November 2006.  An ugly but effective bid

I was playing in the Monday evening open pairs during the Columbus Day weekend sectional in New York City.  My partner was playing inconsistently.  I picked up the following hand:  ªK42 ©J7  ¨Q653  §Q1084.  Not vulnerable vs. vulnerable, there were 2 passes to me.  I had my first decision.  Should I open at this favorable vulnerability just to make the opponent's begin bidding in a competitive auction, and if so, what should I bid?

Well, I have discussed the benefits of weak openings in third seat in previous hands-of-the-month.  One can benefit from the lead-directing value, from a preemptive effect (especially when partner raises your suit), and just from throwing the opponent's into an unopposed auction which often complicates their bidding and can present more unpracticed bidding sequences.  This hand would not have a good lead-directing value, and would have very little preemptive value.  That was plenty of reason for me to choose to pass.   There is always some risk of overbidding when you open light, and when there is little benefit, I prefer to pass.

Then, my LHO opened with 1H, my partner overcalled 2C, and my RHO made a negative double.  Now what?

I think there is only one logical appropriate bid - that is to raise partner to 3C.  That is a perfect description of your hand.  In the rare instance that partner wants to compete to the 4-level, he can do it.  And this puts a good amount of pressure on the opponents, so they must decide whether or not to compete, and if so, in what suit to compete.

Bidding this way is logical and respectful of partner.   But that was not my choice of bids.

I knew that I wanted to compete to the 3-level in clubs, but I wanted to make life difficult for the opponents.  The vulnerability was favorable, since partner wasn't able to open the bidding I did not expect her to compete to the 4-level, and partner was being very inconsistent so I felt the need to create some "action".  I wanted to be certain that we were not doubled at the 3-level, so I overbid my values, as if I held a much better hand.  I cue bid 2H as a limit raise or better in clubs.

You will see the entire hand below, and the problems that I was able to create for the opponents.  My partner's bids were very bad, but our contract was very good.