[gwnn]

I'm afraid we had a club fit. I don't remember the hands very well

[the hog]

I would have passed, but contrary to many who posted, it is REALLY a close decision. -180 will be a bottom.
By the way, having read the comments about your partner, I suggest you get a new one.

[Cthulhu D]

Semi related question - do people here play different methods over a strong and weak 1NT? With my two regular partners, we play the same defense just to ease memory strain, the field typically has ACOL 12-14, SAYC style 15-17 and the odd precision 13/14 to 15/16 in it. What's the gain with a specialist method vs playing, say, suction over both?

[gwnn]

In general terms, the stronger their NT, the less need there is for a penalty double and the weaker you can act. Defences such as suction work much worse against weak NT because very often when they open a weak NT you want to bid constructively (because it's your hand). There's a reason why people don't play opening bids as suction, only after a couple of beers.

[Cthulhu D]

gwnn, on 2011-December-14, 08:15, said:

In general terms, the stronger their NT, the less need there is for a penalty double and the weaker you can act. Defences such as suction work much worse against weak NT because very often when they open a weak NT you want to bid constructively (because it's your hand). There's a reason why people don't play opening bids as suction, only after a couple of beers.

Cheers, I'd noticed that suction hadn't really been working out over a weak NT (actually inverted psycho suction which actually had worked out nicely, but for all the wrong reasons), so we'd switched to HELLO but yeah hadn't really twigged as to why that was the case.

[gnasher]

Cthulhu D, on 2011-December-14, 06:56, said:

Semi related question - do people here play different methods over a strong and weak 1NT?

I now usually play the same over both. I like to have a strong-balanced double available, regardless of the range.

"Strong" notrump openings don't always have 15 HCP - sometimes it turns out to be a 13-count with a semi-solid minor. In any case, with a 16-count sitting over a 15-count we can usually expect to make more than half the tricks.

[pooltuna]

pass and let your partner reel in his 6 or 7 card suit winners