Posted 2013-October-18, 08:14
I think it's not quite standard but it seems to be a good idea that when partner Passes, jumping around shows no game interest but rather pre-balancing against the opponents. GIB has that agreement e.g. and I've seen Lauria-Versace do it (in a non forcing club context, importantly).
But even so, I think double first is not going to get you to game, it's just a competitive move, so X and then removing 2m to 2H is just saying you missed a fit.
With the 4612 hand I still am not thinking game, so I would just rebid 2H instead of double. If partner has 5 HCP and 2 hearts, it's still going to be a thin game. If partner has 3 hearts and 4 HCP (I guess the best possible hand), maybe he will find in his heart to raise to 3H if he has a singleton somewhere. It seems like we are really scraping for a game that is not there, so forcing X-then-heart to be a strong hand makes it harder to compete on the fauna of hands that just want to compete and get partner to bid their minors (which, unlike spades, they could not show with a light initial response).
Thanks,
Dan