[P_Marlowe]

pooltuna, on Jul 29 2009, 09:05 AM, said:

P_Marlowe, on Jul 29 2009, 08:33 AM, said:

pooltuna, on Jul 29 2009, 08:28 AM, said:

se12sam, on Jul 29 2009, 04:31 AM, said:

Now the more interesting (or weird?) part:

Scoring: IMP


South - West - North - East
  1♦ - 2♥   -   3♥* -  4♥
  Pass -   Pass -   6♦ - Pass
  ???

---

At the table South passed -- just like most people suggested in their post. Partner now bids 6♦. Serious question - are you worth a grand slam bid?

As a doubler over 4♥ I believe a pass showed a better hand than this one consequently 7♦ would be an overbid

For most, Pass instead of double would pass the decision to
play a contract ourself or try to go for blood to partner, i.e.
pass does not show a better hand, it simply showes a different
hand.

With Ax in their suit, you have no strong preference to defend.

With kind regards
Marlowe

A decision to double in these situations is not dictated by my trump holding but by how crappy my opening hand is. 5332 hands are not the offensive powerhouse many on here seem to think it is.

Sure, but Ax in their suit is better than xx or even worse xxx in their suit,
if you want to play your own contract.
Ax makes sure, that you loose only one trick in their suit, xx or xxx makes
losing two tricks more likely.
I.e. if you switch your major suit holdings, your 5332 hand became a lot
crappier.

One thing which should have an influence of your decision to bid on or to
defend is the length in their suit you happen to hold.

You can convince me, that xxx is better than xx, but Ax is surely a
better holding as xx / xxx.

With kind regards
Marlowe

[NickRW]

For the original question, I would have doubled. Partner's bid says "strong raise" to me and I have a hand more suited to defence than it might have been - ace of their suit and another one - furthermore it is not the ace of our suit where they might be void. Partner is in no way constrained to leave the double in if that isn't what looks right from their side.

For the second question, I have a minimum (some might say questionable minimum), poor quality trumps and my ace of hearts may not be pulling full weight if partner already has control of that suit in the form of a void. Definite pass.

Nick

[NickRW]

Well, the fact that there have been a number of different sorts of answers is plain enough. Do you have a particular criticism of any of them?

[Cascade]

pooltuna, on Jul 30 2009, 02:05 AM, said:

A decision to double in these situations is not dictated by my trump holding but by how crappy my opening hand is. 5332 hands are not the offensive powerhouse many on here seem to think it is.

I haven't seen anyone describing 5-3-3-2 as an offensive powerhouse.

And I hate doubling on xxx when partner might think I have KQ9x or similar or even better.

Sure you can play a style where you double automatically with a balanced hand it just shifts ambiguity into the double.

[pooltuna]

Cascade, on Jul 29 2009, 03:08 PM, said:

pooltuna, on Jul 30 2009, 02:05 AM, said:

A decision to double in these situations is not dictated by my trump holding but by how crappy my opening hand is. 5332 hands are not the offensive powerhouse many on here seem to think it is.

I haven't seen anyone describing 5-3-3-2 as an offensive powerhouse.

And I hate doubling on xxx when partner might think I have KQ9x or similar or even better.

Sure you can play a style where you double automatically with a balanced hand it just shifts ambiguity into the double.

And why would he think you had any particular trump holding? High level sacrifices are not beaten by great trump strength as much as by just cashing your winners. The point of doubling this auction is not "I have a trump holding" but "caution partner, IMO at this stage of the auction, this is where we belong."

[the hog]

Sorry Nick but I agree with Phil on this one. The discussion is pointless. And why this is in the 2/1 forum I don't know. Do you know anyone who plays the 3H bid as described? We really need much more infomation about the mtypes of holdings possible for that bis and possible continuations before the discussion gets sensible.

[Tomi2]

ochinko, on Jul 29 2009, 07:46 AM, said:

Tomi2, on Jul 29 2009, 03:41 PM, said:

your partner did not invite you to a grand slam, he bid 6 d and hope you make it

Of course he did. What else was the point of 3♥? He could have bid 6♦ right away.

because he neede more information about our hand and he got that with our pass in the round before where we could have doubled and he would not bid 6 dias
biddind 7 now for me sounds like 1nt - 3nt - 6nt...