[the hog]

This was sent to me by a friend.

You hold at Imps, vul vs not:

x
xx
AKQxxxxx
xx

(1NT) P (3NT) ?

What action do you take. Fwiw you have the agreement that x calls for an unusual lead, not necessarily a Major. However the bidding is unusual in itself - you have only 3 cards in the Ms, pd did not bid and opps did not use Stayman.

Would it make any differenc if you were playing MPs?

[mike777]

double

[han]

Partner can easily have 9 cards in the majors at these colors (given that he is weak), lefty can have 8 and righty can have 6 or even 7. So the lack of major suit bids is not something to worry about, there is one major suit card to spare.

I'm a little hesitant to double because partner is fairly likely to be void in diamonds.

[the hog]

han, on Sep 17 2008, 09:30 AM, said:

Partner can easily have 9 cards in the majors at these colors (given that he is weak), lefty can have 8 and righty can have 6 or even 7. So the lack of major suit bids is not something to worry about, there is one major suit card to spare.

I'm a little hesitant to double because partner is fairly likely to be void in diamonds.

What I meant by the bidding being unusual was that pd is marked with lots of Mj cards. Should you X. Is the risk of a D void too high?

[andrei]

I guess it is very possible the 1NT bidder is 4423, the 3NT bidder 4333, leaving partner with 4405.

I would bid 4♦ at IMPs and pass at MPs.

[jdonn]

I would bid 4♦. Either double or bid might chase them into a major suit game (maybe rho was messing around with a solid six card major?) but in that case I'll be on lead, which is all the sweeter if partner has a void.

Also, consider that this might make on a good day, reflexively doubled by certain opponents...

[nige1]

The_Hog, on Sep 16 2008, 08:02 PM, said:

This was sent to me by a friend. You hold at Imps, vul vs not:
♠ x ♥ xx ♦ AKQxxxxx ♣ xx
(1NT) P (3NT) ?
What action do you take. Fwiw you have the agreement that x calls for an unusual lead, not necessarily a Major. However the bidding is unusual in itself - you have only 3 cards in the Ms, pd did not bid and opps did not use Stayman.
Would it make any differenc if you were playing MPs?

After (1N) - (3N) ??

• The idea that double should show a a long suit and partner must guess which -- seems flawed to me -- especially if that long suiit is a minor -- becase dummy will often have a log suit too -- so that partner will often guess wrong. I suppose, such a double does have a fair chance of working here, because diamonds is almost certain to be partner's shortest suit -- if he has any at all.
  
• Better, IMO, is to agree that double shows a specific suit. In my regular partnership, double, here, asks for a ♦lead -- "A double diamond works wonders" -- as the Toucan proclaimed in the advert.