Bridge news Sheet 287

This week’s bridge news sheet No. 287 has six articles.
It starts off with something a little new; a few of us were having a discussion over brunch before a Monday session and Dave mentioned a hand where he opened a weak 2♥ and his partner bid 2NT. They had had no discussion over the meaning and so Dave, with a maximum and good ♥’s, simply bid 4♥. The merits of playing 2NT as asking for a feature or playing it as Ogust then ensued and Jeremy chipped in that 2NT is the only forcing bid over a weak two. I disputed this of course (RONF) and so he said that a new suit was not forcing playing Acol. It is not! RONF also applies when playing Acol. The discussion then turned to a take-out double followed by a new suit after partner’s suit response. Jeremy maintains that it shows a two-suited hand, I maintain that it’s a single suited hand too strong for a simple overcall. My meaning is ceretainly correct playing any variation of Standard American but it appears that some Acol players do indeed double with two-suiters. I do not. We’ll leave the discussions there and go onto a couple of hands from play. You hold ♠KJ9 ♥QJ74 ♦AK6 ♣K95 and RHO opens 1♠, what do you bid? I think that double is terrible. The next article is about manners and criticising an opponent and finally we have the usual two Dave columns on the play of the hand.

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