LEARNING CENTER

Pass. This is sometimes called a penalty pass or trap pass. Your hope when you pass is that partner will balance with double (since he is known to be short in spades) leading to this auction:

West	North	East	South
	1	1	Pass
Pass	Dbl	Pass	Pass
Pass

With so much of your hand based on spades and the opponents vulnerable, it seems like a good chance to go for blood.

In direct seat, your double would be a negative double showing the other two suits. Partner will happily bid again if you double. None of the notrump options are particularly appealing since if you make 2NT for +120 you missed out on a chance for +200 or +500 against 1.

Double. Yes you have a five-card suit in diamonds, but with no body cards (10,9,8) it's not exactly a good suit and you want to bring hearts into play.

2. On this hand where partner is a passed hand and the opponents have opened spades, it's better to show your partner where you live. While you might miss out on a major suit fit, it's more likely that you will be competing for a partscore and need to tell partner about your nice suit. You would be pretty embarrassed to put down this dummy in 2.

Pass. Negative doubles are one of the most important conventions to play with partner. That said, negative doubles only occur when partner makes a 1-level opening of a suit, not a weak 2-bid. Here a double would be penalty. Misfitting hands tend to be better staying low or playing defense.

Pass. I hope no one voted for 2. Here you don't have support for all of the unbid suits. Pass doesn't deny an opening bid unless you had the option to open. Partner might be able to find out about your strength later on. (Note: a 1 overcall on the 4-card suit is a possible option).

2NT. This is a much better bid than 3. This tells your partner your point count and also promises a heart stopper. Bidding 3 puts partner in a bind if they have 10 points and no clear bid. 2NT here is NOT the unusual 2NT. When the opponents preempt, 2NT shows a normal 1NT opener with a stopper in their suit. 

Pass. Yes, they aren't going to make 4, but your double here would be for takeout. It shows a BIG hand. There's no difference between the meaning of a double of 4, 4, 4 or 4. Each is takeout with values to compete to the 4-level.