Becker's Bridge Blog: Close One?

Saturday, August 15, 2009

Close One?

Vul vs not you hold:
A
Kxxxx
AJx
KQxx
You open 1 Heart in 3rd seat and LHO leaps to 4 Spades, passed back to you. Do you act?

5 comments:

Jonathan Weinstein said...: Not obvious, because your defense could be a disappointment if partner passes. But I dbl because I can't stand the thought of his having xxx AQxx Qxxx xx and collecting 50 or 100 instead of 650. I have my motion-sickness bag at the ready in case he has a balanced yarborough and they redouble.; August 16, 2009 at 8:47 PM
Jeff said...: I double. Preempts force us to guess. My hand can work on either offense or defense, so let partner get involved.; August 16, 2009 at 9:58 PM
Memphis MOJO said...: I hate to miss a vulnerable game as much as anybody, but I pass. I know that's conservative, but every time I double, pard leaves it in and they make it or he pulls and we go minus.; August 17, 2009 at 3:50 PM
Becker said...: Thanks again for the comments, guys. I felt a little miffed after playing this hand in my home game. I doubled without giving the matter much thought and disaster struck--partner bid 4NT, I bid 5C and the spade overcaller doubled. Dummy provided only
xx xx T9xxx JTxx and the price ended up being 1100. On reflection, I think it is a close call--having the spade ace be one of the other ones would have made double a standout.; August 18, 2009 at 1:40 PM
Jonathan Weinstein said...: This round to Mojo :-).

Partner had a tough guess...too bad he didn't have a balanced yarborough, you'd probably get off for -590 or 690 :-).

The correct post-mortem technique for doubler is "Well, I would have passed at matchpoints..."; August 18, 2009 at 2:13 PM

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