One from the BIL I'm not so sure about

Cascade, on Feb 4 2008, 02:06 PM, said:

If we are worried about partner not having four diamonds then it seems we need to be bidding our clubs at some point in the auction.

Of course there are problems with introducing clubs as partner will not necessarily know he needs to rebid his diamonds to confirm four!!!

The choices seem to be:

1. (1♠) Pass (1NT) 2♣...

2 (1♠ Pass (1NT) X
(Pass) 2♦ (2♠) 3♣...

3. (1♠ Pass (1NT) X
(Pass) 2♦ (2♠) 3♠
(Pass) 3NT (Pass) 4♣...

I think I like the first or second options best.

(Although I don't know on the second auction how later I am going to convince parter that I have four diamonds if that is relevent).

Presumably you choose double because you thought this hand was too strong to go via a simple 2♣ overcall. It also gives you a chance to find a heart fit should partner leap in hearts, or to find a diamond fit. I have to admit i would have just overcalled 2♣ planning on doubling 2♠ should that come back to me.

On your choice to double, after partner bids 2♦ there is a reasonable chance parnter has five spades and is bidding a three card suit (some say even six spades, but I too can't see the raise to 2♠ on a two card suit). So the best option after 2♠, imo, is 3♣. This shows a strong hand, this shows clubs. The down side is it might put you in the wrong strain should partner pass with five diamonds or something and no club fit. This auction (dbl then bid clubs) shows a strong hand of course.

The full hand, actually was the following.

Scoring: IMP

As an aside, i was playing this hand as the 1♠ opener, in an event where the players chat with the kibitzers in private to share their thoughts about the hand. These things are played (at least by me) on the first and third sunday of each month at 15:30 EST. We are always looking for advanced to expert opponents (and partners) to come in and share their thoughts while they play with the kibitzers in the BIL. I am not sure what the other players were saying to the kibitzers during the hand, but eventually the entire thing gets posted to the BIL webpage along with the comments from all four players in a bridge movie. You can look brilliant or totally stupid for all time based upon what thoughts you share with the kibitizers. I certainly have looked both at times (I used discovery play to drop singleton king of trumps offsides missing four trumps once -- that was good, i explained once how parnter had to have such and such hand, only to be wildly wrong because i had assumed the acution was (pass)-pass-(2C*) *=precison, when it was really just pass-(2C*) -- that was bad.

As an example of how this works, as south in this diagram (north in reality, hands rotated), I opened 1♠, noting to the kibitzers... "inquiry->Kibitzers: in precison, an opening 1♠ bid is limited to 15 hcp or less. This is actually a better than minimum precision opening bid... of course, it could be better"

Following the double of 1NT, I noted..."inquiry->Kibitzers: i would have bid 2♦ if RHO had passed, here i will pass to figure out if partner has clubs and if LHO has spades.... i think they will bid ♥s here... if so i might balance back with 2NT "

When the 3♠ cue bid came around I offered up this bit of info... "inquiry->Kibitzers: some people play double of spade cuebid means lead my suit, others play don't lead it... i don't want to make it easy on West so i will pass" (here i thought WEST was going to have a difficult bid over 3♠, a double would allow him to pass.

When they bid 4♦, i probably made a mistake of passing, however, I thought I would get a chance to double something higher, as I noted.. "inquiry->Kibitzers: in theory 4!Ds is forcing, so no need to double 4!ds... lets see if they continue...." (IF I had doubled 3♠, and west had passed, east could have bid a non-forcing 4♦, as it turned out, WEST passed 4♦ anyway. So, sadly they didn't continue, on the plus side, they were down three. I made some comments during the play as well, including things like figuring out WEST's distribution to include 5♠, 2♥, 2♣ thus 3 trumps, etc.

Consider joining us, still looking for volunteers in the future. And of course, you can offer your services to the BIL on other dates/times. Just be aware, 1) no psyches, 2) play a vanilla system that the Beginners/intermediate players might be familiar with.

This post has been edited by inquiry: 2008-February-05, 07:43

inquiry, on Feb 6 2008, 02:42 AM, said:

Cascade, on Feb 4 2008, 02:06 PM, said:

I was more sitting on the fence saying that either the first or the second options were best and pointing out that there were problems with the second option - as you also pointed out you could easily end in clubs in a 6-1 or maybe even a 6-0 fit when you had an 8 or 9-card fit in diamonds and partner was very weak.

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