'The most interesting questions from visitors to the Dutch sister site bridgevaria.nl'

Dear Peter and Ed,

Good afternoon,
My partner opens 1♣ and my right hand opponent overcalls 2♦. I have seven diamonds and 7 HCP. What should I bid?

Thanks, Rob Hallewas,

Answer Ed Hoogenkamp (South)

Dear Rob,

You should pass and if your partner reopens by doubling (he is rather likely to do so, since it looks like he has a void in diamonds), you pass once more. If the partner of the 2♦ overcaller doesn't pull the double you and your partner will score a juicy +800 or +1100. Having seven trumps even Peter would be able to defeat this contract by one or even two tricks.

If partner doesn't double but bids something else, I need your exact hand in order to decide on how to continue...

Un saludo desde Barcelona

Answer Peter van der Linden (North)

Dear Rob,

To start with, a repeated request, which Ed has already mentioned: Please, always submit an entire hand, or better still: the entire layout of the deal!

Right, this is your problem:

You have seven diamonds and 7 HCP, so Ed is completely right: you want to defend 2♦ doubled. So you pass and wait for partner's reopening double. Or, in a diagram, this is what you hope for:

¹ Trap pass (if you would double instead, that would be a negative double, showing interest in one or both major suits — by the way: with 10⁺ HCP and a five-card major suit you wouldn't double but simply bid that suit at the two level)
² Reopening double: partner will often do so (!)
³ Penalty pass

But now I would like to go back to reality: is East's 2♦ bid natural, does he really have a long diamond suit? True, he can have six diamonds, but how likely is that? If he does not have six diamonds, his bid must be artificial. If his partner has not alerted, either East or West has erred (sadly enough, this kind of system botch-up is all too common in the Netherlands, where the convention madness has reached new heights).
You don't mention any alerting or lack of alerting. If, for instance, East's bid shows two five-card major suits (a rather popular convention), you may have to double after all, depending on your agreements against such an artificial overcall (this is beyond the scope of this article). Or possibly your agreements tell you to pass after all...

If West did not alert and East meant 2♦ as artificial — I'm afraid this is what has happened, since it happens so often — this is going to be a job for the director. Either East erred (EW do not play 2♦ as artificial) or West has forgotten about 2♦ being artificial. Personally I'm sick and tired of all this convention abuse: I think you are allowed to play what conventions you like but you should have solid agreements and learn your system and conventions thoroughly. Because these mistakes spoil the game for the opponents. Therefore in my view the side that errs should pay the price; to a much larger extent than is common at present. Too often the not-offending side is told by directors 'that they could have found out what is going on'. Which means — in my opinion — that the non-offenders have to do better than their competitors at other tables in order to score an average (don't come up with the argument that the non-offenders profit from the system-errors of their opponents as well: of course they should; I think the point is that usually they should not be the victims of insufficient system knowledge of their opponents).

Back to your problem. If I'm wrong — so if the 2♦ bid was natural after all and East really has six diamonds — West is rather likely to either prevent the double (by bidding over your trap pass) or pull it (by bidding over your penalty pass). After all, as Ed remarks: both West and partner have a void in diamonds then! The situation may become quite complicated after that.
But Ed and I both said it before: without more information (the full hand or the full deal) we cannot say anything more about it (Ed can't even say more about it with more accurate information).

En hils fra Orkanger