Compete or give up ?

[sathyab]

Sathya: I strongly object to the 2♥ call and think a responsive double is a much better call. The result is not suprising after this aberration.

I wonder if it's the 2h call or making any bid with that hand that leads to this aberration. It's true that over his double, you'd bid 2s and opponents would probably reach 3m, but I find that somewhat incidental, the auction would have gotten ugly in some other way on a different lay-out.

 

What do you lose by passing with that hand ? Partner will almost certainly reopen with a semblance of a decent overcall with either X or 2s. Over the X you can bid 2s, or his 2s bid gets X'ed, you can XX it to show an honor. I know it's tough to anticipate all these developments when you're faced with the choice of passing or making a bid with those 13 cards, but is that fundamental choice so hard ?

[Edmunte1]

2♥ is a bad joke

[pclayton]

Sathya: I strongly object to the 2♥ call and think a responsive double is a much better call. The result is not suprising after this aberration.

I wonder if it's the 2h call or making any bid with that hand that leads to this aberration. It's true that over his double, you'd bid 2s and opponents would probably reach 3m, but I find that somewhat incidental, the auction would have gotten ugly in some other way on a different lay-out.

 

What do you lose by passing with that hand ? Partner will almost certainly reopen with a semblance of a decent overcall with either X or 2s. Over the X you can bid 2s, or his 2s bid gets X'ed, you can XX it to show an honor. I know it's tough to anticipate all these developments when you're faced with the choice of passing or making a bid with those 13 cards, but is that fundamental choice so hard ?

Well, you imply that double doesn't get you into trouble, so its hard to fault it. I don't see how it can lead to a poor result on other layouts too.

 

The problem with passing is that pard is marked with diamond length, which makes it tough to reopen.

[whereagles]

2♥ is lolish but that's pretty normal with a pickup pd :P

[the hog]

I echo the comments of the other posters. 2H was ridiculous.

[sathyab]

Sathya: I strongly object to the 2♥ call and think a responsive double is a much better call. The result is not suprising after this aberration.

 

The problem with passing is that pard is marked with diamond length, which makes it tough to reopen.

Opponents finding a fit and stopping at a low-level part score when you have length in their suit are the easiest conditions for balancing. On this hand partner knows that you're short in Diamonds and that you don't have more than a doubleton spade given your failure to raise. Futher he knows you didn't start with a weak 2h, so it looks like the auction tells him a lot about your hand even if you pass.

 

Several posters found the 2h bid pointless. I find the double misleading as well, in a different way, in that if the auction gets competitive at the 3-level, I'll remember that partner did bid when he could have passed and take some action that will turn out to be inappropriate. The 2d bid by LHO was way too strong, as there was no reasonable alternative, so if you double with those light cards, partner is likely to misplace some of the missing strength in your hand.

[the hog]

I agree that I would pass with your partner's hand rather than X or bid the ridiculous 2H. If on the other hand your partner held xx Axxxx x Kxxxx, he would X and not bid 2H. Why bid this empty H suit?

 

You also seem to ignore the comment made by a number of posters that the 2H bid here shows S support in a fnj. For many of us this would clearly be the case. The bidding is not logical otherwise.

[Halo]

I have read the discussion of the actual hand with interest.

 

I would say North bids 2♠ on that hand 100% of the time. Double, no thank you, 2♥ - looking at my watch for the end of the evening already.

[jdonn]

Ugh, another of my least favorite bids. The raise on the doubleton.

 

I can't understand this desire to find a bid on that pitiful north hand. The best thing you can say about double is it's not 2♥. Phil wondered how double could lead to a poor result. Well if the next player bid 3♦ and I had the original problem hand, I'd sure as heck double that. It's not hard to imagine how bidding with a pile of garbage can lead to a bad result.

[Winstonm]

I can't understand this desire to find a bid on that pitiful north hand.

 

Obviously, the point is to endplay partner into an impossible bidding decision. :)

[Fluffy]

I can't understand this desire to find a bid on that pitiful north hand.

 

Obviously, the point is to endplay partner into an impossible bidding decision. :)

Wow, he is very good!, is it the reason why he is selfrated an expert? :P

[Guest Jlall]

I can't understand this desire to find a bid on that pitiful north hand.

ditto