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You need to know if 4N is ace asking or minors here for you. I will bid 4N if it's minors and 5♣ if it isn't.

Or A♥ is not silly, now a spade stands out even more

Almost everybody in the UK plays 1♥-2♣-2♥ is NF but anything other than opener repeating his suit requires responder to bid again. 1♥-2♣-2♦-2♥ is also NF.

When you agree to play WJS by an UPH you give up on being able to show this hand.

5CM, strong NT: [hv=pc=n&n=sh6dkjt54ckqj7543&d=n&v=0&b=1&a=1c2h(weak)2s4h]133|200[/hv] What do you do?

I know I should be studying play of the hand but I have to ask. 1m : 2M Fast forward to 2023, how do you play this now ? How do transfers/1♣ players handle a hand that would have bid a strong jump, and what do you use 1m:2M for ? Thanks.

There was a bit of discussion in the Acol thread about strong and weak NT and some advantages/disadvantages of 4/5CM. Here is what can happen when you play an anti-field system. MPs: [hv=pc=n&s=sk964ht97543dcq75&w=sjhaj8dajt932ct32&n=s752hk6dq64cak864&e=saqt83hq2dk875cj9&d=n&v=b&b=13&a=1c1sp2dp3dppp]399|300[/hv] Made +1 for a bottom (declarer cashed the wrong diamond honor first). Two pairs found 3♥ our way making 9 or 10 tricks which I think is easier to find if North can open a weak 1NT and East doesn't fancy bidding at the two level. The third pair went three off in 2♠E.

No, nor have I suggested I was. What of it. It is common for these auctions to be NF in Acol. Some may play them otherwise. I play regularly with experts and am confident they would consider these auctions NF.

I think 1♥-2♣ 3♣ is also nonforcing for most. Which means that if you play that a 2434 opens 1♥ (as in "Standard English") you probably don't want to raise clubs (also because that would suggest a fifth heart), you rebid 2NT and the club fit might never surface.

I would agree with Cyberyeti both are NF. Opener can have a 10 count and responder a 9 count.

If I were forced to play without Soloway, I would bid as you did, then try 3♠, then in a couple of bids time realise there's no way to keycard or cuebid or investigate slam, gamble by jumping to 6♠, and hope I'm right.

"You will be taken apart by the top players if you signal honestly". Yes, you absolutely will. But if you're wondering "when do you give honest signals", you're at a level where "you will be taken apart by the top players" no matter what you do. You're not good enough to falsecard usefully either - and as David says, partner isn't good enough to see what you're doing and follow along rather than giving the game away (at least that someone isn't being honest). And very very quickly, "the top players" are going to work out which of you is the honest customer and which is trying to play games - at which point, you're "signalling honestly" again, at least as far as information leakage to the top players is concerned. But like a lot of discussions we have here, "beating the top players" isn't always the goal. Are you playing 60 boards against the #11 seed in the Spingold (or are you the #11 seed in the Spingold)? Fine. Are you playing the local club duplicate and trying to break 50% consistently? Take advantage of signalling to get your points against the field who won't "take[ you] apart" for it, do your best to get your 35-40% against the top players - and that includes giving them the overtrick from signalling, rather than the three overtricks from fooling partner into thinking it's safe to pitch from 8xxx and letting them run that suit as well. Are you the best player in the room? Well then you probably know which players don't look at your signals (so you can be honest), which do and can use them (so you "tell partner only what he needs to know"), and which are known for falsecarding games (most of whom assume "all good players" do it. So they'll misread your "honest" signals, as long as you're not "religiously honest"). But then you don't need my help, either.