[diana_eva]

IMPs, random team match on BBO.

Partner is random, but has a star and seemed competent so far. xx would have been support.

---

What does this auction show? And what would you do now?

[helene_t]

Does not exits IMO. 2♥ sounds like a balancing bid, too weak for a reverse, must be 2416 with clubs not good enough for rebidding. But his 3♥ bid is not consistent with that. Maybe he was trappassing before, hoping opps would bid hearts. Maybe he has a weak 2506 and first thought it was too weak for a reverse but now upgrades his void after opps bid diamonds?

Maybe 3NT is right, but I think it overstates my values. I don't believe partner has 17+. 4♣ it is, despite the diamond stopper.

[Zelandakh]

2♥ sounds to me like 2434 or 2425 so 2♠ over this seems better than 3♣. I guess 2434 is going to be too matchpointy so let me nail my colours to the mast of 2425. I have no idea what partner wants to convey with 3♥ so I am just bidding 3♠ to show them a useful feature of the hand and give them the maximum space to confuse me some more. Is unusual that helene and I disagree so am interested whether other posters think 2♥ shows club length or not.

[whereagles]

Pard is 6-5 and was afraid of bidding hearts the round before (it's irrational, but people bid like this sometimes). Just bid 4♣ now.

[helene_t]

 Zelandakh, on 2014-May-28, 05:58, said:

Is unusual that helene and I disagree so am interested whether other posters think 2♥ shows club length or not.

It is r/r at IMPs. Do you think N would bid 2♥ with a balanced 12-14? Maybe it should show a balanced 18-19 though. But I think with a balanced hand he should have doubled 2♦ instead.

[hotShot]

I think partner wanted to bid a 18-19 NT starting with 1m rebidding 2NT.
So I think he was strong enough to wait for LHOs long suit, but does not have a good enough ♦ stopper, so he resorts to ♥. His shape should be something in the range of 2425 to 3433.
I would bid 2NT now because I have a ♦ stopper.

[Zelandakh]

 helene_t, on 2014-May-28, 06:37, said:

It is r/r at IMPs. Do you think N would bid 2♥ with a balanced 12-14?

Not really. That is why I backed away from it and went to 2425. Love All at MPs though - different game.

 helene_t, on 2014-May-28, 06:37, said:

Maybe it should show a balanced 18-19 though. But I think with a balanced hand he should have doubled 2♦ instead.

I suspect North did not want to double here regardless of hand because of the danger of a misunderstanding. I far prefer the big balanced hand to double rather than bid 2♥ though and then for 2♥ just to be competitive.

 hotShot, on 2014-May-28, 06:48, said:

I would bid 2NT now because I have a ♦ stopper.

You also have a visit from the TD but you can probably survive changing it to 3NT without getting an adverse ruling.

[P_Marlowe]

Hi,

we know North has to have 4+ hearts, East has at most 3,
I dont give West 6.
we also know North has at most 2 spades.

Since he could not Show strength with XX, he passed, 2H was
a generic force, 3H showes values (since he has length),
it could have been a stopper ask, but we know better.

I have a Diamond stopper, I bid 3NT.

With Kind regards
Marlowe

[wank]

it shows partner should have his star rescinded.

[gordontd]

My guess is that it shows a weak 6-5 hand, although I can't think why he wouldn't have rebid 2♣ with that, which is what I presume would have happened without the double.

[diana_eva]

OK, thanks for the replies everyone. This was mostly a sanity check thing. I found the sequence confusing, and pictured partner with a weakish but distributional hand and a will to compete in a bizarre manner. Worried that if I bid 4♣ now we'll get doubled, particularly when I wasn't convinced he has a good suit, I just passed 3♥. I knew it was at best a 5-1 fit, still my concern was to not turn a disaster into fatality.

Partner thought he was showing a strong 6-5 hand that had trap passed the round before and now is probing for game. He was not happy with my pass, but I couldn't argue, obv, I did pass him in a 5-1

[steve2005]

 whereagles, on 2014-May-28, 06:32, said:

Pard is 6-5 and was afraid of bidding hearts the round before (it's irrational, but people bid like this sometimes). Just bid 4♣ now.

