Double !

Note: for anyone who is suggesting that the west hand's bidding might be more responsible for the result on this hand, please note that the posting has the west hand to the right and the east hand on the left. I would pass the balanced 11-count after P's 1S response. IMO, if I am going to open a subminimum hand in 3rd seat, I want to have at least 3 cards in any higher ranking suit than the one I bid so that I am able to pass partner's response and to assure partner tolerance/ 3-card support for partner's suit. Anyone for weak NTs? DHL

It means, given all of the options and information that bidding 2NT gives to the opps, as well as the chance getting your own side too high, one better have a very good reason for bidding an UNT. DHL

I Pass Head, I win Tails, I tie do i need to double to get a good results for the board? DHL

Anyone for a 1♥ psyche? could work well, especially if play some form of drury, especially 2-way. At least I have trick in the bid suit. Is one permitted to raise the possibility of a psychic opening in this forum? I doubt I would make such a bid, but it just popped into my head as I looked at this thread. DHL

IMO, there's more to this hand and question than initially obvious. 1) Partner had the opportunty to double the 2 spade bid (assuming that it would be for business) yet didn't do so. 2) IMO, a double after 2 passes probably should be business (we have to agree on a business double at some point in this forum). (if a double by the 1NT opener has been agreed to be something other than an offer to defend, then that changes the picture. 3) There real issue, as I see it, is what bid should the given hand make after the two passes, what bid can you make that is now forcing?. A lot depends on what structure of responses to 1NT openings that the partnership is playing. For example, if you are playing that a 2C response followed by 3m shows a weak 4-6 hand (popular at matchpoints with many people I knew when I used to play live - I now play dead), then you need a forcing bid here. DHL

Don't recall the thread that Phil mentioned, but I've been under the impression that the sequence 1H-1S-1NT-2H is different than 1H-1S-2D-2H, with the former showing better than a simple raise to 2 hearts (with some spades that are worth showing) and the latter only showing a preference. Like most things, this is ultimately a matter of partnership agreement, and I guess a case can be made for either treatment. DHL

I guess people might be wondering what happened on the hand. First of all, I want to thank all who answered for taking the time to respond. I elected to overcall 1NT and played it there, making +180 against, shall we say, less-than-optimum defense. My lho elected to lead her partner's suit as opposed to her AT6th spade suit (that lho elected to not bid). My lovely partner tabled ♠ 97xx ♥ T 3 ♦ J x ♣ A T x x x My rho elected to play the ♥ King ("3rd hand high"- of course) when I played low from the dummy (I had a feeling he would do so), and Clubs broke 2-1. +180 was worth about 0.8 imps at the time. (it would have been +150 had lho led spade: rho had KQ tight, or +120 had the spades been 5-3, not such a good result.) I am not a results player, so I really don't care much about the actual results on this hand. I was more interested to see what action, if any, that people would take over the 1♥ opening including whether or not anyone would support a 1NT overcall. (I, personally, like to overcall or open 1NT as much as makes sense because it often makes things easier on partner. Who was it that said "rules were made to be broken"?) Kudos to those who overcalled 2♣ on this hand with that yucky 5-card suit, and would have then been able to reach the cold 5♣ contract (assuming clubs broke and the heart king was onside). Again, thanks to y'all. DHL

casual, late night friendly game, everyone is sleepy, some more than others. scoring is imp pairs you are red, opps are white lho deals and passes, partner passes, rho bids 1 heart, you hold the following ♠ J ♥ A Q J 3 ♦ A 5 3 ♣ K J 6 5 3 your call: tyia DHL

Han: I just read the blog that you suggested. And, I agree with phil that the hand that justin gave and the hand that i presented are different, especially in one particular regard. In justin's hand, the black 2-suiter is the responder, making a descriptive bid after the bidding had gone 1S by partner and double by rho. In the hand that I posted, I was the opening bidder with all the black cards. I was thinking at the time that I wanted to make a bid that would let my partner know in which suits to value any honor cards and in which suit honor cards that weren't aces might be of dubious value. I keep going back and forth on this hand in terms of the better bid to make over rho's 3NT bid. One minute I think I should have bid 4S in order to make it more difficult for rho to know what type of hand lho had. The next minute I think that 4C might be better because it warns my partner about thinking that honors in the red suits that aren't aces might still have offensive value given my 10-11 announced black cards. I still don't know which bid is more likely to work better. Glad this wasn't one of the hands in the recent BPO-008 set. yo no se je ne sais pas dhl

