[mikeh]

jmcw, on 2012-February-09, 20:33, said:

Hope you didn't think my follow up was nitpicking.
FWIW, I find your comments insightful and very well written. It's also abundantly clear you know your stuff, so Ty for taking the time to reply, I very much appreciate.

thanks for the kind words, and, no, I didn't take anything you (or anyone else) wrote here as 'nitpicking'. I was making a rueful comment, that is all...I didn't mean to offend anyone. I am usually far more pointed and explicit when I intend to offend someone

[rogerclee]

I'm not sure why 3S is a bad bid, I think anything else is overthinking it.

We might get too high if partner forces to slam in diamonds, but in all other cases 3S is a good start. If partner wants to slam in spades, my hand is not even a minimum. I can follow up pulling 3N to 4C to find a club fit, while the negative doublers could possibly land in 4S while cold for 7C. If partner passes out the negative double (which he should on many hands), doubling will likely have been either bad or disastrous.

[JLOGIC]

I think that a negative double is horrible.

[Zelandakh]

HighLow21, on 2012-February-09, 17:43, said:

Depends on whether you play neg dbls through 2♠ or through 3♠. Seems to me like most negative double agreements cease to hold once the 3 level has been reached, but it's open to partnership agreement.

mikeh, on 2012-February-09, 18:10, said:

HiLow.....I sense that you are going to benefit greatly from being in these forums.....the great majority of experts play negative doubles through the 3-level, and my personal experience suggests that through 4♠ is common.

A few years ago I used the handy "Negative Double Thru" section of the WBF cc to compare the levels for pairs in major events. The most common levels appearing were 4♦/4♥ (4♦ very common over 1♥) but with 4♠ and higher bids also mentioned frequently. My feeling is that the levels would quite possibly be higher now and certainly not lower. I would recommend any pair to play negative doubles to at least 1 step below 4 of Opener's suit and ideally higher in the case of 1m openings. In other words 4♥/4♦/4♥/4♥ would be a minimum and 4♥/4♦/4♠/4♠ is probable better. Higher levels may be better still; certainly some very good players recommend such an approach.

[whereagles]

The negative dbl plan looks ok to me, but I just can't do it on a 6-5. 3S for me.