[Orla]

Partner opens 1♣ RHO doubles I pass and her partner bids 1♠
Partner doubles.
RHO bids 2♠ I pass LHO passes
Partner doubles again.

Now, is this double for take out or penalties?
After the first double, had RHO passed I would have taken it out and bid 2♣. After the 2♠ I was off the hook.

I was weak holding:
♠ 852
♥ 942
♦ QT53
♣ Z75

What was going through my mind was:
I know partner is strong.
I know LHO has 0 - 7pts, otherwise he would jump bid.
The original doubler should be short in clubs. Why does partner not rebid them?
I do know that partner does not have spades - because I have 3
If I bid a suit, other than clubs, it would be a suit that RHO wanted.

Anyway, what would you have done?

[P_Marlowe]

Hi,

#1 partner is strong
#2 partner wont have more than 3 spades, this we
know from the opponents bidding and our holding.

=> Partner will hold a strong bal.hand, i.e. a bal. hand
with 18-20HCP.

Bid 3D.

With kind regards
Marlowe

[rbforster]

The bidding in a more readable format:

1♣-(X)-P-(1♠)
X-(2♠)-P-(P)
X-(P)-?

Here's a hand consistent with the bidding:

x
AKxx
AKJx
KQJx

What else could partner do besides double for takeout, twice?

[Orla]

(Yes, thank you, Rob, my description of the bidding was sloppy)
I know that partner has more clubs than diamonds, otherwise he would have bid diamonds first.
I know that RHO is doubling for ♦, ♥ or ♠ (apart from clubs).
So, have I got it correct, because partner is strong and balanced - with his second double - he is telling me to bid ♥ or ♦ at level 3, although they are, more or less, the suits that our (strong 11+pts) opponent has?

Why?

[Tomi2]

Orla, on Mar 8 2009, 12:01 PM, said:

(Yes, thank you, Rob, my description of the bidding was sloppy)
I know that partner has more clubs than diamonds, otherwise he would have bid diamonds first.
I know that RHO is doubling for ♦, ♥ or ♠ (apart from clubs).
So, have I got it correct, because partner is strong and balanced - with his second double - he is telling me to bid ♥ or ♦ at level 3, although they are, more or less, the suits that our (strong 11+pts) opponent has?

Why?

you dont need to have all suits covered that well for a double on 1♣ so opp can easily have 3 dias only.
but this is not the problem, we should not think of our opp we should think of our pd.
he did not open 1♦
he did not bid 1nt after 1♠
he did double for TO twice

so his hand is something similar to 1-4-3-5 distr and strong, my bid is probably 3♣

if i agreed to have 2nt as not to play in this position, then I bid 2nt for the same reason my partner doubled 2♠ - and this is take-out

why does he double? because opps have 9 card fit in spades (or seldom 8) and we are likely to have a fit elsewhere, so lets play our fit, then we make more tricks than with spades as trumps

[CSGibson]

I bid 2N.

Both of partner's doubles are take-out, and 2N cannot be natural in this auction (you would have acted on the previous round, or left the double in for penalty). 2N should say that you have interest in the minors, and that you want partner to choose.

2N implies longer diamonds than clubs, in this auction, because of your description of the previous bidding. If partner had opened 1 diamond, and your minors were swapped, then you'd still bid 2N, this time implying longer clubs.

[neilkaz]

2N for me as long as I am certain PD knows it isn't to play (which is a risky proposition with B/I) and which will right side the minor suit contract.

I can just see it I bid 2N, it is doubled by someone and PD passes and I xx for rescue and it gets passed out with ♠ 4-4 and I get a bit lucky in the play and lose only 1 more trick and make.

So if I think PD will likely not understand 2N, and if PD usually opens 1♦ when 44 in minors, I will bid 3♣ here.

[Codo]

B/I simply 3 Club

pick up expert: 2 NT

Pd has 0445 or 1435 with significant extra strength. I make the less encouraging call.

[bid_em_up]

disregard

[Hanoi5]

What is Z in clubs?