gszes

game forcing hand max 1 loser suit is a strong jump shift 2s for me. Begin immediate cuebidding uless p bids 3h which shows a no loser suit

many many ways to see 5d making not so many for 6d its unfortunate 4s is not available but life is like that.

1h 1s 2s 3c 3d 3n opener has to have something in clubs to try for game and surely we are not bidding 3n with only 1 dia stop so the 9 trick game (thinking p might have poor spades) actually looks eaiser than 4s. My heart Q even looks valuable (another illusion). This sequence also manages to avoid 4s on those occassions p raises with only 3 spades (and say a stiff dia A).

if p had an invitational hand with diamonds they would have bid 3d over 1s-- since they went through 4th suit forcing then bid 3d (vs 3n when opener patterned out) they are showing slam interest. Opener should realize this and bid 3h to show 4144 and extra values. Should be easy to reach 6d from there and plenty of room to search for 7.

maybe its a human nature kind of thing---the continued heart play looks safe and any switch you make (if wrong) will mean a "SP" while the best you can hope for with a switch is you were lucky.

it requires quite a bit of help from p to make 5d a decent sacrifice and that amount may also be enough to beat 4s. When vul opps jump to game they are guessing most of the time and also feel there is little chance of making slam. While this means p probably has some values setting 4s may very well be our last chance at a positive score. There is little guarantee p will sit for 5d if we bid it if they have a couple of aces.

heres how i read the bidding: 4s x 5c (there were 3 choices here) xx to show spade A pass to show some wasted spade values willingness to x if opps go to 5s 5c no wasted spade values and a complete min for previous bidding. well p is exceedingly unlikely to have any values in diamonds or spades so the only question is what looks like a minimum 1c opener? xxx Kxx x AKxxxx well i surely dont want to be playing 5sx is p has that as we have a chance to make 6c and 5s may also make so it seems even at MP our best bet is to bid 6c

you have to admit its at least an "interesting" bid

I like the way art says remarkable (rather than bordering on insane):)))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))

Give p a fixed number to begin with (i like to use 34) for how many "points" the partnership needs to consider a small slam. Once they have that in mind make sure they count everything and see if their potential maximum allows for slam bidding opposite your potential maximum. A great place to start is when your hand a a fixed value like 1n 15-17 lets say you open 1n and p holds AKxxxx x x Axxxx. Your p will quickly realize this hand is worth a ton more than a mere 11 hcp espeically when you emphasize there is already a known spade fit and they can begin counting short suit points immediately. A quick count reveals they have 11 hcp 4 length points 4 short suit points and they will see their 19 count opposite your maximum of 17 is more than enough to at least invite slam then show them the benfits of fast arrival to show hand with little slam interest and slower bidding to show slam interest. If you can get partner just to reason on one hand like this they will be able to extrapolate the concept on many other hands. Once you convince them that the bidding should be similar to 1n 2h 2s 3c 3n 4s for ex they will get the idea they are showing slam interest by going slow and allowing you to decide how well your hand fits opposite theirs.

i could not care less about the spade K and that fact asking rkc for spades makes any conclusion speculative at best. The equal vul means this bidding could turn highly competitive and p might think they are much stonger in defense than they are (if p is looking at AKQ of spades they wont know they are tram tickets on defense), W/O investigation there is no way to know if our combined hands are worth 3 4 5 6 7 spades and we arent even going to consider 3. This may be the right time to try and throw some smoke on the bidding and try 2d (not 2c we may need that as exclusion). whatever p bids over 2d might be more than sufficient to allow us to use exclusion (lets say p bid 3h splinter for ex) now 5c exclusion is perfection since it will key on the dia and spade aces only-----i realize this is imaginative but this may be the only way to discover how high we can go. so if p has AQJT9 x Axxx xxx we bid an amazingly accurate 7s and with other bids from p we may well be able to decide btn 4 and 6s. One more thing if you use exclusion you need to have a partner that trusts you enough to pass 7s when u bid it and not to bid 7n if they hold AKQJx for ex:)))))))))))))))))))))))))

I couldnt care less how strong or weak the opps are or form of scoring this is partnership trust (3d bid). the question is how to proceed. IMO 3d 3s (i want to set spades since i need to know about the apde Q) I really dont care if p raises or not but if p raises we might be able to avoid a 7 level contract that depends on a finesse. 4d lets assume p does not raise 4n rkc for spades if i wanted dia i would have bid 4n right away. 5d 1/4 5h spade Q? 5s = n else (6s=no and nothing else) (6c or 6h = no but side K or Q) any time p shows no spade Q we jump to 7d 5n = yes now we bid 7n if p shows support {(4c or 4h) short} or 4s no short instead of 4d. 4n 5d 1 5h asks about Q if p says no queen we are best off bidding 6s If p has the Q we bid 7n though 7s at imps would be better and safer these sequences are possible only if you trust your partner to answer questions and not take matters into their own hands amd to trust you when you place a contract somewhere. trust works both ways. IMO merely placing the contract somewhere w/o investigation is nothing more than a form of lottery. Use tools to your advantage when possible.

