[Antrax]

Matchpoints, unfavourable. Lefty opens 1♠ passed to you.
♠9xxxx ♥KQJTx ♦xx ♣x
Do you reopen and what with?

[gwnn]

Pass. I don't understand this board. I am this long in spades and p still passed. I suspect partner has a 2m overcall but pulled a green card by mistake. He might have a long and very weak minor and a short chubby other minor (x Ax AQJx Jxxxxx?). But that's OK, it could work out for the best.

[mich-b]

Pass.
I am long in their suit and weak.
Bidding would often result in going down in some high contract.

You mean -80 wasn't a good score for us?
Well , my guess is that happened either because RHO passed with a hand others responded with and got too high , or because pd preferred to Pass when others made a "modern"/imperfect takeout double.

[Antrax]

I mean in all the other tables they got too high and went down. Lefty had a 19 count and his partner had zilch, so the only way I see for them to end up higher (since you can't beat 1♠) is for whoever held my cards to balance. It seemed like completely the wrong call (for the reasons mentioned), but whenever I do something nobody else does, I check my sanity.

[mich-b]

Antrax, on 2012-March-07, 04:25, said:

I mean in all the other tables they got too high and went down. Lefty had a 19 count and his partner had zilch, so the only way I see for them to end up higher (since you can't beat 1♠) is for whoever held my cards to balance. It seemed like completely the wrong call (for the reasons mentioned), but whenever I do something nobody else does, I check my sanity.

I would guess that in most other tables it didnt go 1S -P -P -?
If LHO had 19 , and RHO 0 , your pd had 15. Perhaps in many other tables your pd's hand found a call with the 15 count?

[Antrax]

Sorry, I thought later "zilch" might be misleading. He had a queen and two jacks or so, not enough to make a response in a standard system.

[ahydra]

Right, but that still leaves partner with an 11-count, so why hasn't he bid :/ (having said that, the hand is almost certainly a misfit now, and at unfavourable +80 may well be par!)

ahydra

[SimonFa]

If lefty had 19 HCP maybe the other tables opened 2NT or 2C? Playing a lot of GIB tournaments recently I have noticed that a lot of humans open those on much less.

Simon

[Statto]

I bid 2♥. It's light for unfavourable but I expect partner to have something, not least the King I borrowed. If 2♠ comes back round (unlikely), I'm more happy to sit that.

[the hog]

I pass and this is not a difficult decision.

[xcurt]

This is just example 4676432 why matchpoints is a different animal from IMPs. We are taking at least 4 more tricks in hearts than spades, ergo we have to bid against NV opponents in a1-level contract. Hopefully partner not overcalling depite short spades puts some limit on his ability to bury me for balancing.