Those pesky spades

[Hanoi5]

Red vs White, imp pairs:

 

♠---

♥AKx

♦AQ98xx

♣AJTx

 

4♠-5♦-5♠-Pa

Pa-???

[jillybean]

I would double, I don't want to force to the 6lvl at these colors

[the hog]

Double. This is also the bid i would have made on the first round.

[mikeh]

Double just has to be correct here.

 

When the opps preempt with apparent effectiveness, as here, we should strive to get the least bad result rather than the best result. Or as S.J. Simon said: aim for the best result possible rather than the best possible result.

 

Over 4♠, our choices were 5♦, double or 4N.

 

4N leaves us having to pass 5♣, since correcting to 5♦ would show a red two-suiter, so that it out.

 

Double will far too often lead to having to make the opening lead...while that may be the best possible result, our hand suggests that bidding 5♦ will more often lead to a better outcome.....in part because, as here, we get to double 5♠.

 

5♦: we'd rather have a better suit, but this bid seems, to me at least, as the least bad call at this juncture.

 

 

Now that the auction has come back to us, we have to do something to announce ownership of the hand.

 

Bidding clubs would convey the length discrepancy, but would overstate the combined minor shape....I'd expect 7-5 or so.

 

Bidding 5N would seem to me to be slightly better, in that, having bid diamonds already, partner won't prefer clubs without at least 2 more clubs than diamonds. I'm not sure exactly how one should best define the differences between 6♣ and 5N....I doubt that the situation is one I'll ever need to clarify.....how can we force to slam after making a passable 5♦ call? And how can we be saving at this heat?

 

So I think we are driven to double.

 

While the odds are very high that we are now going to have to find the lead (I'd love to have a trump both for the lead and because it would virtually eliminate the chance that we can make slam), partner isn't actually barred by this call, if made in reasonable tempo.

[rmnka447]

Double in tempo.

 

At IMPs, it's better to take the sure positive than speculate on a slam.