[mgoetze]

Let's start with a nice board where Phil made a more successful decision than Sementa:

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[dkham]

I'm happy with 2♠ now. A pity we're (presumably) not playing a system where we could have opened the hand 1♠ or 1NT.

[gszes]

 mgoetze, on 2012-May-07, 02:45, said:

Let's start with a nice board where Phil made a more successful decision than Sementa:

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agree with 2s--cant even find much positive to say about any alternatives.

[billw55]

I admit I don't understand the problem. Partner has made a low-level balancing double and I have Axxx of the unbid suit. Is ♣Qxx behind the bidder supposed to make me consider pass or (gasp) 2NT?

[inquiry]

If you play support doubles, you have three possible choices...

2 ♠ = four cards in an unbid suit, partner could easily be 4-4-3-2 for example
2 NT = you have sort of a club stopper
2 ♥ = partner knows you have only 2♥ because of no support double, so this is a scrambling kind of bid

I would discard 2NT as being not reasonable. If my heart honor was the king or ace, I would feel better about bidding 2♥. The advantage of 2♥ is some 5-2 fits will play ok, and partner with only 4♥ will always pull. The disadvantage is a 4-4 spade fit would probably play better than a 5-2 heart fit. Another disadvantage is it might get you to a 4-3 diamond fit if partner is not in on the joke with the 4-4-3-2 hand. The advantage of the 2♥ bid is it will get you back into diamonds if partner happened to be something like 3-4-4-2, and to a playable spot if he is 3-5-3-2 (the 4-3 spade might be equally or better playable). Two hearts also keeps 2nt in play as a possible spot from partner's side.

I think most people would bid 2♠ as would I, My guess is that since the players bid something different, one must have bid 2♥ and one must have bid 2♠.

[Fluffy]

What Ben said, except that I would also upgrade ♥Qx into comfortable support as well as the king and ace. Jx is not that good and I am happy with 2♠ despite being close.