[Liversidge]

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We play Acol and the Club opening bid was natural. I was playing with a pickup partner in a friendly non-competitive game. I'd like to understand where I got it wrong, as several players I spoke to afterwards said I should have doubled and then bid clubs.
I reckoned opener was likely to have five clubs so partner would have a singleton or void and I would find it hard to establish the clubs or spades for 3NT as I would have to lead both suits from the long hands.
Should I just have doubled and then bid clubs, intending to have a punt at 3NT if partner made the right noises?
We made 1♠.

[helene_t]

Double followed by clubs would be artificial (showing a very strong hand, typically with 3-card support for whichever suit partner bid) so that is bad advice.

Your initial pass is fine but when p balances I think you should just punt 3nt. There is a reasonable chance of establishing the club suit because you have so many entries.

[steve2005]

helene_t, on 2015-December-07, 17:47, said:

Double followed by clubs would be artificial (showing a very strong hand, typically with 3-card support for whichever suit partner bid) so that is bad advice.

Your initial pass is fine but when p balances I think you should just punt 3nt. There is a reasonable chance of establishing the club suit because you have so many entries.

While I would agree with punting 3N, I would not be surprised to go down.
Your void in partner's ♠ and partner could be void in ♣.
This hand could be a nightmare especially against someone playing Acol..

[Giangibar]

I think bidding 3NT at this point might be a nice practical action, but likely to fail in real life because you're gonna have a hard time going to dummy and you're losing 3 Club tricks if you have to establish the suit from your hand.

Double then bidding Clubs is a nice idea, but it would be interpreted by partner as a very strong hand with no better bid and probably not so many Clubs, which is evidently wrong. I play that the direct overcall of the opponents' 1♣ opening is natural, so I would bid 2♣ directly after RHO's bid.

[helene_t]

Giangibar, on 2015-December-08, 06:44, said:

I play that the direct overcall of the opponents' 1♣ opening is natural, so I would bid 2♣ directly after RHO's bid.

Yes, in a 5-card major / strong notrump culture this makes sense but here the opponents play Acol so the 1♣ opening is always at least four cards, and usually 5+. So in that context it is better to play 2♣ as Michael's.

[Cyberyeti]

You ask what the minimum length of the club is (even though you know) then pass. This tells partner you have 6 or more clubs. At least that's how they do it in my club.

And yes I am joking, this is utterly illegal but does happen.

[wank]

yes it's fine to pass to start with.

you can't pass 1♠ though. you'll normally be in a 5-0 fit which is bad and you could have as many as 30 HCP combined. you have to bid no trumps. if you want to downgrade your hand, and bid less than game, because of the likely communication problems that's fine.

[tsankaR]

your p must dbl and you must pass the dbl

[helene_t]

tsankaR, on 2015-December-08, 08:21, said:

your p must dbl and you must pass the dbl

Maybe, but it depends what cards p had

[tsankaR]

helene_t, on 2015-December-08, 08:29, said:

Maybe, but it depends what cards p had

p must be void in clubs. must have more than 12 pts. must have atleast 3 cards in all other suits. If not give me the hand that warrants 1s bid

[wank]

tsankaR, on 2015-December-08, 09:43, said:

p must be void in clubs. must have more than 12 pts. must have atleast 3 cards in all other suits. If not give me the hand that warrants 1s bid

lol partner doesn't promise 12 points. he doesn't need to have a void in clubs. and he doesn't need to have at least 3 cards in every suit. even if he does have all those, if he's got enough spades, he should still overcall a spade rather than double.

[tsankaR]

if he has all "those" then dbl is THE correct bid

[Caitlynne]

In my opinion, you have to Pass over 1C. To Double first and then bid clubs would not show clubs, but rather would represent a cue bid in support of whatever suit partner might bid in response to your Double. That is STANDARD and played by everyone in the universe except, apparently and rather miraculously, only those life forms you consulted.

What to do? Well, after partner balances with 1S, bid NT. Partner is not going to have opening values with 6 good spades - that would be a 2S balance - so partner is USUALLY going to have only 5 spades and some values and is likely to have 1 or 2 clubs. What's more, RHO is unlikely to have 5 or more clubs, else both LHO and partner would be short and there might have been more bidding. So opener is likely balanced with minimum opening values. Thus, your side holds close to game going values. Based on this analysis, I would just gamble with 3NT.

[wank]

tsankaR, on 2015-December-08, 10:09, said:

if he has all "those" then dbl is THE correct bid

akjxxx jxx Kxxx void. magically partner has everything you wrote. you want to double?

[steve2005]

Give your partner some credit. If they bid 1♠ they don't have a takeout double despite likely being short in clubs.
So they either don't have right shape or not enough points or both.

3N is fine, you cant be precise here. Sure it might fail but that's bridge.

[zillahandp]

Double is wrong from you bad advice, let alone then bidding clubs . you are fixed stay fixed is generally best esp at pairs. If you must bid then 3c is the only possible bid to describe your hand.

[Vampyr]

wank, on 2015-December-08, 10:02, said:

lol partner doesn't promise 12 points. he doesn't need to have a void in clubs. and he doesn't need to have at least 3 cards in every suit. even if he does have all those, if he's got enough spades, he should still overcall a spade rather than double.

Well, he does actually have a club void, since opener promised 4.

[helene_t]

Vampyr, on 2015-December-09, 13:24, said:

Well, he does actually have a club void, since opener promised 4.

13-7-4=0

[jdgalt]

I like your first pass, but would reply 1NT after 1S. The hand sounds like an awful misfit and if either opponent bids again, let them play the hand!

[miamijd]

wank, on 2015-December-08, 11:02, said:

akjxxx jxx Kxxx void. magically partner has everything you wrote. you want to double?

Partner has a 2s call, not a 1s call. You then have an easy 3nt bid (but good luck making it). Over partner's actual 1s bid, I would probably content myself with 2NT. Yes, it's a slight underbid, but you are void in partner's suit, and he is probably very short in yours.