xxhong

Well, it doesn't have to be cold after H leads, and even if it is cold I don't mind missing some good games facing 4 cover cards and opps happen to have more HCPs. Basically, you want to play a nonforcing 3S here if you just hold this hand, so with 4 cover cards, partner may raise you. However, if you play 3S as nonforcing, you may have many problems bidding good hands. Also, Many quite good holdings from the 3H overcaller only offer you 3 cover cards. I think that's just the price you want to pay to play 3S to be forcing and 3H really may make some times when 3S don't. Of course, you can have an agreement on 4D then 4S to be RKC and direct 4S to play, but we are simple minded and just play a direct jump to 4S as RKC, which may reduce the chance of leading directing doubles. Still, even if you play a direct 4S to be to play, this hand can be too weak for that purpose. Your partner may move on with some rather good hands to explore for slams and you still may go down at 5 because you just have no key cards. This hand is just intrinsically quite weak IMO and I don't really mind missing some good 4S. IMO, a 4 S hand should be at least something like AQJTxxx xx x xxx, which is considerably stronger than the listed hand.

I would go wrong on the first two. I think D lead is actually a pretty good one. Preempters tend to hold short S more often than D I think. On the second one, you partner may help by showing his D suit. On the third one, SK is certainly a very good lead and it is the lead that I'd like to choose if LHO has a very long diamond suit to cash.

Basically, if his hand is too good, he can always double or bid 4H. 3H asks for a raise for hands with at least the upper limit of a constructive raise, which you don't have. If you bid 3S, it is forcing and a huge overbid IMO, partner is expecting a hand with at least one king stronger than this hand. 4S for us is kickback. Also, RHO's failure to raise to 4D indicate that partner may have some length in D, so your chance to find a very good fit in S would become lower. So why do I have to bid here?

North has a clear double over 3NT IMO, especially when red vs white.

Even if you play a vanilla 2/1, you still need a way to bid hands with 6+H and extra values. Suppose you don't play jump rebid to show solid H. It would go like: 1H 2D 3H 3S 4S. Of course, this hand fits well with systems that use 2H to show extra values. 1H 2D 2H(extra value, no 4+ D) 2S 3H(6+H) 3S(showing the shape) 4S(adequate now, also it denies C controls). Of course, if you play 2H to show minimum and 2S to show 6+H, extra value. It can go like: 1H 2D 2S(6+H extra value) 3S(5-6 shape, with 4 spades, we usually bid 2NT to wait) 4S (adequate now also it denies C controls).

Against solid opps, I tend to bid 4S here with good spades. If partner holds 4-4-4-1 or 4-3-5-1 or 3-4-5-1 and about 19 HCPs, we rate to have some plays in 4S. If partner holds 3-4-6-0 or 4-3-6-0, we really should play this hand instead of defending, because sometimes, they may make 4C. I don't mind going down sometimes when we may get 100 or 300 if we pass. Of course, it is very passable if opps frequently bid 3C with 6 or 5 cards and raise with 3.

basically, I don't mind you overbidding and raising 2S to 4S right away. But if you decide to invite to pinpoint partner's weakest hand, this is the occasion to pass 3S. Otherwise, there is just no point to bid 3H with this hand (except for some very unlikely occasions that partner may be able to bid 3NT over 3H and you would pass).

Looks like west may have problems when holding DTxx and CJ(T)x. So you just draw two rounds of trumps and play S. West may not know which suit to switch. D can be wrong when declarer holds xx Qxxxx A9x Jxx. C can be wrong in the actual hand. If east wins that spade trick, he may not know which suit to attack either with DA8xx and C AJ(T)xx, here D can be wrong if partner holds QTx, because low D would cost a trick if declarer takes the finesse of D8 and forces out DT. C can be wrong the in the actual lay out.

seems like an obvious 3D or double. Pass is way too chicken here when white. The problem of double is that you may miss your good 6-3 or 6-2 fit in D. The problem of 3D is that you may miss some good 5-3 fit in C or H or some quite unlikely penalty bonus in 2S x. So these two decisions are quite close.

You can bid 5NT over 2D to make it possible for partner to bid 6C in IMP. Of course, for MP, direct 6NT should usually be fine.

4H is fine if you play 4H to show a upper limit raise to weak gf hand. Over that, east can even guess to bid 6H usually, usually you don't need much from partner to play 6H, two red kings would be enough.

easy pass for me. We shouldn't expect a very good hand from partner.

