What do we 'know' by the time 2
♠ comes around to us? I put quote marks there because much of what we do at bridge is based on inferences, of varying levels of assurance. At times we depend not only on assumptions about partner's skill level and tendencies but also the opps.
With that in mind, we can 'know' or infer that partner has extras and an unbalanced hand, most commonly 1=4=3=5, but with other variations such as 0=4=3=6, 1=5=1=6, and so on, and with 5 hearts need not have a huge hand.
We can almost eliminate hearts as a destination, unless partner has 5 of them, and he'll usually be able to tell us that if we give him a chance.
Over 2
♠ we have options, and I would reason more or less as follows, having already thought of the above points:
1. We likely have a good chance of beating them, and possibly a lot. Consider x AKxx xxx AKxxx for a 1=4=3=5 hand, and he has a better hand than that for a reverse. You'd almost always be beating them and what can you make? A part score in a minor, maybe. This suggests double, even if it is played as purely penalty.
Most advanced players, and beyond, would take a low level double of a suit bid and raised as showing a desire to compete, with no clear direction, and allowing for penalty conversion.
However, on this hand, there is no chance that partner will pass. You have, basically, denied 4 spades, and so he will expect the opps to hold a 9 card fit even if he has one himself, and he'll probably place you (provisionally) with something like 3=3=5=2 shape, since with 3+ clubs, you have an easy 3
♣ call, with 4
♥ you'd raise hearts, and with 6 diamonds you probably wouldn't give him a chance to convert a double, and would bid 3
♦ or pass, depending on hand and suit.
As it is, you don't mind if he pulls a double, and you don't mind if he thinks it is penalty and passes anyway, so I would double. If he pulls to 3
♥, showing 5 hearts, I'd raise (tho we might be too high)
2. As an alternative, you can pass. Partner is still there, and that is an often overlooked point. Sometimes, when we aren't sure what to do, think we need to do something, and partner is still there, we can pass. This is difficult to do smoothly and sometimes we create problems for partner by a slow pass, but we are allowed to think, and partner is allowed to make a reasonable call based on his hand....it is an error to assume that a slow pass bars him....it just makes life a bit more difficult than need be. If we played pure penalty doubles, and for some reason didn't want to choose that call here, I would pass. However, if double is an action double, or a do something intelligent double, I make that call instead
3. If I weren't allowed to double or pass, I would choose 3
♣. However Jx is really not enough.
I wouldn't consider (or if I did, I'd immediately reject) any major suit bid and 2N is a non-starter as well for what I trust are obvious reasons.
I have gone on at some length, and maybe you doubt that one can reason this way at the table, but this really is sort of how I think at the table, and it takes far longer to write this than it does to think it
'one of the great markers of the advance of human kindness is the howls you will hear from the Men of God' Johann Hari
Help
s
t
r-m
nd
ing) tr. v. - Any bid made by bridge player with which partner disagrees.