[pclayton]

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Yesterday we generated the following auction. South opened 1♣ and West overcalled 1♠. Pass, pass, 2♣ and West competed with 2♠, pass, pass 3♣. Now west doubles and it gets passed out.

We got it +300 when declarer mismanaged the play and locked himself in his hand to lead away from the K♦. However, 4♠ is cold.

Whats the worst call?

And - please assign the blame.

[Gerben42]

Worst call: Pass of 3♣x
2nd worst call: Pass of 2♠

Blame: East 90%, West 10% for playing with East

[inquiry]

Only can pick one "worse"?

Well, there are several... let's start with the best.. .1♠ over call is clearly right.

The pass of 1♠ by east is too conservative for my blood. I would be bidding with that hand.

The second 2♠ bid was wrong, double here to show what you got is clear. A double would start the ball rolling in the right direction.... Got spades, got short club, some stuff in the red suits.

The pass of the second 2♠ by east is clearly horrible now. His ♠Jx is adequate support on this auction, he has prime values in the reds. I think an encouraging squeek is required now.

The double came a round late, but WEST is in there trying. What in the world was EAST thinking when he passed that?

Worse bid EAST's first pass (you could have played 1♠). Second worse bid pass of 3♣ double... come on your partner has good hand (double) and has bid and rebid spades and you have never spoken? Third worse bid, pass of 2♠, if you had the "courage" to pass 1♠, surely you must act over 2♠.

All in all, I give the 100% of the blame to EAST, and ask his PASS cards be painted bright yellow for future use. I rate the three worse bids as his passes, with the first being the worse, the last being second worse, and the middle one being the silliest. (IT is true, passing the second one is harder to understand than passing the first or the third).

[han]

I think all of east's bids are too conservative but the first pass is understandable (I would bid 2C, transfer to diamonds BTW). Theoretically it might not be correct to give east more bl;ame for the second pass than for the third, but the second pass is really wrong. The third pass is at least consistent.

[G_R__E_G]

I have to give my vote to East's final pass. You can say what you want about his earlier passes (and everything that's been said is correct) but they didn't ultimately allow them to play in 3♣x, the last one did. That said, the second pass is a close second and the first is a not too distant third.

[Al_U_Card]

Any thoughts on West's evaluation of his hand? Would you bid like he did with a 6-2-3-2 and more than a WJO? When he dbls after 2C (he now knows that pard doesn't have a decent 9+ hcp hand (oops) or spade support (oops) and pard bids the expected number of hearts (oops - he might just jump the bidding some) will his subsequent S bid show this hand?

Tough to deal with both pards underestimating their values. Granted vulnerability and scoring are not given so.....btw I voted for east's 2nd pass as he is now able to give a S raise to show his hand

[Chamaco]

The bid I liked least was west's 2S rebid.
This shows onlyextra length and a decent hand , whereas the hand is stronger, Xing would deliver the general message: max overcall, tolerance for penalty pass, there is still room to show the 6th spade if pard bids hearts.

[SoTired]

100% blame to East for terrible bidding. The first pass was too conservative and a poor bid, but not a "wrong" bid. The 2nd pass was CLEARLY wrong. West has shown extras and after East's first pass, East will not be mistaken for a strong hand. The 3rd pass was total confusion, but it was caused by the 2nd pass. Therefore, the 2nd pass is the main culprit.

Any second bid by West in this auction shows extras. If you have 11 hcp, you don't take a second bid. So 2S should show at least a sound opening bid along with 6s.

I think West bid fine. The 2S could have been a dbl, but it is hard to fault West for wanting to show the 6 nice spades along with the extra strength. West's X clearly showed a 6331 and begged East to bid something.

[Beto]

What is the hand that East's should have for this bidding?

i would say:

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[cherdano]

About the 2♠ call: I actually like it. There is a very good chance that you get another call over a competitive 3♣ on the left or right, and then you can double again and you have described your hand perfectly.

I think East decided that he had to hope on a good score for defense when he didn't find a good bid over 1♠, and then didn't wake up when his partner's bidding should have showed him what a great hand he has.

Arend

[pclayton]

Afraid to say I was East and had my head up my keester on this one.

I think I only made one horrific call though - the 2nd pass. Once pard competes I need to push it more. Passing when pard is in their competing is threading the needle too much. Good to see the poll supports this.

I don't think the 1st pass is bad at all. Why am I pushing it with a doubleton spade, and a broken suit? The best reason for 2♦ is that pard can bid 2♥. you certainly aren't happy if pard passes 2♦ and its not forcing. This hand is perfect for one of Rubens' forcing 1N responses to an overcall though. And, after my original pass, if pard passes a 2♣ rebid, a balancing double perfectly describes my hand. A stopperless 1N doesn't look right with a dead minimum either.

I think Brian should double the 2nd time instead of 2♠. His hand makes a great dummy for a 5-3 in a red suit. But 2♠is certainly OK.

I honestly wasn't sure about his 3rd double. Since he didn't double the 2nd time, I think the 3rd double says: look - I've got a good hand, but I have no clear direction. Do what you think is right. I think double should show more like AKxxxx, Ax, Qxx, Ax. I don;t think its purely takeout at this stage.

In spite of this hand, and the fact I pulled TWO wrong cards at the beginning and conceded an extra NV undertrick - we still had 56%. Remind myself to eat a little something on the way over from the office

[mcphee]

This hand is too good to pass 1S. This first pass really led to the poor result. How does this hand now catch up? While no action stands out, surely we have enough to bid 2S.

[Walddk]

As always, I am very generous, so I will give 100% to both of them ... for not playing transfer advances!

Now that you don't play those, I could perhaps give all 200% to East who was remarkably passive, including his pass of a take-out double. Maybe they had taken all his bidding cards away from his box, except the green passes.

The worst call? All East's passes, so it's impossible for me to vote. Next time, please add:

"All of them, East" - "All of them, West"

Roland

[HeartA]

Let me try.

The worst: East's third pass, 100.01%
The second worst: East second pass, 100%
The third worst: East's first pass, 99.99%

In all, East got 300%.

[Fluffy]

IMO East's third pass is his best bid, it took it West 3 rounds to make the take out double, and I don't think it is a pure take out, it is neither very strongsince he would double first or second even with red shortness. What is left is a penalty double. So IMO West third double is penalty. Wich clearly becomes the worst bid then.

Pas of 2♠ is wrong, but it is just because the pass of 1♠ was already wrong.

[helene_t]

Don't wory, Phil, those mistakes of yours were minor compared to what usually pops up in "assign the blame" polls. Allthough I disagree with all your passes, especially the final one, I wouldn't call them incredible. It also depends on what you know about West's style.

Credit to you for posting a poll in which you were likely to be blamed yourself. Personally, I prefer to post questions about my partners' silly mistakes, that's better for my imago.