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Jlall, on Jul 6 2009, 08:40 PM, said:
@gnasher: I could not feel more strongly that you are wrong. When the opps jump to slam vulnerable against non vulnerable how can you be in a forcing pass just because you have shown 12 HCP
I didn't do a very good job of arguing my case before, so here's another attempt.
Disregarding the vulnerability for a moment, this is what's happened:
- We've both bid.
- We bid to 6♠, in an auction where we didn't deny the values for a slam.
- Ostensibly RHO wanted to play only in 6♥. He signed off in 6♥, and only bid 7♥ after we had bid 6♠.
Qualitatively, this auction is no different from:
(1♠) dbl (3♠) 4♥
(pass) pass (4♠)
where we would all play pass as forcing (wouldn't we?), because the auction says that they're sacrificing. Both opponents wanted to play in 3♠, but they bid 4♠ only after we bid 4♥. We'd occasionally pay off if responder was sandbagging, had correctly reevaluated, or just got lucky, but the principle that this type of sequence creates a forcing pass is both sound and well-established.
In the original auction, the same applies: 7♥ may be cold, but if we take the auction at face value responder doesn't think so. The auction certainly doesn't guarantee that 6♥ or 7♥ was bid to make. What would responder do with - K109xx J10xxxxx x? If it were any other vulnerability, it would be clear to play pass as forcing.
In both of these auctions, there's a case for not playing a forcing pass at this particular vulnerability, but I prefer not to vary my forcing pass agreements according to vulnerability. There's also a case for not playing a forcing pass at this particular combination of vulnerability and level, or when it's "obvious" that pass shouldn't be forcing, but that's too hard for me. I like my forcing-pass rules to be simple and unambiguous.
What's the downside of playing pass as forcing? Over 7♥ advancer has two actions available, pass and double, and he has two possible hand-types: a hand that bid 6♠ to make, and a hand that bid it as a sacrifice. If pass is non-forcing, double shows the good hand and pass shows the weak one. If pass is forcing, double shows the weak hand and pass shows the good hand. Given that defending 7♥ undoubled is unlikely to be correct, there doesn't seem to be much to choose between the two.