Han: of course it's not my first online tourney and, yes, I had a reasonably good idea about what was going on, that rho had heart support. And, to address another issue that you had raised, partner had played wonderfully for the first six boards: it was a pleasure to play with this partner. I really didn't know whether the 3 spade bid was pre-emptive, mixed, or GI. My problem, as I saw it, was to try to make a bid that could be as flexible as possible and to permit my P to co-operate in the final decision-making process. I thought at the time that 4 clubs would show a lot of black cards and a hand that wouldn't be in a position to make a decision about whether or not to bid 5S should the opps compete over 4S. What I hadn't accounted for was the fact that, by bidding 4 clubs, I had now given lho a chance to bid 4 diamonds (which lho might also have done had I dbl'd 3NT as someone had suggested). I had no aces, and was concerned about not being able to make 5S should the opps bid 5 Y and not be able to make it. I hadn't anticipated that my stiff heart king would be worth much, In retrospect, just bidding 4 spades might have been the best answer as it would have precluded lho from showing a second suit, and rho might not have felt sure enough about the situation to feel confident about taking the 5H sac. I think that my 4 club bid might not have been the best selection, nor would dbl have been (rho was likely to be running to 4H anyway, and now my P doesn't have much info about my hand). I needed to sock it back to my rho by bidding 4S before rho could obtain more information: I committed an act of self-sabotage. (ain't the first time, won't be the last). tx DHL

now, that's a thought! DHL

(Flush) No I didn't help me make the right decision, maybe it should have. In any case, it's a good idea. Why would 4♣ set up a force? Opps bid 3NT after we were in an inv+ situation, so someone is either bluffing or counting ZAR points. Dbl is the way to expose a bluff, 4♣ does not show values, just clubs. I don't see how a 4 club bid can be setting up a forcing situation. My hand was limited by the fact that I didn't open with a strong 1 club bid. By the way, I just checked and must apologize as I made an error in my original posting of the bidding on this hand. The bidding had gone pass-pass-1 Spade-2 Hearts-3 Spades (not 3 Hearts) prior to rho's 3NT bid. My bad DHL

Not saying that this is the correct action, but it at least should have gotten you to game: What would a 2 ♦ bid over rho's 2♣ after partner's 1NT bid have meant to you. As the resident bidding dinosaur, i would suggest that a double followed by a cue-bid (2 diamonds would be most unlikely to be natural on this auction) should at the very least set up a game force. Then you don't have all this confusion about whether or not 2S shows a GOSH, just the better of majors with a minimum opening hand (don't laugh- sort of like a conversion dbl), or something else. In fact, 2 ♦ permits partner to show a reasonable 3-card major if stuck for a bid. But, again, at least you are getting to game. DHL

These are the hands (I mean the times) that try man's souls, aka: drive me nuts. You are playing Precision with a wonderful partner for the first time in an 8-board online matchpoint tourney. You have had very little time to discuss much. However, you feel that you are having a pretty good game, might be in contention for 1st place. Two boards to go when you pick up the following hand, all red: Again: both sides are vulnerable. Your are playing basic Precision (1♣ = 16+/ 1NT = 13-15) Scoring format is Matchpoints. ♠ KQJ642, ♥ K, ♦ 5, ♣ KQ962 The bidding has gone as follows: Partner/ dealer: Pass rho: pass you: 1 Spade lho: 2 hearts partner: 3 spades (not discussed) rho: 3 NT* You: Your call ? (note #1: you and partner have not discussed jump-raises in competition. I doubt that it really matters on this hand.) (note #2: what do you make of rho's 3NT bid having initially been a passed hand? What does the bid suggest about lho's hand? Does this impact at all on your choice of action?) What is your call after rho bids 3NT? (I anticipate that most people will select the same answer for this poll. This is not the end of the story. Guess you sort of already knew that.) What level do you anticipate the bidding will wind up at? The 4-level, 5-level, 6-level? No only looking for people's recommended action over rho's 3NT, but rationale behind any anticipated further develops in the bidding. TYIA----enjoy DHL:

3♣ You opened a strong club for a reason. You might wish to inform partner of the reason. Unless things have really changed, wouldn't a 3NT rebid show a strong, balanced or semibalanced hand (whatever range you agreed upon) and not a 1-suited hand? If you rebid 3C, 3NT is still in the picture. DHL

again, I shall suggest. in the interest of reducing the skewing of the imp pairs scores due to aberrant scores at one or two tables, please consider dropping the highest and the lowest N/S (or E/W) score and then calculate the mean. I suggested this a few years ago, was told no at that time, and that's OK with me. I'm easy. But, i ask that the powers to be please reconsider the issue. Thanx DHL

a moot point but... are you sure that you would be opening 1 diamond with the above-mentioned hand? DHL

