[Tramticket]

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A surreal night at club on Monday, as players slowly started to recognise some aspects of a hand and then "felt sure" that they had seen the hand before and we came to realise that, of course, we were playing last week's hands. You may think that this would / should be spotted early, but with a small number of tables playing a Howell movement the reality was that some time elapsed and it was too late to restart the evening. We re-played a whole evening's boards, knowing of course that there was no way that they could be fairly scored! Very frustrating, but one of those administrative cock-ups that can happen in a club run by volunteers.

We faced some of the same problems, but were often sitting in different seats. I was north, holding these cards, first time around. I was sitting West and North made a different choice on the second occasion. Just to make things more complicated, the club plays a Butler Pairs competition once a month. So what would you bid (a) at match-point pairs and (b) at Butler pairs (IMPs)?

Edit: All pairs are playing four-card majors and a weak no trump.

[The_Badger]

I assume you are playing Acol. Partner heard you pass on the first round. 2NT, 3♣ or 3♦ are squirming bids in my opinion. It might be a poor hand but it could be even poorer. I wouldn't pass a X on the first round with this rubbish, but I will take my chance this time round. Let the opponents guess next. Partner is over the opener, and you are supplying one trick minimum. I just hope we can scramble six tricks to put it down.

[Tramticket]

The_Badger, on 2018-August-22, 03:37, said:

I assume you are playing Acol.

Yes. Thanks, meant to include in Opening Post.

[Cyberyeti]

I played one board 3 times sitting in different seats each time, and by the time I realised, it was irrelevant that I knew what was going on. When first seat has 7 hearts to the Q and 5 small diamonds, there are several available choices, the hand opposite was a big hand with 8 clubs to the AQ10, and the other 2 hands had options too. Basically I realised what was going on when dummy went down, but there was nothing to the play, you were usually dialling a telephone number that wasn't going to change.

[gszes]

partner has made a tox and they have extra values. I have complete nothingness and even my Qxxxx of hearts may well be worth zero tricks. This means partner will have to take 6 tricks on their own to set 2h and if they can do that they might well appreciate the opportunity to bid game in 3n or 5m soooooooooooooooooo I am bidding 3c since defending looks totally wrong and it makes no difference imps or mp. If perchance we had a partnership agreement that 2n was a minor suit tox I would use that else I would assume 2n was hearts stopped and just short of bidding 1n over the 1s bid.

[Tramticket]

gszes, on 2018-August-22, 06:19, said:

I have complete nothingness and even my Qxxxx of hearts may well be worth zero tricks.

This is overstating it slightly - the Q is surely going to produce a trick. But with such poor heart intermediates and East very likely to hold a six-card suit, you might not get any more than one heart trick.

[rmnka447]

Partner has made a second TO double.

First things first. You're heart holding isn't good enough to pass and make it a penalty double. It fails the rule of 9 -- Add number of cards in suit + number of honors in suit (including the 10)+ level of contract -- if the total is 9 or more, you can convert to a penalty double. But 5 cards + 1 honor + 2 level is only 8. You might adjust if your hand had other features in the hand as some unexpected additional tricks or might still pull it with nothing outside as here. But the rule really addresses is your holding in their suit good enough to sit and penalize them.

So deciding to bid, I think you bid 3 ♣ and let the chips fall where they may. You've met your responsibility and what happens happens.