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You've gotten lots of answers that explain how this 2NT bid is usually interpreted, but no one has explained WHY. Unusual 2NT (and Michaels cue bids) is generally used as a preemptive bid, to make it harder for the opponents to conduct a constructive auction. Most of the time, you have a weak hand when you use it. You don't necessarily expect to make the contract you land in, you just hope that the result is better than letting them find their best contract. In the pass-out seat, if you have a poor hand, you can simply pass; partner probably doesn't have a good hand, or he would have overcalled or made a takeout double. And if you have a decent hand, just bid your suits naturally. There's not much need to jump. There's another reason. If you bid 1NT in the balancing seat, most play that it shows something like 11-14 HCP, not 15-18 as it would if you bid in the direct seat. To show 15-18, you first make a takeout double and then bid NT at the cheapest level. You need a way to show an even stronger NT, so we use the immediate jump to 2NT for this.

1- Yes it shows exactly what u hold. Strong hand, stronger than the top range of your overcall structure. This range vary for people but in general 1 level overcalls are apprx. 8-16(17) 2 levels are (9)10-16(17). 2-If you start DBL and then bid a new suit over pd's pass or over his simple responses, you are strong, period. If you had a weaker hand and wanted to just compete, you should have then started with overcall at the first place. Although some may argue that pd's 2♦ was not forced, he would never bid it without your DBL, he has expectations. Of course he should not have a hopeless hand but non forced 2♦ here is nowhere close to a jump 3♦ bid which is non forcing too.For example i would definetely bid 2♦ with x xxxx KJxxxx xx There is an exception to your question #1, which is called ELC (equal level conversion) but i find it very harmful to play for players less than adv+ or expert level. In fact i would not recommend any high level treatments without knowing why you need it by your own playing experience. But you are on right track and asking the right questions, such as "Competitive or strong ? " "How do we know pd has which.."

Here's wikipedia's article about fiscal multipliers, suggesting that increased government spending does more to help the economy than tax cuts. Here's an article from an online economics repository saying the same. If you want some more authoritative sources, here's Nobel prize winning economist Paul Krugman arguing that the stimulus should include more spending and less tax cuts. And here are some numbers by Mark Zandi, economist for Moody's. Of course, there may also be articles supporting Phil's view that tax cuts are better stimulus than government spending. But his suggestion that this is somehow a "settled matter" amongst economists is obviously untrue.

At least on this side of the pond, 4NT as a direct response to an opening bid is used to ask for straight aces, not keycard. If I want to use keycard, I agree partner's suit first.

But common sense is exactly Gnasher's point: Common sense dictates that there must be a reason why Law 74A2 is in the Law book. If it wasn't to prohibit the actions that Gnasher listed (which indeed would be absurd) then why was Law 74A2 written? Gnasher is just proving that Law 74A2 is a very poor Law that we could do without. Rik

My personal recommendation would be to make good definitions of when kickback is on, and any auction not matching that definition doesn't have kickback. You seem to have the opposite approach - any bid that might just maybe possibly be kickback is immediately suspected of being kickback - and I think that approach is likely to get you into trouble on occasion.

If I have a reliable partner, then the opponents have a buried NINE card spade fit. Maybe RHO is 5-6 in the majors and wasn't sure how to make a responsive double. In any case, doubling 3♥ is a sure fire way to get LHO to run (who is either 4-5 or 4-6 in the blacks). I think I can shut out their spades with a quiet 4♦ call. I've already shown an unbalanced hand, and opposite something like Qxx xxx AKxxx xx I think we are high enough.

SO the relevant papers are based on the idea that an economy has some foresight about what the government will do, so this was started by Romer & Romer who used narratives to seperate tax changes into groups based on motivations, and looks at them separately. This showed that the spending multipliers for tax changes are different depending on the motivation. You can find it here. You can skip to the graphs at the end to get a general idea of her conclusions. Her analysis has been replicated by others, although whether you agree on the motivation to her paper is more interesting. Valarie Ramay essentially repeated the Romer analysis for spending, and compared it to standard analysis, and suggests that the conventional multipliers are too high. You can find it here.

I would be in 3N: 1♦ - 2♣ - 2N - 3N.

