[mike777]

Mbodell, on Jul 25 2010, 12:33 AM, said:

Scoring: IMP

P - 1♣ - 1♦ - 3nt
all pass

---

north 40%
SOUTH 40%


RUB OF THE GREEN 20%


I see north hand as 5 loser hand or so....

I see south hand as 6.5 loser hand or so


so that means we have 11.5 tricks or so........


minor suit slams are just tough to bid esp. when opp bid.

Note east made a light overcall when vul.

[lmilne]

If you don't have a bid for strong hands without clear direction after 1♣-(1♦) (or really any strength hands, although the loss is bigger on the strong hands), it's not the system's fault - it's yours. If you have to invent bids, then that's a problem.

I (and many others) can simply bid 1♠ on this hand, whether it be a general force, denying a major, or something else. Without this tool available, I wouldn't even consider 3NT to be an option, to be honest. I prefer to put a bunch of hands like this in the X (calling it "negative" might be misleading!), instead of overloading the cue-bid. With the hands which your everyday player would X with (I guess 44 majors hands?) just bid 1♥.

cloa513 adequately expressed my opinions about 3NT, so I won't repeat them here, save to say that jumping 3 levels of bidding space with a huge hand and calling 3NT reasonable is crazy, and blaming the opponents for overcalling with a bid that doesn't deprive you of any bidding space is also crazy.

[P_Marlowe]

peachy, on Jul 26 2010, 03:30 PM, said:

P_Marlowe, on Jul 26 2010, 03:04 PM, said:

North should move, esp. because of the single heart, since diamonds may
well be stopped, but hearts could be wide open.

Wrong reason for N to move. He should not be moving out of 3NT because of fear.

Well, phrase it different - North knowes, that both sides will have at best
4 hearts, and that makes it likely that 5C may be as good as 3NT.
And if one is willing to play 5C (may only because of fear), I would always
try to find out, if we can make 6C.

With kind regards
Marlowe

[mike777]

I did assign n and south blame here but in general i really think posters are way to harsh......


Bidding slam when opp bid vul is tough..bidding minor suit slams are really hard.....



I think in a 64 team bermuda bowl....some will miss slam.....

[dake50]

Another bid that blabs nothing =3NT --bid what you want to try.
This time loses grand.
Does it then follow that no-blab 3NT was wrong?

I would always 4C with North --unusual enough (solid 6xC +SA in 4126) to risk 4NT instead of 3NT just to get slam try in.