Impossible Auction?

[jonottawa]

Playing 2/1 with support doubles, you pick up in 4th all white:

 

♠AJ73 ♥J8 ♦9862 ♣AQ2

 

P - 1♣ - P - 1♠

X - P - 2♥ - X

P - 3♥ - P - 3N

P - 4♠ - P - ?

 

If yes, what's partner's most likely hand?

 

(And I hate your 3NT bid too, but that's another poll.)

[skjaeran]

No, this auction doesn't exist for me in a rational sense. I won't venture to guess partners hand. He's obviously got a fit for me - other than that, I haven't got a clue.

[Guest Jlall]

definitely impossible.

[rogerclee]

Partner passed the double, basically denying both spade support and an awesome hand. He then proceeded to show spade support along with an awesome hand.

 

Impossible.

[Guest Jlall]

I was thinking maybe he passed 2H then bid 3H with like an 18 count and no heart stopper or something...but then he bid 4S lol.

[mike777]

Playing 2/1 with support doubles, you pick up in 4th all white:

 

♠AJ73 ♥J8 ♦9862 ♣AQ2

 

P - 1♣ - P - 1♠

X - P - 2♥ - X

P - 3♥ - P - 3N

P - 4♠ - P - ?

 

If yes, what's partner's most likely hand?

 

(And I hate your 3NT bid too, but that's another poll.)

Can we please back up stop responder bidding x over 2h

[brianshark]

Maybe opener has a hand he feels is too good to raise directly to 4♠ and was fishing for information before making some strong sounding raise? I suppose he could have redoubled.

[helene_t]

Maybe opener has a hand he feels is too good to raise directly to 4♠ and was fishing for information before making some strong sounding raise? I suppose he could have redoubled.

Yes, that's my thoughts as well. Or maybe he was hoping that LHO is a noob who would think the double was for penalties :)

 

Maybe he "should" have redoubled or bid 4♠ instead of passing, but I think the auction makes some sense anyway.

[Finch]

If we play support redoubles (I don't) then he can't have a strong hand that wants to penalise. The auction doesn't really exist, but I might guess that

 

- Partner didn't know what redouble of 1H would have meant, so didn't make it.

- Partner has a strong 3145 or similar

 

I hate our 3NT bid. Why did we think we had a heart stop? 4C seems obvious.

[kenrexford]

Yeah, maybe some high defense-to-offense ratio hand like ♠Kxxx ♥AK ♦AK ♣Kxxxx? This makes for a tricky situation, as 6♠ may be on.

[ulven]

The only explanation I can think of would be a minimum hand with 3-0 in the major's. Don't want to make a support XX and don't want to play 3NT, but certainly to good for 2/3sp over X. Say Qxx/-/AJxx/Kxxxxx?

 

Maybe impossible is the correct answer.

[han]

Why would you not make a support redouble with that hand?

[jdonn]

I think partner was dicking around with a huge hand.

[pclayton]

I think partner was dicking around with a huge hand.

Ditto. And apologies to Dick.

 

I think pard has 3 spades, some real good clubs, and didn't want to make a support double. He thought he could control the auction and 'listen' to whats going on. In the end, he had a nasty guess.

 

I seldom play with people like this btw.

[P_Marlowe]

Hi,

 

one option, not sure, if this is a rational option:

Partner has 4 or more spades and a heart shortage,

he decided to pass 1Sx, ... for whatever reasons,

looked for slam hearing about a heart shortage with

me, and after hearing I have heart wastage (Kx) signed

off in 4S.

 

The main trouble of course is, that this would give

the opponents 10 hearts, which is not consistent

with their auction.

 

With kind regards

Marlowe

[jonottawa]

Guess it was impossible to work out. I thought it might be possible to deduce what I held, based on the fact that it's easy for me to describe almost any other hand type with at least 3 Spades. Actual hand below. How would you have bid it? (And I hate people who bid like this too. This time that people was me, though.)

 

 

♠K8642 ♥A3 ♦ - ♣KT9763 I thought a direct 4 Spades over the double would get us too high too often. Am I nuts?

 

[lexlogan]

Everyone seems to assume 4♠ shows spades support, but partner denied that earlier. Perhaps partner has Kx x AKQ KJxxxxx.

[lexlogan]

Can't see your hand, only the suit symbols.

[helene_t]

You have to mark his post with the mouse, lexlogan. It is written in hidden text.

[pclayton]

Guess it was impossible to work out. I thought it might be possible to deduce what I held, based on the fact that it's easy for me to describe almost any other hand type with at least 3 Spades. Actual hand below. How would you have bid it? (And I hate people who bid like this too. This time that people was me, though.)

 

 

♠K8642 ♥A3 ♦ - ♣KT9763 I thought a direct 4 Spades over the double would get us too high too often. Am I nuts?

Well at least you are honest.

 

In some of my partnerships, 4♠ shows about this hand. Splinters are stronger in terms of point count.

[Codo]

I can think about just one possible hand:

You have a strong hand with 4 Spades and hoped to get it for 1 Spade X or to fetch some more informations.

 

You surely do not have just 3 Spades, or you forgot your support double AND took 3 NT to a 4/3 fit.

 

I really think that any other second bid with your hand (instead of pass) had described the hand better, but otoh I agree with you that pd should have found it. At least in the post mortem. :)

[Finch]

Guess it was impossible to work out. I thought it might be possible to deduce what I held, based on the fact that it's easy for me to describe almost any other hand type with at least 3 Spades. Actual hand below. How would you have bid it? (And I hate people who bid like this too. This time that people was me, though.)

 

 

♠K8642 ♥A3 ♦ - ♣KT9763 I thought a direct 4 Spades over the double would get us too high too often.

Am I nuts?

Yes.

 

I understand why you passed the double (although I don't agree with it), but you probably needed to simplify matters by bidding 4S over partner's double.

[nige1]

Playing 2/1 with support doubles, you pick up in 4th all white:

♠AJ73 ♥J8 ♦9862 ♣AQ2

P - 1♣ - P - 1♠

X - P - 2♥ - X

P - 3♥ - P - 3N

P - 4♠ - P - ?

If yes, what's partner's most likely hand?

(And I hate your 3NT bid too, but that's another poll.)

2/1 auctions always seem inexplicable :)

For example what did your double of 2♥ mean? and did your 3N = minors?

Perhaps partner has ♠ KQxx ♥ AKQ ♦ KJ ♣ Jxxx

[kenrexford]

Guess it was impossible to work out. I thought it might be possible to deduce what I held, based on the fact that it's easy for me to describe almost any other hand type with at least 3 Spades. Actual hand below. How would you have bid it? (And I hate people who bid like this too. This time that people was me, though.)

 

 

♠K8642 ♥A3 ♦ - ♣KT9763 I thought a direct 4 Spades over the double would get us too high too often. Am I nuts?

There is a certain logic to this. The auction suggests, if you assume rational, that Opener has an impossible hand to describe with wildly interesting values that are extremely, almost absurdly, fit-dependent. I suppose I get it.

[helene_t]

You surely do not have just 3 Spades, or you forgot your support double

Lol, failure to use the support redouble denies 3-card support but 4-card support is possible?

 

Reminds me of someone (at StepBridge) who replied 2♦ to Stayman holding a 5-card spades. He thought he had to deny a 4-card major with that holding :)

 

.... certain .... rational ... impossible .... wildly interesting ...... extremely, almost absurdly ....

At secondary school, in foreign language classes, we sometimes had those "add some more adjectives to this text to make it more colorful" exercises. Did you have those as well ?