[Bbradley62]

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Is there a way to extract just the auction from a hand?

Both Souths faced a decision over 3♥:
One chose 3♠, which showed 6+S; 9-12 total points.
Presumably, Pass would have shown 5+S; 9-12 total points, but maybe not.
One chose 4♠, which showed 5+S; 19 total points.

So, what is South supposed to do when he holds 13-18 total points? It's been reasonably explained before that every potential point holding can't always be included in the ranges that GIB provides, but an unaccounted-for 6-point range seems large.

[ArtK78]

What does double show? It is the only remaining choice.

[barmar]

GIB doesn't play Maximal Overcall Double, so double wouldn't show this hand.

See this thread from earlier this month.

How do you solve this problem with partners that you don't play maximal doubles with?

[Bbradley62]

Since GIB doesn't appear to have a definition for the double, can he be taught Maximal Overcall Doubles? It might be different if he already said "that double is penalty", but the double appears to be undefined.

PS: If North has 6-10 total points, South's sign-off 3♠ could go as high as 14 instead of 12.

[gwnn]

barmar, on 2011-November-26, 10:08, said:

GIB doesn't play Maximal Overcall Double, so double wouldn't show this hand.

See this thread from earlier this month.

How do you solve this problem with partners that you don't play maximal doubles with?

e.g. (assuming I religiously follow the law)

1♥-1♠-2♥-2♠
3♥-?

pass=9-15, 5 spades
3♠=9-15, 6 spades
4♠=16-19, 5+ spades
some sort of slam try=20+, whatever

I do not solve certain problems in my systems by having white holes in it. I don't have "panic and run away if you have 13-18 points" written anywhere on my convention card.

[barmar]

I think bidding game with just 16 points is aggressive.

Don't forget, the auction isn't over -- partner still has a chance to bid. If he bids again, you can bid 4.

[gwnn]

Regardless of where you think the limit should be, having a 6-point wide unaccounted for gap makes no sense. You can put it at 17 or 18 if you like, but please don't have a 6-point wide unaccounted for gap.

[Bbradley62]

barmar, on 2011-November-27, 16:14, said:

gwnn, on 2011-November-26, 14:45, said:

...
pass=9-15, 5 spades
3♠=9-15, 6 spades
4♠=16-19, 5+ spades
some sort of slam try=20+, whatever

I do not solve certain problems in my systems by having white holes in it. I don't have "panic and run away if you have 13-18 points" written anywhere on my convention card.

I think bidding game with just 16 points is aggressive.

Don't forget, the auction isn't over -- partner still has a chance to bid. If he bids again, you can bid 4.

Fine; call it:
pass=9-16, 5 spades
3♠=9-16, 6 spades
4♠=17-19, 5+ spades
some sort of slam try=20+, whatever
The point is just to cover the whole spectrum in some sort of reasonable way.

[barmar]

First of all, I need to apologize for something. For most of this discussion, I've been thinking that we're talking about the opening side, not the overcalling side. So now that I've noticed my mistake, I need to look at the whole thing again.

South shouldn't be able to have 19 HCP. With that strong a hand, he should have doubled, not made a normal overcall. So the hand that overcalls and then jumps to 4♠ can't really exist. It's only in the bidding database to make sense of a human doing this, not for GIB to select a bid.

If South Passes on the second round, GIB's description is: No suitable call -- 5+ S; 8-17 HCP; 9-19 total points. So there's no gap, it's the same description as the overcall. The only correction we really should make is that it should be exactly 5 S, since with 6 it would bid 3♠ (it's just falling through to a default rule).

The LAW says that with the points about evenly split, and no compensating features, you should bid up to the level of your fit. In this case, NS only have an 8 card fit, so they should only compete to 2♠. EW have a 9-card fit, so they should compete to 3♥ (although the ♠Q and 4333 shape in West are flaws that reduce the total trick count).

There is a gap, though. If GIB has a 6-card suit and 13-18 TP, there's no bid in the book for this, because the LAW bid is limited to 9-12 TP, so the book says to pass. However, it turns out that simulations rescue us here. I moved a spot card from diamonds to spades in South's hand, and it usually bids 4♠ over 3♥. And if I make the spade suit a little weaker, but still 6 cards (AJT632), it bids 3♠. We should probably add rules to fill in the gap, so that the explanations will be more sane.