[inquiry]

The request was:
[b]And talking of 'scrambling' Ben, you didn't explain what a 'scrambling 2NT' is ? (new thread please)

Ok, so what is scrambling 2NT?

This is a conventional use of 2NT AFTER your opponent have bid and raised a major to the two level and your PARTNER makes a takeout double (negative, normal takeout, responsive, etc.), then a bid of 2NT is ARTIFICIAL attempt to find a suit to play in and the beginning of a “scramble”. You do this when you are not sure what the best suit would be. Say for instance you hold..

Xxx
Xxxx
Axxx
Jx

And the bidding goes, (1S)-p-(2S)-P-(P)-Dbl-(P)-?

Do you just bid 3H on the assumption that partner MUST have hearts? Playing scrambling 2NT, you would bid 2NT. If partner bids 3C (likely), you then bid 3D (scrambling). If partner has 4D he will then pass 3D, if not, he will bid his 4 card heart suit.

[Laird]

Hi Ben

Some questions spring to mind regarding this topic....

1. Likely hand pattern of doubler?
2. Why was negative double not used?
3. Likely pointage value of doubler?
4. Likely points and hand pattern of opps?
5. Is LOTT of any use in this situation?
6. Does vulnerability affect the
decision to scramble or not?

I hope I don't upset Maureen again by asking these questions

John

[Codo]

Hi John,

1. Likely hand pattern of doubler?

His double is a kind of take out. But in the pass out seat, he needs to "protect pard". So he has to bid with cards which are faraway from perfect.
After 1 Spade-pass- 2 Spade- pass pass f.e
a double of 2 Spade here could be made with 3442 and about 6 (8) HCPs

2. Why was negative double not used?

It was. But you may expect a distribution about 1444 in a "normal" situation.
F.E. 1 Spade X promises a very strong hand or the ability to play in all other suits.
But here you are not sure, that pd has cards in all suits. He has to reopnen with much worse holdings.

3. Likely pointage value of doubler?

About 20...together in both hands.
So if you look at 14 he has 6 and vice versa.
The total range in your combined hands is about 16-24.
So, whenever he doubles, don`t get amazed if you have a "strong" hand. The stronger your hand is, the weaker is his.

4. Likely points and hand pattern of opps?

They MUST have a fit and the missing points

5. Is LOTT of any use in this situation?

YES, it is "always" bad to let them play at the level, where they belong according to the law. And with their 8 card fit, they belong at the 2. level.

NO, because it is simply winning bridge to push them one more level.


6. Does vulnerability affect the
decision to scramble or not?

Yes. In fav. vul. it is not so expensive if your descision was wrong.

Kind Regards

Roland

[Rado]

Hi all,

"SCRAMBLING 2NT" might be described as showing 2 or 0 places to play. For example:

1Sp - pass - 2Sp - DBL
pass-?
1.
xxx
Qxxx
Kxxx
xx

the DBL hand most probably contains at least two 4 cards suits. So we need to have a tool to play at our sure 8 cards fit, so here 2NT scrambling sends a message: " Pls Partner bid you first 4+ cards suit up the line". If P bids 3Di or 3He we gladly pass, if he bid 3Cl, then we 3Di which says: " pls choose from the reds"

2.
xxxx
Qxx
Kxx
xxx

here we do not have real suit to propose and againg SCRAMBLING 2NT helps to play at leas at 4-3 fit .
If we just try to guess with direct bid of 3... we may hit partner with some 1345, or 2344 shape and find a lovely "3-3" fit.

There is one little hint for the He suit which will be explained in the future:-))))))

Best regards, Rado

[inquiry]

In responses to the following post

Quote

Roland gave you great answers ot your six questions, so I nothing of great value to add. But I will throw in a few small caveats.

1. Likely hand pattern of doubler?

Since you are SOOO weak (5 points), and partner didn't take DIRECT action over 1H, you can draw a scary inference. I think he is probably 2-4-2-5, or 2-3-4-4, or maybe even 2-3-3-5 or 2-3-5-3 with "good" 3 card heart suit
(more below)

2. Why was negative double not used?

We didn't open.

3. Likely pointage value of doubler?

They stopped in 2H with a known 8 card minimum fit. (BTW East didn't bump up to 3S over DBL, so is more likley to have only 3 SPADE than 4 SPADE). Since they didn't even try for game, their HCP total will be around 20 to 23. Since you hold points, your partner will have between 12 and 15 points. And as Roland said, if you had more points, your partner would have less.

4. Likely points and hand pattern of opps?

Opponents rate to have an 8 card heart fit, and between 20 and 23 points. With 24 points, one of them would have tried harder for game, with 16 hcp your partner would have tried SOMETHING over 1S, so I think they are closer to the top of their range than the bottom.

5. Is LOTT of any use in this situation?

ABSOLUTELY. They have an 8 card fit. As Larry Cohen says in his book "to bid or not to bid", with an 8 card fit you are "comfortable" at the 2 level, with 9 card fit at the 3 level, etc. The balancing double here is just an attempt to push them one leve higher (after all, you suspect they have about 22 point since partner didn't take direct action and you are SOOO weak).

6. Does vulnerability affect the decision to scramble or not?

Vulnerability doesn't affect your decision. Your partner has already doubled and you are pretty sure you are not going to beat 2S (if your partner had a "trap pass" old style bridge, he just has to pass on this auction these days and defend 2S undoubled...but you with 3 Spades, know he is not holding lots of spades behind the opener anyway). So you simply scramble to try to find the best possible, or at least a playable, contract at the three level. It is worth noting that Vulnerability will affect your partners decision to double. If we are vul, I would expect him to have 1 spade and likely be 4-5 in the minors (1-3-4-5 or 1-3-5-4). Why? With 1-4-4-4 he would have doubled 1S immediately (he does have about an opening hand after all).

It is this later consideration that leads me to believe that partner is looking at 3HEARTS, or 4 hearts with short diamonds. With 3 H's and weak clubs he would pass over 1S. With 4 hearts and doubleton diamond, he wouldn't want to double 1S because of the likely/possible 2D bid by you. This suggest his likely distributions on this auction would be 1-3-(4-5) or 2-4-2-5. Why not 2-4-5-2? He could double 1S and if you bid 2C he could bid 2D without raising the level of the auction to give you a choice between 2D/2H. He couldn't do this if the minors were reversed. Lots of people, however, play
(1S)-X-(P)-2C
(P)-2D
as a monster hand, forcing. If your partner plays that way, this inference might not be as strong.

"I hope I don't upset Maureen again by asking these questions "

Well to be honest with you John, I think to get into prism, encrypted and Vinje signals (I have his book btw, excellent) in a thread in the "beginner" forum is inappropriate. But I realize we all just click on the most current threads to read what has been posted without paying that much attention to the expected audience who will read those thread in the next two, three weeks when it is no longer on the "current list". I think a beginner who logs in for the first time and starts reading the other thread in which she complained will stop reading a long way before getting to the last post because it will sound like so much gobbly gook in the middle.

Ben

[plum_tree]

So you think a novice/beginner will understand this? Never mind actually applying it at the table? Bet you a BBO $ that a fair amount of intermediate/advanced players neither know what this is nor use it.