Only think that makes sense, some sort of strong balanced hand with 4♥ balances with a double over 2♦ or maybe even bids 3♦ at some point looking for a stopper.

[MrAce]

Wow. What a huge contrast between some of the replies . I am honestly surprised at 5-4 suggestion particularly and also pd being very weak.

[Siegmund]

I would assume semistrong 2-4-2-5. Since I can't leave it unless I fit hearts, I presume I'm invited to bid 3NT with a diamond stopper, otherwise retreat to a black suit.

Partner will never have 6 clubs. He could have rebid them the first time.Wild distributional hands do not sit over the double.

I don't really have a 2nd-most-likely distribution to nominate. 1-4-3-5 with weak diamonds but very strong hearts and clubs, maybe. But why wouldn't that hand just reverse to 2H immediately?

[diana_eva]

 MrAce, on 2014-May-28, 18:54, said:

Wow. What a huge contrast between some of the replies . I am honestly surprised at 5-4 suggestion particularly and also pd being very weak.

But why not reverse directly over the double then, or x 2♦ if he was trap passing with a good hand? I thought he had a distributional hand too weak for a direct reverse. What I thought I *knew* from his auction was that he cannot be very strong and he cannot have good clubs

[Zelandakh]

Diana, there are times when a partner does something and you have absolutely no idea what they are trying to say nor ask. In that case you sometimes just need to make a descriptive call and see if partner gives you a clue later on. Here it does not matter what partner has for 3♥, we know we do not want to be playing that contract so we need to make a call. The choices are 3♠ and 4♣. I recommend the former because we already showed some club support and it gives more space. If we still do not know what is going on next round we can bid clubs again to complete the picture of the hand.

Most of the time when a good player makes unusual or impossible calls they have a good hand and no convenient way of bidding it. They are trying to get a picture of your hand somehow. So describe your hand as best you can and let partner do the masterminding. That is particularly clear with a minimum and support for the first suit. I happen to think your partner was also at fault here - why is a strong 6-5 hand trap passing? If they just bid naturally they would have shown their hand simply enough. But the thing for you to take from this hand is to improve your mentality for dealing with strange calls from partner.

[rmnka447]

When partner bids ♥ twice he has to be showing at least 5 ♥. If it's intended to be some sort of a control showing or other bid, it's just too cryptic for me. Since partner has bid ♣ first, it should mean ♣s are longer. So the hand is likely to be 6-5.

What strength is that hand? Without long experience as partners or some firm agreement, it's just too tough to know.

Your hand is an absolute minimum response. Your values are quacks in the suits partner doesn't have. But you do have a decided preference to play in a 9 card fit versus a 6 card fit. So, in my view, the proper action is to bid 4 ♣. It says "Partner I've heard that you have 5 ♥, but playing in ♣ is preferable." The other message that 4 ♣ sends is that opposite partner's 6-5 hand, nothing in your hand has improved to suggest game is possible.

If 4 ♣ turns out to be wrong because partner has bid unusually, that's not your problem.

[gszes]

It makes zero sense for p to have ANY weak/strong hand with 56
distribution and yet be willing to pass 1s x. Once this thought
process takes place we cast around for other plausible meanings.

My take is partner is pretty strong with 3 spades and was in no
hurry to xx since at imps playing 1s x making 3 or 4 is petty darn
good and might be great. The 2h bid was more of a convenience bid than
actual hearts (yet perfectly safe since if you raise hearts p can
convert to spades) but when you did not bid 2s (or nt) the 3h bid was
designed to show a hand like 3406 and around 16. If p hand was such that
all they needed was a dia stopper for 3n they had an easy 3d bid available.

The fact that p has moved beyond your 3c simple preference lends
extra credibility to this scenario. I have to admit I would have been
happy to bid 2s with my QJTxx suit (over 2h) but the simple preference
(especially at imps) is reasonable.

At this point I would try 3s the fact that you were unwilling to bid
2s should tell your p you are doing "something" but are not all that
crazy about your spade suit then sit back and let them decide how to
proceed.