cherdano, on Jul 31 2008, 02:00 AM, said:
Why would partner ever bid a 3-card club suit here?
Suppose your partner has a 0 count 3-4-3-3 distribution.
Should he pass the 1NT? I should think so.
Should he pass the 1NTX? I'd say of course. If they make it, it's 180. Whee. If they make 2, it's 380, oops but it could be -500 or worse if you run. And who knows? His partner did trap pass and X. Maybe we're the ones getting 500.
Should he pass the 1NTXX? Um, making 1 is now 760. Making 2 is 1160. Suddenly losing 200 or 500 doesn't look bad.
Now what should he bid? Should he bid 2
♥? You can look at the actual hand to see what kind of fun that causes. Making a unilateral move to a 4 card suit doesn't look so good, does it? So what should he do?
I think it's obvious. He bids his lowest 3+ card suit as Scramble. I don't even know that there's a good second choice.
Well, what are the odds that partner has this sort of hand? I have 2 hearts, and neither opponent looked for a heart fit. So I'd say the odds are pretty good that partner has 4 hearts. Further, I have 17 hcp, and the opps have XX'd 1NT for business. If they had a good long major they'd have bid it, they don't have a running diamond suit, so either they have power or they have long running clubs. So either clubs are terrible or partner has next to nothing.
So partner could have a balanced nothing, or a club-heart nothing. Either way, I'd rather play it in diamonds. I like honors in my trump suit.
I think the precision part is confusing things here. Suppose the auction went:
1NT P -P X
-P- P XX P
-P-
where XX is defined as 'we got them, p'.
Wouldn't you use 2
♣ as Scramble and not as a real suit?