Sure, why not? If you feel your hand is worth forcing partner to bid a minor at the 3 level with a direct seat Unusual 2NT, a 2 level "balancing bid" should be fine. As barmar stated above "Unusual 2NT (and Michaels cue bids) is generally used as a preemptive bid, to make it harder for the opponents to conduct a constructive auction." The "Preemptive" value of 2NT is no longer necessary. Remember, in balancing position, you do not promise opening values with a 2♦ call. Your partner, realizing this, should adjust accordingly. :)

Recording - "Hello, Welcome to the Psychiatric Hot-line." If you are obsessive-compulsive, please press 1 repeatedly. If you are co-dependent, please ask someone to press 2. If you have multiple personalities, please press 3, 4, 5 and 6. If you are paranoid-delusional, we know who you are and what you want. Just stay on the line until we can trace the call. If you are schizophrenic, listen carefully and a little voice will tell you which number to press. If you are manic-depressive, it doesn't matter which number you press. No one will answer.

Law 74A1 does apply. If you say "I think your partner has a stupid face", you are not maintaining a courteous attitude, regardless of your tone of voice or your body language. It is impossible to say "I think your partner has a stupid face" in a courteous manner, just like it is impossible to fall asleep at the table whilst maintaining sufficient attention to the game.

Why does GIB North not think it has enough to bid 2S over 2H?

Standard operating procedure in this (very common) situation is to come down to a stiff heart, in case declarer has AQ of hearts so they don't have a free endplay (and likewise, because you would stiff your HK if you had it). I notice people often pitch the 9 of hearts (or whatever their highest heart is) in this scenario, that is a complete giveaway to me, because RHO is much less likely to save the 3 of hearts early in the hand, and pitch his higher hearts, as that requires a lot more foresight, so if you want to exploit some standard tendencies assume LHO has the lower spot if RHO has played multiple rounds of the suit without playing the low spot, LHOs just think they're being ZOMG tricky by pitching the highest one. Pitch your diamond first here though (on the CQ), as if you pitch a heart immediately declarer can just cash the HA, cross to the CK, and lead a heart up if they are 3334 with AQ of hearts. All of this should be run-of-the-mill even if you haven't thought about the exact hand that much, it should be standard technique to hold enough winners that you can beat the contract if you are put in.

A raw beginner will very likely leave in any double, whether of 3♠ or 4♠. Under the circumstances, I think your choices are pass or 5♣. Anyway it is a good lesson hand for the beginner.

Read and re-read a sci-fi book: BlindSight by Peter Watts. The book is available free to download at http://www.rifters.com/real/blindsight.htm although I realised that only after buying and reading the printed version.

We do indeed play: 2♥= good raise with 3 2♠= bad raise with 3 3♥= good raise with 4 3♠= bad raise with 4

Define "old." Does it mean anyone older than you? :)

We play this as takeout of hearts (except that we play strong club, but had it been a 1♦-opening (4+♦ for us) instead...). So an active 2245 14-count would be ideal for doubling 2♣.

It went 1♠ pass pass 2NT? Most people play that as strong and balanced (19-21 or so), even though 1♠ 2NT is minors. So your partner was probably trying to transfer to hearts.

Assume you hold the East hand and West shows a balanced weak notrump one way or another in the bidding. Would you ever want to stop below slam? If you believe in opening bad balanced 11 HCP hands you will have to pay a price somewhere. This is less of a bidding problem but a matter of hand evaluation. A quantitative invite by East is an error in judgment. The only bidding problem I can see is whether to play 6♣ or 6NT once opener has shown a balanced minimum hand. I would simply bid 6♣ eventually at IMPs and 6NT at pairs or BAM. Rainer Herrmann

I think that 3♠, or 2♠ depends on what you play as 2 level opening in 4th seat - if is kind of stronger preempt (10-12/13), 2♠ might be enough, if this is strong than 3♠ would be better. Dont like dbl with voids.

