[Cascade]

Scoring: IMPs

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1♠ X P ?

What are your likely continuations if you choose to cue-bid 2♠?

Wayne

[rtewari]

Weird hand.

If partner has right shape lighter double, then a partial maybe the limit. A cue bid of 2♠ promises a rebid - if partner bids 3♥ suggesting a 5card suit then we may be able to raise to 4 but with other minimum 2-4-3-4 or 1-4-4-4 or 1-4-3-5 type fo hands we may be overboard.

I would try and make some value bid with this hand. I will settle for 1NT 9-11 hcp. Though a little underbid with such prime cards, we probably will require another bid from partner to have a chance of game/slam. If partner now introduces a suit, I may be able to bid 3♠ suggestign no wastage in the suit and highly invitational - this may convey the awkardness of the hand.

Feeling aggressive may even try 2NT as dealer may not be dealt AKQJT of spades and may be able to scramble 9 tricks as spades may get blocked. But this gives too distorted a picture of my spade holding and partner may not investigate other possible contracts.

[joker_gib]

Y, 2♠ is a little too optimistic and is, I think, an overbid.

I will respond 1NT and wait for a possible rebid by partner

[Gerben47]

I bid 2NT on this. I'm too strong for 1NT with Ace Ace King. As rtewari said, I hope that opener has one of the small ♠ so we get in to take our 9 tricks before their 5 if partner raises.

If partner has a strong 1-suiter he will never play me for 3 working top honors if I bid 1NT now.

[luis]

I pass 1s doubled, they are vul and we are not, 200 can be a good result no matter if we have a partscore or game and 500 is always excellent.
If pd has the minor suit aces and the hAQ, as an example, we may collect a lot of tricks for a big penalty.

[inquiry]

2♠ is just flat wrong imho.....and 2NT is just slightly too much of a stretch especially without a real ♠ stopper. 2 or 3 of a minor is too distorted, and bidding ♥ is just plain wacky. So that leaves the two obvious choices.. 1NT and Pass. The advantage of pass is that it will not be making a lot of overtricks if it makes, and you might get a fair score, the advantage of pass, is it keeps you game in play if your partner is on a good hand. This 1NT bid does not promise a real stopper (unlike the jump to 2NT) so your partner with a ♠ void or small singleton will investigate carefully before putting you in 3NT even with a good hand. I guess my gambling days are behind me because I lean towards the safer 1NT as opposed to pass at imps.... .now if this was MP, I would go for the 200 and risk pass... I have gotten bottoms :-)....

Ok, this is an interesting hand for Misho's META overcall defense. Here his double does not promise support for the other suits, but rahter ask for a ♠ stopper, and generally show a minor suited hand. This is a vrey nice hand in support of a partner who has long ♣ or long ♦ without a ♥ suit and obviously short in ♠ (but only because I have 5). How would you bid it misho? Jump to 3minor or bid a forcing 2♠ to see what the minor is?

[Cascade]

luis, on Feb 20 2004, 09:30 AM, said:

I pass 1s doubled, they are vul and we are not, 200 can be a good result no matter if we have a partscore or game and 500 is always excellent.
If pd has the minor suit aces and the hAQ, as an example, we may collect a lot of tricks for a big penalty.

When the defense set up a diamond trick for declarer and declarer guessed the trumps, partner had ♠ K J, declarer made 7 tricks in 1♠ X.

Five spade tricks ♠ AQ106xx after our problem hand had to ruff the third heart.
♥ A
♦ K

Scoring: IMP

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Lead ♥ J

ok I know the defense was not optimal.

Wayne

[Chamaco]

It seems to me that the double was very marginal, with an Aceless hand with scattered quacks, and KJ wasted in opps suit, at least by text book standards ? (yes, I know that any standard can be adopted by partnership agreements... )

[Trpltrbl]

Pass I think this will go down. I am not sure if we can make any game, so I will settle for a plus, I hope.

Mike

[Free]

My first thought was to pass, can't go wrong imo.

And then I saw the full hand: what an awfull Double!! If my partner doubled with this hand irl, I'd go to the bar, drink some Duvel (the best beer there is in the world, and 8,5% ) and come back to the table to at least play until the end of the evening. 4HCP in the bid suit, balanced hand, 8 losers, not even 13HCP,... OMG!

[joker_gib]

Clear that the Dbl is not the most marvellous one. But, what would you bid with east hand if it goes 1♠-P-P-? ??

[inquiry]

joker_gib, on Feb 24 2004, 11:07 AM, said:

Clear that the Dbl is not the most marvellous one. But, what would you bid with east hand if it goes 1♠-P-P-? ??

