[benlessard]

1H is obvious, you have enough strenght to double 2C/3C afterwards so will be very well placed to find your best fit.

Make the hand weaker to the point that X a further 2C is less clear and maybe ill be tempted by double. Those who bid 2Nt are way out of track.

[inquiry]

2♦ is very crazy
2 NT is crazier
Pass is not for me, but might not be totally crazy.

That leaves three normalish bids.. set your priority...

DOUBLE - brings all three suits into play. A 4-3 spade fit may very well play better than 5-2 ♥ fit. And a 5-3 spade fit surely in better than a 5-3 heart fit.

1♦ - this is matchpoints and this will get your partner off to the right lead if you defend, but are you going to defend? It may get you to the wrong suit when either major might be better.

1♥ - wrong if partner leads the suit from something he would not normally lead from, right if you belong in hearts, right if partner bids spades or if you can find your way to to diamonds with a later 2♦ bid if he does not.

I would throw out 1♦ and either double or bid 1♥. I like 1♥ because I know what to do next, if partner scrapes up a bid.

[mike777]

jdonn, on Oct 5 2008, 09:51 PM, said:

The_Hog, on Oct 5 2008, 09:24 PM, said:

1H at IMPs. Will consider 1D at MPs.

True, finding major suit fits never matchpoints well!

Ok ok, 1♥ always.

ditto...

GLAD I can finally agree, easy with jdonn, champ, on an overcall oh and that HOG

[awm]

jdonn, on Oct 6 2008, 08:37 PM, said:

So I'm curious because of the name of the thread. How crazy are (were?) you Adam?

Well the responses are interesting. Essentially all the posts are in favor of 1♥, but this bid received slightly less than a third of the votes.

Anyway, I made the somewhat crazy decision to double. This got a 2♣ bid from LHO and was passed back to me. At this point there were again several actions I can take (pass, double, 2♦ seem like the reasonable ones). I made the perhaps more crazy decision to double again. Partner unfortunately held a 3334 hand. Perhaps she should bid a 3-card suit (who knows which one?) and salvage the board, but she decided to pass despite not having a particularly strong club holding.

The hand might be an interesting defensive problem, if holding 2♣X to eight tricks instead of nine were somehow a good result.

[han]

I wouldn't have doubled initially but the second double seems clearly right to me. Maybe you should post partner's hand in a month or so.

[Codo]

I had not liked the first double but hate the second double because this shows a hand I don't have.

[kgr]

What is so bad with 2NT?
- Is the H-suit not good enough (but then 1H would also be not good)?
- Does the hand not fit in your point range for 2NT?
...

[655321]

kgr, on Oct 7 2008, 04:24 AM, said:

What is so bad with 2NT?
- Is the H-suit not good enough (but then 1H would also be not good)?
- Does the hand not fit in your point range for 2NT?
...

The big reason not to bid 2NT is that you have a great dummy for spades - ATx and a void in their suit. If you show 5-5 in the red suits, you will miss a lot of spade fits.

[FrancesHinden]

Having doubled the first time, I am fine with the second double. I don't expect partner to pass this with a 3334 and poor clubs.

[Apollo81]

I don't think 1♦ (planning to double back in) is completely insane, treating the hand as if it were 3-4-5-1. In practice I've never tried this with a 5-card major.

[awm]

In hindsight I think my second double was actually quite bad, substantially worse than the first double.

At some point you have to go quietly. On this auction, partner is more or less marked with some values (I have only 13, opponents are stopping in 2♣). If partner had something like 5-6 points and a four-card suit other than clubs, it's a good bet partner would bid this suit over 2♣. Partner knows it is MP and likes to compete when the opponents find a fit at MPs as much as anybody.

So the odds are pretty high that partner has 3334 or some (332)5 kind of hand. If I double again this really sticks it to partner. Since my second double is supposed to show extras partner might decide to sit and this is extremely likely to be bad. Even if partner decides to pull to a suit, partner's more or less on a guess which suit to bid and has no particularly obvious reason to pick one three-card suit over another (and wouldn't it be awful if partner bid a three-card spade suit?). What if partner bids 2NT on some balanced 7-count (again expecting my second double to show extras)? All of these seem really bad. If I don't want to sell to 2♣ I may well be better bidding 2♦ (even though this obviously shows a better hand) because at least we get to a reasonable strain.

My first double was also kind of crazy (bit of an experiment) and in future I suspect I will bid 1♥ or 1♦ on these hands.