[Jinksy]

Playing matchpoints you have

43
JT3
AQJ5
KQ74

Playing weak and 4, you deal and open 1N, and hear P P 2S (nat). What’s your call

a) At love all
b) At game all

?

(X is competitive)

[TMorris]

At matchpoints I would make a (takeout) double. Only 3 hearts is not ideal but they look nice enough to ruff spades with if we end up in hearts & the rest of the hand couldn't really be better. At IMPs I would double non-vul and pass vul but I am not an expert so maybe an expert would just double anyway..

[CamHenry]

Why would I preempt partner's decision here? Have I not described my hand?

If I'm "expert", I trust partner to be as well, and therefore if action needs taking he will take it.

[MickyB]

TMorris, on 2013-September-12, 05:37, said:

Only 3 hearts is not ideal

Disagree completely. Our suits are equal against spades and we're not looking for game, so the only difference is that 3H tick scores more than 3m tick, which is basically irrelevant to our decision to compete. The relevant point is that partner has denied five hearts, while he could easily still have a five-card minor. A well-trained partner will bid 3H here infrequently, 4H4m will go through 2N scrambling.

I think it's clear to pass when vul, I think I'd double NV. This isn't a situation where love all is clearly a better time to act than favourable, because a large part of the upside to doubling is being able to take a penalty, and the upside to doing so tends to be greater when oppo are vul - if partner has a marginal hand he can shoot for the magic 200.