[mikeh]

You pick up, as dealer:

AKQJ 76432 void AKQ5

everybody red, imps

Firstly: what do you open?

I chose to honour length over strength with 1♥, and LHO bids 2♦. Partner passes and a weak player on your right bids 3♣.

What do you bid?

I think double seems clear.

Partner bids 3♥

What is your thinking now, and what does that lead you to call?

[aguahombre]

If I had the heart 5 to solidify the suit, I might bid one more.

Expect to be tapped in my 5-2 fit with zero help from the dummy. More likely they get 5 tricks than only 3.

[gnasher]

Partner probably has three hearts - with 4-2 in the majors he could have bid 3♦, and 3253 is unlikely given the opponents' bidding. I don't think his hearts should be as good as Axx, because he didn't bid 2♥.

To make 4♥, we'll need the trumps 3-2, and we'll need either a heart winner or a third-round diamond control. We may need to arrange a club ruff in dummy too, and we'll need to avoid a club ruff by the short-trump hand.

A 3-2 break doesn't seem all that likely. The opponents have done a lot of bidding, one of them on a jack-high suit. Furthermore, if 4♥ goes down it won't just go one down - this is the sort of deal where you go for 800.

I'd pass.

[Fluffy]

3NT might make more tricks than 3♥, IMO partner is stick with diamond lenght and only 2 hearts, perhaps 3253.

Another interesting strain is spades. To sum it all lets involve partner and bid 3♠ now.

opening 1♣ might have worked a tad better.

[whereagles]

EDIT: Sorry, I thought it was PARTNER who bid 2D.

Over pard's 3H I'd pass. I need some shape in pard to make game and I don't feel like he has it.

This post has been edited by whereagles: 2011-September-20, 10:14

[Foxx]

mikeh, on 2011-September-19, 23:18, said:

I think double seems clear.

Partner bids 3♥

Obviously we didn't double loud enough.

[jdeegan]

Oops! Misread your post. I have no idea what to do now. Maybe pass over 3♣ and try to go plus with half the deck in front of me. Wtf was your double about? You don't have ANY ♦. There is only one unbid suit. Are you just showing off? You pose an idiot's problem.

[Hanoi5]

The problem I see by bidding 3♠ is that partner might pass with 3 and we're gonna get tapped again and this time from the strong and long side. We might just bid 3NT assuming partner has diamonds. Or could our partner be hiding a 4-card spade suit?

[gnasher]

Another problem with 3♠ is that partner might think he's supposed to raise it when he has four of them. Unless he was dealt ♠109 and a top heart, I can't see how we're supposed to make 4♠.

[whereagles]

edit: nevermind lol

[xxhong]

This is a penalty double and partner pulled to to 3H, so it shows a weak hand with short C and 3 H (with 4H, short C, usually partner can bid a preemptive 3H if your system allows). Therefore, it's good to pass this 3H because of trump quality concerns. Partner most likely holds something like
xxxx Qxx Jxxxx x. If trump is 4-1 or they lead trumps, you will often go down.

mikeh, on 2011-September-19, 23:18, said:

You pick up, as dealer:

AKQJ 76432 void AKQ5

everybody red, imps

Firstly: what do you open?

I chose to honour length over strength with 1♥, and LHO bids 2♦. Partner passes and a weak player on your right bids 3♣.

What do you bid?

I think double seems clear.

Partner bids 3♥

What is your thinking now, and what does that lead you to call?

[aguahombre]

xxhong, on 2011-September-20, 10:09, said:

This is a penalty double and partner pulled to to 3H, so it shows a weak hand with short C and 3 H (with 4H, short C, usually partner can bid a preemptive 3H if your system allows). Therefore, it's good to pass this 3H because of trump quality concerns. Partner most likely holds something like
xxxx Qxx Jxxxx x. If trump is 4-1 or they lead trumps, you will often go down.

OP stated that, to him, double was "clear"; but he did not define it as penalty. What would he do with reversed minors, for instance? I hope North has the example hand xxhong showed, and certainly would not want to be in spades opposite that, so the conclusion of "pass" still seems right regardless of the minor quibble about whether double was "penalty".

[mikeh]

I was careful when I chose 'clear' as my view of double. I can't recall ever seeing this auction before. As a partnership we define all low-level doubles that are not specifically agreed to be penalty, by discussion, as takeout and this, being below 3 of my suit, is low-level. However, using it for takeout here makes little sense....partner has not raised hearts and hasn't negative doubled and there is only one side suit. I can hardly have a 5332 or 4531 hand that wants to compete at the 3-level, and 4=5 or 4=6 major hands good enough, in the absence of a bid by partner, seem rare, while a good hand with a club stack seems useful, especially since the double will allow partner to take a piece of 3♦ with confidence.

So I assumed that partner would see this as penalty.

The problem, from his perspective, is that if this is penalty, what major suit holdings does he need to bid 3♠ and not 3♥? This is relevant to my 3rd csll.....if he could have long spades, rather than long diamonds, I should be thinking about 3♠ over 3♥, even tho that is the sort of action that, on a bad day, leads to a horrific result.

[gnasher]

Quote

I can hardly have a 5332 or 4531 hand that wants to compete at the 3-level, and 4=5 or 4=6 major hands good enough, in the absence of a bid by partner, seem rare, while a good hand with a club stack seems useful

Why is it more likely that you'll hold AKQJ xxxxx - AKQx than AKQJ KQxxx - Axxx? When we bid hearts and they bid clubs, they tend to have their values in clubs, not hearts. There's also the question of the game bonus which we get for 4♠= but not for 3♣x-1.

[cherdano]

It wouldn't have occurred to me that double of 3♣ is penalty. I would take it as takeout, typically 4=6 in the majors, occasionally 4=5 with 5 really good hearts. My actual hand doesn't quite qualify for the latter criterion. Yes I would have passed.

[gnasher]

Anyway, what made you think that 3♣ was going down? RHO bid 3♣ voluntarily, knowing that he was missing ♣AKQ. He might easily have a singleton spade, something like x AQx Kx J109xxxx.

[Fluffy]

I trust spades to be a good strain based on expecting partner to have a (slow) diamond stopper or even 2.

[pooltuna]

mikeh, on 2011-September-19, 23:18, said:

You pick up, as dealer:

AKQJ 76432 void AKQ5

everybody red, imps

Firstly: what do you open?

I chose to honour length over strength with 1♥, and LHO bids 2♦. Partner passes and a weak player on your right bids 3♣.

What do you bid?

I think double seems clear.

Partner bids 3♥

What is your thinking now, and what does that lead you to call?

Well X is an option. What would 3♦ show? Is it an ask for 3NT with a ♦ stopper? If so that isn't the worst contract you'll ever be in!