humilities

Regardless of your interpretation of Help Suit games tries, clearly partner CAN NOT be saying "I'm confident we can make game if you can cover the club suit" ...right? I mean, he *is* also missing the KQ of trump and the A of diamonds. Given that you can cover these three losers, and can't have any more, wouldn't that imply bidding game regardless of your club holding?

Intermediate question here... In the context of help-suit game tries, do you accept with the following? KQx 10xx Axxx 10xx 1S 2S 3C ? (ps: I play with this partner twice per year, I know superior systems exist but that is irrelevant with this particular partner)

Hey all, thanks for the responses, it's been very enlightening. I'm appreciating that blasting may have more merits than I had given it (it certainly worked for our opponents on this hand). The one thing I'm still puzzled about - it seems surprisingly few of you are concerned about North being unbalanced. Is north expected to bid again over 3NT with Kx Kxxx KQxxxx x, or other such unbalanced hands? What about with a stiff Major? Or am I overrating the fear that we may belong in 5/6D?

This being a team game, I never even considered a direct 3NT over 1D. I can't imagine hiding 5 trump and 16hcp from partner and risk missing a cold 6 or 7D - I don't want to make my partner guess that well. Especially with good players at the other table. I am wondering about North's rebid - I think I would have bid 2NT with those cards but seems like it's wrong on this hand. Also South's second bid could easily be NT, perhaps then it's too late?

Sectional team game, playing the best team in the room. Would you rather have a scientific auction that pinpoints the club lead, or blast your way to 3NT with no lead direction? [hv=pc=n&s=sk32haq2dajt32cq2&n=saq4hk654dk987c43]133|200[/hv] North dealt, the blast auction 'could have' been: 1D - 2D 2NT - 3NT Our tortured auction was: 1D - 2D 2H - 2S 3D - 3H 4D - 5D What's your preference? (ps: yes, North could have played 4H, that's a separate question, and wouldn't have worked on this hand as they broke 5-1)

Sometimes bridge is a crapshoot. Interchange West's diamonds and clubs, and I'd prefer taking 9 tricks to 10. There's no way to make that determination with natural bidding methods, and even if you could, would you really want to give that much direction to the defense? I think your bidding was fine ... maybe 1H is 2% better, maybe puppet stayman is 3% better, I don't know. If you're looking to improve your game there's probably more significant items to spend brain cycles on... :)

It would seem to me that double is unlimited, lessening the need to bid 2H with generic strong hands and allow more specificity. I guess that's what I'm asking... To me "take-out dbl" by opener would imply some level of Diamond support/tolerance (ie. it would preclude 3415) but I may not understand that bid correctly.

[hv=d=n&v=0&b=1&a=1cp1d1sd]133|100[/hv] My partners and I use this double to show 4 Hearts, I *think* this is fairly standard. We play Walsh style (1D responder tends not to have a 4 card major) but still double if we would have bid 1H (ie. unbalanced). This begs the question, what does a direct 2H bid show? [hv=d=n&v=0&b=1&a=1cp1d1s2h]133|100[/hv] Options seem to be: 1. Reverse values 2. Reverse values with extra distribution (ie. 6-4) 3. At least 6-5 in clubs and hearts I tend to favor option 3 (as it'll probably be easier to catch up on the other hands of the opponents raise spades) but I wanted to hear what others think. Thanks! PS: does this double have a name? If not I'd like to propose one... since it is sort of a negative double but opposite (made by opener instead of responder) then we should call it the opposite of a negative double, a positive double! (I have no idea if this is original or already been thought of by 100 other people, if so pls disregard)

Dammit Phil, I was just starting to feel good about my bidding. I don't need you and your fancy "data" ruining my comforting cloak of conformity and conventional wisdom!

OP again - thanks all for the feedback. I bid the hand as suggested here (3D, pass) however my partner's argument was twofold: 1. It seemed a bad idea to him to make a slam try with only one keycard opposite an invitational hand 2. With three keycards opposite a jump to 5D, how could 6 not have a decent play? (obviously he thought he could make 5 missing all those cards) His argument is logical, which is why I thought I'd get some feedback. Thanks! his hand, fwiw, x KJ AQxxx KQJ10x Obviously I could construct a 5D bid for him that has no play for 6 (spade void and Qxx of H or some such) but I think most 5D bids will have a good play for 6D, so I see his point...

OP here, thanks all for the feedback, I too felt this was an invite. Followup question: when partner jumps to 5D over 3D, what are your thoughts about raising?

[hv=pc=n&s=sat32h54dkt72ca87&d=n&v=b&b=13&a=1dp1sp2cp]133|200[/hv] Regional Swiss with an occasional partner, we play pretty vanilla 2/1. Regarding opening bids, we open all 12s and decent unbalanced 11s; we do not open balanced 11s. Do you consider this an invitational hand (our bid for this is 3D) or a GF hand (2H 4sf followed by 3D)? Obviously this is better than it's face value of 11, is it good enough to force 5D? Will you pass 3NT? Possibly relevant details: - we haven't discussed 1444, so I don't know if he'd bid this way with that shape - I'm pretty sure he would not bid this way with any 1345 - If you bid 2H (4SF) you cannot get out in 4D after a failed 3NT attempt (should you want to do so). You are 100% game forced. Thanks for your input.

If you're not leaving this in, you might as well take penalty doubles off the card. You don't play them. And clearly this is a Karapet hand. Has to be. Are you Armenian?

[hv=pc=n&s=sa62ht932dk2c7632&n=sq743hakjda8765ca&d=n&v=n&b=5&a=1dp1h2c2sp3dp3hp3sp4hppp]266|200[/hv] Question 1: Do you want to be in 4H? How would your auction go? Question 2: What is your line on the lead of a low trump? -----a couple of system notes: - I only play with this partner 3x per year, we play generic 2/1 but don't have solid agreements on many sequences like this. - It was not clear whether North would've taken 2N (over 2S) as artificial/Leb or natural. So I bid 3D to be safe. - Yes we play Support doubles, that's what I would have done with the North hand. I *think* my partner bid this way to show both shape and strength.

I held the South hand, my partner splintered (which might not have occurred to me) as I would have probably bid as you suggested. But the more I think about it, the more I like the splinter ... without it I could certainly see the auction continuing: 1H (1S) 2C 2H 3D 3Hor3S? 4H Now, is 4H a slam try or an attempt to find a playable game? I'm glad at least the splitner aset trumps and made it easy. Yeah, holding the S hand I really felt like I had the right hand. But I also thought, heck what else could I have for this auction, shouldn't he be bidding RKC if he has so much? But you're right I certainly could have made one more try thanks for the feedback.