How others might've

bidandmade

it

• Question 1
  
  Your partner North opens 1C. You'd like to reply 1H with your 5-card suit, but your right-hand opponent bids 1S. What a pain. If you now bid 2 hearts, your partner will assume you have a 5 cards in the suit, which you do have, and 9+ points, which you don't have. Is bidding 1NT to show 6-9 HCP a good idea ?
  
  

• Question 1
  
  Your partner North opens 1C. You'd like to reply 1H with your 5-card suit, but your right-hand opponent bids 1S. What a pain. If you now bid 2 hearts, your partner will assume you have a 5 cards in the suit, which you do have, and 9+ points, which you don't have. Is bidding 1NT to show 6-9 HCP a good idea ?
  
  Answer
  
  Not the best. After the 1S overcall, you know you are threatened in Spades where you are weak. A negative double shows 6+ points and a 4+ card Heart suit. That's a better bid.
   

• Question 2
  
  What if you had passed instead of doubling ? What would have been the likely outcome ?
  
  

• Question 2
  
  What if you had passed instead of doubling ? What would have been the likely outcome ?
  
  Answer
  
  Your partner would have calculated you had 0-7HCP, and passed, giving the 2S contract to the opposition.
   

• Question 3
  
  You partner responds to your negative double as if you had bid 1 Heart. So his re-bid of clubs promises 6 club cards. good, your team's probably got a 9-card club fit. In this case, you didn't bid to game, only 4 Clubs.
  
  Should you have risked a 4 Heart game bid, given your 5 hearts ?
  
  

• Question 3
  
  You partner responds to your negative double as if you had bid 1 Heart. So his re-bid of clubs promises 6 club cards. good, your team's probably got a 9-card club fit. In this case, you didn't bid to game, only 4 Clubs.
  
  Should you have risked a 4 Heart game bid, given your 5 hearts ?
  
  Answer
  
  No. For all you knew, your partner might have had nothing in hearts. In fact he was short, even though he had the best 2 cards possible. You might have considered bidding 3 Hearts instead of 3 Clubs (raising to 5 cards your "negative double" promise of 4 cards), and partner would have raised to 4 Hearts if he's had 3 cards.
  
  But he doesn't have 3, and would have left it at that. 4H probably won't make here.
  
  By the way, you'd have made more money at the duplicate table on a succesful "bidandmade" of 3H (scoring 90+50), compared with 4C (scoring 80+50).
   

• Some subjects to follow up on

  Bal, 12 to 19 HCPs, weak NT
  Overcalls, in a suit, over a suit
  Doubles, Negative double
  Overcalls, in a suit, over a suit
  Unbalanced, You are strong