Under what cirumstances does a negative double call for a NT response?

Question

At matchpoints with neither vulnerable, and a new partner, I opened one club in second position with ♠QJ75 ♥AJ4 ♦4 ♣AJ964. Left hand opponent overcalled one spade. Partner doubled (negative) with ♠3 ♥K872 ♦Q53 ♣KQ753.

I interpret a negative double as "I don't like your suit, and I don't fancy defending against the opponent's overcall, so please choose between the remaining two (red) suits." I bid two hearts to show my three cards in that suit.

The best contract was 4 clubs, but I didn't know about partner's club holding, although she knew "something" about mine. Given her bidding, I would have expected her to hold something more like ♠3 ♥K872 ♦KQ753 ♣Q53.

She said that she thought of her club holding as the backbone of a no trumper, and wanted me to bid one NT instead of two hearts. (We got a bottom for going down at a seven card heart fit, while others made 2NT, (but not 3NT.)

Was 1NT or 2NT the correct bid at any point in my bidding sequence? Or did I reasonably expect better disclosure of her club holdings?

Answer 1

In modern bidding (according to wikipedia, since the 1980s), negative doubles are oriented entirely toward the unbid majors, and don't promise anything in particular about holdings in the minors. Negative doubles at the 1-level (or even the 2-level in many cases) don't show particularly offense-oriented hands. They may be perfectly happy to defend if opponents come back in. Generally when we're bidding at the 1-level, we're not yet particularly considering offense-defense ratio, because our partnership hasn't had a chance yet to exchange enough information to make a good decision about declaring vs defending.

In this case, when you open a minor, LHO overcalls one spade, and partner doubles, the entire message is around the heart suit. It shows 4 hearts and enough values to force to the two level (probably something like 6 or 7 at a minimum) with no upper limit, OR 5+ hearts without the values to bid 2H (so limited to something like 6-9 points). Partner may have 5-card support for your minor or a void; likewise, they may have length in the unbid minor or not.

Since you don't know you have an 8-card heart fit, you shouldn't advertise to partner that you do. Because the negative double isn't a distributional bid just showing hearts and diamonds, you don't need to stretch to show one of those suits. Here, you're very happy to bid 1NT, so you should do that. This Larry Cohen article describes standard rebids after a negative double; note that the 1NT bid doesn't even necessarily promise a stopper in opponent's suit! By bidding 1NT, you're not giving up on hearts. If partner has a weak hand with long hearts, they can sign off in 2H.

Answer 2

Why are you showing a (non-existent) fourth heart rather than showing your (actually existent) fifth club. Just rebid 2 clubs and stop trying to Hideous Hog your partner.

Re comments below:

1. While partner is entitled to assume four clubs in your hand when you don't rebid notrump, you need a bid available to show the fifth - especially when it's a decent suit, as here. That is done on this hand with a second round rebid of 2 clubs. Partner has no basis to assume that this shows a sixth club.
2. I know that a 1 notrump rebid is being floated around this thread, but I can't agree. Partner is entitled to assume that this shows a balanced hand of specifically 12-14 HCP, and despite your good spade stopper I believe that showing the fifth club first is much more important because of the stiff diamond. You really don't want to be playing notrump until you have good assurance that Partner has at least 3 diamonds, and preferably 4, with a holding that opponents cannot easily lead into without giving your side a second trick. You know both opponents have length in this unbid suit, and hence it's coming down at opening lead unless from a holding that is compromised by doing so. Further, you want it played from partner's side and not yours.
   So if notrump is the right spot: get there by rebidding 2 clubs first (limiting your range and showing the club length), and then consider cue-bidding spades to show the strong stopper for notrump.