April 20 Post Mortem

We did not discuss what to do when opener has nothing more to say.

K Q x
x x x
A J x x
K J x
1	2	Dbl	Pass
?

The serious problems came with six-card (or longer) suits in responder hand, and I was lucky that there were six examples in 16 deals.  The expected number is probably one or two.

Strategies:

• Negative double with less than a game force.  This is what I have been doing.
• New suit forcing one round.  Auction can end if responder rebids suit.  Opener's 2NT and rebid of suit not forcing.
• New suit not forcing, sometimes called "negative free bids".  Double is negative, but then responder's new suit or cue-bid is game force.
• Pass, and then show six-card suit if partner reopens.

Negative free bids are what I use when responder is a passed hand, or our Precision-like 2 opening is overcalled.

		x
		J 9 x
		Q x x
		A K T 9 x x
1	2	?

The one case where responder had a six-card minor.

		x x x
		Q x x x x x
		x
		A T x
1	1	?

Double had the virtue of showing count.  Opener could push on to a making 5 or 5 .

There were two deals where responder, in my judgment, had a game force.

Q 9 x x x x		x x
Q T x		A J x x x x
A		K T x x
A K x		x
1	2	Dbl

Negative double got partnership lost in spades.

A Q T x x x		K x x
x x		A J x x x
Q x		x
Q x x		A K x x
1	2	?

All approaches work as long as opener and responder are on the same page.

I wrote code to generate "negative double" play deals.  Help me make the code better.

Opening	Overcall	Min count	Max count	#	#	#	#
1	1
	1
	1
1	1
	1
	2
1	1
	2
	2
1	2
	2
	2

We could do the table twice more to account for single and double jump overcalls.

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