Post by Eddie GrovePost by ais523Post by Eddie GrovePlaying with robots on bridgez, a french site,
I had the competitive auction
1S-2H-2S-3H
3S-X!
The double was alerted, but the software did not explain it.
I believe 3S was purely competitive, if that matters.
What is a reasonable alternative meaning for X other than penalty?
I could not think of one, and seeing the robot's hand didn't help.
I can think of two reasonable alternative meanings.
Could you give an example hand for any suggestion? Is there any specific
holding in spades, for example, that is required or forbidden?
A generic "values" seems just to force partner to guess.
Overcaller almost certainly doesn't have a good stop in spades. Advancer
has taken a fairly weak action, so in order for overcaller to even want
to ask their opinion, overcaller's hand has to be near maximum for an
overcall. I'm assuming that a jump overcall would have been weak, so I'm
assuming that the overcaller has something that looks a bit like a 1NT
overcall but doesn't have enough in spades (and might be a bit weaker in
point count; definitely not enough for double-then-pull-to-hearts).
For a "values" double, the shape wouldn't be too important (a shortage
in spades might be helpful); all that matters is that the hand is much
stronger than would necessarily be expected for a simple 2H overcall.
Maybe something like x AQJxx xxx AKxx; that looks like a reasonable 2H
overcall to me (assuming that 3H doesn't show that hand; a takeout X
seems like a bad idea with it), but it's clearly much stronger than a 2H
overcall could be. (But yes, "values" doubles typically do force the
partner to guess; I've experimented with them and dislike them for that
reason. They're a good way to get a mix of tops and bottoms at
matchpoints, but feel a bit too random for me. One advantage is that
they're more common in this situation than a genuine penalty double
would be.)
For a "I want to play game, suggesting 3NT" double, I'd expect something
even stronger in terms of high cards but with a less useful shape,
perhaps xx AKJxx Axx Kxx. That hand wants to try 4H opposite most
partners who can scrape up a heart raise (at least at IMPs), but would
probably prefer 3NT if partner is balanced with a spade stop (it's
easy to imagine that no ruffs are available and every suit is properly
stopped, in which case hearts will produce no more tricks than
notrumps do). The hearts are good enough that 2H seems like a better
overcall than a takeout double, though (and depending on system, the
hand may not be strong enough to make a takeout double and then pull
to hearts); partner will probably bid a minor over the takeout double,
and is that where you really want to be?
--
ais523