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Setting 4s sounds iffy at best I don't like our chances I do like our chances of going down less than 4 in 5c (or 5d). I do not often expect to make this but who knows maybe the opps will push to 5s and we like our chances of setting 5s a lot more than we do 4s. Opps have at least 9 spades and even if they split badly p spades are in front of declarer. bid 5c (too risky to bid 4n which should promise at least 4 diamonds). If the opps seem too happy to x 5c maybe then we can consider 5d if p doesn't bid them before we get the chance.

pass we have a misfit our heart honors are poorly placed (ie may be worthless) and the rest of our hand is nothing to write home about. Noone has x yet and that may be the best we can hope for. IMO p=10 3n=2 4s =1

I wonder which is stronger if p passed 3c or if p x 3c. IMO p will pass with nothing extra (no need to reassure p they had a 2c bid). If p is showing extra values (extra good clubs) it seems counter intuitive to seek a penalty here when we should be strongly considering if 7 is right or not. The hand will probably break poorly (I suspect rho has a very distributional hand). the 3c bid might merely have been "bridge" something to mess with the opps mind as it makes no sense as natural. The real question is how do we proceed if we pursue slam vs the red flag in front of a bull penalty x????????? I would bid 4d p either has exceptional clubs or has dia support and p knows we must have extra values also else we would x 3s if no slam interest. if p can throw in a cue bid we might still be able to bid 7 if not we can settle for trying 6c and giving p a choice of slams. It is possible rho has zero sense of the vulnerability but I think it highly likely they realize it and are hugely distributional.

preempts work and this time they are apparently working against you. Since even vulnerability has given your partnership no understanding about dia suit quality you have to guess like everyone else. IMO this is best done with a 4c bid since I will have play for 5c if p has as little as AQxxxx(x) in dia and 3 little clubs. More importantly it would seem we have little to gain by x of 3s. Even if we set it it might not make up for us making 3d. Bidding 4c gives us two chances to improve our fate. 1. we might bid and make 5c or 4d 2. opps will push to 4s and we may be able to x there to vastly improve our score. I can see wanting to take the money and run but that looks more like an IMP decision than a MP decision. I like x a heck of a lot more than the hugely speculative 3n.

we are a trick ahead of the field with that club lead (most would probably have rebid 2n with the N hand vs 2d). IMO we do what we can to not jeopardize that advantage. Trick 2 heart to Q --if it holds the best time to play the club K is now then the heart A followed by another heart. I will be quite happy with 4h 3c 1d 1s with a dia finesse available as an emergency or for an overtrick. I see little benefit to giving up more than 2s 1c 1h unless the opps force me to.

there is no benefit to trying to scratch out a game at MP with a hand that essentially looks like xx xxxxx Kxx xxx bidding 3h here at IMPS, while a stretch, at least has the merit of maybe reaching a sketchy game. At MP 3h may all too easily be too high and our best shot at a positive may be the opps playing clubs. If p can act over 3c maybe we should consider 4h but until then it seems best to wait and see. Strict bean counters will see an invite and act accordingly and they can be right especially if playing against opps that make lots of unsound preempts.

your methods have allowed you to find a singleton dia--the rest of the field probably has no such mechanism and they will probably bid 7s since running dia has a high degree of probability on a random basis. We know 6s is a much better contract than 7s so we should avoid the grand. The next question is should we stop in 5s due to the state of the match??? I think no mainly because 6s is a pretty heavy favorite and lots of players that don't like to ever bid a grand will stop in 6 and there is no sense in scoring less than them. Take advantage of other systems knowledge when you can so you can estimate how others will bid and then decide the best course of action. This means the more systems you know the better your estimates.

am I 100% sure I can beat 6c NO Am I sure I can make 5d NO but it seems pretty certain that 5d should rarely go down more than 1 trick and (unless opps x) that will beat 4c. Let the opps make the last guess we may or may not have any play but there is no way to know for sure. We would not settle if the opps bid 5c so why not bid 5d now and hope for the best.

w/o decent asking bids your partnership has no way to make decent overtures toward slam. This is still a game of % and your side is a much greater favorite to make 4s than to make 6/7 spades. Stick with the % move and bid 4s. State of match? you are two decent swings down with 8 boards to go I see no reason to try and assume this has to be one of those boards where the odds seem stacked against us. You also have a chance for a decent swing on this board if the sophisticated methods of the opps propel them to the 5 level and it turns out to be too high. Sit back relax and save the gambles for really desparate times.

