mr1303

6D is good if partner has excellent trumps. However, why should he have a semi-solid 7 card suit for bidding 5D here? He's bidding under pressure, and we should cut him some slack. I chose 5H, which is hopefully at least mildly forward going.

I imagine something him and hrothgar invented. I'd quite like to know too. It can't be any more boring than MisIry, no offence Ben.

If I've got this right, partner opened 1NT (12-14) and my RHO has overcalled 2NT, not alerted. What is a "natural" 2NT overcall anyway? Some strong 2 suiter? I think I'll ask whatever happens.

I presume you play a strong NT and 5 card majors. If so, partner's double should be for take-out (since they have a fit), probably some 3415 or similar. I would bid 2H at this point. (If you play a weak NT then partner is probably making a strong NT double)

Playing a natural system, you don't. You pretty much need to play relays to get to 6C on these cards. I'd end up in 6NT or 6D playing a standard system, most likely 6NT after: 1D 1H 3D 6NT

Actually, I think the reason that High/Low cue-bids have lost favour have been the frequent director calls and dreadful scores gained by auctions like this: N E S W something 3C* something something else X 4C/P depending on whether the person is ethical or not, having made a weak jump overcall in clubs. David Burn wrote a very amusing article on David Stephenson's webpage, here.

So you should've gone for -200 and quite possibly -500 with opponents able to make.... 2D? Congratulations Mike, another bit of great bridge from you. My feelings are well and truly verified

Yes Owen. And this is why people play penalty doubles against you.... I would pass. My suits are rubbish, and I am at RED

The point Justin was making was that he had FOUR card support.... and still bid 1NT in order to have the lead come up to him.

There's also a coup of the month page on www.poorbridge.com. Not quite the same thing as you had in mind however. The Myles coup was actually first performed against me and Michael Clarke (the author of the article) and neither of us realised it

Is there any chance for both GIB and DF to be available in the latest version. I'm not really a fan of GIB double dummy, and would prefer to stick to DF if possible.

If you play that double would be take-out, partner should realise that you may have a heart-club 2 suiter, and not be able to double for penalty. Hence pass. However, I also would have opened 1NT, to avoid getting end-played in the bidding like this.

I opened a hand very similar to this last Monday, and my partner went spare at me. I thought twice about it, but then decided the field would be doing the same thing, so I wasn't going to get a bad result by opening. I wouldn't open it 1♠ though, I prefer a better hand to open at the 1 level.

Once upon a time that West hand was the world's most obvious 3♣ bid. Have things really changed that much? Incidentally, the 7♣ bid was off this planet. It's certainly not hard to imagine there being two defensive tricks, especially if partner has the A of clubs. All he has is a load of defence.

3♥ looks right here. If partner bids 3S after 3H I'll probably lauch into the old Black....

I'm going to bid drury here. If partner signs off, then that will suit me, and I won't bid again, mainly because it irritates me no-end when partners bid again in that sequence. Opposite any kind of encouraging noise (e.g. 2D playing reverse drury, I don't know what your methods are after using 2D as 3 card drury) I won't stop short of game.

1) No. Given that a result was attained, he shouldn't adjust to Ave+, or any combination of averages. Either the 3S bid is allowed, or it isn't, in which case the board should probably be adjusted to NS +140 for 3H making exactly (whilst trumps are playable for no losers this is not very likely) 2) If East passed in tempo, then no, he doesn't need a good reason for bidding 3S. However, I would find this difficult to believe (that East did pass in tempo). Anyone is allowed to make a bad bid at any time, and doesn't need a reason for making a bid, so long as he isn't using any UI 3) I think overall I would probably disallow the 3S bid unless it was clear that there was no hesitation from East. However, it does annoy me when I ask a player a question when I'm directing and I get no reply. I'll tend to be more sympathetic to the opponents whenever someone ignores me. Having said all of that, UI cases are difficult to tell with online bridge. East may have gone to the loo, gone to get a beer, be checking his e-mails etc.

I'm not convinced partner's 2NT is natural there, I think it's meant to be a scramble, suggesting two places to play. As a result, I'm going to put 3D down, and tell him not to try and confuse me in future by making ambiguous calls. At pairs I might pass though, but not at imps

I don't understand that bit: how does partner's pass over 1H (X) show a tolerance for hearts? 0 counts with no tolerance for partner also pass 1H (X). Holding: 5432 void 65432 5432 I'm still going to pass 1H (X)

I thought this was a clear 3H bid, but maybe I've been playing strong club for too long. My second choice was 2D, since I think there's too much here for a simple 2H rebid

I've concluded that I want my 1M bids to be natural, since it's here that partner is going to be more likely to want to jam the auction pre-emptively. So what I do is: X = Majors or minors 1NT = Reds/Blacks 1D = Pointys/Roundeds 1M = Natural, 4+ cards 2X = Panama, either natural or 3 suited with shortage in X. It works pretty effectively, and I'm yet to be doubled and go for a number

3NT, without much conviction. The only realistic alternative is 4C, and doing that takes us past 3NT, which might be our last making spot.

4NT looks tempting (two places to play) but it seems a bit dodgy to me, since we might beat this one on power if partner has a reasonable overcall. I'll just pass and take my chances on defence

Simple rule: If partner opens a suit naturally, don't use exclusion in his suit. He will always get confused

Yesterday we had something similar happen to us. Each time they managed to get away with murder, causing us to defend a part score doubled for 1 off or to miss a cold slam: Kxx xxxx x JT9xx LHO overcalled 2C (natural) over my 1NT (12+-15) xxx xxx Qxx Qxxx 1H (P) 2C (GF relay) LHO decided to double to show clubs. Partner of course had 5 card support and raised to 3C. I held: Kxx Kxx AKJxx xx decided that the chances of partner having a club control were remote, and signed off in 4H.