[aguahombre]

I am seeing many expert players on these fora and on Vugraph who distain passing balanced 13-14 pt hands after righty has opened ---opting for seemingly unprepared/awkward doubles instead.

My purpose is not to judge that style, but to understand it; and I would appreciate input from those people so that I can understand what is happening when playing against it.

Does advancer adjust and pretend partner has simply opened 1m, instead of using more traditional 8/9+ jumps, etc?

Does a 1NT rebid by doubler with this style no-longer show a holding too strong to overcall 1NT?

There might be other agreements I haven't asked about, but would be nice to know even though none of it would be alertable.

[gwnn]

1NT rebid by doubler is 100% 18-20 or something like that.

Advancer still jumps in a major with a normal 9 or a good 8.

However, advancer doesn't compete in or jump with a 4 card minor. Also, you should never double on a doubleton major, only if you have a 19+ NT hand or a huge 1 suiter.

[JLOGIC]

Just be more careful about competing in minors with 4 (ie don't, but luckily you'll usually have some value showing double available or 4 of another major or a NT bid, etc), and upgrading xxx, and in general don't bid as much assuming partner is 4441. If partner has 4441, he will accept invites and be aggressive.

[aguahombre]

JLOGIC, on 2011-June-05, 03:57, said:

Just be more careful about competing in minors with 4

Just trying for what to expect the opps' agreements to be in this style. Are the 1NT advances shaded down to, say, 5 or 6 pts to avoid responding in a minor at the two-level?

[gwnn]

No. 1NT is still 8-10 ish (speaking for myself, but I think jlogic agrees).

[JLOGIC]

aguahombre, on 2011-June-05, 08:41, said:

Just trying for what to expect the opps' agreements to be in this style. Are the 1NT advances shaded down to, say, 5 or 6 pts to avoid responding in a minor at the two-level?

I would say they are shaded up not down if you are making light takeout doubles (I suppose that you don't have to be a doubler with a 544 9 cout or 4441 10 count just because you also double with 4333 12 counts, but they seem to go hand in hand). For instance, gwnn says 8-10, but I would need an exceptional 11 count to bid 2N with over a takeout double. There was also a recent thread here where partner doubled white and we had 13 with QJx of their major. I thought 2N was the right bid there, but 11-13 would be a dumb range.

I am fine with 8-11 as a range over minors, it does get stickier over majors and especially spades. I would still make the range something like 7-11 though and maybe if I had KQJ9 xxx xxx xxx I would bid 1N anyways and hope to survive. With some 0-4 count I'm never worried about bidding 2C anyways, it seems like we are weak enough where partner must be about to double and bid something, so the last thing I'd want to do is encourage him with a 1N. But bidding a 3 card club suit with the 5-6 counts is scary since we might have just enough that it's going to go all pass in the 3-2 fit or something. Oh well, doesn't seem to happen like that. It is more important to keep your NT ranges manageable I think.