gszes

pass 3c looks like a strong candidate for down 1 at least. That means we have to score 9+ tricks in order to do better. This is hardly impossible but is it 50% or better? If partner has a balanced hand those 9 tricks will be difficult to find unless partner is near the top of their possible (though unlikely) 9 hcp. There is also the fact that partner has heard the bidding and if they have 8-9 hcp balanced they have to be wondering why you have not bid so far and they will arrive at the conclusion that you have nothing you can say because you have a strong balanced hand. If partner is unbalanced they will also figure out that you are strong and balanced and will much more readily balance. My point is pass seems better because there seems to be no need to gamble right now. Partner will figure out your hand anyway so let them decide how to proceed. Passing now has an additional benefit of not getting us too high when partner feels like jumping because of your x.

dang and I had just entered your name in the race for most ethical player of the year award------------------

PASS 3n or 4s might work but the backs of the card keep us from knowing which is best. 3dx is a virtual certainty to go down 1 (3d spade ace + whatever partner can offer) and could go down 3 depending on partners cards. The more we can generally set 3d the higher our chances are of making 3n or 4s. That seems to make pass the logical choice.

Even if the suit blocks all east has to do is lead the LOWEST club to partner (4th round) asking for a dia switch and 1n goes down 2 maybe not a top score but certainly reasonable

A close team match with partner occasionally complaining that you have been overworking your pass card (so what's new) when one of your best hands of the day arrives[hv=pc=n&n=sq4hq732d9543c863&d=e&v=b&b=10&a=p2c(21%2F%20game%20force)p2d(waiting)p2sp2n(negative%20no%20long%20suits)p3hp]133|200[/hv]. You're on how do you proceed and why. If this belongs in another forum please put it there but I will be surprised if opinions are unanimous.

North failed to take into consideration just how much better their hand was compared to what a minimum 3h raise would look like. Imagine xxx xxxx Kxx Kxx would YOU raise to 3h in this bidding? If so, how much better is your hand now that south has made a slam try and shown the club ace (surely they are not short in both spades and clubs). I would not stop below the 5 level with this hand so for now I make my cheapest cue bid 4d and if partner tries to sign off in 4h I bid 5c. If I had 2 small diamonds instead of a singleton I would have bid 5c immediately. Do not feel too badly though because the opps put a lot of pressure on your bidding and 4h is hardly the worst place to play.

While I rag on south for 2s I see many that say maybe 4s is ok for a preempt but not for backing in. I would have bid 3s immediately but then I would do nothing further. It is just too hard to imagine many hands where -500 is our limit with -1100 opposite no slam still possible even opposite the pictured 5 card overcall. While I am not a huge fan of the 1s overcall I feel it is more a matter of style then horrific in and of itself.

an addition to ALL conventions cards should be AVBAF All Vague Bids Are Forcing:))))

there is a risk 1s may get passed out since west is a passed hand BUT can we really expect to make much if south does not have extra values? pass for now seems sound a more interesting question might be what to do if it goes 1s p p x or 1s p 2s x:))))

partner has made a tox and they have extra values. I have complete nothingness and even my Qxxxx of hearts may well be worth zero tricks. This means partner will have to take 6 tricks on their own to set 2h and if they can do that they might well appreciate the opportunity to bid game in 3n or 5m soooooooooooooooooo I am bidding 3c since defending looks totally wrong and it makes no difference imps or mp. If perchance we had a partnership agreement that 2n was a minor suit tox I would use that else I would assume 2n was hearts stopped and just short of bidding 1n over the 1s bid.

[hv=pc=n&s=sa743haq62da7ca63]133|100[/hv] You are the opening bidder imps no one vulnerable close match 10 boards to go 2/1 no special agreements 5533 1c p 1s p There was a fairly lively discussion on how best to proceed when this hand hit the table as dummy:))) sooooo I decided it might be a good idea to hear from the best of the best on how to proceed:

If we ask partner what they expect from our hand for a weak 2 heart opening bid they very easily might draw up the one we have. This means when it comes time for partner to make a decision over 6s THEY KNOW WHAT OUR HAND LOOKS LIKE. If they draw the wrong conclusion that is on them but deciding to bid 7h (even if it is right) shows a complete lack of confidence in your partner's bidding ability. Masterminding is not the way to influence people to partner south. Oh PASS

there just isn't much here. It seems almost impossible that we might make anything so any decision we make now is essentially a sac. Hopefully P will be able to read us for short hearts and properly identify our weakness before deciding what to do over 4h.

Several things to take into consideration when deciding to open (light) in 4th seat: 1. Do I have a rebid? Not in this case if p bids 1h my 1n rebid shows 15-17 and passing 1h is hugely speculative and rebidding 2d or 1s?? ughh 2. How easy is it for the opps to outbid us? In this case we may easily be outgunned in both majors 3. Is my opening bid at the very least lead directing? Nope Everything points to passing. Check the tables that played 1n and see if they played 15-17 so at least a 1n rebid was feasible. If not credit the players that opened 1n with winning while swinging.

