PhilKing, on 2014-April-01, 17:03, said:
It borders on mindless to play with someone that would not recognise this as a 2NT bid (they have at least nine spades and you have a guaranteed minor suit fit, but what is really mindless is that NO ONE HAS EVER HAD THIS HAND ON THIS AUCTION, for reasons that should be pretty obvious). Whether your partners can spot a penalty double is not relevant.
It always strikes me as funny when a totally natural call is removed from one's thinking to cater to
an extremely low degree of probability case (like wanting to x 2s for penalty). IMHO it is way more
likely one might hold something like AJT QJTxx Kx QJx and wish 2n to be competitive in the sense of
being able to make it while still giving p a chance to remove to 3c or 3d. Partner has already passed
2s so we can forget about finding them with a spade stack making the odds even better that the opps
have found an 8+ card fit. This very valuable and totally natural call can save x for hands that are
less defensive in nature.
The desire to squeeze out the maximum possible penalty from a position of weakness (in front of declarer)
leads to more disasters than almost any other in bridge. Save those low level penalty x for hands where
they are useful for competitive bidding and leave the penalty x for the players behind declarer in
these situations. Be happy with setting the opps a small amount on the rare occasion you have a real penalty
x and save your tox for those hands where you wish to compete.
One final thought x for penalty takes a rather huge risk that no one has mentioned so far. What will
partner do if they are minimum?? Do they leave it in or automatically pull? Using the bids the way I have
described them leaves p well placed to judge our next move but using x for penalty may leave p in the
dark on our next move because of the rather huge range the xer might have for making a penalty x. You decide
but I will take my large penalties when the opps are unlucky enough to have some strong spades pop up
behind them and p can x for penalty and take my small profits when I have the rare penalty x. Good luck.