Interesting Hand 13

On a Friday evening recently I picked up thr following hand:The opponents were vulnerable , we were not.

AQJ64K7AQJK96 a nice 20 pts. Open 2NT? Unfortunely the dealer on my right chose to open 2 , announced as "weak", 6-10pts and a 6 card suit!

Now what do I do? Bid a suit, double or bid no-trumps? I play that doubles of pre-emptive bids (weak twos, or threes) are for take-out, though the double can be passed by partner holding a good array of trumps!Any no-trump bid is to play.

So what would you have done?

Replies

1.We would bid 2NT. Can’t see any point in doubling – you don’t really want partner to take it out as your best suit is the opponents suit, and partner certainly won’t be in a position to leave the double in. You are sitting over the spades so if the auction is to be yours, NT looks likely to be your best final contract. The spades are coming round to you so you should make 3 of them. Partner can raise to 3NT with a handful of points or, if partner has say 6 hearts (and someone’s got to have a load of hearts!) they can bid 4H & that’s fine. On the other hand if your LH opponent bids hearts then you may well get them down, possibly doubling them on the way.

2.Alternatives

1. Could still bid 2NT but would partner interpret that as approx 17+ pts and pass?

2. Pass and be fairly sure of penalties (better than part game in option 1)

3. Could double to see what partner holds but where would that lead? 3NT in the hope partner has pts? In which case YOU should bid 3NT now - risky but slightly better than 50% chance.

If partner has got pts for game then opponents might be four down in spades - as good as game. Choose option 2.

3/.I would bid 2 no-trumps with my good spades. I would like to double for penalties but partner would take it out. Pass is a good option but we may only get it down three tricks

4. I would double, making partner aware of my strength and knowing that they would be obliged to bid. It is probable that the final contract would be 3NT (unless partner had a respectable holding when a slam would be possible) but spades wouldn't be the main source of tricks. If LHO leads spades partner wouldn't then have one to repeat the finesse. 3 spade tricks are all that can be expected, assuming that RHO goes up with the King on the first round, so the tricks will have to come from elsewhere.
It is indeed interesting, what did you do?

What actually happened

I decided to double, and when partner bid 3 diamonds I bid 3NT. On reflection I think that a bid of 2NT is a far better bid. I received a heart lead and dummy went down

J8 J8 97652 A74

My first good play was to play the J, which held. I need entries to dummy. The next was a big mistake I lead the J, but this was not covered! Realising the folly, I need the diamonds to come home I led a diamond from dummy, the 10 came up on my right, so I played the J, then praying I cashed the A and the King of diamonds fell. Played Q then crossed to dummy with A and ran off the 2 diamond tricks. Now came the spades, finessing the Q, then playing the A, and the K clubs. 11 tricks made. If the J had been covered I would have to hope that that RHO would make a mistake. I can always make 1 trick in hearts, 3 in diamonds , 2 in clubs and 2 in spades, and 3NT might still get home because the opener has only a doubleton heart and has to discard on the Q of diamonds and two more s. Really good defending defeats 3NT , the way I started, but is powerless if I start on diamonds before spades