[Siegmund]

I would bid 1NT, but would be fine if my partner preferred to pass on these cards. I would not be fine if my partner so much as looked at the double card before bypassing it.

As for the actual cards - I dont feel too bad at all about how it came out (and if you do start with a double all sorts of awkward things, and no nice things, can happen.)

[JLOGIC]

Pass I don't get. If we pass now presumably we will pass forever (except we might balance on 1H p 2H p p, but we still won't get to game). I guess that's a way to just go plus on defense, but you can just easily be missing games if you bid that way as well as a partial if partner has any long suit and a weak hand.

[MickyB]

Agree with JLOGIC, except I am more arrogant than he and will tell you that if Meckstroth overcalls 1NT on this hand, he is making a mistake [albeit a small one]. Hell, I'd probably tell him that too It's really a pretty horrific 15-count.

[inquiry]

No, it is not a 1NT overcall.

[TylerE]

JLOGIC, on 2011-January-03, 20:00, said:

Pass I don't get. If we pass now presumably we will pass forever (except we might balance on 1H p 2H p p, but we still won't get to game). I guess that's a way to just go plus on defense, but you can just easily be missing games if you bid that way as well as a partial if partner has any long suit and a weak hand.

The idea being that if partner can't stick in a bid at some point we're perfectly happy to defend. Very close between pass and double here. Something like P=10/X=9/1N=1 for me.

[Phil]

X not 1N.

[awm]

I'd bid 1NT. Doubling seems likely to reach a 4-3 fit with the three-card holding (possibly xxx if in spades) in a non-ruffing hand. I don't think that rates to play so well. In general I think bidding 1NT offers a better chance to go plus than doubling, and also offers a better chance to bid game if we have it. The danger of 1NT is that we end up in 1NTX on a hand where if I had doubled we somehow avoid the axe. This is possible, but seems to require a fairly narrow range of hands (i.e. LHO is in that range of hands that double 1NT but don't rewind after my double, and partner doesn't have a five-card suit to run to). If Meckstroth bids 1NT then I'm in good company.

Pass could easily work on a given lie of the cards, but I think it's too timid in the long run and will turn a lot of partscore pluses into partscore minuses (as well as the occasional missed game).

[Fluffy]

JLOGIC, on 2011-January-03, 20:00, said:

Pass I don't get. If we pass now presumably we will pass forever (except we might balance on 1H p 2H p p, but we still won't get to game). I guess that's a way to just go plus on defense, but you can just easily be missing games if you bid that way as well as a partial if partner has any long suit and a weak hand.

Appart from losing ♥AK+ruff wich is rather unlucky I agree that doubling will be best when partner bids game to make, but when he just competes with a weak/middle hand, he is very likelly doing so more than he should, and scoring the downs on the wrong column. At least this is what has happened to me the 2 times I recall where I have doubled with QJx and KJx in their suit.

[mikeh]

I also would pass. I appreciate that doubling is the middle position, but maybe I am too old-fashioned for it to be comfortable for me. I also appreciate that 1N might work. IOW, I basically agree with justin's view of where this hand sits...altho I see that he saw the decision as basically 1N or double. Any of the three plausible actions will work some fo the time, and I doubt that anyone can plausibly 'prove' that any of them is better than the others...so go with what makes you and your partner comfortable. To me this hand suggests stating out of the auction unless partner can do something.

[Gerben42]

If you pass, it will go 1♥ Pass Pass, now East has the choice between Pass and 1NT 11-14. Four small isn't an ideal stopper but 1NT doesn't fail because of a missing stopper. Then West bids 3NT and goes down because ♦Q is still offside.

[FrancesHinden]

I would also pass, and don't consider it that close.
I would also end up in 3NT on Gerben's auction.

NV at matchpoints 1NT has a lot more going for it, but if I did it then it would be in the knowledge that it was an overbid.

[P_Marlowe]

Hi,

for me the answer is yes, but our 1NT overcalls start with (bad) 15HCPs,
and the hand is a bad 15 count.

With kind regards
Marlowe