[gurgistan]

Scoring: IMP

This is an uncontested auction.
I am 3rd seat opener with 1♥. Partner bids 1N. This is, of course, non-forcing as a passed hand. I jump to 4♥. I figure he has a little something and my length and shortages might just make 4♥ doable. I did think of rebidding 3♥ and letting Partner decide if we should be in game but then I recalled he was a passed hand and that 3♥ would just get passed over. So I bid game. A few tables found game but one just bid 4♥ outright from 3rd seat over a passed partner. That has to be wrong! He (like I) only has 7 hearts.

Please comment upon the wisdom of the bidding and my thought process.

---

[the hog]

You have a 6 loser hand. Imo you do not have a 4 heart bid and should bid only 3H.

[cloa513]

Your flaw is defining major preempts in 3rd and fourth seat- they should be good opening hands with shortage in the other major. Indeed many people bid 4H/4S with opening hands long major suit 7 or 8 in all seats but not significant slam potential -two aces not more. With your example, you can bid 3H and partner should raise to 4H.

[bluecalm]

Quote

Your flaw is defining major preempts in 3rd and fourth seat- they should be good opening hands with shortage in the other major.

Anyway hand is marginal 3♥. 4♥ is huge overbid.
Unfortunately there isn't simple way to evaluate those. I have some methods which I trust and I did tons of simuls for similar situations. WC players probably have feel for correct bid without all the work...

[the hog]

cloa513, on Aug 7 2010, 04:33 PM, said:

Your flaw is defining major preempts in 3rd and fourth seat- they should be good opening hands with shortage in the other major.

4th seat, yes, though I still query the comment regarding shortness, 3rd seat definitely not. At favourable vul for example, a 3rd seat pre empt is often rubbish.

[nigel_k]

3♥ is plenty with the East hand. Partner can easily have enough to bid one more despite being a passed hand.

Anyway it's not a good game. You need diamonds 3-3 or they get a ruff and you also need the club finesse so it's about 18% on best defence. Even against average defence I'd expect to make less than half the time. The main reason to bid 4♥ is that they will usually make at least 3♠ when you go down. But they weren't balancing over 3♥ so that rationale is no longer valid at the point you bid 4♥ instead of 3♥.