Too little to gain and the balanced nature of our hand means even finding a good sac is unlikely. If p is so weak they could not have balanced there is a huge probability we have nothing offensively. This means our 2c bid will most likely result in either helping the opps in the play of the hand or in finding a better contract or both. I am more than happy to let p do the majority of the work in the PO seat and let them know Im stronger than expected with a nice cue bid. If p is too weak then at the worst I am leaving the opps to find their way with as little help from me as possible. I much prefer to be able to back into the bidding with this type of hand if the opps show we own half the deck or more:)))))))))))))))))))))))))))))

under these specific circumstances i prefer the 2d cue to have several meanings. 1. limit + raise for p overcall 2. opening hand with decent diamonds and probably short in p overcall (most likely would have passed a reopening x). 3. 6/7 good diamonds with side ace and no fit. (immediate 3d shows the same suit but little outside). p generally just rebids their suit if no game interest opposite a limit raise or bids another suit with extra values and allow p to describe their hand. for me the 3h bid is still peemptive but my hand will have not much offense or defense and 4+ in hearts. Qx Kxxxx Qxxx xx. 2h raise tends to be stronger and more balanced but not good enough to be a limit raise. We dont make special allowance for openers failure to rebid because they may very easily pass and 18-19 point hand balanced if they dont see any hope for game hoping the opps willl overbid.

1n very reasonable here passing if singleton is a major

We would all like to trust you on your explanations but always include the meaning of bids since what you dont bid is just as important as what you bid. Hand 1 why does 3s set spades as trumps?? what is it about the 2d bid that allows for a 3s bid from the 1n opener. hand 2 the beginning auction of 1h p x makes no sense and as a consequence the rest of the bidding makes no sense. I rarely vote down posts but please try and be more careful with your questions and examples -1

we have a large fit and easily enough power for game. Instead of 2/1 how about a nice jacoby 2n letting p in on the heart support secret and your desire to be in at least game?? That way if lho bids 4s and p x you will not feel badly about bidding 5d which will let p know why you bid j2n (long dia and hearts). Another advantage of J2n is that you will want to down play slam efforts if p shows short diamonds as the offensive value of your hand takes a big dip. If your partnership is playing mini splinters many pairs adopt a 4c/4d bid to show this type of hand immediately and the treatment works very well.

codo mentions a fistful of diamonds but how about just KJx and enough cards to make 3n a viable call at these colors. There seems to be little purpose to using x as penalty here when there are so many hands where using it as tox or at worst cards with no clear direction would work out much better. This is especially true if your hand was slammish in nature. Given the uncertainty i think your best guess here is 5c rather than trying to hope a 43 spade fit will work since the ruffs will come from the 3 card suit. If disaster looms it is far less likely to occur in 5c than in 4s. But I think most would assume x was TO rather than penalty here.

i cant easily bite on the concept that lho has underled the dia K any less than they might have underled the heart K. It seems to me rho (holding AKx in dia) is desparately trying to forge an entry into lho hand so lho can lead a heart and (at the same time) attacking an entry to the diamonds. Rho may or may not have the spade A but the defense would seem to make more sense with the spade A since entries to lho hand would appear to be extremely limited that way. trick 2 win club K (a nasty shock to rho plans) and immediately attack trumps. I can ruff the club A as an immediate entry back to hand to pull trumps and then set up diamonds with the heart A as an entry depending on how the defense proceeds. there are 3 key honors here SA this lop goes down when lho holds DK and rho holds SA and HK lho hold DK SA and rho holds HK and the defense is perfect (what else do you expect from a bbo forum reader) makes when lho holds the spade A and rho holds the heart K and dia K when rho hold all 3 key cards so it would seem that this lop wins a bit less than 50% of the time but it also makes any time the heart K is with LHO for an additional 50% aside from some small % possibilites of a trump promotion this lop appears to be close to 75%.

