I've had several opportunities in the last few days to pass partner unexpectedly. Last night at the club, my partner twice intervened over a 1NT opening. In the first instance, I held ♠QJxxx ♥A9xx ♦KTxx ♣- and after 1NT-P-P, partner doubled, which for us showed 1 suited with clubs or diamonds and a major. I have a decent hand and partner is almost sure to have clubs so I converted to penalty. We were only able to set it 1 because partner couldn't find the difficult shift of a diamond at trick 2 and I would up being endplayed into leading a heart to dummy's good but otherwise unaccessible Q or lead into declarer's ♦AQ.
The second instance of this occurred when partner overcalled 2♣ over my LHO's 1NT, which shows diamonds or a major-minor two suiter. This time I held ♠Tx ♥xxx ♦x ♣QJTxxxx so I happily passed and let partner play the 7-1 fit.
The most interesting of these was Sunday in the Swiss teams in Spartanburg. I held ♠x ♥AT9xxx ♦- ♣98xxxx and the auction was 1♥-2♥-P to me. I really did want to pass this and I think I probably should as bidding anything could easily get us in trouble and get us in a doubled contract. This time I was optimistic so I bid 3♣, natural. P bid 3♦ and I tried 4♣, which got raised to 5. All in all, this was a better contract than 2♥ (we did in fact get to our only 8 card fit) but were just a little too high. P had a rock: ♠KTxxx ♥- ♦AKQJxx ♣AQ.
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