[Stephen Tu]

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IMPs, teams. 2S is forcing natural.

Comment if you'd change your call at different colors.

[LBengtsson]

Except if 2♠ is a psyche - and there is nil reason to think it is - I would not get involved with this flat hand with so many losers. If 2♠ is forcing, what exactly has partner got? Very little. And if partner has very little, then the ops are always going to outbid you, plus you give away where the points are on defense.

[mikeh]

I truly can’t imagine bidding here. This is a weak hand now that we’ve learned that our spade holding is likely a negative value.

They are spade cards the opps don’t have, yet they’re in a forcing auction, so they have values elsewhere. So our holding those cards, which rate to take no tricks, means they add no value to our hand while concurrently suggesting RHO has more stuff on the side.

Now, bidding 3C may cause problems for the opps. Many pairs bid worse after such an overcall than if left alone and tye opps will think I have a different hand than this (more clubs for one thing) so it’s possible we’d escape the penalty we deserve. But, otoh, the bid has little lead value…we’re on lead much of the time and partner is going to be leading a minor if he’s on lead.

As LBengtsson points out, partner rates to have very little so we’re playing out of our hand much of the time, devaluing our values even more.

I have to wonder whether at the table partner broke tempo over 2H and we’re being asked in order, as it were, to poll the effect of UI.

[Cyberyeti]

mikeh, on 2022-February-21, 06:16, said:

I truly can’t imagine bidding here. This is a weak hand now that we’ve learned that our spade holding is likely a negative value.

They are spade cards the opps don’t have, yet they’re in a forcing auction, so they have values elsewhere. So our holding those cards, which rate to take no tricks, means they add no value to our hand while concurrently suggesting RHO has more stuff on the side.

Now, bidding 3C may cause problems for the opps. Many pairs bid worse after such an overcall than if left alone and tye opps will think I have a different hand than this (more clubs for one thing) so it’s possible we’d escape the penalty we deserve. But, otoh, the bid has little lead value…we’re on lead much of the time and partner is going to be leading a minor if he’s on lead.

As LBengtsson points out, partner rates to have very little so we’re playing out of our hand much of the time, devaluing our values even more.

I have to wonder whether at the table partner broke tempo over 2H and we’re being asked in order, as it were, to poll the effect of UI.

Depends on my ops, I think this is VERY likely to be a psyche from some pairs

[Stephen Tu]

You pass. 3S passed back to you. Pass again I suppose?

[mikeh]

Cyberyeti, on 2022-February-21, 06:25, said:

Depends on my ops, I think this is VERY likely to be a psyche from some pairs

Why?

Who psyches 2S here without a good heart fit?

We have a clue that this is legitimate. In fact, two clues.

We have Axx in hearts. We have QJ in spades. Neither is consistent with RHO having short spades nor long hearts. And it’s hardly as if we have so many hcp that RHO can’t have a good hand.

As for what I do after I pass and see 3S come back…..I’d pass again.

If they’ve done a number on me, well done them.

I remember many years ago, when I had a reputation for psyching, getting a huge top when one of my opponents was convinced I’d psyched so took ‘bold’ action. I had my values.I had my penalty double and we scored 1100 on a hand where we’d have needed luck and good guessing to make 400.

[Cyberyeti]

mikeh, on 2022-February-21, 10:33, said:

Why?

Who psyches 2S here without a good heart fit?

We have a clue that this is legitimate. In fact, two clues.

We have Axx in hearts. We have QJ in spades. Neither is consistent with RHO having short spades nor long hearts. And it’s hardly as if we have so many hcp that RHO can’t have a good hand.

As for what I do after I pass and see 3S come back…..I’d pass again.

If they’ve done a number on me, well done them.

I remember many years ago, when I had a reputation for psyching, getting a huge top when one of my opponents was convinced I’d psyched so took ‘bold’ action. I had my values.I had my penalty double and we scored 1100 on a hand where we’d have needed luck and good guessing to make 400.

The outright short spades psyche was never my style, a hand like xxx, Qxx, Axx, xxxx would be more likely for this where your partner has a 9-10 count with 5 spades and can't bid, obviously this is not the case when they bid 3♠.

My fondest 2 "bad psyche rep" stories I opened 1♥ partner clearly had a good hand, we bid 3N, my RHO worked out not much was breaking and doubled, partner looked at his 16 count and thought I might have psyched but felt he had to redouble. This was 1400 in the plus column, double dummy could have been the rare 1800.

Another disastrous X by the ops was on the unopposed 1♥-2N-3♥ auction where 2N was limit or better. LHO who knew me well decided it was a good time to double on his 3055, the best result available when partner redoubled was -960 for leaving it in. They didn't find that, his partner was 35(32) and they played 3♠X in the 3-3 for -1700, wouldn't have mattered much with the normal 4♥-1 at the other table.

[Gilithin]

Cyberyeti, on 2022-February-21, 12:06, said:

The outright short spades psyche was never my style, a hand like xxx, Qxx, Axx, xxxx would be more likely for this where your partner has a 9-10 count with 5 spades and can't bid, obviously this is not the case when they bid 3♠.

Are you really happy playing 5♥X on this 3334 hand when Opener turns out to have a maximum Weak 2 with ♠Hxx? One of the reasons why it is normal to have long hearts for this popular psyche is because you are willing to sacrifice in 5♥ if necessary.

[eagles123]

I agree with Mike, for sure there are certain situations this is a blatant psyche, this really isn't one of them given our hand. Of course bidding could be right, but it's well against the odds.

[Stephen Tu]

So RHO was on a stealing mission, but really has spades, a 5=2=3=3 7 count. Partner has a balanced 10 with SAxx, 3nt rolls, but you had to settle for +200 against 3S.

I just wanted to check if I was supposed to suss this out, if there is any reasonable defense to these kind of actions, or if I just have to congratulate opps when they find these bids.

[Cyberyeti]

Stephen Tu, on 2022-February-21, 20:19, said:

So RHO was on a stealing mission, but really has spades, a 5=2=3=3 7 count. Partner has a balanced 10 with SAxx, 3nt rolls, but you had to settle for +200 against 3S.

I just wanted to check if I was supposed to suss this out, if there is any reasonable defense to these kind of actions, or if I just have to congratulate opps when they find these bids.

You either bid 3♣ and take the occasional -1100 or you don't and take the result you got. Knowing the opps helps here.

[Stephen Tu]

Cyberyeti, on 2022-February-22, 05:03, said:

You either bid 3♣ and take the occasional -1100 or you don't and take the result you got. Knowing the opps helps here.

It's unclear if 3c would have helped. Does partner bid 3nt over 3S with nothing in hearts?

[Cyberyeti]

Stephen Tu, on 2022-February-22, 09:41, said:

It's unclear if 3c would have helped. Does partner bid 3nt over 3S with nothing in hearts?

You need to agree what X is