[Stephen Tu]

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IMPS.

What now, and what's your plan?

[gnasher]

It hurts, but I'd pass.

It doesn't sound as though partner has much. RHO opened 1♣ without any high cards in the suit, so he's probably not light. LHO probably has one of the top spades. We'll be lucky to find partner with a 5-count, and he can't really have enough for us to make 4♥.

Our best spot is quite likely to be 3♣, but we can't get to that. If I double there's more chance of reaching a poor 3♦ than a good 3♥; if I bid 2NT we're likely to end up in a very poor 2/3NT.

[Stephen Tu]

gnasher, on 2013-February-18, 03:06, said:

It hurts, but I'd pass.

So I passed, thinking more or less along the lines you did, -140.

Partner shows up with x Txxxx KJxx xxx. Opener has AKx AK xxxx xxxx, auction at the other table was different with a weak NT;
(1nt)-dbl-(2s)-p;
(p)-dbl-(p)-3H;
(p)-4H.

Teammates did not find the club shift at trick 2 to beat it.

I got grief for not bidding again, fair? What's another double by me supposed to show, anyway, distributionally, if I held some other hand?

How are teammates supposed to signal to find the club ruff, should the signal on the high spade be suit preference, count, or attitude, given the auction and posted hand as dummy? I had sympathy since 2♠ bidder would frequently only have 5 cd suit on the auction.

[gnasher]

Stephen Tu, on 2013-February-26, 18:53, said:

I got grief for not bidding again, fair?

Obviously I don't think so, because I would have done the same as you did. If someone said it was clear for you to act I don't think he's being very objective.

Quote

What's another double by me supposed to show, anyway, distributionally, if I held some other hand?

It shows support for both red suits, so typically 3442 or 3451. Obviously sometimes you'll have less good shape and more high cards, but the assumption is that double-then-double shows the right shape for a takeout double. With 18+ balanced you would normally double and then bid notrumps. This hand is unusual because you have the strong balanced hand, no spade stop, and poor support for one of the unbid suits.

Quote

How are teammates supposed to signal to find the club ruff

As it went that seems too hard, but perhaps they could had a better auction? If North, who seems to have had 109xxxxx xx Qxx x, had bid 3♠ on the first round, he might have played there for +140 or -50 (on a minor-suit lead there's a trump promotion for one down).

If the opponents had still got to 4♥, opener would now have known that a second spade wasn't cashing. He'd still have to decide whether to play declarer for his actual hand or for something like x 10xxxxx QJxx xx. An "obvious shift" style would work well here - a discouraging spade would show ♦K, so North would "encourage" spades and South would switch to a club.

In my prosaic style North would just give count and South would have to guess. It's not much of a guess, though. Declarer is much more likely to have nine red cards with ♦K than ten red cards without it, so with no other indication I'd play for the club ruff.

[the hog]

Your partner should have bid 2NT scrambling, and you would find 3H,
I would bid as you did; the blame is your partner's.

[Codo]

I would expect more from a partner who scrambles over 2 ♠.

I think they simply shoud have defended better. Then we discuss about -100 vs. -140... Wow.

For your first question: Really an ugly problem. Bad luck- with a third diamond you MIGHT double, with a third spade you might bid 2 NT, but with the given hand, pass seems clear.

[Alik1974]

Bidding 3♣ shows that you have more than the original X promised.

[FrancesHinden]

It's a good advertisement for playing 2NT as lebensohl (not scramble) then partner can bid over 2S.

[lalldonn]

Sorry mob but I would never pass this out and I think that is just awful. It might sound simple-minded but I have 20 points and the opponents are w/r. I can't believe you would all just let them push you around like this, there is no reason to believe they have much of anything! I was planning to double then bid notrump so that's what I will do. But I also much prefer a reopening double over a pass. It's not only the type of hand partner held that's a problem (which I would never bid over 2♠ with - simple minded again, 4 points!) It's more the 5/6/7/8 counts without shape to act where you make 3NT on power. In fact I think that type of hand might be the single most likely outcome.

I mean sorry I'm a bit flabbergasted, but opener has AK AK and your QJ was completely wasted (which will often not be the case - why doesn't our partner often have spade length on this auction?) yet you still had a game, yes I know they could beat it but I sure want to be there. What if one of opener's kings was a jack but partner had a little less shape so he wouldn't be acting? You just defended 2♠ r/w with 26 high card points because the weak jump shift of all bids scared you away. That's not very impressive.

This is one more in my mental catalog of reminders of why I always keep bidding with nothing even when it looks like there is no purpose. When I saw this (I somehow missed it when it was posted over a week ago) I really thought it was a Dbl or 2NT question.