daveharty

I would be VERY surprised if this were the case. The "Rule of 20" has acquired almost the force of law amongst the LOLs at my local club.

Yep, pulling a double like this could be a real strain on a partnership. That being said, East is laughing all the way to the bank (I am assuming he or she made 7S, is that the case jillybean?)

I agree with both of these strategies, but sometimes partner just doesn't have the hand to take either of these actions. What is he supposed to do over 1D with something like QTxx/Kx/xx/Axxxx? Bidding 2C seems a stretch and that's not a major I would advocate overcalling. Regarding your second point, I agree completely that I wouldn't want to hear a club bid from partner, which is why I (slightly) favor 1NT, which doesn't preclude finding a major fit (but will admittedly make it more difficult). Also disagree with those who think that pass couldn't work out on this hand, I think it definitely could be the winning action. I just think balancing will work out somewhat more often.

I'm not sure I agree with this, partner could have quite a reasonable hand that wasn't able to make an overcall, including a hand with a four card major, or a near-opener with a broken club suit that wasn't worth 2C, etc. As for WHAT to balance, double and 1NT both seem reasonable, obviously double will more often get you to your major fit if it exists but risks 2C (or 3C). I guess 1NT, it seems a decent description of the "essential nature" of the hand, but I don't feel strongly about it.

If you think that this is the issue we want to focus partner's attention on--7S vs. 7NT--then why not bid 7H? Surely that would zero in on partner's heart holding. This has probably gone beyond the purview of the B/I forum at this point, but it does seem like the 7 level is almost "taboo" for B/I players, or something they are just afraid of. Some basic guidelines for auctions where a 6-or-7 decision might have to be made could be useful.

http://www.bridgewinners.com/index.php/under-further-review/535-under-further-review-i

Maybe you shouldn't blast to six, but only because you might miss a good grand, I'd be a lot more worried about that than about going down in six. I think calling the South hand "only" 17 hcp opposite a 1NT opener is selling it way short, it is a moose.

Double. Pass isn't forcing here (for me anyway), and partner could have shown a good game raise via a different route, so slam looks remote.

Hmm? Not sure I understand just inviting with the south hand. Agree with Hanoi5's auction.

This is funny, and your points are well taken, it's not as if "25 hcp" is some mystical barrier that must be breached in order to make nine tricks in NT. But isn't MP about the frequency of being right? One of my first thoughts on seeing this hand was "3NT is not going to be a favorite here, why not take advantage of our slightly unusual NT range by staying low and hoping to beat the people who start with 1m-1S-2NT...and if partner has 16 or 17, far more likely than 18, other tables will be opening 1NT too and (whereagles comment notwithstanding) won't be getting any higher". Is this twisted?

Looks unanimous. The full hand: [hv=pc=n&s=s872haq943d82c865&w=sa954hk762d75ckt7&n=sq63hjtdkqjt963cq&e=skjth85da4caj9432&d=s&v=e&b=3&a=pp3dppp]399|300[/hv] Agree/disagree with partner's pass in the balancing seat? I agreed then and I still think it looks a little thin vulnerable, but I'm not confident about this. Is this just a "preempts work" hand? +100 wasn't terrible, but there were a surprising number of pairs in club contracts scoring 130 or 150.

I agree with ArtK78. Partner is far more likely to have 16 than 18. Even if partner does have the maximum to get us to the Magic 25 threshold, 3NT might not play so well with a likely natural heart lead from either side, so we might beat all the tables where the auction starts 1m-1S-2NT. As an aside, I always thought the "25 for game" number was based on the likelihood that a combined 25 will provide enough tricks for game about half the time. Is it based on something less abstract than this? Or is it just the "Distilled Wisdom of the Ages", and the lowering of the number from 26 (a la Goren) to today's more common 25 simply represents increased aggression in modern bidding and an acceptance that bidding a few more bad games is worth it in the long run?

Yeah but your opps for this hand were on Pluto. I was trying to imagine a more reasonable scenario than you faced (I think the 1D overcall is pretty bad, but at least it's in the realm of possibility). If West does start by passing, does everybody jump shift with the East hand after 1S-1NT?

Actually, no one did double (maybe one pair but no more than that). The numbers that EW were collecting were for defending UNDOUBLED diamond contracts. So the field seemed to be making a choice between 2H and pass. It still looks like a clear 2H bid to me. The full hand: [hv=pc=n&s=sajhqj5dkj6542cq7&w=s5hk3daqt97c98542&n=sq8642ht86dckjt63&e=skt973ha9742d83ca]399|300[/hv]

[hv=pc=n&w=s76haj4daq4c86532&e=sak843hkqt98d87ca]266|100[/hv] West deals. If West passes, opponents will stay silent throughout; if West opens 1C, North will overcall 1D, then opps will stay silent.

[hv=pc=n&e=skjth85da4caj9432&d=s&v=e&b=3&a=pp3d]133|200[/hv] What action do you take?

[hv=pc=n&e=skt973ha9742d83ca&d=e&v=b&b=10&a=1s2dpp]133|200[/hv] This is more a sanity check than anything else. I thought it was obvious at the table but the results didn't bear that out.

I think you read the auction incorrectly. LHO opened 1S, not 1C. 2H could be bid on a yarborough.

Agree with aguahombre. If I am constrained to DONT, 2C isn't obstructive enough to be worth it. Playing Woolsey, or Landy (my preference), I'll bid 2S. I hope it's matchpoints; then I only have one person to apologize to if I go for 1100. Definitely don't like waiting and then bidding after a transfer sequence, having given responder the chance to show hearts and opener the chance to show or deny a superaccept.

I think the hand is too good to open 1H and rebid 2NT (unless you play it as GF). I would rather open 2NT. Hanoi's other auctions look reasonable.

Pass. Very close. Even the H9 might sway me.

Right on. It seems like the "space savings" of 1S vs. 2NT are most illusory, since your second turn is likely to be spent on a noninformative bid to establish a game force, and you won't be supporting hearts until your third turn. Agree with mtvesuvius that WE are the captain of this auction, and we just need to extract the correct information from partner to set the contract; but if this is the case, why would we bother introducing spades naturally? It's not as if that's going to help partner reevaluate his hand later in the auction, which is a primary reason to introduce Strain B into an auction when we already know we're playing in Strain A. Several people have mentioned that it would be reasonable to immediately ask for keycards (I agree), but J2NT is clearly better than that because we don't give up our ability to ask, plus we have the chance of finding out something immediately useful (as long as your followups are well-defined, as The Hog mentioned).

It does eat up a lot of room but if partner is able to make an immediately descriptive rebid, e.g. 4C or 3S or something, isn't that pretty useful info? Meanwhile if you start with 1S, isn't partner going to have trouble later on evaluating, for example, xxx in spades? I guess it's true that partner will often have a minimum here, so if you start with Jacoby the auction will often go 1H-2NT-4H which isn't ideal. But I don't think you're really concerned about five-level safety here, so even that might be fine.

[hv=pc=n&s=sah987dakt975c863&w=st832hq52dq642c92&n=sk964hakjt3dckj75&e=sqj75h64dj83caqt4&d=s&v=e&b=3&a=1dp1hp2dp2sp4hppp]399|300[/hv]