What does/should a 60+ bid mean?

[rakbeater]

Lets discuss what a 60/65/70 bid means.

To start, what basic/normal scenarios do we see these bids?

Opening 60+:

Bidding 60+ in seat 2, 3, or 4:

Does that break down far enough as far as what we normally see happen?

Remember that higher level and lower level players do play differently, so please speak to your experience playing against your level of opponents.

[ToreadorElder]

Can't discuss seats 2-4 without the bidding from earlier seats.

60 bids in my experience, are all over the map...aces plus a 7-8 card run, pretty good meld with a 7-8 trick hand (but often not a heavily offensive orientation...7-5-5-3 with some side aces), or the 'fear' bid with something like 7-6-5-2 with meld ("if I gave the meld, I knew you'd be bidding for hearts and I only had 2"). Also seen something like



So, as I say, it's all over the map. Opening 65...I'd say I've seen that most often with a double pino, but there's no guarantee whatsoever insofar as the bidder's trump suit. Probably a run, but could be a basic 7 carder.

I'm not saying I agree with bidding like this; these bidders are often just trying to steal the hand. They'll do so often enough, and they'll make their bid often enough. That's good enough for them...the fact that the opponents save, when partner had a shutout hand, apparently doesn't matter to them. The potential that their partners will get frustrated with their unilateral bidding, and will feel the need to be more assertive with a pretty good hand...thus either taking away their better hand when it does show, or forcing the partnership too high...they don't see that either.