[hrothgar]

MP
Red v Red

You hold

♠ AK
♥ Kxxx
♦ Kx
♣ AJ98x

The auction starts

1♣ - (P) - (1♦) - 2♠
???

You aren't playing Walsh

1. Whats your preferred meaning for double and 2NT?
2. What's your bidding play (and why)

[gnasher]

Double = takeout
2NT = natural

I'd double, intending to make the slight overbid of 3NT over 3C or 3D.

Playing Walsh, I'd bid 2NT.

[pclayton]

Either double or 2N, whichever we have agreed to show the balanced 18-19.

[jillybean]

Playing walsh or not, I'd bid 2nt here

[Apollo81]

If you play support doubles and your'e playing up the line style then you have to play 1♣-(p)-1♦-(1♠)-Dbl as showing four hearts. There are books that talk about support doubles and mention this auction. There's a pretty good argument for it showing four hearts + extra values in the OP auction too, although I've never seen this explicitly mentioned in writing. The OP hand is clearly at least a king better than whatever the requirements are for such a double.

I would bid 2NT if undiscussed.

[TimG]

In my preferred methods, double here would be penalty. I'm not sure why people are anxious to bid 2N with a balanced hand that includes values in their suit and double for takeout -- seems backwards to me.

If you agree to play penalty doubles, it seems like a good place to play some sort of good-bad 2NT so that partner knows whether you are merely competing with 3m or need just a little from partner in order to make 3NT a good bet.

[whereagles]

hrothgar, on Mar 3 2008, 05:48 PM, said:

1. Whats your preferred meaning for double and 2NT?
2. What's your bidding play (and why)

1. Dbl = takeout, 2NT = good-bad
2. Dbl, regardless of agreements.

[paulg]

Jlall, on Mar 3 2008, 10:13 PM, said:

I play 2N as natural, and I play X as t/o. With this hand I would bid 2N

Ditto.

We've just moved away from Good/Bad in many auctions as

• bidding the strong balanced hand was troublesome
  
• G/B did not come up sufficiently often
  
• when G/B did come up, it was unclear how much difference it really made

Paul

[Gerben42]

3♥ is the simplest solution. Partner will bid 3♠ usually without a fit, and we bid 3NT.

[helene_t]

I think I like G/B 2N, and dbl showing four hearts. This hand could double followed by 3N but not sure if that conveys the double stop. Maybe 2N followed by 3N is better. Or maybe 2N followed by 3♥ shows this hand, but playing G/B that could also be read as a weakish 5-6. Maybe I should stop playing conventions that I don't understand

If p responds on rubbish (which the modern style seems to dictate) I suppose a non-forcing natural 2N is better.

[avaron]

I play up the line and this double as negative, so no problem.
Playing anything else, pass smoothly and quickly. The hand will play a full trick weaker than its strength indicates. Normal expectations:
Float - average minus
2NT - very bad when wrong, average-plus when right. When you can make exactly 2NT, partner might raise to 3.
3 Clubs - if you have to act alone, this might be the only way to get a plus score.
3 Hearts - if you need a top or bottom score, this is the bid to produce it. Better than 2NT, since, when it pays off, it pays off big.
Pass and someone else bids - average-plus to very good
One of the black arts of match points is making sure that your bad boards are average-minus, not zero.

[Cascade]

1. Double takeout or any very good hand

2. 2NT Natural NF but a good hand invitational

With this hand I double. When I subesequently bid 3NT partner will know I had a flexible hand.