[ArtK78]

Playing IMPs (Swiss Teams), first round, against less than stellar opponents, you pick up:

Scoring: IMP

1♥ - 1♠
2♥ - 3♣
3♥ - 4NT
5♠ - 7♥ - (x)
P - ?

---

Do you pass or bid 7NT, assuming that LHO has a void in spades?

[whereagles]

what's a pseudo-psychic bid??

anyway, redouble for me. I can hardly belive this goes down..........

[Fluffy]

needs a lot of feeling, I don't like that we don't might not have enough tricks in no trumps, partner might had bid them himself... maybe, don't we play an SOS redouble? .

If LHO is not beginner I think I would switch to 7NT, its hard to blame partner when we didn't explain our hand at all.

[ArtK78]

Fluffy, on Apr 1 2008, 01:32 PM, said:

needs a lot of feeling, I don't like that we don't might not have enough tricks in no trumps, partner might had bid them himself... maybe, don't we play an SOS redouble? .

If LHO is not beginner I think I would switch to 7NT, its hard to blame partner when we didn't explain our hand at all.

No one said anything about blaming partner, and I don't believe anyone plays SOS redoubles at the 7 level!

LHO is not a beginner, but he is also not a great player by any means. You are playing in a Flight A Swiss Teams at a Sectional.

[mikeh]

I think this situation is a classic for the psychic double.. preferably with Qxx in spades, so that 7N fails. I have been (only intermittently) dreaming of an opportunity to make such a double... hasn't happened yet.

But I don't think 'less than stellar' opps would even think of this. Either he has a spade void or he has J98xx in hearts... he doesn't know where the 10 is, but with this holding he doesn't care. Either way... 7♥ isn't a favourite to make.. and 7N at least means we get to test hearts before committing to spades.

I would make this 7N at the table, but I'd be very, very scared, especially against weak opps.. this is the kind of hand that can cause you to lose to a team you'd normally beat in your sleep.

[ArtK78]

I did run to 7NT, convinced that LHO had a spade void.

Here were our two hands:

Scoring: IMP

---

Needless to say, I was not happy when the dummy hit. The opening lead was a small heart! Clearly, the double was not based on a heart stack. I won in dummy and started to run the heart suit, RHO having Jx of hearts. Along the way, both opponents started pitching spades! When I finished with hearts, I led a spade off dummy and the ♠Q appeared! Claim.

I never did see LHO's hand. All that I can assume is that he had some minor suit honors (perhaps a lot of them) and assumed that we could not make 13 tricks in hearts. But then he didn't double 7NT. His spades were 3 small (QTx were onside, so 7NT was cold). I still do not know why he doubled 7♥.

Postscript - the grand in hearts was a reasonable contract - not tremendous, but reasonable. However, how do you like your odds if you knew that the opponents at the other table could not get to the small? We won this hand 2220 to 710.

[helene_t]

I think I have seen the psychic lightner described a couple of time.

When I was a beginner (it may have been my 3rd or 4th club evening), I was impressed by an opp who doubled my partner's 6NT on a yarb in an attempt to persuade him to finesse over her.

[awm]

As a general rule, it is good to pay off to opponents who make a brilliant bid or play.

This is because the brilliant bids or plays are much less frequent than the normal bids or plays. Also, paying off to a brilliant action at least gives you a nice story, whereas paying off to a normal action just makes you the goat.

In a situation like this one, if my opponent actually psyched a lightner double then good for him! He earned his top board or his 15 imps or whatever! But if he made a totally normal lightner double and then I left the contract in 7♥ for fear that he might've pulled a brilliant psych, then I am the goat.

[JanM]

Fluffy, on Apr 1 2008, 01:32 PM, said:

don't we play an SOS redouble? .

I think it's clear here that RDBL says "I want to run but just in case you think that's a mistake, you have the option of passing." Lew & Chip actually had this happen in the Spingold in Chicago about a million years ago (sometime in the mid-70's I guess). Dummy's hand was different (no ace of spades) and declarer had bid to 7. Dummy (I've forgotten who was which) RDBL'd and declarer, with a spade void, passed and made 7 whatever RDBL'd.

[pclayton]

awm, on Apr 1 2008, 03:14 PM, said:

As a general rule, it is good to pay off to opponents who make a brilliant bid or play.

This is because the brilliant bids or plays are much less frequent than the normal bids or plays. Also, paying off to a brilliant action at least gives you a nice story, whereas paying off to a normal action just makes you the goat.

In a situation like this one, if my opponent actually psyched a lightner double then good for him! He earned his top board or his 15 imps or whatever! But if he made a totally normal lightner double and then I left the contract in 7♥ for fear that he might've pulled a brilliant psych, then I am the goat.

Right, you just deal with it. I suppose if you know that 7N is hopeless from the bidding, stay in 7♥ if you think the downside is less.

I have heard of these ploys, and you just pay off to them when they work.

[whereagles]

guys, you're missing the point.

RHO doubled because beginners were tought that a grand needs 36 hcp. Well, if he has like 7 hcp, he didn't think this would make, hence the dbl. Then you moved to 7NT and he got scared

[Trinidad]

ArtK78, on Apr 1 2008, 01:33 PM, said:

I don't believe anyone plays SOS redoubles at the 7 level!

I remember playing in an open event in a regional in the Detroit area about 10 years ago. There I met an opponent who was convinced that his redouble of 6♠ was SOS. Needless to say that his partner didn't agree.

Unfortunately for us it was only MPs

Rik

[Free]

I tried it myself once, with a singleton. However, my opps put the blue card on the table and didn't run.

This Dbl is almost certain to be a fake, so you can RDbl to let partner decide... If he has lots of ♠s, he knows he should run

[ArtK78]

Free, on Apr 3 2008, 01:59 AM, said:

I tried it myself once, with a singleton.  However, my opps put the blue card on the table and didn't run.

This Dbl is almost certain to be a fake, so you can RDbl to let partner decide...  If he has lots of ♠s, he knows he should run

I don't see how you can tell that the double is almost certainly fake. I had never seen anyone do this, I have long spades, and the person who did this is not known for creativity.

As for redoubling to let your partner decide, this is the first time I ever heard of this idea (it is not exactly something that comes up every day). Your partner had better be on the same wavelength. Besides, even if he has spade shortness (except a void), that doesn't mean that LHO does not have a void.

[dake50]

AS awm, I won't be out stupided, yet may be outsmarted by a clever call.