gszes

hmmm after 4h bid 5h which asks p to bid slam with a spade control-- If p has 1st round they bid 5s with 2nd round they bid 6h. very straighforward.

we have no idea how strong lho is but p is either balanced 0-10 power or has lots of clubs. Since game seems unlikely I will choose 1S which will at least serve well as a lead director and if it seems safe will introduce hearts later.

If p has used this sequence properly-the worst case scenario is your P has K and opps have AQ. Your hand is 17 but has no JACKS and your minor suit length is a plus in a hand where p appears to have no strong interest in the majors. small slams around 32 balanced power not normally that hard to make if your side has no jacks. Squeezes have a tendency to show up quite regularly on hands where the minors dont split 33. Splitting hairs maybe but IMO go for it. If possible I would bid 5n showing both minors in case we can more safely try 6 of a minor.

no md here but the fact that day 1 and 2 you are generally ok (maybe until the very end) and suddenly day 3 you have a lot of problems quickly-----is it possible your are getting bored???? Maybe consider getting bridge mostly out of your head after each match-stay away from bbo forums for ex until match is complete. There is plenty of time to write about interesting hands etc when done playing-------------Life is not only bridge (heresy) take in a movie go swimming do something different when not playing and see if that helps keep you fresh. I do not recommend reading a good book because it may be that your eyes need some rest. Follow that earlier suggestion to just zone out when possible as dummy and if p revokes it is their fault not yours:))))

majors first then nt and (a distant third ) minors 1h normal 1n we assume normal 2s no major suit fit this hand so we search for NT- we have 3 problem suits for nt purposes lets start by showing stuff in spades and our extra values. Another consideration is that slam will be unlikely if p has stuff in dia we need to find out what p has. IF p bids 2n we bid 3c to pattern out and show our obvious dia problem. If p cannot bid 3n we can probably safely play 5c or even 6c. p may even pass 3c p has a dia problem and so do we i suggest we bid 4d to show our pattern and slam interest and let p decide where to go from there. If I were just a bit weaker or had jacks vs queens I would bid 5c to show this hand but lack of slam interest. 3d p has a club problem and while they may have long dia it is better to bid 3n rather than risk passing what may be just dia stuff for NT purposes. P can then bid 4d if all they have are long weak dia it is worth the extra level. 3h pretty good chance p is 3234 and no dia stop and has raised with Hx. Pattern out with 4c and let p decide which suit to play in. 3s p has problems with both minors and has less than Hx in hearts maybe something like AJx xx xxxx Jxxx p will almost always be very minimum for this bidding and I would bid 4c which will allow p to pass with a complete minimum or bid 5c 4h or 4s. 3n pass slam very unlikely and while 5c may be safer many times there is no guarantee we have a fit anywhere.

4s is a very reasonable contract so I would not be overly upset. The main reason you ended up in 4s is because of the 3c bid (i would bid 2n) which appears to cast doubt about the heart suit being stopped. Once E bids 3c w (naturally preferring to avoid 5 of a minor) pretends they have 6 spades with their very decent spade holding. E then raise to 4 very reasonably. Even using a natural bidding system the priorities of major NT distant 3rd minors still exists. The 3c while natural fails to consider that nt is highly preferable and we would be much better served saving our 4 card club suit as an alternative slam if we get that high. Remember that p could have bid a natural 3c if they had a lot of clubs so there is a very strong chance any club fit we have is 8 cards at best hardly worth stressing at this time.

over 1s i would bid 3h (preemptive) this primarily to warn p about our extremely limited defense and likely heart length. The latter will help them better evaluate any strong hand they have for defensive purposes. I would not have any real problem with the choice of the safer 2h bid. This assumes our parntership has 2s available for a liit raise plus in hearts. too weak to do anything else on the other hands and If p cannot bid again we are unlikely to miss anything special.

sometimes it is the opps hand---at these colors you are inviting a full blown disaster while trying to avoid -110. At MP thats no biggie since you were probably due a poor score at 2s in any case but IMPS is a different garanimal. Try very hard to have something akin to perfect distribution or at least good suit intermediates (you have neither). IMPS is a ton more risk vs reward oriented than MP your teammates might no like -110 but they would really hate -1100:))))

right on target plannnng the bidding is not only for those that will play the hand:))))

x for the spade lead alone---we do not mind giving the opps the opportunity to show first round spade contol (which one of them hopefully has) because we want to encourage them to bid seven of something. A spade lead against 7 should be safe and the road on how to defend should soon become clear.