Playing with someone who knows what they are doing, you might double (hoping your side can make a five-level contract, or that they can make 4♠, or that partner wants to pass out a double). Then they might bid 4NT to say "I don't want to pass this out, but then again I don't have a good idea of where we should play" after which you can bid 5♣. However with your cousin, he would probably bid 5♦ or 5♥ with a four-card suit, or he might not recognise when he wants to pass out the double, or he might pass the double out from sheer panic, so passing it out would be better. If 3♠ got passed round to you, double is fine. If you end up playing in 4♥ with a 4-3 fit, at least the shortage is in the short trump hand so you (he) won't get forced off, plus you might not necessarily have a better club fit if you have a 4-3 heart fit, and if you do, the price of finding it is having to play a level higher. Also the lack of 4♠ raise makes the chance partner really wants to pass out a double a little bit more likely.

Speaking of whether or not opener should run, here's a slightly different auction: From the Australian Bidding Forum Hand Four 1D-P-P-X-P-P-? A lot of the discussion was about whether or not opener should have pulled with 4432. It's not the exact same (since responder still has a chance to run), but it does have a lot of parallels with the OP auction.

Let's look at all the possibilities, assuming that partner can have either three hearts, four hearts, four spades, five spades, four diamonds, or five diamonds. Bold ones are the ones unique to that choice. If you overcall on the 4531 11-count, you will get a useful bid from partner when: 1. He has 3 hearts and you have a partscore 2. He has 4 hearts and you have a partscore 3. He has 3 hearts and you have a game 4. He has 4 hearts and you have a game 5. He has five spades and you have a game (unless the responder passes and pard can bid 1S with ~9 HCP) 6. He has five diamonds and you have a game 6 1/2. He has four diamonds and you have a game (not too likely you make 3 extra tricks in diamonds than NT, probably won't matter if you miss the fit) If you double, you will get a useful bid from partner when: 1. He has four hearts and you have a partscore 2. He has four hearts and you have a game 3. He has three hearts and you have a game 4. He has four spades and you have a partscore 5. He has five spades and you have a partscore 6. He has four spades and you have a game 7. He has five spades and you have a game 8. He has four diamonds and you have a partscore 9. He has five diamonds and you have a partscore 10. He has four diamonds and you have a game 11. He has five diamonds and you have a game Summary: Overcalling has one good thing going for it: you will find a 5-3 heart partscore where by doubling you won't. Overcalling has several bad things going for it: you miss all diamond and spade partscores (four altogether) and you will make it difficult to find a 4-4 spade game. In conclusion, making a takeout double with a takeout double shape, when you are not strong enough for two bids, is the best bet. (Upon reflection, this is actually quite similar to opening 1NT with 15-17 with a balanced shape, whether or not you have a five-card major - getting ~11 of your cards across and 15 of your points is better than five of your cards and 11 of your points. Aside from the fact that all of your rebids will be lies) For the rest of what you said gwnn, I guess the overcall first then plan to takeout double if they pre-empt would have an upper ceiling of about 17 or 18, if responder finds a pass, partner would need about 8 or 9 to bid 1♠ or 1NT, so if you had any more than 18 there is a small danger of missing a game. If you have more than this, 18 or 19+, you'd plan to double and bid/invite game if pard bids your five card suit or cuebid otherwise.

For this hand, I'll raise H. I think it's good for IMP to play double as penalty oriented, because those times when you are able to penalize opps, it can be really juicy to compensate the difficulty to tell the difference between 3 card and 4 card raises. For MP, either way should be fine.

I have seen the name Joelcoby in Bridgewinners, in the comments of the Sparts convention, and the comment said that this convention 2NT was a forcing raise of a major with 3 cards , i think it is more interesting than Jacoby with 4 cards. ( i hope you understand my bad english). Tank you for your attention.

This is a psyche 90% of the time. Just bid 4H directly.

This is a clear penalty double situation to dispose a psyche. Responder to a preempt often tends to psyche if you don't play a penalty double here.

What about something like the following: I've received some comments regarding the placement of your bidding cards. It was suggested that someone might use this type of system as a method to make illegal signals. FWIW, I don't think that you're engaged in anything untoward... Even so, I've been asked to look into this... Is there any chance that you could do me a big favor and try to be more consistent in the way that you place your bidding cards? It would save us all a bunch of time and hassle...