note the advantage of adopting 3n for this purpose* (once p shows a self sufficient major that is trumps unless we sign off in 6n or 7n) we still have tons of room to explore and all we have to do is work on methods:))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))) *as noted many times above

even droolers have the right cards once in a while so bid 5d (do not cue bid your hand is based on distribution not power). Then politely ask p where they hid the hand they showed during the bidding and hope u get really lucky in the play lho holding say xxxx KQxxx AJ AK and leading a club to start.

ill assume by below average you mean like 45% since down 2 seems pretty automatic for 300---preempts are indeed annoying thats why they work at IMPS I would have been much happier with bidding 5d but at MP a decent chance at a top is too much to pass up you cant guess right all of the time it is a game of %. If we were that good at guessing casinos would have no chance:)))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))

i take 2 club pitches followed by heart to the Q dia A and a diamond if rho wins and leads another spade ruff low and hope rho began with Kx trumps and 3 diamonds (or ruffing finesse against Lho in diamonds)* if lho wins the dia its a lot easier though we will be playing for 33 diamonds we will not care if rho began with 2 or 3 hearts. *other defenses may allow us to lay down the heart A and take a ruffing finesse against lho in diamonds if that seems reasonable.

this definitely looks like the best way to determine how to play the clubs. lho presumably started with six spades and has followed to 2 diamonds. ruffing out the hearts should give us an exact picture of both opps distribution. Who knows, maybe we will find one of the other is a heavy favorite to hold the club Q for ex lets say lho follows to 2 hearts so we "know" their distribution is 6223 which not only makes them the favorite to hold the club Q but an even heavier favorite than that due to opening 2s surely not "on a 3 count"

there is no intelligent way to explore 7d. That means 6d (if it makes 920) is the best we can hope for from bidding---since it seems reasonable to assume p has the rounded AK's there is a really good chance of setting 4s for 500 even 800 some days. I think i will trade in my maybe off the top small slam for a possible MP top by passing for penalty

1/2. i dont much care what p has and do not care to guess--I will not arbitrarily decide p has a weak 2 spades and pass or bid an equally bad 2h. Bid 2s maybe just maybe the opps will run to 3c and we will not have our heads handed to us. If p does not have a weak 2 in spades our foresight will lead to a vastly improved contract than might ever be acheived if we start with pass or 2h. The fact we are showing a willingness to go to game if p has hearts will serve us well if p started with a strong balanced hand because now we can bid diamonds and not worry about p thinking we are weak. 3. I will rarely wish to play in dia (vs hearts) when p has a strong balanced hand

agreed and another thought is I am not happy with having to lead to this hand. While it looks like the opps will have trouble making 5 my lead might give it to them. In the long run it is probably less expensive to have p show their long suit and take our lumps there. Opps probably have a huge fit and probably so do we. IMO x=10 p = 8 all else ughhhhhh Im curious as to what people will lead if they pass (i would have less concern about lead if I x again and p leaves it in and would lead a top club.

w/o knowing your systems its impossible to guess how to proceed hand 1 (most likely slam) has a nice easy 4d cue (I like my 5th heart and my dia A and the QT of clubs working). If p cannot move over 4d then easy pass but there is no strong reason to not investigate. If 3n is available as serious (showing extra values) that makes the 4d cue even better as it shows at best a mild slam try. hand 2 if 3h is available as natural (or help suit) I will try for slam that way all we need is spade A and Qxxxx in hearts to make 5 a superb contract maybe even Qxxx. If we are unable to find a heart fit than I think slam is unlikely and we should subside in game.

my hand has improved enormously- and we should have visions of slam racing through our head. Since it is still possible p has wasted spade values we should take a go slow approach for now and bid 3h waiting mostly to see if p can bid 3n or not. x here seems wrong since we have clear direction for our side via 3n or 5/6/7 of a minor. 3c is ok if playing a 2/1 (100% forcing) but otherwise it sounds far too competitive vs the monster this hand is becoming. the other benefit to 3h is that if p cannot bid 3n we will be able to bid a club contract and show partner our pattern. 3s as a splinter is also ok but it may be better to use that to ask for a spade stop with a more balanced hand and 4s bypasses 3n which could be our last makeable game.

i prefer an immediate 2s bid --- for several reasons 1. it might be a great lead inhibitor 2. keeps the bidding low 3. allows p to appreciate spade honors more than usual 4. there is no reason this hand cant be played in 6d even and bids like 3h 3n and 2n all make slam a tough bidding problem. 5. with any luck we may be able to pattern out with 3d later if its available to further help p decide on where to play. 6. 3n is still available if we need it.

i carefully lay the heart 5 on the table no matter 4th or 3/5 leads== my idea is to make certain declarer knows i have heart length and that is is dangerous to take any finesses (which will all work). I do not want to lead the heat 7 since there is entriely too much chance p will read that as top of nothing or 2nd from 4 small. 3N may be a very normal contract and there is little reason to go out on a limb when we have a good tactical lead to make that might gather a ton of MP for us. Do not consider X when the opps might easily make 5 that is Las Vegas stuff and usually a TUMS moment for your partner. 4h is probably going down some and is a much better gamble than x. We know from the bidding partner has something over there but not what. Bidding 4h is also Las Vegas. If you did not have a decent tactical lead 4h would look better but we still have a chance to collect too many MP just by leading a low heart and keeping declarer from taking finesses for overtricks. IMO p=10 4h=3 x=1

meant defensive im not that great an optimist fixed typo