What should I bid? (October 2016)
The best submission for October came from Leigh Matheson. He wins a voucher of $30 funded by TBIB, toward any purchase made at the Bridge Shop or Paul Lavings Bridge Books.
Dealer East, All Vulnerable, I was South holding:
♠ KQ52
♥ 863
♦ J9752
♣ K
The bidding:
| West | North | East | South |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pass | Pass | ||
| 1♣ | 1♦ | 1♥ | ? |
Is it more important to show diamond support or show the Major suit?
We play double here as spades with doubleton diamond support (1♠ denies diamond support). This is geared more towards a Major suit overcall.
Is this convention useful or not?
Hi Leigh,
I would say it is very important to show the major suit, particularly when it’s spades. If the opponents have a heart fit, you would want to try and over-compete their hearts with your spades. With a decent hand here, you would not mind if partner decides to compete to 3♠.
Alter your hand slightly, say you have (much) weaker spades and less points, then in that case, the hand rates to belong to the opponents and jamming the auction with a preemptive 3♦ might be better.
The so-called “Snapdragon Double” that you mentioned (showing the fourth suit and doubleton support) is, I also think, usually applied for when partner’s overcalled suit is a major (since with three-card support for partner’s major, you would just make a raise, hence the double to show doubleton support).
I think it’s definitely a useful convention when partner has overcalled 1-Major, but when partner overcalls 1♦, it’s probably more useful to distinguish the major-suit lengths with the X vs bidding the suit, and saying nothing about the support for partner’s diamonds. Whether to show the major vs raising partner’s diamonds will ultimately depend on the strength of your hand and suit qualities.
Kind regards,
Andy