I systematically play 3S to show a stronger hand about 8-8.5 tricks in hand. This is isn't very good without some help from partner, in which case he would usually raise. Also, I tend to balance less frequently than most. So my 2S usually shows a quite nice hand, in the range of a good 1S 1N 2S rebid or a weak 1S 1N 3S hand. With your listed hand, I open 2S at the 4th seat and open 3S at other seats.

Hi, I would start with 1♦-1♥ 1♠ -2♣ (artificial asking for 3 hearts, the only forcing bid) 2♥ (minimum 3 hearts) - 3♣ (natural GF, either a 5card suit or a balanced hand without ♦ stopper) 3NT (showing a very good ♦ stopper) Now responder can try 4♣ RKCB for ♣ sighning off in 4NT if he hears 4♦ (p I dont want to play slam in ♣). Having already shown a minimum hand and having 3 clubs, opener will certainly respond 4♥ 1/4 keycards and a small slam will be reached.

The ♠J might be from ♠AJx, ♠AJT or ♠AJTx (to unblock). If it is from ♠AJxx it does not matter, but a low card would be more appropriate, not least because declarer might mis-guess. I discount ♠AJTx, because partner should have raised with that holding. I know some play differently but I think they are wrong. (If West is completely broke and can not stand a good 4 card raise, he should not bid 1♠ in the first place, doubler will almost never bypass 1♠ with 4 cards) So I would play the ♠2 Rainer Herrmann

I was playing in a team match once where one of the opps psyched about 5 of the 8 hands. But somehow he kept winning IMPs every hand. Ridiculous stuff like opening 1nt with a 3 count and 6 clubs in 1st seat. Sure enough when my partner and I reach 4h, and his partner doubles, he now pulls to 5cx and gets rewarded with 5 clubs in the dummy. I didn't mind him psyching early on, but when he continued to psyche the final few hands when he was well ahead I was way pissed. Then he apologized to his teammates for dropping an IMP on one board. Only time I completely outraged on BBO...

What layout produces only 1 trump trick?. I can't think of one. Reasonably, I expect to take 3 trump tricks Why would opener "often" run. His partner passed the double, can he reasonably expect to improve matters. I do agree the ops may have a 4/4 ♠ fit, but will they find it? will it improve their chances to make?. If they run to 1♠, and partner DBL's I would leave it in and expect to beat it.

Very risky psychs indeed. I kind of like the way you do it, when it works the opponents either want to cry or laugh. I think it is interesting which length of suit is best for psyching. Less you have more partner is going to raise, but on the other hand opponents are going to miss better fit. As long as you can stay below 3rd level the success rate is going to be higher, because they cant double so easily. What comes to 2nt with 5-8bal, I think less is better, because opponents are going to have game more likely and you are going down a lot anyway. Opening 1nt with the same hand could be a mistake.

:P You can't reopen with a double with a void in ♥. 2 or 3 ♠ is correct depending on the feel of the table - by that I mean the opponents' demeanor. Reading your partner is cheating.

I am surprised noone has even mentioned yet the part in the OP about leaving the table during the contest. Even on BBO this is regarded as a "serious offence", let alone in F2F bridge. Could a yellow perhaps look into whether this claim is actually true on BBO - if it is then I submit the account should be banned. Perhaps this is what happened to vianu1...

I thought it was common when holding many spot cards and partner's opening lead is an ace or king to show both count and attitude, for example from 8732 I would first play 3 to show negative attitude and then complete the count signal by playing 2 on the next round, so from four spot cards: highest=even, positive 2nd= odd, positive 3rd=even, negative lowest=odd,negative So this would be illegal? You are only allowed to transmit one bit of information even when having more than two options?

Stop it with the hearts! stop it with the hearts! no more hearts please! ♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣ ♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣ ♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣

Lurpoa, Helene already explained, and i thought i was clear with my post which meant i agree with everything she said and i have nothing further to add, whether u agree with her opinion or not, i think she explained what does that DBL mean to her and why. What else do you want me to say when i already said "she said it all " ? I mean i understand u are asking for polite answers and less sarcasm and all, which is fine, but don't you think it is being a little abusive to ask "WHY" each time, when the reason was ALREADY explained very well, regardless of you agree with it or not ? Please stop being childish, i could answer your all "WHY" questions by simply posting "WHY NOT", instead i am trying to be reasonable. You really need to stop this nonsense.