after a 2c opener noone needs to wast serious time searching for slam if it is our hand we merely bid game where it belongs and dont mess around. Our hand will probably make for a good sac in diamonds or less likely in spades IF p has a reasonable fit for diamonds. Every bid that is not game after opps open 2c should be geared toward asking p if a sac is reasonable. With this in mind we have a 2n bid which can be used with any 2 suited hand (cant be natural) but there is too much disparity btn our suits to use 2n. I think 3d is a much better solution overall which adds some preemptive value and still leaves room for p to sac if their hand is appropriate. Yes indeed we will "miss" some dandy spade games of course the opps will probably be able to bid enough so we never get to play 4s anyway. If p can get a 4d/5d bid in we can then bid spades to suggest an alternative sac but only after we have checked with our primary suit. The key is to realize that if p does not fit dia the odds of our having a reasonable sacrifice hand plummet precipitously.

since the lead looks like 4th best it is much better to win the A at trick 1 and not let rho know how many dia lho has (two cards under the 7 hidden in your hand). Your only legitimate chance is doubleton/singleton club king but we also have one extra chance because defense is difficult. At trick 2 we lead the club 9 and "finesse". If Rho is holding the club K they may be worried we are trying to steal our 9th trick and they may very well choose to win the trick with the K and continue diamonds hoping p led from a 5 card suit. Note that this play does not risk your contract as you will still make if the club K is singleton/doubleton you are giving the opps an extra opportunity to go wrong.

in many ways it seems to be a simple hand since our options are so limited. we need 4d 3s 2c not much hope for anything else. trick 2 spade to K low dia (cheering hard for Kx or K with rho) assuming dia K drops single or double spade to A (if the Q has not appeard play one more spade hoping for 33 spades and use the dia J as entry to 3rd spade trick Lets face it we overbid.

i like the bidding up until pass over 2n---your hand is perfect tox shape and it you were a teensy bit stronger you probably would have x vs 1s. Even though p is a passed hand surely game should be considered. IMO the best way to contnue is 3h. A case can be made for 3d but lets face it we relly need heart help to consider game and the 3h bid allows p to focus their attention on the heart suit. As luck would have it they could raise to 4h if they had only 3 spades for original raise. Here it is far better to bid 4s with the strong double fit and side shortness.

1h 2d 2h easy since your system shows 6+ 3d denying 4 spades and a reason to feat nt 3s "stuff" in spades nothing much in clubs 4d cant bid 3n no where else decent to go If this is a standard 2/1 auction openers hand has become so huge i think i would just bid 6c inviting p to bid 7d with extras. If this is more of an sayc 2d bid i would bid 4c now to show p slam interest (also leaving them room to bid 4h with a heart honor if they have no slam interest) since they have 7dia I imagine they will bid 4s you can now bid 5c to show first round control and an easy 6d will be reached.

p heard your 2d bid and yet still chose to bid 4d at unfavorable. You have a complete full blooded opening bid (even assuming the heart Q is worthless with a decent club suit that may allow for pitches and even your spade K is behind the overcaller. Your p had to leave some room for you in case your hand was at the bottom of your opening. I would bid 5d This mainly becasue it is highly unlikely p is merely competing with 4d since that move is fraught with danger for usually a pittance of reward. These assumptions are not available at favorable and less available at even vulnerability.

If both partners know p can leave you in for 2 entries or overtake and lead back to you (leaving you with 1 entry) it is far more important to switch immediately when p leaves you in. that generally means p first return toward your hand is the most important suit preference signal. Leaving you in generally means to make the obvious shift but in the case where there are carding choices just look fo the general high/low to determine which suit.

2 things--- first (while your p has a strong idea you are looking for a ruff you do not know that) why did you not win the first trump with the A followd by the K to let p know you want a ruff?? There may be many reasons for leading the heart T playing the trump A followed by K lets p know u want a ruff. others have mentioned the advantage of using the trump suit for suit preference vs trump suit count, strongly consider it. On this hand p had an easy play of the heart 9 to give suit preference since the lead of the T gives the heart suit away and they still maintain a 4th round tenace against the 7. This will not often be the case and using the trump suit for suit preference is much more valuable. second when you need to make a blind decision (should be fairly rare) there are 2 ways to go One is to take the shot that gets you the best score the other is to try and avoid giving anything away. Both have advantages and your decision should be made pimarily on how the hand has been bid/played so far and chances of overall success. Here the play of a club offers a small advantage while a dia switch offers a huge chance of success. On this hand (where the hidden heart 2 makes your decision more blind than usual) go with the dia.

7h is such a nice contract and is one of those things that drives scientific bidders nuts. The best i can do is 6s sigh.