The neat part about crossing to hand with the club A is it also creates a Vienna coupe against west if they have the club K and the only spade guard:) and it costs nothing as we play for the other squeeze first and nothing good happens we still can nail lho. We just have to discard the club Q at trick 10.

no matter how well bid somedays the bridge gods do not want 7 level bids to make sighhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

The problem is in east evaluating their hand over the xx. Surely north has long spades for the xx otherwise there are wayyyy too many hcp in the deck. Once east is certain west is short in spades their hand becomes way strong with all of their values working. I would treat the hand as a game force and bid 3s. Where the bidding goes will depend on how high the opps want to interfere but after 3s it might take wild horses to keep west out of slam. The key is recognizing the spade shortness in the west hand and seeing how wonderful that is opposite your 3 small. I imagine the final sequence might be: 2s x xx 3s p 4s p 4n (two places to play) p 5n pick a slam p 6h

I echo the 4n bid as showing 2 places to play. Over 5c I will bid 5s (which is the same bid I would make if perchance they happen to bid 5d or 5h) in the hopes that p will realize my 2 suiter is the reds and I really want to bid 7 when I correct their 6c bid to 6d. This is based on the assumption that a direct 5s bid would show grand slam interest with a single suited hand. If this was a standard opening bid vs a strong club I would be much more content to merely get to the best strain at the 5 level and would merely correct a 5c bid to 5d.

CLUB KING seems a stand out. The main worry is losing a valuable tempo with any other lead and losing a club trick. While the lead of the trump ace seems to invalidate this concept let us imagine the opps hands as something like: Jxxx JTx AQJ xxx KQTxxx Kxx xx Ax with a club lead we are due 1c 1s 2h with spade ace or dia lead we have lost our club trick because declarer has time to finesse diamonds twice and pitch their club loser on the dia ace. The heart A lead fails because declarer has time to pitch either a club OR a heart on the 3rd diamond depending on the defense.

3d if available as a preempt. We really do not want opener to be rebidding spades w/o some really good ones and this is the fastest way to convince them to leave us alone in diamonds. The 3 quick club losers and void opposite spade opening downgrade the offensive potential of this hand considerably. 3d still leaves us well placed for 3n as well as multiple dia contracts and, who knows, maybe opener will rebid hearts (hopefully with at least 5) and we will happily play in our heart game which would otherwise be difficult to diagnose. If 3d is some sort of systemic bid I would lean toward neg x and not be shocked if things did not go well but consider a 2d bid as a dangerous overbid with those 3 small clubs.

If trumps break 22 we make 6. The only reason to consider an LOP, other than taking 2 rounds of trumps immediately, is if there might be a generally safe effective way of making our contract when trumps fail to break 22. Laying down the dia A(K) does indeed give us an extra chance when trumps break 31 and it is not because we can take a 2nd round dia finesse but because we gain an important tempo when the Q drops singleton or doubleton and it matters not if trumps are 22 or 31. Note that if we play the top 2 trumps and discover the 31 break the ability to drop the Q or Qx becomes irrelevant since all the player with the 3 trumps has to do is NOT ruff and when the dia T holds declarer must play something from hand and eventually lose 1 trump and (almost assuredly) a club. However, if we drop the Dia Q with the A or K we can safely continue diamonds and if an opp that started with 2 OR 3 trumps ruffs we still have another dummy entry to play the 4th dia and pitch our club loser. Is it safe enough to try for the Q or Qx at the risk of having someone ruff (and not having the Q drop)? We start with a 43% chance (22 trump split) and pick up from the other 57% whenever the dia Q drops singleton or doubleton and lose nothing from the 22 splits. The only risk is diamonds breaking 51 or 60 and the Q not dropping. Seems like a decent risk vs reward to me.

I guess we bid differently I would normally end up in 3d or 3h depending on system.

that's not it. I have ONLY played the FREE just declare for the past month and I still get the same limit error. I do play some of the 25c tourneys (just declare) so that may have something to do with it.

Ick I am going to play Lho for ♣Hx(x) and rho for the ♥K with a 33 heart break. trick 1 win spade Q trick 2 dia to ace trick 3 heart to Q trick 4 heart A trick 5 low heart trick 6 win the next trick in hand (unless they play on clubs) trick 7 lead a low club toward the Jx A LOP with little chance of success and since we seem to be too high to salvage MP by playing for down 1 we might as well try to make it.

My partner is a passed hand and we have 6 potential losers that passed partner will have to help cover for us to make game. Once that is taken into consideration, a 1h overcall gets my nod vs the slightly more dangerous x with a void in the highest ranking of the suits we are supposedly showing support for. Having said that, 3s seems like a bit of a stretch especially since partner is a huge favorite to have heart honors poorly placed opposite our void. There is also the problem with the overall lack of strength and I feel 2s is sufficient to begin showing the east hand values with length helping to make up for some of the lack of power. 3n should have been a warning sign to east since the bidding has pretty much marked east with a long, no weak 2s opener means not a very good, spade suit and not much power.