[jdeegan]

Your side is vul versus nvul opponents. Playing IMP's. RHO is dealer. He passes. You hold:
A9
KJ
Q108742
Q83

You open 1 diamond. LHO bids 1NT. Partner doubles. RHO passes. You bid 2 diamonds. LHO bids 2 hearts. Partner doubles. RHO passes. Your bid?

[CamHenry]

Was partner's double of 1NT penalties? If so, why did I pull it?

I'm going to bid 3NT here. It's our best chance of game, and I've given up on extracting the best possible penalty.

[rhm]

I would not have opened but I would be in a minority here. Most of my points are in short suits.
I see no good reason doing anything but pass unless you have special agreements about the DBL you did not tell us.
I have given a good description of my hand when I took out partner's first double.
If partner is deaf get another partner. Considering my bidding I have great hearts.
If 3NT would be a good contract partner should have bid it. He decided to double again. In fact if you do anything but pass you are mistrusting your partner.

Rainer Herrmann

[WellSpyder]

I would have passed the first double.

If it is normal on BBO to play this for take-out then it looks natural to pass the second double, which is surely for penalties in principle.

[helene_t]

I don't understand why you took out partner's first double. He doubled for penalties and you are happy with any lead he might make against 1NTx : you have entries for your diamonds and if he leads his own suit you have one or two fillers for it. Since declarer probably will have no entries to dummy he can't have a running suit as you stop everything.

Now I have no troubles passing partner's second double, again it is penalty and again I have a hand that is quite good for defence, given the circumstances.

[jdeegan]

This was actually my partner's hand. His pull of 1NT doubled, as several of you point out, was marginal. His opening bid was, imo, OK. I would have done it, but a pass is not out of the question either. What came next was a 3♦ call, yoicks!

The full hand:

---

Expecting a slightly different hand with a stiff heart, AQxxxx(x) of ♦ and another card, I took a shot at a vul 3NT.

[hrothgar]

jdeegan, on 2013-August-08, 09:47, said:

This was actually my partner's hand. His pull of 1NT doubled, as several of you point out, was marginal. His opening bid was, imo, OK. I would have done it, but a pass is not out of the question either. What came next was a 3♦ call, yoicks!

The full hand:

---

Expecting a slightly different hand with a stiff heart, AQxxxx(x) of ♦ and another card, I took a shot at a vul 3NT.

Pulling the first double is a matter of style.
Pulling the second double is unfathomable.

Bidding 3N is asking for trouble...

[CamHenry]

How did it go? I can see you making if you guess the ♦ position, especially on a red-suit lead!

[gszes]

I would have pulled the 1n x too weak overall to trustingly defend 1n x. IMO
2d is a reasonable call. Once you tell p you have a weak hand with little/no
desire to defend you do not tell the same story again especially with a holding
like KJ in the suit p just x. Trust your partner or buy them a hearing aid/contacts
as needed.

[Thiros]

We pulled our partner's double of 1NT why exactly? Our opening bid is full value.

Now we've been given another swing with the ax, so I would pass, but with a prayer that some nasty surprise doesn't await the defense. On the actual hand, I see that there was no need to pray.

[billw55]

hrothgar, on 2013-August-08, 09:53, said:

Pulling the first double is a matter of style.
Pulling the second double is unfathomable.

Bidding 3N is asking for trouble...

In fairness, west's bidding also leaves much to be desired.

[jdeegan]

CamHenry, on 2013-August-08, 10:15, said:

How did it go? I can see you making if you guess the ♦ position, especially on a red-suit lead!

heart and a heart followed by another heart after the ♦ ace. Only 8 tricks since not enough entries to the long diamonds. To make 9 you have to divine that the 1NT overcaller had a stiff diamond ace - unblock the ♦ king and hook the ♦ ten. I am a pretty decent dummy player, but not that good.

As is evident by the fact that unblocking the ♦ king is by far the percentage play. I was so sure of ♦ AJ doubleton. I got lazy. In my own (rather lame) defense, I had to decide to unblock before the third round of hearts presented me with a ninth trick.

When you drink and drive, you endanger the innocent. When you drink and play bridge, you only endanger your partner.