At imps what would i bid in the balancing seat with this?

Scoring: IMPs

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(1♠) - P - (P) - ?

I think I would pass and defend: partner rates to be short in ♠ and/or very weak since he didn't compete. Turns out on this hand with modest defense we get it one, but differences is 100 versus 200. Besides, if I double, we are not going to play 1♠ doubled anyway. So pass is not a horrible loss. And if I do bid, I suspect we will get way too high very quickly. Despite this at matchpoints I would make a balancing 1NT bid, if nothing else in an attempt to force them to 2♠. I would expect to pass whatever partner runs too.

Note after a balancing 1NT if south ventures a 2♠ bid, your partner has a fairly easy double.

Ben

[luis]

I'm not italian but you can call me a crazy italian if you want because I really prefer offshape doubles with sound values to shapish doubles with marginal values.

KJ
JTxx
Qxx
KQxx

I'd never double 1s with that hand but I'll be happy to double 1s with

Axxx
xx
AQx
KJxx

[inquiry]

luis, on Feb 24 2004, 11:37 AM, said:

I'm not italian but you can call me a crazy italian if you want because I really prefer offshape doubles with sound values to shapish doubles with marginal values.

KJ
JTxx
Qxx
KQxx

I'd never double 1s with that hand but I'll be happy to double 1s with

Axxx
xx
AQx
KJxx

Playing Misho's META overcall would suggest you bid 1NT with second hand (shows a balanced hand, no interest in ♥ or a minor suit hand, but in both cases with a ♠ stopper). And oddly, if you are going to bid with the first, you would shoot out a 2♣ bid (4+ ♥ and 4+♣ and some reason to bid). Of course, it is up to you to decide if this hand requires some reason to bid as 2♣ may miss your best fit which might be in ♦s.

[Chamaco]

luis, on Feb 24 2004, 04:37 PM, said:

I'm not italian but you can call me a crazy italian if you want because I really prefer offshape doubles with sound values to shapish doubles with marginal values.

KJ
JTxx
Qxx
KQxx

I'd never double 1s with that hand but I'll be happy to double 1s with

Axxx
xx
AQx
KJxx

I AM italian
But I would not double with either hand.
In italian textbooks for novices, takeout double is said to promise at least 4-3 in the unbid majors and nothing in the unbid minors.

I would not double hand 1 because of Aceless hands, many quacks and wasted values in opponent's suit. I'd be happy to defend with that hand unless pard shows some values.

I would not double hand 2 because pard could jump to 3♥ invitational counting me for 3(rarely) or 4(more likely) cards in♥, and we would be in big trouble.
Unless we are at Matchpoints tourney, and we feel committed to a wild partscore battle here, I would not force with double, since if pard cannot come up with a bid in direct or balancing seat, we will not have game for sure, at at most we'll have a partscore.

[Trpltrbl]

If my pd can't X in direct seat with very few ♠ I am passing. They have a fit somewhere and I am not going to push them there.

Mike

[joker_gib]

It is quite clear that they probably have a better contract (game ? because p short in ♠ does not have many HCP and opener can have a very good hand) in another suit and I would avoid to push them there so I would also pass.

I fully agree with you Mike

[mishovnbg]

inquiry, on Feb 20 2004, 03:39 PM, said:

2♠ is just flat wrong imho.....and 2NT is just slightly too much of a stretch especially without a real ♠ stopper. 2 or 3 of a minor is too distorted, and bidding ♥ is just plain wacky. So that leaves the two obvious choices.. 1NT and Pass. The advantage of pass is that it will not be making a lot of overtricks if it makes, and you might get a fair score, the advantage of pass, is it keeps you game in play if your partner is on a good hand. This 1NT bid does not promise a real stopper (unlike the jump to 2NT) so your partner with a ♠ void or small singleton will investigate carefully before putting you in 3NT even with a good hand. I guess my gambling days are behind me because I lean towards the safer 1NT as opposed to pass at imps.... .now if this was MP, I would go for the 200 and risk pass... I have gotten bottoms :-)....

Ok, this is an interesting hand for Misho's META overcall defense. Here his double does not promise support for the other suits, but rahter ask for a ♠ stopper, and generally show a minor suited hand. This is a vrey nice hand in support of a partner who has long ♣ or long ♦ without a ♥ suit and obviously short in ♠ (but only because I have 5). How would you bid it misho? Jump to 3minor or bid a forcing 2♠ to see what the minor is?

Spoiler

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Hi Ben!
2♠: 10+HCP, inv+ or pass. You can pass playing meta overcalls more easy, because unlike take out, where you can have even grand, you can't have game by meta except rare 5 minor.

Spoiler

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Misho