Contract Bridge
You are South, and the bidding has gone:
East South West North
1 ♠ Dble Pass 2 ♥
Pass ?
What would you bid now with each of the following four hands?
1. ♠ J5 ♥ AQJ10 ♦ Q94 ♣
AQ83
2. ♠ AQ6 ♥ 95 ♦ K7 ♣
AKQ874
3. ♠ 10 ♥ KQJ3 ♦ KQJ943
♣ A5
4. ♠ AQ8 ♥ J94 ♦ AJ6 ♣ AK97
***
1. Pass. Your double of one spade announced a hand of opening- bid proportions. Partner’s non- jump response to the double does not indicate any strength at all and might well be made with a very poor hand.
Once the meaning of the double and the response are understood, the doubler should know what to do next. With a minimum double, he should pass a minimum response by partner. With more than a minimum double, he should bid again in a manner consistent with whatever extra values he has.
In this case, there is almost no chance for game after partner’s minimum response. You have losers galore and can’t even be sure that partner will make eight tricks, let alone nine or 10. With a good hand (nine points or more), partner would have bid three hearts rather than two, and because he failed to do so, game should be regarded as extremely unlikely. Change the queen of diamonds to the ace, and you might then bid three hearts.
2. Three notrump. Admittedly, this is risky, since partner might not have a single point. But with eight probable tricks, assuming a spade lead, it’s not too much to hope that he has the diamond queen or a heart trick. Not every contract is underwritten by Lloyd’s; reasonable risks are part of the game.
3. Four hearts. It would be cowardly to bid less, even though it might turn out that there are four unavoidable losers. A raise to three hearts would be much too conservative, since partner might pass holding the ace of hearts or king of clubs and nothing else. Either one of these cards would practically assure 10 tricks.
4. Two notrump. This is a very strong bid in the given sequence since you are bidding two notrump singlehandedly opposite what might be a worthless hand. Partner should carry on to game with just a smattering of values.
It would be reckless to leap to three notrump at this stage because partner has at least partially covered your weak spot, hearts. You’ll need substantially more than just four hearts from him to make nine tricks.