Your choice of intervention

[sfbp]

This hand arose in a pairs game at the regional this week.

 

[hv=d=w&v=n&s=sjhak832dakt3ckj3]133|100|Scoring: MP[/hv]

 

I'd be curious to know your initial actions.

 

I'll post a followup showing what happened next, later

 

Thanks

[P_Marlowe]

Hi,

 

I will go with a dbl, if the strength of the hand warrants a dbl,

everybody has to decide for itself, but somewhere I have to

draw a line, and for me 19HCP is on the other side of the line.

 

With kind regards

Marlowe

[pbleighton]

I double. My 1 level overcalls are never this good, and I'm not bidding 1NT with a stiff jack.

 

Peter

[inquiry]

1♥, what's the problem? IF they bid spades, I will double, if the bidding dies in 1♥, we can't make anything. Partner will raise with support and 5♣ (and especially 5♦) is a LONG way off.. he needs some good stuff to get there.

[Finch]

Personal preference

 

1H: 10/10

Anything else: 0/10

[Free]

Dbl, this hand is too strong for a simple 1♥ for me. But I can understand a natural overcall...

[jdonn]

Personal preference

 

1H: 10/10

Anything else: 0/10

I hate comments like this. Of course you can choose 1♥ and feel strongly about it, but to claim no other call has an iota of merit just means you are being closed minded. If a small card in any other suit were changed into a small spade, this and any panel would be nearly 100% in favor of a double. That one change does not mean it's impossible a double could work on this hand.

 

Personally I just don't think it matters which you choose as long as you are consistent and partner knows your style. Either initial call is likely to work out fine.

[whereagles]

I like 1♥, though double is ok as well (you'll have a problem only if pard bids 3/4♠, but that's unlikely).

[han]

I'll try to avoid Josh's wrath:

 

My style is to bid 1H with hands like this. Always.

[kenberg]

I bid 1H. As near as I can recall, I have never been passed out at the one level when I hold a stiff spade. Surely it could happen, but not often. Not that I feel my problems are over, but when I later act again I imagine partner will do approximately the right thing even though he may not have a clear picture. For example, if the auction continues 1S on my left, pass, 2S and I double, partner will know to bid hearts on three, or maybe Qx, and clubs otherwise. We will have a guess about level, but we should be in the right suit. If NT is right, perhaps we can get there. I have serious doubts about NT being right, however.

[Winstonm]

I am in the double camp as I don't want my partner's to raise my 1H overcall on:

 

xxxxx, Qxx, xx, Qxx.

 

Winston

[luke warm]

i'd double then bid hearts... for the 1♥ bidders, what do you bid with this hand?

 

♠ J4

♥ AK832

♦ T532

♣ K3

[kenberg]

i'd double then bid hearts... for the 1♥ bidders, what do you bid with this hand?

 

♠  J4

♥  AK832 

♦  T532 

♣  K3

I would overcall 1H with that hand. But not with a hand much weaker than that. In theory, it could get passed out in 1H making ten tricks. I don't deny it. I do say that in my experience, the singleton spade makes this unlikely. The singleton spade may also lead to problems after a double. Generally I don't like to overcall 1H with such a strong hand and I don't like to double with a stiff spade. I choose overcall. I expect to get another shot. If not, then that's what happens.

 

In a recent tourney I confronted a similar problem. I overcalled. The opponents jammed the auctio to the three level, I doubled, partner bid hearts. Now of course I have a problem of choosing the level. I bid 4, I was cold for 3, I made 4. It would be a tougher choice if I was playing against Meckwell but, surprise, I wasn't.

[jdeegan]

;) 1♥. I think the hand is plenty strong enough to double and bid, but what I really want to know is if partner has REAL heart support. If so, we can bid 'em up. This is the most likely way to find out. For a double and bid sequence I prefer to have a suit like AK10953.

[sfbp]

I am in the double camp as I don't want my partner's to raise my 1H overcall on:

 

xxxxx, Qxx, xx, Qxx.

 

Winston

That's just about exactly what happened.

 

I was the partner of the overcaller, and after the inevitable negdbl raised him to 2H. He got excited and bid 4.

 

Turns out the hand makes 4 double-dummy but he didn't. Sigh.

 

Whether or not this is evidence for *not* doubling I'm not sure.

 

His contention: I dont want to X because you might jump to 4 spades.

 

My reply; if i bid 4S on Txxxxx xx Qxx Ax, you may even make it.

 

Why worry about the sky falling?

[inquiry]

Join the new century. Use Reubin Advances or similiar... so that there are two ways to raise 1H to 2H to seperate competitive or "courtesy" raises from "real" raises.

[Finch]

Personal preference

 

1H:  10/10

Anything else: 0/10

I hate comments like this. Of course you can choose 1♥ and feel strongly about it, but to claim no other call has an iota of merit just means you are being closed minded. If a small card in any other suit were changed into a small spade, this and any panel would be nearly 100% in favor of a double. That one change does not mean it's impossible a double could work on this hand.

