eagles123, on 2014-January-02, 08:37, said:
Maybe i should've known what was coming when, earlier in the morning he wanted me to play 3D after stayman as showing both majors, possibly the most dumb idea i've ever heard of in a weak NT context.
This dumb idea was a standard part of Acol for many many years and goes by the title of some unpronouncable Polish name. Most just call it Extended Stayman though. It is so dumb I have even used it myself. It also fits well with the 3-suit transfer idea of handling club hands via a first round transfer but diamond hands via Stayman. Then 1NT - 2
♣; 2
♦ - 3
♣ can be diamonds and 1NT - 2
♣; 2
♦ - 3
♦ is whichever both major hand seems to be most awkward for the rest of the structure, commonly 5-5 majors and GF. And there are other possibilities too. Indeed I still use a variant of it within a Puppet Stayman structure with 1NT - 2
♣; 2
♦ - 3
♣ showing a GF hand with both majors (only in this case 4-4/5-4/4-5).
So I am afraid I cannot agree with you on this being the dumbest idea. I do agree that East takes the blame though. It is a common mistake to overbid on maximum opening bids after Responder makes a first round pass. After all, West showed essentially nothing except long diamonds and East unilaterally bid game without great shape. If they felt the hand was that good they should have been opening 2
♣. But the hand is not that good.
Finally, I think it would have been a good idea for East to make a second round XX to show a good hand off the bat. That way they may be less inclined to overbid later. An immediate 2
♥ is, for me, not showing anything extra at all but rather just long hearts. This is basically the initial decision from East's point of view - whether the auction should still be constructive after the initial pass or merely competitive. Which is better is irrelevant - this East clearly thought of their hand as constructive so XX is the best way forward. The creative alternative of passing was a little eccentric.
The rest is barely worth commenting on. If I bid this way then it would basically be an attempt to get doubled with some nasty surprise like a double fit and a void or two. In this respect going 2 or 3 off undoubled was a success of sorts. In any case, West's actions seem pretty normal and East's 4
♥ was clearly the worst call and the cause of the bad board.