[Cascade]

Scoring: IMP

Pass 1NT* ?

* Weak 12-14

---

Your methods are :

Double = 15+

2♣ = Landy (both majors)

2NT = Minors

Others natural (jumps are weak)

What do you bid?

[awm]

Double. I would be quite surprised if this passes out (most weak NTers I've played against don't even use a nonforcing pass in this auction).

At my second turn, I will bid 2♠ pretty much regardless of the earlier bidding. This should be natural and show a hand too good to overcall 2♠ directly, and without much interest in defending notrump. If partner passes, we may have missed a diamond fit but we won't miss a game in spades. Note that this hand is not really easier to bid playing a method that shows two suiters directly, because partner will assume 5-4 and a weaker hand, and could easily pass when we're cold for game.

[fred]

I actually think there is a lot to be said for a direct 4S overcall. It's a lot easier to make a bid like this in Forums than it is at the table, but I would hope that I would be brave (or foolish!) enough to make this call in a "real" bridge game.

Trying to have an intelligent constructive auction when as little as x in spades and xxxx of diamonds gives you a chance to make game is not realistic my view.

Fred Gitelman
Bridge Base Inc.
www.bridgebase.com

[the hog]

Given the methods, 4S.
Change the methods so that 2NT is a big 2 suiter, not 2NT for minors.

[Chamaco]

Several people here using Landy couple it with transfer overcalls for majors:

X = Minor one suiter or strong (but not 2suiter: 2 suiters go via xfer overcall or 2NT or Landy):
2C = Landy
2D = xfer to H (can be 2 suiter)
2H = xfer to S (can be 2 suiter)
2S = Raptor hand with S = 4S and long minor
2NT = minors 2suiter
3m = Raptor with suit bid + H

[P_Marlowe]

4S.

The hand does not fit well with your
methods.

You have a 4 looser hand, maybe partner
will cover one and spades break 3-3.

With kind regards
Marlowe

[joker_gib]

Given the method, everything can be passed so I bid 4♠ !

Alain

[whereagles]

4S for me as well.

[pclayton]

The_Hog, on Apr 11 2005, 07:15 PM, said:

Given the methods, 4S.
Change the methods so that 2NT is a big 2 suiter, not 2NT for minors.

Yep - agree with Ron. 2N is better served as a big 2 suiter. Alternately, you can use it as a certain range of a big balanced hand, but I think the 2 suiter's better.

By pulling 3♣ to say, 3♠ you show a monster ♠+ another.

[luke warm]

i'd double i guess... agree with awm, opps won't pass it.. 4S might be right but diamonds might be also

[jdulmage]

Cascade, on Apr 11 2005, 07:14 PM, said:

Scoring: IMP

Pass 1NT* ?

* Weak 12-14

---

Your methods are :

Double = 15+

2♣ = Landy (both majors)

2NT = Minors

Others natural (jumps are weak)

What do you bid?

Gotta agree with Fred, I would bid 4♠ over this, partner needs only a few points for me to make and I could be shutting down the opponents bidding engines - which may include a missed 4♥ game and chances of being undoubled are increased to the point where I could be looking at 80% or more of the matchpoints on this board.

[Cascade]

jdulmage, on Apr 13 2005, 03:56 PM, said:

I could be looking at 80% or more of the matchpoints on this board.

Unfortunately the scoring condition was IMPs.

[Cascade]

Supplementary question:

This is aimed at the minority who doubled?

After

1NT X 2♥ Pass
Pass 2♠ Pass ?

What is the minimum that you would raise spades?

[awm]

After partner doubles and bids spades, this is basically the same as a "power double" after a suit opening. My general approach:

(1) With 4♠, I will always raise, even if broke.
(2) With 3♠, I will raise to 3 with around 4-7 hcp (lighter with clearly useful cards)
(3) With enough to respond to a 1-level opening, I will always bid something even if no fit.

Surely there are a few hands where you will miss game here. But most of these hands involve some sort of fitting card for diamonds. It will be difficult to get to game when partner has:

xxx
xxx
Qxx
xxxx

But avoid game when partner has:

xxx
Qxx
xxx
xxxx

Assuming you're not playing some sort of method to show strong two suiters in particular, you're pretty much stuck here. I'm not convinced by the 4♠ bidders -- I think for every hand that you get to a good game that you'd miss by doubling first, there will be a hand where you get to a bad game that you'd avoid by doubling first. Also, the 4♠ bid totally removes diamonds from the picture -- no reason partner can't have singleton spade, and I've found that when I hold a wild distributional hand after opponents open notrump, it is more often a misfit than not.

Another interesting observation is that opponents ran from 1NTX. If partner was broke, opponents have 24 hcp and I'd kind of expect a forcing pass or business redouble out of responder. Since opponents decided not to play 1NTX or 1NTXX, it seems likely partner has 5-6 points or so, in which case he shouldn't be passing 2♠.

[luke warm]

partner is showing (usually) 16-18, so my action would take that into account...

[Fluffy]

I hate these methods and am glad I won't ever play them, can't figure a better bid than 4♠, if I was playing with a certain partner I would bid 3NT, I am sure he would understand.