bid and who bids it. But the question only arises if pass? Or bid smething other than 6s qhich is exactly why bid 6now.