From: bharat@cs.uiuc.edu (R. Bharat Rao)
Subject: Re: A reply to Prof. Weird (was Assign the blame)
Reply-To: bharat@cs.uiuc.edu
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Tue, 15 Dec 1992 18:24:02 GMT

martino@courier6.aero.org(Nick Martino) writes:
>In article <Bz41sp.CAF@cs.uiuc.edu>, bharat@cs.uiuc.edu (R. Bharat Rao)
>wrote:
I had said in response to the 1H-1S-2D-3C-?? auction
   [I asked 2 partners and..]
>> They said that 3S should promise 3 spades, 3N should show a club
>> stopper, and 3H is the nebulous inbetween bid. that you will make on
>> the ubiquitous 2-5-4-2.  This was what I had thought earlier.  Now,
>> with no club stop and 5 spades partner can bid 3S and you can raise to
>> 4S with the Kx.

[Nick says]
>The fact of the matter is that a SLOW 3H is probably a nebulous in-between
>bid and a SLOW 3S is probably on a good doubleton.  However, a quick,
>confident and cheerful 3H shows the good 6-4 hand and similarly, a fast 3S
>shows the 3541 hand.  As for the "expert" opinion that 3H is the catch-all,
>I cannot agree.  

I think above implications about ethics and lack thereof is totally
unwarranted.  I told you that (a) I play 3H as a catch-all and (b)
that my partners do as well --- note, that I asked them the question
WITHOUT telling them about a specific hand and merely asked what each
bid would mean.

You obviously think that the agreement is flawed and sub-optimal.  It
probably is.  However, it is simple, and seems to agree with what I
and more importantly my partners think it should be.  Therefore, no
ethics problems should arise.

>At this point, you are exploring to find the best game so
>you shouldn't be constrained by convention to misdescribe your hand.  3H
>should at least show 5 good hearts which might be playable opposite a small
>doubleton.  With  Kx/Axxxx/AJxx/xx, 3S is a far better description.  This
>should never lead to playing 4S on a 4-2 fit, since partner will have some
>other call besides 4S on such hands.

If I had a conventional agreement about this auction, I would use it.
I am just saying that "WITHOUT PRIOR AGREEMENT, I think playing 3H as
extras is asking for trouble"..

With 5 spades, I expect partner to rebid 3S over 3H if he desires to
play in a 5-2 fit.  Since my AGREEMENT is that 3S should promise 3, I
might suggest that those of you advocating bidding it on a doubleton
are the ones who may face ethical problems as you now have the problem
with a "slow or cheerful" 3S.  As an aside, I would like to state that
I believe most decent players bend over backwards to avoid taking
inferences from partners pace of bidding.  In fact it is very
dangerous to do so playing with me (esp. after a layoff:-) _ I tend to
be tortuous and slow over the mpost obvious of bids after a while:-)

Of course you indicate that you will bid 4S with 3.  THAT I think is
inferior because..

>On the actual hand given, the choices are 3H, 3S and 4S.  I don't buy the
>argument that 3S should show extras vs a jump to 4S, so it really comes
>down to 3H or 4S.  

Why can;t partner have a 4-2-3-4 16 count that was too strong to leap
to 3NT after 1H-1S-2D- .. he intends to rebid 3NT over your 3 level
bid to show a hand too strong to bid 3N directly.  If you hamstring
him by leaping to 4S, what should he do now.  Play 4S on a 4-3, and in
a pathological case 4S may go down when 6NT is on (this is very rare,
but definitely 3N may well be better).

> I slightly prefer 3H.  If partner follows with 3NT, you
>bid 4S to complete the pattern and show extras.  
 
This may work out, as partner (with 3NT) has shown a balanced hand
with extras.

>Nick  

Bharat



-- 
R. Bharat Rao                         E-mail: bharat@cs.uiuc.edu
AI Group, Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology
405 N. Mathews, Urbana, IL 61801   (217)-333-5978 (O), 337-6498(H)
Electrical & Computer Engineering, University of Illinois, Urbana
Newsgroups: rec.games.bridge