Here's a not-so-great hand from my set with Wayne.
3rd seat, all red
Let's say you bid 1 Club. Lefty bids 1 Heart. Pard bids 1 Spade (showing 5+). Righty bids 2 Hearts.
What now?
To me, this is an automatic support double. Sure, you don't like your Heart King so much any more (though just because Lefty probably has 5 Hearts and Righty probably has 3 doesn't mean the Ace is always on your left or that partner doesn't have either the Ace or Queen) but pard is a passed hand, so he's unlikely to hang you, and who wants to defend 2 Hearts with (potentially) half the deck and a known 8 card Spade fit?
Wayne chose to pass, though. Now I have to decide whether to balance back in with
AQJ87 / J65 / J32 / Q9 (white I'd have opened 2 Spades)
opposite a partner who's ostensibly denied 3 Spades.
Looks like a 15 trick hand. Pard is probably 2-2-4-5 or something like that. He might even be 2-3-3-5 (4 card overcall or a raise on honor doubleton.) At matchpoints, I might try to push them up a level, but at IMPs, it looks normal to pass and take my probable -110 instead of my -100 or -200 in 2 Spades. If I think this is worth a 2 Spade bid now that I know we don't have a fit, I should have opened 2 Spades.
I led the Queen of Clubs
K64 / 932 / AQT85 / 42 Dummy (LHO)
AQJ87 / J65 / J32 / Q9
My Queen held, Wayne encouraging, so I knew he didn't have a stiff Spade (else he would likely scream for a switch.) It looked like my only chance was to play the Queen of Spades (preferably without tanking forever) and hope Declarer guessed wrong.
Success! My Queen of Spades held the trick and I patted myself on the back for passing 2 Hearts as we were now headed for +100. Ace of Spades. Spade ruff. Ace of Clubs. Club uppercut. NEXT
Of course, it didn't quite work out like that ...
'huh?'
'should I still support Dbl with what is only a 7 count in the auction ?'
'only if you want a plus score'
Technically -140 is the par result, but I doubt either opp was bidding again over 2 Spades:
K64 / 932 / AQT85 / 42
92 / AQT84 / K76 / J86
Though to be fair, I'd have opened 3 Clubs with Wayne's hand and we'd have likely ended up -100 anyway, which is almost as bad.
-140 was 3 IMPs and change away
http://online.bridgebase.com/myhands/fetchlin.php?id=6954479&when_played=1186410446
