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.