Trouble after negative double

[Stephen Tu]

I was taught to never ever bid NT without a stopper in the opponents' suit(s). It made a lot of sense at the time (clearly you don't want to end up in an NT game without a stopper in the suit they're very likely to lead, right?). I really and honestly don't understand how opener can tell whether or not my NT includes a stopper or not (and thus know when to avoid 3NT). I have no doubt there are ways, but I never learned them.

 

You try not to bid NT without a stopper -- when there are reasonable alternative calls, or if passing is reasonable. In these situations where partner has doubled, and passing for penalties is insane, and other bids are unpalatable, 1nt is often your best shot, even without stopper. This is because:

- partner may have stopper, esp. since your RHO didn't raise

- at this point you are only in one, even if they run 5 (or 6!) tricks in the suit, you aren't down yet!

- it might well be the best partial double dummy, and it's the only way to bid it at this point. As others have mentioned, opener with a spade stopper and 4 hearts, playing an up-the-line style, should probably double in preference to bidding 1nt, so you can reach 2h when responder does have 4 hearts, rather than 1nt.

 

In these types of auctions where partner may have bid 1nt as least of evils, without stop, then later in the auction you can cue bid to see if partner really has a stop; without a stop partner should bid something else (usu preference to opener's 1st suit), and you avoid 3nt.

[mike777]

[hv=pc=n&e=s765ha75dkq92cjt9&d=n&v=e&b=9&a=ppp1cp1d1sdp]133|200[/hv]

Was 1♦ the right call? (I was hoping partner would be the one to declare NT)

What now?

 

 

good thread with good posts.

 

I prefer a simple 1nt response not 1d with 4333 aND TEN HCP AND OPP SILENT HOW BAD CAN THIS BE....I prefer x here would be support x showing 3d.

 

I think 1nt here should be 8-10 btw. With less i respond 1d.

 

--

 

side note for me responder cannot have 4h or 4s here.

[Antraxxx]

This has been enlightening. Thanks everyone for your answers.

For the curious, at the table I invented a 3♣ bid which I hoped would make sense - it meant to show I'm too strong for 2♣, have no stopper for NT, don't have four heart support and don't have a five card or longer diamond suit. In my head it made sense, however when it was passed out partner found it difficult to make with Qxx clubs opposite my JT9. Everyone else were on the good 3NT (partner had AQxx♠) :)

[gwnn]

So... What did partner have??

[Antraxxx]

Partner's exact hand:

[hv=pc=n&w=saq93hq984dj4cq65]133|100[/hv]

I didn't want to show his hand because he probably misbid worse than I have, and I was more interested in what I could've done better. Checking the hand again, I see that people didn't really end up in 3NT, I was confused with another hand from the same session where we missed an easy 3NT.

[gwnn]

looks like 1NT was the winning bid :D

 

and it definitely looks like you and your partner have different ideas on how often you should x with 4 hearts.

[Antraxxx]

Yeah, we'll definitely discuss it at length - I told him about the stopperless 1NT bid, we agreed it sounds reasonable, and then during last evening's session he made the same negative double (auction was 1♣-(p)-1♦-(1♥)-x) this time showing a three card spade suit!

So yeah, we clearly should work out what double means over opponents' interference :)

 

[edit]

As far as when to double and when to overcall 1NT, we're playing in MP tournaments so if 1NT looks feasible, that's probably where we want to be. Of course, now that we allow a stopperless NT, it's probably better to always show four hearts if you have a non-positional stopper, I think.