Not to Remember

How do you play Unusual-over-Unusual? 

Partner opens 1♥ and RHO overcalls 2NT, showing the minors.  My views are that the easiest to remember agreement is “lower=lower”, so that 3♣ shows inv+ for hearts, and 3♦ shows inv+ for spades; that the best agreement is that lower shows fourth suit and higher shows limit+ for opened suit (because one needs the extra space more severely to explore strain than to determine level); and that a frequent, but I think inferior, agreement is that lower shows limit+ for the opened suit and higher shows the fourth suit.

But it matters little, and so I generally subscribe to the agreement “whatever partner wants”.  Plus, I like to think that I have a better-than-average memory for agreements.

Well, maybe I should reconsider that self-evaluation.  Because I confronted the problem of not remembering “whatever partner wants”.

Twice.

Playing in irregular partnerships in an out-of-area regional, I tried to resolve the problem by applying the principle of Avoid a Misunderstanding.

On the first hand, in a pairs event, I held AKQx, KQxx, x, Qxxx opposite a 1♥ opening by partner and a 2NT overcall.  Not remembering which minor suit cue bid shows heart support, I decided to double.  (OK.  True Confession time.  Having exhausted my memory bank by trying to remember what we had agreed, at the table, I passed.  But I meant to double.)  My LHO bid 3♣, without apparent concern.  Two passes followed.  RHO looked like a solid citizen, someone who would not bid 2NT without at least five cards in each minor suit.  Ergo, I read the clubs around the table as 4=3=1=5, meaning partner has a stiff club.  Now I decided to bid 4NT, which was keycard (that agreement I know I remembered).  Not unreasonably, my chosen parlay of bids confused partner a bit, and he took more than a moderate time before responding.  When he responded 5♦ (three keycards … I hope), I placed partner with something akin to xxx, Axxxx, Axxx, A and bid 7♥.  +2210 was the score for an excellent matchpoint result.

Having successfully surmounted the problem on the hand above, I felt better prepared when a similar problem arose during the Swiss teams.  Not remembering my U/U agreements with a different partner, I heard the same auction as before.  This time, I held Axx, ATx, T8xx, Axx, and this time I really did double.  LHO squeaked 3♣ and two passes followed.  I jumped to 4♥ and two passes followed that bid.  RHO, a good player but perhaps one whose woman’s intuition was a bit out-of-tune that day, surprisingly bid 5♣ in passout seat.  I doubled that and three passes followed.  Partner led a heart through dummy’s x, Q, A9xxxx, QJT9x.  Partner and I made a few bad guesses on defense, and converted our possible potential for +1700 (down seven, NV!  LHO had only three minor suit cards, which included the stiff ♦Q) into +1100.  Still, that was a spectacular result and resulted in a very nice IMP result in a match we won by a large margin.

I wonder if it is better Not to Remember.