All vulnerable at matchpoints, right hand opponent opened one club. I doubled (takeout) with the following: ♠KQ75 ♡ T752 ♢ AKJ9 ♣ 3.Left hand opponent passed, and my new partner bid one spade (forced) with the following: ♠T843 ♡ K86 ♢ 842 ♣ A95.
Right hand opponent passed. I raised to two spades, partly as a mild game try.. Left hand opponent passed, and partner rightly passed, since he did not have the hand I was hoping for.
After the hand was over, he complained, " You needed to have 16 points to raise to two, and you only had 13."
I said, "I put you on a maximum, 6-7 because of the opponent's tepid bidding. (if partner had as few as "5," the (aggressive)opponents would have 22, and I couldn't imagine them remaining silent).
I counted extra over 13 for my club singleton. While I'm glad that he passed with his actual hand, I thought that we had game chances if he had something like ♠T8643 ♡ K8 ♢ 842 ♣ A95. These chances would have been even better if you changed his king of hearts to queen of diamonds (one point less in his hand but four sure diamond tricks).
He made three spades, and got us a top, because other pairs with our cards had 1NT bid and made against them. (I was frankly surprised that our opponents stayed silent with "20," and my 2 spade bid was partly pre-emptive against left hand opponent. Afterward one of the opponents defended me by saying, "I don't see what you were complaining about. You made an overtrick over two spades, and it seems like Tom had a point when he thought you could make game with the right distribution."
I believe that it was Marty Bergen who said something like, "you can try for x (e.g. game) if partner's maximum will allow you to make it, to give partner a chance to bid it." Is that principle operative here and if so, do these hands qualify?
