Julian Pottage
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After West has bid diamonds, North cannot bid diamonds naturally. If, like almost everyone these days, you play double as takeout, you should simply pass and hope that partner reopens with a double. South might indeed reopen with a double. After North leaves in the double, I would expect East to make an SOS redouble. West will not like that development very much, though the way the clubs are situated East-West do reasonable well with either black suit as trumps (or in no-trumps).
The hand you have given has only 12 cards (and the partner’s hand also has only 12 cards). It sounds like you should have reopened with 2NT rather than a double. The fact that you bid not bid 2NT on the first round warns partner that you probably have fewer than 10 cards in the minors.
While the diamond suit is not the strongest North will ever hold, it is of four cards in length. Given that the clubs are so much stronger, I would be tempted to respond 2C rather than 2D. If you play a 1NT response as non-forcing, you do not want to bid it with 13 points because you will often miss game. After survived the 1NT response, North should have bid game on the next round.
I play a 2NT response as showing 4-card spade support, so that would not be an option for me. If you do play 2NT as natural, that is a better choice than 1NT at any rate.
You can make 11 tricks with spades as trumps but you will not make as many as that in 3NT on a heart lead, a lead East will surely find.
Most people play that double is a takeout of opener’s suit and tends to show a slightly stronger hand than a double of opener’s suit would have done because the reply will have to be at the two level. As Brian Davies suggests, you might wish to ask the same question to David Stevenson.
With a singleton heart, West should not have bid 4H whatever strength 3H showed. NS were a bit lucky that diamonds were 7-0 rather than 6-1. If they had been 6-1, East switches to a diamond when in with the CA and scores a ruff. As it was only an initial diamond lead would have defeated 5C; presumably West started with a heart.
That is right. Without the overcall you have to find a rebid because a simple change of suit response by an unpassed hand can be very strong. Here you do not need to keep the bidding open for responder to bid again because the overcall has already ensured that the responding hand has another chance. If you bid when you do not have to, a ‘free’ rebid, it should carry a positive message.
You are doing fine. Italian Cue Bidding only applies at the three and four level. This means you have 4NT available to check that you do not have two aces missing.
Once upon a time people played that responder had to redouble on any strong hand and therefore other actions were limited by the failure to redouble (and so non-forcing). Nowadays most people ignore the double on most hands, only redoubling on hands looking to double the opponents. It would seem that South is from the old school while North is from a more modern school. As you suggest, it is a question of partnership agreement.
The difference between an opening bid and an overcall is that (unless you are playing five-card majors and open a major), an opening bid might be on a four-card suit while an overcall is normally indicates a five-card suit or longer.
So yes it is logical for a bid of the opposing suit to show a sound raise whether partner has opened or overcalled but in the case of an opening bid the cue bid would usually show four-card support.
People who play a short 1C opening normally do so in conjunction with a strong no-trump opening. Has South downgraded the hand to 14 points? (I did actually open a 12-14 1NT yesterday on a hand with 15 points – no tens or nines and indeed the highest card in my four-card spade was was the seven.) Playing a short club, a 2C reply is like a change of suit rather than a raise so is quite normal on the North hand.
I would not be passing with West hand over 1C. Vulnerable I might bid only 2D – I would be bidding 3D non-vulnerable. For sure I would overcall 3H on the East hand after North’s 2C response. South, with a heart stopper, would presumably bid 3NT over that.
If South had passed then a second double of clubs would clearly be for takeout, simply showing a bit better then minimum double. It would be usual for a player who doubles 1C for takeout to have something in hearts, so when the second double is of hearts it is more optional than takeout.
Before the days of transfers the jump to 3S could mean one of two things – either a hand that was offering a choice of games or a hand that was interested in a slam. With a slam suitable hand, opener was (indeed still is) expected to cue bid rather than simply raising the major.
The reason for having a higher upper limit after the major suit opening is that you are less likely to be able to double than rebid 1NT over partner’s reply. As you say, trying to remember four different ranges will be tricky! Having two ranges, one for over a minor and one for over a major is more realistic.
Playing 1NT in fourth seat as having a similar range to a weak no-trump opening is standard. While this does mean you have to be brave and start with a double with 15-16, knowing you will have to rebid 2NT if partner’s best suit is lower ranking than opener’s, I think it works best. If you play a 12-16 range, partner has to look for game with 9-10 points. When, as will be the case most of the time, you do not have 15-16, you are playing a level higher than you need to.
