Difference in strength?

[pclayton]

You pick up this nice assortment: ♠Kx ♥Qx ♦Kx ♣KQJTxxx

 

You open 1♣ and LHO bids 2♣ Michaels. Pard doubles.

 

You aren't sitting for a penalty double with this, but this isn't a bad hand either.

 

What do you think describes this hand the best?

[RichMor]

I think the general approach is similar to opener's rebids after they make a takeout double and pard redoubles:

 

1. Bidding in front of pard shows a hand not suited for defense and better than minimum in terms of offense.

2. Pulling pard's double with a minimum rebid shows a minimum hand not suited for defense.

3. A jump rebid or reverse in front of pard shows a good offensive hand.

4. Pulling pard's double with a jump rebid or reverse seems impossible.

[Apollo81]

I think pass and pull is weaker when the auction isn't GF, but I could be wrong.

[mikeh]

Great question! I have never discussed this with any partner, even partners I have played some serious bridge with.

 

My take on it is that we need a reason to bid ahead of partner and this should be a constructive reason. However, it might be easier to play it consistently with double/redouble, in which opener's immediate bid, preempting the runout, is weak, weak, weak...

 

BTW, while I appreciate the reluctance to play for penalties with a self-sufficient suit... 3N will often do nicely if we have defence.. what kind of hand would you expect for a minimum penalty double if LHO bids 2♥ and rho passes partner's double?

 

Is Hxx enough, with the other major under control and some outside defence? or does he need Hxxx?

 

Would you be bidding with the same honour cards and 2=2=3=6 shape?

[Impact]

Given the Honour distribution and the long suit, the interesting question is whether 2NT here shows this type of hand ahead of partner.....long C but positional reason to bid NT first..as opposed to long C weak hand.

 

I would bid 2NT here, expecting it to be forcing, but I can think of a few partners who might be scratching their heads and wondering if I held 1-1-5-6 or 1-1-4-7 or similar....at least most would agree it is long C and stronger than 3C without discussion.

 

Thee theoretical issue has been addressed in my longterm partnership: pass and pull is strong for consistency but tends to also suggest he can handle whatever comes...maybe that is applicable here with that 7 card suit but SOME of the Major cards have to be wasted...unless playing in NT

regards

[gnasher]

I think we should play transfers here, so that I can show clubs and then announce whether I wanted it to be forcing.

 

Without that agreement, I'd expect pass followed by 3♣ to be stronger than a direct 3♣. This is, however, complicated by the fact that you don't yet know where they're going to play.

 

Suppose that you are willing to pass a double of 2♥ but not of 2♠. You pass, LHO bids 2♠, and partner doubles. What do you do? Again, you can make use of 2NT to sort out the different strengths, but it needs agreement.