UGHHHH this hand looks ugleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee sooooo i picture lho with x(x) KJxxx (K or Q) T9xx A(x) trick 1 spade K trick 2 small dia hoping rho plays stiff honor if not we are probably doomed (win ace) trick 3 small club if the hand i imagined exists lho is doomed to be endplayed and we will score 2c 3s 2d 2h it is all just a matter of technique. The key is not winning trick 1 in hand because with perfect defense we will have insufficint entries in hand to force w into leading a heart for us. assuming lho ducks the club trick 3 win club and trick 4 return SMALL club from dummy (hear roar of applause from crowd and be prepared for board of inquiry) letting Ax catch air trick 5 depends on what lho does if they return a heart game over win in hand and lead dia toward J 2d 2h 3s 2c if lho plays a small dia (our 2nd dia trick play the J cash the club cash 2 spades wherever and lead a dia for endplay if lho lead dia q and clears dia win the j cash club cash 2 spades ending in hand lead the 4th dia for endplay this is a very low % LOP but it does have the advantage of having a chance. Any other LOP leaves us at least down 1. This line risks maybe down 2 (4c 1h 1d) but can make. I can't picture any other lie of the cards that allows us to make with perfect defense unless it is something like heart K onside and rho having KQ doubleton of dia a situation I think is far less likely than my proposed LOP.

I would try the spade Q lho did not show much interest in spades after they bid 1s so there is a decent chance they dont have good intermediates. If the dummy hits with say Kxxx declarer has a tough decision to make it they rise with the k we might still be able to score 3 spades heart A and another trick. If the spade Q holds it seems a good idea to continue with the J and try again and the J is actually more likely to hold than the Q did. So we can score 3 spades and never even lose tempo. A small spade might get us 3 spade tricks but will always lose tempo (except in the unlikely event p has the K).

with an invitational hand p has a fear of nt for some reason and whatever the reason is all we can do is cover it with an ace. If our black cards were Kxxx Kxxx or some such vs A A we would cheerfully sign off in 3d. Our aces mean 5d suddenly becomes a viable contract and we have to let p know our hand while average is not hopeless. bid 4d if p hearts are good enough to play opposite honor x and they wish to go to game they can bid 4h on the way.

give p as little as say Qxxx Qxxx Axxx x and we seem to be huge favorites to make 4 of either major. I would bid 4c just to make sure we play our 44 fit if p then bids 4d (presumably 33 in the majors) I will follow with 4s but not be as happy. 4c risk vs reward at IMPS seems to indicate we try to make game here. At MP where strecthing for games is not the goal I can see signing off in 3s and hoping p has a far less suitable reopening x though how much less they can have and still reopen remains a question.

yeppers we have already set up a game force and if we had 3 hearts and invitational we would have bid 3h last bid (or the first round depending on partnership style) If AQ isnt as good as xxx in partner 5 card suit it must be a really cruddy one. The last thing we want to do is discourage a p with say Jx Kxxxxx AKQxx void from considering a slam by bidding something silly like 3n

the main advantage of favorable is that you can make preemtive bids with a ton more safety than at other colors (and back into auctions). We do not really have a preemtive bid and if we open we risk getting too high (vul opps dont always have the goods). If we own the hand there is plenty of time to show our hand during the bidding (including some safe backing in after say the opps start with 2s 3c 3d because of the colors). We dont really want to open the bidding and give p the impression we really have something and p x expecting something from us we cannot deliver. pass

since you have no viable alternative to NT if your side is going to bid a game there is really no sense to gimmicking around with any bids other than 2n or 3n at IMPS this is an automatice 3N since 40% games are almost the norm these days. At MP we prefer to have good play and now our bid is dependent on partnership opening style. If we are very light openers 2n should suffice but otherwise I would bid 3n since 3n rates to be a very common contract and if we decide to pass 1n we are gambling not really trying to play bridge. The worry about hearts seems unjustified both opps had a low level opportunity to mention hearts so most likely they are not a problem.

