[quiddity]

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Matchpoints. Should East balance with 2♠? Should West double 2♥ or bid 3♣?

[ahydra]

To be honest this auction looks fine to me. For W to bid 3C would be a bit pushy. Bidding 2S when the hand looks like a misfit is also asking for trouble.

If this is kind-of minimum for West (surely not), then perhaps E could XX over N's TOX, but apart from that I don't see any easy way to compete further, particularly at MPs where either opp holding good defence won't hesitate to X 3C.

ahydra

[the hog]

This is the problem with playing Crapalotti, isn't it?

[Codo]

I really do not understand the double. Why don't you just defend 1 NT?

After this, I would not have found 2 ♠

[quiddity]

Codo, on 2012-December-02, 13:18, said:

I really do not understand the double. Why don't you just defend 1 NT?

Because the opponents are not vulnerable and West has a good hand?

[neilkaz]

the hog, on 2012-December-01, 19:18, said:

This is the problem with playing Crapalotti, isn't it?

It would be nice of the OP specified what they were playing,but this isn't Capp. In Capp double is penalty and 2♣ relays to 2♦ to show a suit.

Anyhow, I'd not sell out to 2♥ at MP with this hand and would take my chances in 3♣ unless I hand some specific agreement since my suit is known to be ♣ where I could give PD the choice between 2♠ and 3♣.

[rmnka447]

Double as a 1 suiter seems to be in line with playing DONT.

The opponent's waited to find out what suit the intervening side had and then competed. They found a good fit in a partial. So give them some credit. Opponents are allowed to do something right, too.

Advancer has enough points so that the opponents are unlikely to try for game. So, in all likelihood, the opponents will either play in NT or possibly in ♥s if responder has 5+ ♥s.

Once West competes and shows a 1 suited ♣ hand, I don't see any way that East can compete to 2 ♠. Yeah, it works this time, but they'll be plenty of other times that stepping in to an auction with a known misfit costs you -200 or -500. It's just not a good bet to do so.

I think the problem is competing in the first place with what is likely a running suit against NT. If the opponents end up in NT, you're likely to get a good result. I'll bet that is exactly what happened here. They'll make 1 NT for +90, but since they also make 2 or 3 in a ♥ partial for +110 or +140 leaving them in 1 NT gets you a good result.