msjennifer

Sir, I shall open this hand 1D and not 1NT for obvious reasons.Without a previous agreement the double in the given sequence is considered a penalty double.(LHO may psych 2H holding a long club suit.) That apart quite a few players play it as a sort of transfer to spades.Frankly ,I have never come across anyone playing it as a NEGATIVE double yet with an unknown partner. As some of the other comments reflect one should have already discussed such an intervention earlier.I feel nobody uses this double as a Directional Asking Bid.Lastly,I am not ashamed of bidding 2D if partner responds 1S over my 1D.

SIRS,playing Standard our bidding went 2C-2D-2H-2S-3D-4D-4NT(RKC)-5D(NOACE)-5S(DQ ask AND SPIRAL)-6C(DQ BUT NO OUTSIDE KING)-7D. It is much easier playing SUPER PRECISION but that is besides point.

wrong post

Sir,one of our opponents ,who played 14/16 NT and may have a singleton, opened 1NT holding A-A-AQxxx-xxxxxx.Since I am not a quarrelling type did not call the director as there was no nonplaying director available.I would like to know "Is this permissible under the existing laws" When I asked the person he said "this is not in our system but it is not binding on me to follow the system so long as my partner is totally ignorant of it and responds normally."

I shall bid 2S (Shall not pass 2HX).for obvious reasons.

Sir,if 3D is a GAME-FORCE,I shall bid just 3H.Opposite a passed hand which shows two suits I shall never think of bidding 3NT.My SQ may be useless.and so can be the CK. Her hand may be xxx-KJ109x-KQ109-x and one loses 4 tricks straight away in 4H.Much more worse in 3NT if the club Ace is with LHO.

SIR,with LHO having opened the bidding in the first seat ,one can expect AT LEAST 11 HCP with him.IT is hence a remote chance for partner to have ONE ACE and even if has it there may not be an entry to cash it for a heart discard and ALSO hope that the spades and clubs will behave well.Slam ,therefore is out of consideration.This leaves the simple and straight forward bid of 4S and not a double or cue of 2H.However,one can construct a hand where even 4S contract will go down.As a passing remark if one has the chance to open this hand as a 2C opening in the fourth seat ,a jump bid on the 2D by Partner is used by us to ask partner to show a specific ace or two and later relay bids to find out specific K/Q.An article on this was published in the American Bridge World magazine under the title "Embellishments to 2C opening for Standard bidders" about 45/50 years back of which I am lucky to have a copy given by my father,.

Sir ,there are quite a few questions to be asked to opponents as to the COMPLETE AND FULL explanation of the 2NT bid.Leaving that aside IF AT ALL it is mandatory to tell who COULD possibly have doubled then only EAST could have over the 2NT bid.However with the apparently wasted Ace of hearts it is difficult to blame E for not taking any action risking a doubled or undoubled 3C/D/S contract.

Sirs the problem arises as the Stayman structure and four suit transfers do not have any provision for the pair to play in either of the minors at the 3level holding a 5/5 in the minors.One solution is to decide whether one wishes to play in a part game in C/D ,if opener is minimum and play in game in C/D if opener is maximum.Playing 2S transfer as a 3 way bid and 2NT also as a three way bid is possible.Another slightly inferior is to play 2C bid not as stayman but a general purpose relay.(We have developed and used it successfully).Anyhow this has to be discussed and most certainly it can not be used as regular accepted convention.

Sir.you ask what should one bid holding the South hand and N has made a TOD.A TOD shows shortness in opponents suit and guarantees support in the rest 3 suits.There is no guarantee of such a HUGE hand with North.With a normal forced TOD North may have much less.SO ,personally feel that.4D was a correct bid.The other alternative, if at all, is 3 Spade ,because normally a TOD will have the other major. rSouth has to bid as if he does not know the disclosed hand of North.

Sir,this hand has 1.two suits SandC which can provide the number of tricks, for a game or slam contract 2)only 5 winners for a 3NT contract with the danger of going down if a diamond is led(please do not try and construct hands in advance ).How will one bid if the S hand was not disclosed. A bid of 4C/D which shall convey the bid suit and the other major should be considered.(we play it that way) A TOD is unsatisfactory.I one bids 3nt then one is presuming the club suit will provide 5 tricks and there may be one trick outside.A slam or a grand may be on if S has the right cards.A 4C bid showing C and S will be a more descriptive bid..

