[apollo1201]

Cyberyeti, on 2019-March-31, 06:46, said:

Yes, but in the second part of the question, do you remove when it's doubled by the partner of the 2♠ bid to show an honour as now he does lead small from many of these holdings.

Is it so clear that the (balancing) X of 3NT says I have a S honor? Usually the X of a cue-bid says that (so partner can safely lead the suit). Reading other persons’ comments, they don’t seem to play this and more sth like pls find my suit and lead it (a suit bid or implied by dummy usually).

[msjennifer]

Sir,I am not at all surprised that this problem has got quite a few cleanly STUMPED.(a term from the game of Cricket, one of my hobbies).It is very easy to bid if one can see partners hand but unfortunately one can not.I posed this problem to my trainees and they too were nonplussed..What is my polite and humble request it to put yourself in the doublers seat and try to imagine hands with which you will make a TOD in a vulnerable position..Is it not likely that the partner of 2S opener is a complete Yarborough or say only has QX of spades and doubles if you bid 3NT.Will your partner dare remove holding x or void in S and say 1444 hand? .In my personal opinion this hand is a toss up between PASS and, most of you will scoff,4H..This hand reminds me of an almost similar hand where I held xxxx of S and in heart suit only AJx and was the only one to bid 4H and dummy came down with 9754 of hearts getting a clean top.i beg of you to fully understand that I ,hereby ,am not boasting and trying to prove other pairs wrong but only humbly putting forward a different viewpoint or say aspect so kindly pardon me.

[Cyberyeti]

apollo1201, on 2019-March-31, 08:27, said:

Is it so clear that the (balancing) X of 3NT says I have a S honor? Usually the X of a cue-bid says that (so partner can safely lead the suit). Reading other persons’ comments, they don’t seem to play this and more sth like pls find my suit and lead it (a suit bid or implied by dummy usually).

I agree, but that was the question the OP asked.

[TheoKole]

Thanks for all the replies. I was really interested how many people would pass for penalties. I thought about it but it violated 1 of my 4 rules. So the decision rests as to take the high road for game or the low road for part score knowing that the long trump hand will be forced with spade leads (if you can actually find a fit).

Since I tend towards optimism in these types of hands, I bid 3NT hoping the suit wold block. This was Xed by RHO to indicate a ♠ lead promising an honor and I knew I was in trouble. I pulled to 4 ♣ and luckily found a 5 card suit in dummy but this was Xed by RHO again (so much for my optimism) I scrambled to 9 tricks with ruffs and high cards so we got out of the deal only slightly burnt.

I also thought of 4 ♥ playing in a Moysian fit. The reason I chose ♣ instead of ♥ is that 1 I am much more likely to find a 5 card fit in the suit instead of in ♥, and I am much more likely to find of find a 3-3 fit in ♥ instead of ♣. At this point I am simply trying to get out of the deal with the least amount of damage.

The choice of pass for penalties is one I think some would think long and hard about and I did also. I stated that I have 4 STRICT rules about passing low level take out doubles which are:

1: I have good reason to believe that we have a majority of the high card points; CHECK
2: I have good reason to believe that the hand is a misfit deal; CHECK
3a: Rule of 12: 12 minus the number of tricks declarer will need to take is the number of trumps I need in my hand (ie. 12 - 8 (for 2 spade contract) = 4) CHECK
3b: Rule of 10: 10 minus the number of tricks declarer will need to take is the number of trump tricks I need in my hand (ie. 10 - 8 (for 2 spade contract) = 2

the last point is the stickler I also adjust the total by 1, if I am in front of declarer meaning I need 5 length and 3 trump tricks in a spade contract. This is to account for trump endplays, elopement trump plays and the fact that partner might lead a trump in these auctions and I need to account for this.


Thank you again to all who replied, it seems we were predestined for a negative board on this hand but sometimes you have to try to get out of these with the least amount of pain as possible, knowing that other pairs will face the same decisions.


Regards T

[Cyberyeti]

Can you give us the whole hand so we can look at it and see how 2♠x fares and whether we'd have done anything different on the other hands.

[heart76]

Cyberyeti, on 2019-April-02, 03:07, said:

Can you give us the whole hand so we can look at it and see how 2♠x fares and whether we'd have done anything different on the other hands.

I was actually thinking the same.

My answer to your 2nd question.
If X is explained as promising a ♠ honor, I XX SOS and pass partner's bid. Yes, I might miss a minor game but the doubler rates to have something on the side and now partner has a 544, so the play is a reverse dummy or a cross ruff where we probably have wasted values in both minors.