Having your cake and eating it

I've always thought what a strange expression this is (see the title) – and it's not really improved by putting "too" on the end.  Nevertheless, I thought it was vaguely appropriate for the following story which occurred at another club game.

Every system has its good points and its bad points.  The good point about playing some version of Kaplan-Sheinwold (2/1 with 12-14 notrump) is that you can happily open balanced 12-counts because your partner knows more or less what you have and, if the hand belongs to the the opponents, you have denied them the one-level.  Of course, if you are vulnerable, you might go for a number but that happens so rarely that it's really not a big concern.  You might point out of course that you are happy to open balanced 12-counts all the time playing a strong notrump – but in my opinion that's actually a lot more dangerous.

But I digress.  The one area of the K-S system that is a problem is dealing with the unbiddable 12-14 unbalanced hands?  These don't come up very often but when they do, you simply have to grin and bear it.  You know that all your counterparts at the other tables will be opening the hand, but what can you do?

Such a hand came up last night.  At unfavorable vulnerability I dealt myself ♠ A ♥ KJ73 ♦ Q92 ♣ AT654.  All would have been well if my clubs were somewhat more robust or if my hearts and spades were swapped.  Or, I suppose I could pretend that I actually had two spades and open it 1NT or even open 1♣ and rebid 1NT.  Still, it was early in the evening and there was no compelling reason to break discipline.  After two passes, my partner opened 2♠ and RHO doubled.  Now, things were beginning to get interesting!  I redoubled, setting the scene for a nice penalty double and, if I wasn't already a passed hand, asking for a feature with a view to game at these colors.  In fact, one pair did bid and make 3NT which is a legitimate contract according to Deep Finesse.

LHO bid 3♦ which I was planning to double (for 300).  But instead, RHO bid 3♥.  I was more than happy to double that.  I started with the ♠A and continued with a trump, ending up with eight tricks for 800.  Dummy, of course, was a huge disappointment to declarer – after all, dummy was supposed to have quite a few more points on the auction.  Partner's hand was about what I'd expect for a vulnerable third-seat weak two in spades: ♠ KJ9763 ♥ 52 ♦ 65 ♣ KJ9.

So, my initial disappointment with having to pass a 14-hcp hand was more than made up for by the final result.  Indeed, I was able to have my cake and eat it!