[firmit]

You hold:

♠-
♥A7xxx
♦K10x
♣K109xx

Sitting South.
MP - vul N/S - you hear RHO open 1♠. Your call please - and what is your forecast for this auction?

[Echognome]

For me it's one bid and that bid is double.

[mikeh]

For me it is one bid and that is 2♠.

This is a horrible hand for the call, but to me it is the least of several unattractive options:

Double: partner will never play me for 5 hearts (that might not be a bad thing on some layouts). He will probably play me for more defence and less offence

2♥: makes me ill just thinking about it

Pass: safest if I am worried about numbers ending in 00. Sick if I am interested in numbers with only one zero at the end. I can't stand the idea of passing.

2♣: utterly weird... all the downsides of 2♥ (well, the suit is a little better) and none of the upsides.

As for how it will develop.. there is a reasonable chance that LHO is going to raise spades.... and the chances of partner doing the right thing will be far better after I show him 10+ cards of my shape that if I do anything else. Of course, my Michaels will let the opps play their cards, on offence or defence, more accurately as well.

Am I happy? No.

[Echognome]

I considered 2♠, but vulnerable against not? Yuck.

I'm also not opposed to playing in diamonds, if that's something partner would like. So for me it is double. I understand that it will lose me a 5-3 heart fit, but we're outgunned anyway as far as major suit ranks are concerned.

I agree with Mike that I'm not entirely happy about it, but I think double gives us relative safety and allows us to compete in partner's best suit.

[neilkaz]

Prefer Michaels to double here with 0535 as the opps' will so often raise ♠ to some level after my double and PD won't play me for 5♥ if I just X. Mike shows my hand in one bid.

Yes, I am concerned that I could get pummelled, and this is a min Mike for me at these colors.

2♠ .. neilkaz ..

[MFA]

Double. I have a strong preference for this bid.

[655321]

Yes, happy 2♠.

[jdonn]

I would double. I really dislike 2♠, I can't believe strong players are voting for that bid. It gets us the highest, the strength is very minimal at this vul, and our suitability for the other suit is extremely good to be making a 2-suited bid. I can understand not wanting to miss a 5-3 heart fit, but if that is considered the important goal then I really prefer 2♥, which is a level lower, and leaves us much better chances to get to diamonds if that's where we belong.

[andy_h]

Strong preference for double and very happy to bid it. My hand isn't that great at r/w to make a michaels and lets say we do bid 2S, if LHO raises it to 3 or 4 partner still has no idea which minor I have. If I double, at least it gets the other 3 suits in the picture.

[the hog]

I am not going to make any bid; however I will make a call - double. Strongly object to Michaels on this hand.

[neilkaz]

jdonn, on Feb 12 2009, 05:25 PM, said:

I would double. I really dislike 2♠, I can't believe strong players are voting for that bid. It gets us the highest, the strength is very minimal at this vul, and our suitability for the other suit is extremely good to be making a 2-suited bid. I can understand not wanting to miss a 5-3 heart fit, but if that is considered the important goal then I really prefer 2♥, which is a level lower, and leaves us much better chances to get to diamonds if that's where we belong.

Your points are valid and indeed KTx in ♦ is decent support and we may belong in ♦ and A7xxx isn't the best ♥ suit. I look forward to more opinions here.

[Fluffy]

Too much defence for 2♠ and too much ofence for double, pass is not an option, and the others look reasonable.

I like double best, but only because of the colors. At any other vulnerability 2♠ is the best way to enter for the reasons mikeh said.

[rogerclee]

I guess I am the only one who thinks it's close!

I would bid 2♠.

[kfay]

rogerclee, on Feb 13 2009, 12:35 AM, said:

I guess I am the only one who thinks it's close!

I would bid 2♠.

Did NOT see that one coming.

I also bid 2♠.

[Phil]

2♠. It's sort of close.

Give me 0544 with this heart suit and I double. The problem with a double on 0535 is that I'll never convince pard that I have 5 hearts and 5 clubs.

[peachy]

2H or Dbl. Not Michaels with this hand which is suitable for both offense and defense. But depending on what your agreements are for Michaels (only weak, or only weak OR strong, or any strength and liberal) this could be close.

[bid_em_up]

3♣ showing ♣+♥.

[Vilgan]

This is matchpoints... so 2♠ doesn't seem like a very good idea. I like double best, 2♣ and 2♥ tied for 2nd, pass a close 4th, and 2♠ a distant 5th.

Disadvantages to 2♠ imo:

if it goes 1♠ 2♠ 4♠ ?, partner is going to fail to double a lot of times when they should.

If the spade suit needs to be played for less losers (assuming we are short/void), they will know to play in that fashion.

We painted a gigantic X on our head by pushing to the 3 level vulnerable without a guarantee of even having a good fit and our heart suit blows. There are like 3828342 hands that LHO could have that will lead to an automatic penalty double at these colors. At least if it was imps, there'd be less risk of a double (imo).

Finally, for all that risk there seems to be a low chance of gaining by bidding 2♠. If the opponents bid game.. it is the wrong colors for a sacrifice. Hell, we even have the wrong hand for a sacrifice. Maybe we will get LHO to stretch to 3♠ and they go down when they could have played 2♠ making (or down less). That could happen.. but it doesn't seem like a percentage result.

Maybe I'm just overly double conscious, but I make a lot of my bread and butter off doubling opponents who make bids like 2♠ here, and I'm not too eager to hand out a gift of my own on a silver platter. By all means, if the opps look like shaky players.. 2♠ is an easy call. I think it'd be rather questionable in a strong matchpoint field though.

[skjaeran]

I don't like doubling with 5-card hearts.
2♠ shows ♥+♣ with my regular partners, but I don't really like Michaels on this hand. The suits aren't very good, and I've got good support for the 3rd suit.

To me this is very close. I think I'd double at the table.