1C - (no) - 1D - (X) - XX?

[shevek]

You open a strong club and get a 1D negative.

Next hand doubles. You ask. This might be explained as:

 

"diamonds" or "majors" or "some good hand" or "undiscussed".

 

In these cases, what should opener's redouble be? (Assume it's not relay)

Secondly, when should responder pass this?

 

Thanks

[Free]

That depends imo. If you normally play 1♥ as a relay to show extras I'd use RDbl to show extras and the rest natural. On the other hand, if you play 1M as natural and forcing, you can keep that structure and use RDbl for some difficult hands (4441 for example).

[DinDIP]

I think the answer depends on the partnership philosophy about handling intereference. If it is to revert to defensive mode (i.e. bidding as though they had opened with that bid/call) then XX should be takeout of diamonds or of both majors, and values with penalty interest if the double shows a strong hand or is undiscussed. If the partnership's approach is (when the auction is low enough -- as it is here) to ignore the interference and continue with our constructive bidding then XX should be an extra-strength relay, which allows 1H to be NAT. As our partnership's agreement is to continue relaying when their intereference is lower than 1H, XX should be a relay.

 

However, from a theoretical viewpoint, there's a lot to be said for the idea that when they make a shape-showing bid and we have only shown strength our bidding should revert to shape-showing as the auction is likely to be competitive. It's possible to combine that with retaining XX as a relay: pass with min BALish hands (and awkward UNBAL hands such as 4441s) and widen the range of the NAT, shape-showing bids to 16-19, even 20; and play a 1N rebid as 18-20. That way O only relays when he is really strong (21+ or equivalent)

 

David

[jjbrr]

i'd always just play xx as "i have diamonds"