1C P 1D (1M)

[straube]

Our 1D response to our strong club is akin to Moscito's diamond. It is GF and promises either a balanced hand or an unbalanced hand with 4+ major.

If RHO overcalls, we have three choices that I can see...

 

1. Try to stay in system. Opener can reverse relay a number of hands but he can also pass and try to relay partner's hand. The trouble of course with passing is that LHO may raise preemptively and then we're not well-placed.

 

2. Reverse relay all/most of opener's hands. He would dbl as penalty or pass with four of RHO's suit. All other bids would start to pattern out. For example 1C P 1D (1S) 1N would show 4+ hearts. In the

event that opener passes or doubles, responder can pattern out his hand if he so chooses. For example...1C P 1D (1S) P P 1N also shows hearts.

 

3. Just bid naturally.

[DinDIP]

Our 1D response to our strong club is akin to Moscito's diamond. It is GF and promises either a balanced hand or an unbalanced hand with 4+ major.

If RHO overcalls, we have three choices that I can see...

 

<snip>

 

While there is some merit in trying to optimise how individual sequences such as this are handled, I think that is only sensible for a partnership where both players have computer-like recall which does not affect their mental effort on other aspects of the game. For the vast majority of us it's MUCH better IMO to have universal principles that apply to all similar auctions. So, if your normal rules are that you continue to relay/reverse relay over interference of one or two steps then do that here. If your normal rules are that intereference breaks the chain and you revert to NAT bidding do that. There will be some auctions where you waste a step or reduce or even eliminate your chances of penalising the opps. But, IMO, that's a reasonable price to pay for being certain that you and partner will ALWAYS know what's going on.

 

Having said that, if you do want to consider adding another rule to your agreements then you might try what Shevek calls "bubble doubles". The idea is that the double always shows the suit the opps have bid, so increasing the opportunity to penalise them. (It isn't perfect because you don't know whether the double shows 5432 or AKJ9xx in their suit.) So, after 1C (P) 1D (1H)

P = relay

X = 4+H

1S = 4+S etc

 

After 1C (P) 1D (1S)

P = relay

X = 4+S

1N = 4+H etc

 

I've played this in two partnerships but never had the penalty X come up and one partner (not Shevek) got two auctions wrong (because the doubles meant we had to add a step to a higher response to show 4441/5440). But that's a very limited sample.

 

David