Your Call 19

I could title this “Spot the Difference” or “Respect Your Passing Partner”. I sent out three bidding problems to a panel of club players. Firstly let me give you the hand you are asked to bid, sitting WEST as was the case at the time:

You are West and Dealer at Nil Vul

KQJ63

Q643

Q3

K7

Problem 1. You have opened 1S and North has overcalled with 2C. After two passes, it is your call. What should you be thinking? Why has partner PASSED?

The first, and obvious reason is that partner has nothing. If partner had anything of any use, partner would have supported spades or, with 4+ hearts and even as few as 7 HCP, made a TAKEOUT DOUBLE. You have a measly 13 HCP for your opening bid and an awful second suit, and your king of clubs is unlikely to pull its weight now that North has bid the suit. So, given that this is why partner has passed, why would you do anything but also pass?

But there can be one other reason why partner has passed when North has overcalled. That is when partner can not bid without sending the wrong message. Such a situation occurs when an opponent has overcalled in a suit well controlled by partner and partner would be happy to try and extract a satisfactory penalty with a double. But because a double from partner (East) would have a different meaning, i.e. takeout, East passes and waits for a double by opener in the pass out seat. Which East will convert to a penalty double by passing. Too few players understand how doubles work nor do they use them to best advantage, or even at all!

Now look at the hand and bidding again. What are the chances that partner does want to penalise the overcall? You have the king of clubs, and given that North would not overcall with a rubbish suit everything points to partner having NO INTEREST in you bidding. Respect that and pass, but if you must, then double. At least the double will probably come to no harm, because partner will bid 2S or possibly 2H. Does it make any sense to bid 2H yourself? If you think about it, no. When would it be right to bid 2H? Only if you have no wish for partner to penalise the overcall, which would suggest that you have a hand much more suitable for playing yourself rather than penalising opponents, and therefore most likely 5-5 in the majors rather than the paltry 5-4 that this hand is. Yet most of those surveyed would bid 2H just ‘because they can’.

But I also gave them a second hand as an option, a 5-5 hand, also with a 13 high card point count:

AQT42

AQ432

3

J2

Nearly all the same people who bid 2H in the first problem would also bid 2H with this one. Can you spot the difference? Yes, there is quite a difference so why the same bid? You can see the full deal that hand 1 came from in Your Call 20 and if you persist then maybe the sequels in YC21 and YC22 will help open your eyes to the real benefits of takeout doubles and ‘total tricks’ or TNT in my simple version.