 

Personally I just don't think it matters which you choose as long as you are consistent and partner knows your style. Either initial call is likely to work out fine.

I'm not sure what you're complaining about.

The "marking" was simply supposed to indicate how strongly I feel about it. That's why I put 'personal preference' at the top.

 

If alternatively I think that something really does have not an iota of merit you will certainly hear me say so.

 

p.s. make a non-heart a small spade and not only would my personal marking not change but I doubt you'd get anything like 100% of an expert panel doubling first. Make a heart a small spade and the world doubles and rebids 1NT, but that's a different matter.

[helene_t]

Usually 1♥.But I might start with 1NT if pd isn't sure to interpret my subsequent double of 2♠ as t/o.

 

Double with a singleton in an unbid major is just about the worst distortion I can think of. That's just my personal preference of course. If partner insists that we start with dbl with any 18+ hand, I will have to do that.

[Finch]

I am in the double camp as I don't want my partner's to raise my 1H overcall on:

 

xxxxx, Qxx, xx, Qxx.

 

Winston

That's just about exactly what happened.

That's not my concern.

That isn't a 2H bid with or without a negative double from 4th seat, it's a pass.

[whereagles]

A pass? Not in my book, at least.

[kenberg]

If you raised to 2H on very modest holdings, and he bid 4 and was in a contract that was close enough so that it was double dummy makable, I don't see this as evidence that the 1H bid was a mistake. You might have had more for your raise, or he might have found the right line, or, as happened in the hand I cited, the defense might have slipped. One hand can't prove a theory, but this appears to me to support the choice of 1H. Of course there will be a guess as to what the level should be, and if you regularly raise on not much maybe he should have allowed for that, but you played in the right strain in a contract that might have made, even though you had few values to contribute. Why is this bad? Well, because it went down, I suppose. But I can't see this as a great failure of bidding.

 

Ken

[Al_U_Card]

I am old-fashioned (unfortunately) and until I start playing Ruben advances et al., for me dbl and bid your suit shows 18+ and the points can be ANYWHERE. There are so many ways to show the various hands including 3S to ask pard for a stopper to play in 3NT. My super-overcalls are never more than 17 so at least that can be a reference point. I also don't subscribe to pard jumping to 4S on anything, ever. He must start with a q-bid first. This allows me to deny the 4414 hand that I initially supposedly promised.

[inquiry]

But I can't see this as a great failure of bidding.

Well said. The hand is:

 

[hv=d=n&v=n&w=sjhak832dakt3ckj3&e=sxxxxxhqxxdxxcqxx]266|100|Scoring: MP[/hv]

 

With North having a light opener, with 3S and 4+diamonds. Between them they hold ♠AKQ, ♥J, ♦QJ, ♣A for 17 hcp, give EAST say "12" that leaves five for WEST. With the informaton from the bidding and these cards, I would WANT to be in 4H's. We might discover South with KQ of spades for example, wouldn' t that make the play easier?

 

There is a number of reasonable lines, including try to elope with 5 trumps in hand (ruffing 4S, including one with the ACE or king), 2D, 2C and 2 diamond ruffs in dummy (one with the Queen). That line would be 11 tricks. Of course you may not have the entries for all of that, but if they play 2 rounds of spades early, you are probably home after you knock out the club ace. Another line is the double finesse in diamonds through the diamond bidder (the opening lead might give this to you).

 

Still a comment on the bidding... EAST's hand is probably not a 2♥ bid, unless you play some conventional bid to show a normal raise to 2H, as I mentioned earlier. The Negative Double, however, makes this raise a better option, as partner will have heard the bidding and know you can not have that much (when he is strong). So I don't fault the raise even if not playing some other bid as the normal constructive heart raise.

[sfbp]

Well, the hand was worse than that

 

[hv=d=e&v=n&n=sjhak832dakt3ckj3&s=st6543ht97d762cq4]133|200|Scoring: MP[/hv]

 

My point is I felt "safe" as advancer making a courtesy raise over the Negdbl (which I certainly would not over a pass), knowing that overcaller should not have more than about 17 HCP, and nearly always less. My bid is known to be weak and I would not expect a raise.

 

I still believe the "pard might raise to 4♠" argument to be a chimera. To us, 4♠ is not a strong bid, it is a preempt, and as noted by Al_U_Card, all strong responding hands can start with a cue-bid to give partner a chance to disavow his double somewhat.

 

It actually took partner and me more than 10 minutes to see the double-dummy line too. I thought as I put the dummy down, he'd better appreciate my ♣Q ;)

[whereagles]

Well, that's less of a reason to bid 2♥. But still, one must be aware that on this bidding overcaller is likely to have 16-17 hcp and might very well go berserk after the raise.