mycroft, on 2017-January-12, 11:16, said:
Why, but why, but WHY did West not hit 2♠? I know, it meant throwing away thousands of points on the real auction, but that's only because...
hrothgar, on 2017-January-12, 11:32, said:
I was about to make the same point. West's pass over 2♠ strikes me as the worst bid.
1- Passing 2
♠ is probably one of the best bids at the table. I would definitely pass 2
♠.
2-West does not see the S hand as you guys do.
3-There is a good chance that, when you were defeating 2
♠ you may actually help them to find a club fit, which they could NEVER find without the help of 2
♠ penalty double.
4-You change one little card between E and S and they make 2
♠ doubled.
5-You make the wrong lead such as
♦A, they make 2
♠ doubled in this original hand.
6-You make the right lead and make a mistake at T2, they make 2
♠ doubled
in this original hand.
7-You make the right lead and then make the 2nd right move and then make a reasonable mistake during defense, they make 2
♠ doubled
in this original hand.
8-Even if you were allowed to look at South hand during the auction, and even if you were allowed to defend double dummy, not doubling a part score for one down, can hardly be considered as the worst action. In fact you may get a field zero or lose many imps for doubling too early in some cases.
At MP yes, but at IMPS I would never dare to double a good card player at that low level to turn +100 to +200, because that is what you will get most of the time if you do everything correct on lead and defense. Of course we assume 2
♠ is where they will want to stay after our penalty double.