As mikeh indicated, I, too, elected to overcall 1 spade. I am neither advocating nor rejecting my selection. However, there was more to my (ir)rationale than was presented. Yes, the suit ain't so great. (better than some I've seen from some people) I also mentioned the fact that the format was matchpoints where spades rule, and the possibility that, should I play in spades on an insecure trump suit, that the clubs suit might potentially act as a buffer against losing trump control. In addition (something I didn't previously mention), should the combined hands be best played in NT, it might be better being played from partner's hand, not mine, and it would be easier to get there if I bid 1S as opposed to 2C. Whatever I choose to bid with this hand, I want to get the two hands into the best scoring strain if it's feasible, to avoid telephone numbers on a possible part-score hand, and above all, try to get a plus-score. My partner is a passed hand, so I doubt that there are many bids that partner could make that would be embarrasing. Whatever................... DHL

But the inversion only applies, as far as I know, when you are in a forcing pass situation: it is not a broader device: merely an inversion of the use of pass/double once the auction is forcing. And the expert consensus is clear on this hand: if you play the fp (or inversion) you are out of the mainstream. That is fine. I accept what you say without objection, and I do not question the judgments or opinions of players who are much more accomplished than I. However, where is it written that I must be mainstream? lololol, me? mainstream? Heaven forbid..................... BTW: Mikeh: you did a fine job with this BPO :) DHL

Dwayne: Sounds like a great idea. Is pass-double inversion part of BBO Advanced? Remember, I am a bidding dinosaur, so I might not be familiar with some more recent innovations. DHL

I don't recall saying that I was happy to pass. What I was trying to say is that the honor structure of the hand is so very poor both for offense and for defense. 1) the hand is very quacky with mucho losers, 2) I have, maybe, one potentially favorably located card for defensive purposes (the S-K). The hand just seems like a potential trap to me. Why did rho pass when partner couldn't ake action? In retrospect, maybe i need to bid 3M knowing that I might play in 4M -50 or -100, beating -110 (assuming the opps make 110 and I haven't walked into a major trap.) DHL BTW: Is ARRRGGGHHHHHH now a legal bid? Is it alertable?

Thank You. I concur (for what that's worth.) and, I was one who initially voted to pass (and then pull). It is difficult for me to visualize very many, if any, hands where I expect the opps to be able to make 4S. If pass is forcing (my partner did imply decent values and a decent suit or else secondary support for diamonds), then the follow-ups after a double by partner are fairly easy to reason out, even if no prior discussion had occurred. I agree with phil that the double might express doubt about being able to make something at the 5-level, often a wk NT type of hand, possibly with some wasted value in spades. If the opener has a wk NT hand then, IMO, the hand should be sound enough to provide some defensive tricks. Otherwise one might wish to give a second thought to opening 1 minor on a light, unbalanced hand unless one has something in spades. I don't know. Perhaps my thinking is very influenced by having played weak NT for so very long whereby opening 1m implied better than a minimum balanced or semibalanced hand. The idea of the I have values but don't know what to bid at the 4-5 level double, unless partner will know for some reason that you are short in spades (and then can start to infer more about your distribution) just seems difficult to handle and is almost like passing the buck to partner. DHL

I know I might be totally alone on this, but one of my preferences (toys) is to play 13-16 1NT overcalls, not vul. It helps to solve problems such as the given hand for this thread, it takes pressure of of partner should partner somehow wind up in a balancing position, it puts some pressure on lho (especially if not knowing how light his partner might open), and it makes life easier for partner to compete. What to do next if I initially pass and the bidding goes something like 1C-P-1S-p-1NT-? Now the opps have gotten the first shot in, and rho has made a relatively descriptive and limited rebid, so the opp's have some idea about how high they can go. Picking a lead will also be fun. Have I gotten burned playing this range of overcall? A few times, not as much as one might anticipate, especially when we have runouts. The negative inferences from the fact that one did not overcall 1NT can also be useful. DHL Best wishes to everyone.

hmmm... crushed in 3 suits but sequentially (progressively?), depending on East's choice of discards and declarer reading the situation correctly? a nicely placed ten of spades great hand! DHL

4 clubs is a good bid. No, it's not a splinter. (any strange action confirms the last naturally bid suit as trumps?) DHL