late to the party as usual but here is the minority report IMO we should start the proceedings 1s If our passed p has a spade fit we can profitably sacrifice at even 5s but if p is short this gory suit could easily contribute to the opps plans for early retirement. That plus the fact we have so much offensive potential makes preemptive bidding a poor choice IMO. We require little from p to make 4s and the only way we have a reasonable chance of getting there (w/o just blasting and hoping) is to keep the bidding Low and hopefully p will be able to rasie spades. Picture p with something like Axx xxxx Qx xxxx and you can see the enormous potential of this hand and it is unlikely at these colors p will hazard a raise to 4s but p should raise 1s to 2s and then its all gravy

bridge bidding is primarily the safe search for game or no game in a major nt and lastly minors (a distant 3rd). Using this definition if your p was invitational with 6h and 4d they would not care much at all about the 4 card dia suit and would bid 3h immediately to emphasize where the parnership main chance at game was. Since your p took time to bid 2d (with a weak hand they would bid 2h or 1n or 2c or 2s) then bid 3h they were still trying to determine where to play game (or higher) but they have also shown their hand was not invitational but gf or better. Principle of fast arrival happens often and the failure to use it helps define many other auctions. Even though your hand is minimum it is control rich and I would continue worth a 3s cue bid in case p is thinking about slam. If your hand was lacked so many controls I would be happpy with a 4h bid.

good bid surely p will pull back after hearing the 1n behind them so there is very little risk of an overbid disaster. The 2s bid also provides a not inconsiderable amount of prremption. Keep up the good work

at MP where the search for the 40% game is non existent and the idea of playing in 2d is ughhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh i have huge sympathy for opening 1n at IMPS arbitrarily by passing a 5 card major takes a rather large risk for generally very little gain. If we open 1h and rebid 2d (over 1s) if p cannot generate a 2h or 3d bid we have little chance at game anyway and thereis no ugghhhhhhhhhhh at IMPS playing 2d. If p can bid 2h we can bid 2n and make our game try at least partially reassured our heart length is not totally useless. The only real downside is the general inabilty to play 2s unless p has a lot of spades and doenst mind rebidding them in the face of at least 9 red cards.

x 3 card support extra values 3s invitational (unsure what competitive means by others) p is around the 8-10 range for 2s bid so 3s is asking if they are at or close to 10. If we are too weak to invite we can pass and leave further competing up to partner. 3h natural too strong for overcall virtually game forcing

exactamundo neither side really has the stuff to push to slam preempts work do the best you can

I echo the pass brigade---your p bid what was probably the most likely best spot. The problem with most likely is that sometimes it isn't. I would x 3s with your p hand imagine how strong their hand is if you bid 4d 4h or 5d? slam will be impossible to miss (grand who knows). If you bid clubs it seems easy for p to then convert to hearts even over 5c) I would not really want to venture beyond 4h (possibly 5d) if p is weak so I don't really like 4s 4n or 4d (which seems way too speculative) IMO x=10 4h=8 4s=4 4n=4 4d=1

when responder bids 3h (even if they originally planned on making it an invitational bid) the discovery of the double fit moves the partnership from invitational to game forcing. When opener's original suit is a minor the partnership requires a significant increase in playing strength to play 5 of a minor. I would use the 3m raise to show invitational values and an alternative safe place to play vs a possible 43 M fit. If opener has 4 card M support I would then consider the pair of hands game forcing.