Julian Pottage
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I play a penalty double against a strong no-trump, though it does not come up very often. Some pairs who say they play 15-17 quite often find an excuse to upgrade a 14 point hand and some who say they play 14-16 actually open a number of 13 point hands. The other advantage to playing the same system against strong and weak is that you do not have to remember two different defences.
yes hands with a 4-card major and a longer minor are difficult to express otherwise, so if you give up on a penalty double (or if you are passed hand), that is sensible way to ply the double.
You should treat it much the same as a weak NT. Bidding your way is constructive (unless you have already passed). You double with any 15 point hand and maybe if you have 14 points and a good 5-card suit to lead.
The major disadvantage to rebidding 3NT with 19 points is that responder cannot investigate alternative games – responder can either remove to some other contract or pass – but consulting is not an option. One point ranges are almost always inefficient because they come up rarely.
What Bernard teaches is standard if you play in a tournament.
11-16 points is rather a wide range for a single jump overcall because that encompasses both the intermediate and strong ranges. Partner will not know what to do if the strength is that wide. I have never seen the point of intermediate jump overcalls – you can hardly go wrong starting with a simple overcall.
If you play in a strong tournament, you will find that absolutely everyone is playing weak jump overcalls (about 6-10 points). They come up much more frequently than strong jump overcalls and often pose problems for the opposition. Time and again when I am writing the commentary on a deal I notice how much tougher it is for the opening side if an opponent makes a weak jump overcall.
Double jumps are different – everyone plays them as pre-emptive (about 6-10 points), not just the higher echelons. You would certainly have a 7-card or 8-card suit for a 4D overcall and normally for a double jump to the three level too.
The hand is too weak to reverse. If you open 1C, you have no rebid over a 1S response unless a 1NT rebid would be weak. I would not open a weak 1NT holding a small singleton, so I would open 1D with the option to rebid 2C over a 1S response.
If North overcalled 1NT to show a non-touching two-suiter, East would double (if that is what one does with 5-7), South would pass and then North retreats to 2D.
When playing a strong club, a balanced 16 (as West has here) would not be good enough for me but I guess East-West were playing the traditional 13-15 range for a 1NT opening. It is better to cover 11-13 and 14-16 point hands with a 1D opening and 1NT rebid and 1NT opening respectively (or vice versa perhaps non-vulnerable) and require at least 17 for strong 1C opening when balanced.
I have never heard that before! If for example 17 points with 4 hearts and 5 diamonds, it is likely to be right to open 1D and rebid 2H over a 1S response. I do not see how playing 5-card major openings could affect that.
1D-1H-2S-3H-3NT-4D-5C-6D is a possible auction. It is unusual to cue bid a second-round control at the five level (East’s 5C bid) but the diamonds are solid to compensate.
You cannot be sure of eight tricks with the East hand – if partner is weak, the singleton HK may be of little value. If you open 1D, you plan to rebid 2S over a 1H response, which will convey both the strength and approximate shape of the hand. I see nothing wrong with a 1D opening and anyone not playing Benjamin would have to open 1D (or a really off-centre 2NT) as the hand is far too weak for a game forcing opening.
After the 1D-1H-2S start, West could almost guess to bid 6D over that, though it would be normal to take the auction a bit more slowly.
Something weird has happened here. A reply that I am sure I made and one that I saw earlier have disappeared!
I did not know myself what CRASH stands for but the vanishing reply I mention said C = colour, RA = rank, SH = shape. The meaning is thus the same as CRO = Colour Rank Odd.
Truscott bids show the suit you bid plus the one higher, with 1NT showing non-touching suits.
In terms of how high takeout/negative/competitive doubles apply, by far the simplest rule is that doubles of part-score suit bids are takeout and doubles of game contracts are for penalties. Doubling the opponents into game is very expensive while doubling opponents who are already in game is less risky (though at matchpoint pairs you will generally score badly if the opponents make a doubled game).
Quite a few pairs playing a strong NT in third seat. Yes if a 1NT opening shows strong no-trump values then this affects your rebids. A 1NT rebid then shows a hand too weak for a 1NT opening.
Why do you need a minimum of 8 high card points? The weaker your hand, the less likely it is that 1NT will make and the more likely that the opponents have a contract on.
CRO = Colour Rank Odd
I did not know what CRASH stands for but Brian Davies has explained above
Truscott means that if you bid a suit (without jumping) you show the suit bid as well as the one higher (with non-touching suits you overcall 1NT, never needed in a natural sense over a strong club opening). Alan Truscott is probably more famous for being Bridge Correspondent of the New York Times and for his role in the Buenos Aires affair than for his defence to a strong 1C.
What Sean Haffey has been discussing is defence to a prepared club, which is a different topic altogether. Apologies for the confusion – sometimes it is helpful if other people reply before I do but in this case it has led to two different topics being discussed at once.
