West has a good hand with a fine opening bid in 1H. Having passed West has a fine overcall in 1H. Having passed again and on opening lead the AH from AKQ seems safe unlike the H8.
At another table: 1h p 1s p 4s ap Good basic bidding
I think west did well to recognise the power of the 6 card side suit headed by AKQ. The danger with the bid is that east will assume there is say a 19-20hcp opposite and the bidding could get a bit high. I guess the issue is whether a 3H non forcing invite bid would miss game too often with east having hands that wouldn't accept an invite. West has a 5 loser hand - it is possible that east with a 6-7hcp could provide 2 "cover" (the losers) cards.
There are techniques to investigate what to do in marginal situations. What is called Double Dummy Analysis (DDA) can be used to determine eg in the above how likely game is with the west hand opposite a hand with 4-5 spades, less than 4 hearts, and 6-7hcp. This showed that game made only 42% of the time (using 5000 deals), so perhaps 3H is best. However, DDA uses "perfect vision" of all 52 cards, so the opening leader always gets off to the best lead, and not a more normal but losing lead - here eg a diamond lead may allow for quick discards of quick club discards.
West has a good hand with a fine opening bid in 1H. Having passed West has a fine overcall in 1H. Having passed again and on opening lead the AH from AKQ seems safe unlike the H8.
ReplyDeleteAt another table: 1h p 1s p 4s ap
Good basic bidding
I think 4S is a little too much on the alternative table.
DeleteI think west did well to recognise the power of the 6 card side suit headed by AKQ. The danger with the bid is that east will assume there is say a 19-20hcp opposite and the bidding could get a bit high. I guess the issue is whether a 3H non forcing invite bid would miss game too often with east having hands that wouldn't accept an invite. West has a 5 loser hand - it is possible that east with a 6-7hcp could provide 2 "cover" (the losers) cards.
ReplyDeleteThere are techniques to investigate what to do in marginal situations. What is called Double Dummy Analysis (DDA) can be used to determine eg in the above how likely game is with the west hand opposite a hand with 4-5 spades, less than 4 hearts, and 6-7hcp. This showed that game made only 42% of the time (using 5000 deals), so perhaps 3H is best. However, DDA uses "perfect vision" of all 52 cards, so the opening leader always gets off to the best lead, and not a more normal but losing lead - here eg a diamond lead may allow for quick discards of quick club discards.
Delete