4C to show a long club suit and spade fit is certainly very playable if you play double to show extra values, no spade support and doubt in 3NT. Still, it's not standard. Also, it's kind of rare. Usually you need a rather strong hand to force to game facing a free bid at one level. Anyway, the hands you want to bypass 3NT to bid 4C naturally are also very rare. I don't really think this topic really deserves a lot of discussions. Still, any bids other than 3S are obvious overbids for this hand.

This is a perfect hand for 4D to be played as ERKC. Really, the overall HCP isn't the major consideration of this hand and the KCs except for DA are the keys.

Actually the raise of 3S shows that the 2H opener likes his chance in 3S, so usually he shouldn't really have a lot of values in H, in which case he wouldn't mind defending 3C because partner shows H shortness. I think the key point of this hand is that once you know partner is very likely to hold a spade void and rather weak and distributional, you really should be very careful doubling without a sure entry to draw trumps.

Well, from your holding, you actually should strongly suspect that west should hold void in H because he pulls the double with Qxxxxx. I don't think any sane player would pull a red 2H to 2S with Qxxxxx x. Opener's raise should also really show 3 spades. So partner most likely holds a spade void and can only bid 3C. So he must have a rather weak hand with good distributions. With that in mind, the hand really defends badly in 3S double because you don't have a sure entry to draw trumps and the 2H opener is marked with shortness somewhere in minor suits. So it is a rather clear hand that one shouldn't double 3S.

South can bid 5S over 4H as an invitation without any cuebids available. North can then bid 6C to suggest a place to play as it appears.

South shouldn't double 3S here. They are very likely in a 9 card spade fit, so doubling is too aggressive IMO. 3NT looks like a good bid. 3NT can be good when partner has a good club suit, or fine club suit and a few good cards in H. I don't think north should pull south's penalty double.

If you play a double to show forward going value, passable only with good trumps, you can double. Otherwise, it's probably fine to just bid 5H against sane players.

I don't think 3H is obvious here. This hand is very powerful if partner holds good H fit but poor HCPs. H Kxxx and doubleton D would give it a very good play in 4H. xxxx Kxx Kxx xxx would also offer good plays in 4H and it is certainly not clear to raise here. In that sense, double would gain if partner bids 2NT as leb, over which, you can comfortably bid 3H to show the suit and the strength of this hand and allow partner to have better evaluations of his cards. Of course, double can be bad sometimes, the worst case is that partner may pass this double with marginal hands and with some H support. Or opp bid 4S over the double. Even if you overcall 3H, if opp bids 4S, you may not feel very good either.

If you allow gib to declare a slam, no matter what, it is wrong sided.

I have played this transfer structure since 2005.

I think K from KQxx can be good in many ways, suppose partner holds xxxxx, that would be the only lead to be effective when opps are 2-2. Also, it retains a tempo and allows you to switch without yielding a trick in that suit. These two advantages should weight more than the misguess situations.

If you really want to bid 7H, it is probably possible. 1S 2D (GF, natural) 2H (weakness) 2S (waiting, denies 5 card side suit, denies S fit, denies 6 D) 2N (waiting, denies 5C, denies 4D, denies 5H, denies 6S) 3D (5D, denies C suit) 3H (4H) 3S (doubleton S) 3N (nothing to bid) 4C (start cuebidding for slam, no 8 card fit has been found) 4D(cue for D) 4H (cue for H) 4S (cue for S control) 5C(extra showing, cue for CK) 5H (cue for H) 5S(cue for S) 5N (no Q to cue bid now) 6C(cue for CQ and grandslam interest) 6H (cue for HJ) 7H (just need to ruff a spade and H 33 or 4-2 to make it) Still, cuebidding without a fit is not a very well studied subject.

This strategy is really bad. For all MP players, the goal of MP is not to shoot for tops, but for highest expected value in MP. For example, if you bid 6S and don't think it is a very popular contract because most other players will stop at game, making it will be good enough and shooting for over tricks can be just absurd. Suppose only two tables bid 6S, 8 tables bid 4S or 5S, so you get 8 match points if both of you make 6. Suppose it's a 100% slam to make 6 and 50% to make 7 and 50% to go down. So the EV for making 6 is 8 match points, the EV for making 7 is 9*0.5=4.5. Of course, it is often difficult to assign the accurate MP for each hand when gib plays, but this kind of thinking process is the only sound one that one has to apply. Shooting for tops would cost players tons of MP.