Re: Another day, another reverse, another catastrophe

stevts@xxxxxxx wrote:
On Aug 30, 9:03?pm, henrysun...@xxxxxxxxx wrote:

After considerable thought, I pictured Henry as having a hand such as:

QJxx
Kxx
xxxx
xx


This picture seems unduly pessimistic.
Even so, it doesn't seem like 4C would
be likely to play that much better than 4H,
well maybe a trick, 8 trick to 9. But the
presumption is when partner raises hearts
immediately, is that he has 4, and your hunch
to the contrary was statistically a long shot.

As bad as my pass
of 4C might be, I believe that Henry's failure to bid:

(1) 1C - 1S - 2H - 4H; or

(2) 1C - 1S - 2H - 3H - 3S - 4S


2H - 4H is certainly reasonable, but is not clear.

The 3S bid and raise to game 4S, by responder, well,
many people thought to be a cuebid... Somebody who
didn't over analyze this would just bid 4H not 3S.

I think that the best scenario is that responder
bids 4H over 3S which you don't mention. Henry has
9 points and so showing a decent hand opposite a
(the DQ is better than just an x)
reverse with 3H is reasonable. But he has shown
this with 3H, he doesn't have anything extra to
add with 4C. So I think 3S->4H is clearly indicated.
But 4C pass; if he had such a weak hand and you
thought you were showing 3 card spade support so
would think he knew that, why wouldn't he pass
your 7 card 3S fit, rather than go a level higher
with the xx you imagined he might have? Does he
often claim you play hand much better than he does? :-)
I suppose one reply is that Henry might have thought
you had 6 clubs so was finding a 6-2 fit. Anyway I
think his 4C bid was poor but not so poor as to be
a good reason for you to pass. Well, just my opinion,
I relish reading your bidding misunderstandings. I get
to dig through my books and discover that 2H-4H is
certainly a logical alternative. DQ on the cusp. Just
16+ point for the reverse improves 2H-4H or 3S-4H.

I guess it shows there are an awful lot of partnership
understandings to work through even with an established
partnership. Still I think Mechwell's 700 pages is a lot!
.

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