This hand was from the ANC:

Nil Vul S Dealer	♠ J 9 8 7 6 5 ♥ Q J 7 ♦ K 5 ♣ K 9
♠ K 10 4 3 ♥ K 10 9 ♦ 9 3 ♣ Q J 8 5		♠ 2 ♥ A 8 6 5 4 2 ♦ Q 10 4 2 ♣ 6 2
	♠ A Q ♥ 3 ♦ A J 8 7 6 ♣ A 10 7 4 3

What should South do now?  I am not sure if X here would be support for spades, or should we only play support doubles up to 2♠?  I didn’t feel I could pass as I had a singleton heart. I decided to bid my hand and rebid 4♣ which my partner corrected to 4♦, which went off. Our only making contract is 4♠.  Advice please.

Hi Maura,

Good problem. As always, preempts can make our lives much tougher, and this one is no different.

I think I would double. The X here is not a support X as they should only be applied up to and including 2♥ (sometimes 2♠). Any doubles at a higher level is generally best used as “cards” but of course, quite often you will have three-card support for partner’s major so it can coincidentally have 3-card support for the X. The main reason for this is because at such a “high level” (we’re close to bypassing 3NT), we can’t have the X promising 3-card support, otherwise you will be left helpless with so many other good hands without three-card support. An example is say you have a 2=2=6=3 shape with 17 points in the same exact auction as above – essentially you can’t do anything but to double to announce “cards” (assuming you don’t have a heart stopper).

On this hand, I have sympathy for 4♣ (and on some days it can certainly work out better than X), but the reason I chose to X is because I do not want to bypass 3NT. My hand does consist of extra strength as I have 15 points plus a 5-5 shape and singleton in opp’s suit, so that makes me want to act rather than to pass. (Obviously if I only had 11 points I would just pass.) Another good thing about my hand is that my 2-card spade holding is quite strong, in the form of AQ, so this can compensate if partner decides to rebid her good 5-card spade suit of, say, KJ10xx.

Also, because I have a lot of points in my short suit (spades) rather than my diamonds/clubs, that gives me reason to prefer X (and look for 3NT) than to try and find 5-minor by rebidding 4♣. Imagine if my 15-point hand was different, in the form of ♠A ♥xx ♦AQJxx ♣Axxxx, opposite partner’s actual hand, game in 5♦ starts to look a bit better. If my shape was a 6-5, game prospects will increase even more (say, ♠x ♥x ♦AQJxxx ♣AQxxx). When opener bids 1♦ then 4♣, the minimum shape for that bid would be 5-5, and I certainly wouldn’t rule out a 6-5 shape. Therefore, I think a 4♣ rebid sounds like it should emphasise more strength in both of those suits – hence I prefer the more flexible double here due to a lot of my values being in spades.

If South does double, then North should have no trouble jumping to 4♠ with a 6-card spade suit and ten points. North knows that if South only has a doubleton spade, South should have a bit more high cards than if South had the ideal shape of 3=1=5=4 (because if South did have a 3=1=5=4, then North won’t need as much HCP to make game in spades).

Hope that helps.

Regards,
Andy