Sir.Ilked the post and the the replies received so far

Sir,ina lighter vein perhaps the robot on your right hand did not double as it thought that his partner robot would take it as balancing double.After all they have no brains or have not they!

Sir, sitting West one knows hardly anything of certain about East hand.and hence I personally, with only Kxxx in diamonds won't dream of showing a superfiI,i do not know the value of HK as it will be useful in a NT contract so I shall bid 3Club. With the given hand East will bid 4S showing a good 5+ diamond suit a singleton spade and a strong hand with Club good fit..I feel that this bid will certainly lead to a contract of 6C by whatever method one uses.

Sir,I am writing this just as a by pass.Playing PRECISION South opens 1S 11/15 5+spades.North bids 2D not 2H(opener can bid bid 2H if he has 4+H) South bids 2S denying 15 HcP.North bids 3H showing 5 carder heart suit.(it has too be 5 Carder as opener has already denied a 4 carder Heart suit) and by inference 6card D suit..This allows opener to decide the final contract.Given the present hand I ,personally ,feel that South will raise to 4H.Of course South can have altogether different hand but that is beyond any discussion in this particular post.

Sir,IMPOSSIBLE WITH THE GIVEN RESTRICTIONS. But very EASY on seeing both hands .Just bid 2D and then bid and rebid Hearts.!!!

Sir,why not just bid 5D.this hand does not have a useful discard on the 5th D if the hand is played in clubs.A D lead and a D ruff is possible if the club ace is with our LHO in the 5C contract.

Sir,When playing a slightly modified 2/1(Forcing to 2NT or 3 of a suit only),GAZZILLI,LTC.FWC(fast winners count),usually simplify the problematic hands to a good extent.As also employing the 4C/D openings as transfers to H/S,with 0,1,2 vulnerability based and 4H/S openings as 1,2,3,vulnerability based are useful.Using reverse DRURY in all seats is a useful tool.An opening bid of 3D for single suiters as invented by OMAR SHARIEF is handy in deals posed above.However,these are to be discussed and agreed beforehand. Personally ,I would count the suggested 2C opening hand as a FIVE losers hand..Over a 2C opening bid I do not like the virtues of a WAITING bid of 2D.(the precision like responses are easily adaptable and mostly acceptable.)

Sir.EAST will not discard two clubs when he could safely discard two diamonds.So I shall cash the other top diamond cash the the AK of clubs and if the Q10 have not appeared lead a heart hoping east has the ACE.Franklyi ,I can't visualise any other solution.

if on BBO then it is futile to ask the meaning of 2D.So a small CLUB is my choice.

SIR,personally,I fully agree with you.

SIR,personally,I fully agree with you.

Sir,there are the following possibilities when doubling the 1S -p-p-?.We have 19 HCP and that is what is causing the problem unless one has a satisfactory understanding.Granted that RHO can not have 6HCP,even then we do not know for certain how many LHO has.At this vulnerability he can not have a weak hand AND a 6+ spade suit as he would have started with 2S with a sub minimum hand .So he will have 11+HCP. That accounts for at least 30 HCP.We do not have a useful good 6+good suit ,the hearts are open and basically the hand is NT oriented.Now we find that this hand has only ONLY 4 winners.Considering the LTC of this hand which is SEVEN,We do not have any prospects of making a game unless our P has A long heart suit and say 8/9 decent HCP as he would have bid 3 Heart or on some other hand say 3C/D. I ,personally feel that in such a situation the good old HERBERT response may perhaps help us better.I am sorry I can't suggest any other other way out as one has to keep in mind that possibly most of the high cards eg HAKQ DKJ AND CKQ may be with LHO.(who knows, he may be having more than 11 HCP).

Sir,we too play negative doubles but not with such a hand holding SIX carder very good heart suit .Partner will never imagine such a hand..We bid a semi forcing 2H which enables partner to make a support double confidently or Pass or bid anything which warrants a bid.,.Our hand is an eight loser hand with the heart suit and certainly warrants a 2H bid as if as is normal the opener holds 8 or normally 7 loser hand with the LTC this hand can produce 9 tricks with hearts as trumps..

Sir I do not agree with the first double unless it is a new convention to show a 3 card support for clubs.Right now I shall have to bid 4 H .Partners 2NT bid is not clear unless discussed earlier.