[kista]

Both Vulnerable Dealer North -2N X & then X = Cooperative penalty

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Pass followed by X by South would have been Penalty.

Declarer ducked the ♣K from East and won the ♣continuation by East , ran the ♠9 to East's ♠A , won the ♣continuation , ran the ♠suit. East was strip squeezed and was reduced to ♥A♦KJ ♣109 and so declarer was home with the last 3 ♦tricks. for a score of +650 to NS.

NS managed the bidding & play smartly. Could EW have done something to reach their par of 4♣X ? by way of better partnership agreement, reasoning or judgement.

One way is to play the 3N X by E is to ask partner to decide to defend or bid since East can pass 3NT when he knows defending is best for their side.

Could the auction & actions be different for other vulnerabilities ?

[Vampyr]

kista, on 2011-March-18, 00:45, said:

Pass followed by X by South would have been Penalty.
...

Could the auction & actions be different for other vulnerabilities ?

Well, with the above agreement there is a bit of a danger of 2NT being passed out when E/W are favourable.

[kista]

Vampyr, on 2011-March-18, 01:12, said:

Well, with the above agreement there is a bit of a danger of 2NT being passed out when E/W are favourable.

Pass here is only similar to a negative double treatment. Partner will know to balance with a double or bid, if 2N is passed by West (disclosing a misfit). NS can now get ready to collect the penalty.

[han]

If pass followed by double is penalty, why didn't south do that?

[quiddity]

han, on 2011-March-18, 09:46, said:

If pass followed by double is penalty, why didn't south do that?

I'm probably missing something.. why would he want to do that with a spade fit and only 3 cards in whichever minor they pick?

[han]

Oh sorry, he has three spades. I missed it looking at the ACE-QUEEN-THIRD IN BOTH OF THE OPPONENTS SUITS!!

[gnasher]

han, on 2011-March-19, 07:59, said:

Oh sorry, he has three spades. I missed it looking at the ACE-QUEEN-THIRD IN BOTH OF THE OPPONENTS SUITS!!

And ♥9, which is South's other vital defensive card.

[FrancesHinden]

...and North would have pulled a penalty double if the 7 and 6 of diamonds had been swapped, of course.

[cherdano]

I would also go for the penalty double route with the South hand. On many hands where 3mX would not go down sufficiently, LHO may bump to 4m.