Brian Davies
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It is difficult to follow the layout. It is also difficult to make objective judgements when you can see all four hands. I recommend that if posters want to get unbiased judgements they should only post one hand – at least initially. But with these caveats, I think that possible auctions will depend upon the meaning of 1H-2C-3D. If this sequence is strong and game forcing then maybe:
1H – 2C
3D -3NT
If North has shown 19 or a good 18 HCPs then South might diagnose the misfit and sign off in 3NT. But if South is being optimistic, he/she might bid 3H 4th Suit Forcing and drive to 6NT.
But since 1H-2C-2D is forcing, some play the jump to 3D as a splinter or some other use. Now the auction might go:
1H – 2C
2D – 3NT
4NT – Pass (or 6NT)
It is rather close whether South should accept the invite. As it happens the club suit is breaking 3-3 and both the queen of hearts and Queen of Diamonds are well placed. You can’t go wrong in 6NT.
It isn’t quite what you asked Sean, but my instinct, if playing pairs, would be to run the ten of diamonds at trick 2, whilst we still have stops in all suits. If we run the clubs we will have to make five discards, reducing our chances of developing trucks outside of clubs. Of course, on this deal, South happens to hold both the ace and queen of diamonds!
Playing teams, I duck a club.
Your partner has a very strong hand that wants to insist on game with 26 high card points. It is probably correct to start with a double. The alternative to double is to bid the opponent’s suit 3H, but this is difficult without discussing first with your partner. It would be great if we could see the two hands to see how the auction might progress.
Hi Geoff, even playing acol, I would open 1D. I think that your partner’s 2C bid on a misfitting seven points was wrong – particularly as she held four spades!
A negative double looks rather obvious on the South cards and I wouldn’t worry too much over the quality of the spade suit. I would only bid 2C with this shape if I had the values to make a second bid over 2D. Even if you give South the 10 points expected for the 2C bid, I would prefer to double.
The partnership should decide the level at which doubles are take-out. This applies to Negative/Sputnik Doubles, Responsive Doubles, Competitive Doubles etc. So the simple answer is that it is partnership agreement.
But we need to understand what the terms “Penalty Double” and “Take-out Double” mean – particularly when the auction is at a higher level and you have fewer options. Say that you have agreed that the double would be penalties (this would be the case for many partnerships at the game level), you will often wait a long time before you have the correct shape and strength in the trump suit to make a pure penalty double. The hand fro, Friday is a good example where the double will often express the opinion that the hand belong to us and they are probably going off. Partner is allowed to remove your double – with extra shape and little defence.
But maybe you have decided that the double is a Responsive Double at this level. Again you will not always have a classic Responsive Double shape (although you did in Friday’s example), but the level of the auction means that you have to tell partner that you have genuine values. I would still expect partner to pass most of the time. Partner would need additional shape to want to play at the three level.
In practice, a double at higher levels often means “I have additional values”, whether you call it penalties or not.
Bernard was responding to a suggestion from me that the double might be responsive. I don’t think that Bernard would have mentioned a responsive double without my suggestion.
In practice, there isn’t much difference between us. I don’t think that he was suggesting that the double was “penalties” in the sense that it shows length and strength in their heart suit. Similarly, I wasn’t suggesting that “Responsive” at the four-level would promise four cards in each minor, but I would expect it to deny four spades. Both of us are wanting to “show values” and tell partner that the hand belongs to us.
Hi Julian, can I ask a question on a hypothetical alternative? With 15 HCPs and a seven-card diamond suit headed by KQJ, East must be close to a 3D response. It seems to me that the auction would be more messy with a 3D response.
After 1H-3D:
- Would 3S still show reversing values?
- Would the auction 1H-3D-3S-4H be forcing?
There is discussion of Kaplan and Rubens here
Hello Charles,
Yes, I had not really taken in this thread before and missed the link. Your photos are excellent – a lot of skill and patience needed to achieve these.
There is a good reason why I am an accountant … I take a lot of photo that don’t quite work. Here is a shot of a Blue Tit that was nesting in our cavity wall during lock down:
note how sharp and in focus the wall is …!
Stuart, you should probably copy the question in Laws and Ethics forum, so that David Stevenson can answer on the alerting part of thee question.
Just to avoid confusion the 15-17 range for 2NT is not “my range”, but is the standard Acol range, so I assumed this for the set hands. I have played a few different schemes with different partners:
- One idea is to bid 3NT with 15-16 and no five-card major. 2NT shows 17-19 or a five-card major.
- Another idea that I quite like is to bid 3NT with good support for partner’s minor and 2NT with all other 15-19.
- In my current main partnership we play that 2NT shows 15-18 and 3NT shows 19-20 (we are not playing Benji and often open at the one level with 20 HCPs). There isn’t space over the 3NT bid to check for an eight-card fit in the majors, but with a minimum of 29 combined points, a no trump contract will generally be safe and often score as many tricks as the suit contract.
