Pass or Pull Revisited

In what has become a recurring theme, here's another controversial hand!

2nd seat none vul you hold
Jx
xxxxx
KTxx
Ax
After two passes, the action starts. LHO opens 1 Club, partner overcalls 4 Spades and RHO bids 5 Clubs. This is passed back to your partner who reopens with a double. What range of hands does he have? More importantly, what do you call now?

Is There a Middle Ground?

I held this hand, vul vs not as dealer at rubber bridge tonight:
void
763
AJxxx
QT9xx
After 2 passes my partner opened 1 Heart, RHO overcalled 3 Spades and I didn't think too long before bidding 4 Hearts. My partner played it well and made and we continued playing but for some reason the hand struck me as interesting. Say you held this hand and partner opened 1 Heart, passed to you. What's your approach? What about if RHO overcalls only 1 Spade? What if you make one of your minor suit spot cards another small trump--how does that change things?

Another 6-Level (Mis) Adventure

I just finished playing a full weekend of bridge--so much for one of our last beautiful weekends of summer weather here in Chicago! Here's my favorite hand from today's Swiss, once again more for the humorous side of it than the result (as you will see).
I held 2nd seat favorable:
AJTxx
Ax
AKxxx
9
I opened 1 Spade of course and our unobstructed 2/1 auction continued:
2C-2D-2NT-3D-3S-3NT-4NT-?
I could hardly have a better hand so I was for sure driving to slam...I still didn't know where to play though. How good were partner's spades? And could diamonds still be in the picture? I bid 5NT, accepting the slam push and asking partner to choose. He bid 6 Clubs, which i wasn't expecting... Now, though, I started to envision him with something like AKQJx of clubs and Kxx of hearts...if the opponents didn't lead trump, maybe the heart ruff could be a vital extra trick! Sick, I know, but I passed. Alas we went down because of a 6-1 trump break. And 6 Spades or 6NT would have made. At least it's a story--it isn't often that you voluntarily play a 6 card fit at the slam level. Partner's hand:
Kx
KQxx
xx
AKQxx

Great Hand

Here's an interesting hand from Jason that could lead to some good discussion. you are red vs white in 2nd seat with:
Qxx
AK9xxx
xxx
x
RHO opens 3 clubs, you pass and LHO ups the ante to 5 clubs, which partner doubles. Pass to you.

3-Card Major

Since my recent trip to the Las Vegas NABC was not a great success as a whole, and usually I post disaster hands more often than triumphant ones, I figure it is okay to report this small victory, one of my favorite hands from the tournament. I was playing the weekend Swiss with an occasional partner. We play precision with very few agreements, generally trying to keep things simple. Anyway, I was dealt 3rd in hand white v red,
T9x
Ax
AKxx
Txxx
and heard my partner open 1 Diamond--either diamonds or any balanced 13-15 hand. RHO passed and I had to decide quickly so that it didn't look like I had a problem--my choices were a game-forcing 2 Clubs, 2 Diamonds, which showed 5 of them and 11 plus points, and a natural invitational 2NT. Mulling over these quickly, I responded 1 Spade and awaited developments. LHO overcalled 2 Hearts and partner doubled, showing 3 card support (it looked like at least we'd be able to avoid playing a spade contract now). Before I got a chance to choose my next brilliant call, RHO bid 3 Hearts. I felt like a double should just be cards here, showing some good hand, not really penalty-oriented (pretty much what I had). Since I knew that my partner and I were not on firm ground on this auction, though, I decided to pass and await developments (again). Sure enough, LHO bid 4 Hearts, passed back to me. This time I whacked it. We collected 800--the other hands were
-----KJx
-----J
-----JTxx
-----AKQxx
AQxx-------xxx
KTxxxx----Q9xx
xx----------Qxx
x-----------Jxx
We were on for 6 of a minor but at the other table our counterparts bid to 3nt and took 10 tricks--a 9 IMP win for us. The victim declarer, a well-known expert, was mumbling after the hand about the atrocity of bidding 1 Spade on Ten third and then passing 3 Hearts with Ace-King, Ace. I'm sure he was right, none of my actions were a thing of beauty, but having it work on this occasion was satisfaction enough for me. In fact maybe I could have mumbled something about bidding game on that lot!

Bidding after 1NT-X

I think one area that few partnerships have discussed in much detail is bidding after their side has doubled 1 Notrump for penalty--either the opening bid or an overcall. I believe that standard practice says that all subsequent doubles of runouts are for penalties, but usually the discussion ends there. What does a pass show on this auction:

1NT(1)-x-2h(2)-?

(1)-12-14

(2)-to play

Sometimes the right spot will be defending 2 Hearts undoubled, but that seems to be a pretty narrow area to shoot for. Some kind of structure involving forcing passes has to be the right idea. My favorite method involves forcing passes and value showing, optional-type doubles. So the passes are consistent with holding a penalty double of the bid suit, intending to pass partner's double if he produces one. Direct bids at the two-level show a smattering of values and are not forcing. Two Notrump is Lebensohl and 3-level suits are game-forcing. When responder (to the original penalty double, that is) has a bust or near-bust, he passes, bids the next step after the second double, and hopes to land on his feet somewhere. Passing and removing the double to a major at the 2-level (on an auction like 1NT-X-2c-p-p-X-p-?) shows values and a real suit but is not quite game-forcing. If the opps bid to the 3-level, forcing passes are off. I read about this system in Barry Rigal's "Precision in the 90s." I guess the most important thing is to have some kind of discussion as to what bids mean after doubling 1NT--anything is better than guessing.

How Much?

You have
AKxx
9xx
JTx
Kxx
Only you are vulnerable and RHO opens 1D in first position. This is passed around to your partner who reopens with a double. What do you bid?