strange-looking double

[david_c]

RHO deals and opens 2♥, LHO bids 2♠ (natural, constructive), RHO raises to 3♠ and LHO bids 4♥. Partner now doubles this.

 

- What should this double mean?

 

RHO passes, and you look at your hand: ♠x ♥xxx ♦AJxxx ♣Txxx

 

- What do you think is going on?

 

- What do you do now?

 

(IMPs, nil vul against good opposition.)

[whereagles]

Lead a spade. Good opps might bid a psyche 2♠ on xxx of spades.

[mikestar]

The spade stiff may work out well even if they aren't psyching. No one has promised extras and partner can see that both majors are breaking badly. The declarer will mark your lead as a singleton, but it may inconvenience him knowing you can ruff any spade card that your partner can't beat--perhaps leading to a premature drawing of trumps.

[kenberg]

Had the auction gone 2H-pass-4H-X I suppose you would pass and lead a spade. Same here only more so.

 

As to what's going on, it's anyone's guess. The double, I should hope, shows a good hand. No one will be shocked if the dummy comes down with heart support and modest, maybe very modest, spades but so be it.

[rbforster]

Wouldn't partner's initial X of 2♠ shown a good hand with spades? In particular, (2♥)-P-(2♠)-X is often played as exposing the common 2♠ psych. If you have this understanding, what should we infer in this auction by partner's failure to X earlier?

 

Do clarify, what do we think is going on with the spade suit here? Most weak 2 bidders will avoid preempting with a side 4 card major. Giving RHO 3 spades, that still leaves 9 between LHO and partner. If partner's hand is good enough to X 4♥, I'd think it was good enough to X 2♠ if he had 5+ of them.

[pclayton]

Wouldn't partner's initial X of 2♠ shown a good hand with spades? In particular, (2♥)-P-(2♠)-X is often played as exposing the common 2♠ psych. If you have this understanding, what should we infer in this auction by partner's failure to X earlier?

 

Do clarify, what do we think is going on with the spade suit here? Most weak 2 bidders will avoid preempting with a side 4 card major. Giving LHO 3 spades, that still leaves 9 between RHO and partner. If partner's hand is good enough to X 4♥, I'd think it was good enough to X 2♠ if he had 5+ of them.

This has been brought up in MSC a few times. Personally I think double of 2♠ should be penalty - with 4 or 5 trump and 3♠ should show at least 6 (in case RHO really isn't fooling around).