[Jinksy]

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The opps play 5542 openings (though would it make a diff to you if they played 5533?).

IMP pairs.

[TylerE]

Balancing X seems 100% obvious

[kenrexford]

TylerE, on 2016-June-20, 12:26, said:

Balancing X seems 100% obvious

But you have at least one club trick.

[ggwhiz]

In any modern overcall style opposite a passed hand that I know of, partner has denied a pulse. Fast pass.

[nige1]

Jinksy, on 2016-June-20, 11:18, said:

The opps play 5542 openings (though would it make a diff to you if they played 5533?).IMP pairs.

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A close guess. I rank

• Double = T/O. Risky but "it's a bidder's game" and passing out a low-level part-score is rarely a winning pairs tactic. Be prepared to apologise if opponents wake up and bid game/slam.
• Pass = Sensible and safe. Most of your points are in ♣s. If partner has a good hand, then he has ♣s and opponents are quite likely to have a better ♠ contract.
• 1N = Balancing. Not bad in theory but prospects are bleak if LHO doubles.

[foobar]

ggwhiz, on 2016-June-20, 15:31, said:

In any modern overcall style opposite a passed hand that I know of, partner has denied a pulse. Fast pass.

+1

[1eyedjack]

I passed. A lot of modern styles have only one strong bid (2C) and a lot of good players are rightly reluctant to use that opener on awkward hands, trusting (usually with justification) that if partner does not keep the bidding alive then the opponents will. Well, not me.

[mathboy]

foobar, on 2016-June-20, 22:37, said:

+1

+2

[GrahamJson]

Depends somewhat on oppo. But playing against random BBO pairs I would pass as they could well be playing in a silly contract. On the other hand, partnering certain players that I have kibbed I would double, as they seem to need a big hand before they consider over calling.

[msjennifer]

PASS without a blink.Why allow them to find a better contract? This hand contains KQ in club .Replace them with xx and put those KQ in spades and then it suddenly becomes a reasonable take out double.A remote possibility not mentioned is perhaps they play limited 1 level openings.A second possibility is RHO misclicked or made a trap pass in a losing session prompting you to bid something.

[eagles123]

my gut reaction was wtp x but now not so sure.

[fourdad]

mathboy, on 2016-June-21, 01:09, said:

+2

+3

[helene_t]

It seems unlikely that we can make game and defending 1c might well be our best chance of plus. It may depend on their response structure. If the pass suggest clubs then I want to double.

[kenberg]

I voted pass.

Anything is possible, but here is what happened the other day. I opened 1C, passed out, +110. Had my rho doubled, I was going to bid 1NT on my 18 count. In theory, 1NT can be held to +90, but there were quite a few 120s and some 150s. They have a heart fit and maybe they will find it after the double. Suppose they do. We can go on to 3C for our +110. If they go on to 3H we can double and beat it 2. So with all going right on their part, namely having a heart fit, finding their heart fit, and passing out 3C instead of bidding on, they break even with the double. Ok, their best would be to let me play 1NT and hold it to +90 my way if pard doesn't take me back to clubs, but I don't think anyone did that.

Of course passing can go wrong, but it can also go right. My point is that when fourth hand is looking at not much, and the bidding has gone 1C-P-P, it is pretty likely that a double by fourth hand will be followed by 1NT by opener. Whether this will be a good thing or a bad thing is not always clear. In the hand I played, they had a 4-4 heart fit so if my lho bids 2H over my NT they will be on safe ground (down 1 if allowed to play there). But, as here, the doubler had three spades and four hearts. Doubler will be less thrilled if it continues X-1NT-2S instead of X-1NT-2H. Nor will he like the result if 1NT is passed out and outscores 1C.

Anyway, I pass with these hands. Could be wrong, sure.

[Phil]

Good problem

Reasons for doubling

- both majors
- short clubs
- white / white

Reasons to pass

- slight risk of pushing them into a better 1N contract

- defending 1C may be more profitable than +80 or +110

- horrible ODR

It's very close and may come down to my perceived style of the opponents.

[Vampyr]

foobar, on 2016-June-20, 22:37, said:

+1

mathboy, on 2016-June-21, 01:09, said:

+2

fourdad, on 2016-June-21, 03:28, said:

+3

Gosh, none of you could give the guy an actual + ?

[Winstonm]

Seems most likely opening hand has 18-19 and that leaves probably around 8-11 for partner in a balanced hand. We have probably a little less than half the deck and no good source of tricks and no reason to think anyone is likely to make much of anything on this hand. I think pass is quite reasonable.

[notproven]

Pass.

With that shape and 9 points I'd usually X. Big but...that doubleton KQ is so unappealing. This hand might play for only one trick.

[MrAce]

Vampyr, on 2016-June-21, 13:10, said:

Gosh, none of you could give the guy an actual + ?

+50000

Wellsaid!

[miamijd]

I would pass. The key is that partner is a passed hand. If RHO were the dealer, then it's a different auction (partner could have quite a good hand, but no good bid).

In IMPs, X might win as often as it loses, but when it wins, it will win 4-5 IMPs (by pushing the opponents to a contract they can't make), whereas when it loses, it may lose big (responder could come out of the bushes with a long spade suit for a making 4s, or partner could get excited, go to the 3 level, and go for a phone number). When faced with these sorts of coin flip situations at IMPs, choose the action that is less likely to result in disaster.

In MPs, it's the frequency of gain that matters, but here, there is an extra way to lose that you don't really have at IMPs. As before, X could push the opponents to a contract they can't make. It could also help us find a making contract, although the hand is so poor offensively that seems unlikely. As at IMPs, X might result in our going down against nothing or pushing the opponents into a makeable game. But now there is an additional danger. Clubs may well not be the opponents' best strain. They may be far better in NT or spades from a scoring standpoint. X gives them the chance to find a higher-scoring spot.

I like to bid, but not this time.