gszes

available as usual if anyone needs a partner let me know.

at MP I would xx figuring if we are getting slaughtered it doesn't hurt for it to maybe be a bit worse if p has to leave it in and who knows maybe 3 of a minor wont be x:))) at IMPS I must pass since the hand figures to play badly at 3 of a minor even if we have a fit. xx if p leaves it in is turning a poor score into a catastrophe if p has to leave it in. do not bid 2n here that shows values. xx is the only way to warn p of impending doom and desire to play in a minor.

weak 2 openers are normally the most balanced of the unbalanced hands. There is little reason to assume p has a heart void. The power of the deck is split or slighty in your favor but the opps have at least a 9 if not 10 or 11 card spade fit. This is the time to trot out 4h. It is imps and the fact that you might defeat 4s if p is short in hearts pales in comparison to making it as difficult as possible for the opps to arrive in 4s where we would feel compelled to bid 5h as insurance. while everyone at the table will know you are not strong (you could have started with 2h) noone knows anything else unless lho has the vast majority of the opps power. if lho bids 4s p may be able to sensibly contribute 5h --something they could never do over 2h. p x 4s you say???? ackkkk

get me the spade J and dia T and i would bid 2d I do not have sufficient suit quality to bid 4s if the opps go to 4h (much less double again) I therefore opt for the most flexible bid i can make at this time and hope we dont end up in 1h x:) If p bids 2c i can stand it.

here it is fri evening and i still cant figure out if you have two pairs------------ I can play if you need one or I can probably talk a friend into playing if you need 2-------game time sat 2pm est----

trick 1 win A trick 2 dia ruff trick 3 ruff a small club trick 4 dia ruff trick 5 ruff a small club trick 6 dia ruff assuming the club A has not shown up yet trick 7 ruffing finesse of club k (pitching a spade) trick 8 if lho winds and returns a spade rise trick 9 club (hoping for 44 or opp has to ruff with trump honor) pitch spade trick 10 ruff spade trick 11 exit heart (opps due only 2 heart tricks or 1 if ruff with heart honor trick 9) if lho drops club A on the 1st round of clubs Spade J spade to Q spade A hoping for 33 club K pitching a dia opps should now be held to 3 hearts or 2 hearts and a dia if lho drops club A 2nd round of clubs ruff the last dia club k pitching a spade assuming lho ruffs and returns a spade rise top club pitching last spade assuming lho ruffs win any return and exit a trump hoping they were 31 originally

bid 6n if p is looking at AKQJxx A(x) xx(x) Kxx and fails to bid 7n get a new partner its that simple they do not trust your bidding. This pays off to the preempt when p has a heart void and either 7d or 7s is the right place but we have no way to explore for that.

trick one play a small spade we really need to have 3 spade tricks to have a decent chance of making 3n and we cannot afford to have our J covered by a singleton Q at trick one. Win the A or 7 Since we are assured of 3 spades our best bet is to try and maximize our chances of winning 3 clubs. IMO the best LOP is to play the club A and exit with a small club. This LOP will assure us of 3 clubs anytime the suit breaks 33 as well as when it breaks 42 and there is a doubleton honor or KQ tight. A dia switch from rho probably isnt a huge disaster due to the dia 9 in dummy. Any time lho wins the 2nd club trick (either due to them having KQx KQ Kx or Qx we are well on our way to 9 tricks because there is little damage they can do. If rho wins the 2nd club we will probably need some luck if they make a dia switch.

with the system imposed on me I vote x for game try. we are too weak to make game level bids on our own and we were strong enough to open 1n originally not some ever more popular weakish hand. Noone forced p to bid 2s they have some values and we have some safety in 3s if p is not interested. The fact that we can be significantly weaker for our 1s bid forces us to act a bit more aggressively so we dont get pushed around by a bit of preemption..if p is willing to accept our game try we should have very good play.

in these days of ever lighter opening bids I am constantly amazed to see so many players overestimate the power of a level opening bid. If rho has a typical light 1d opening there is no reason p cannot have 5-7 hcp. This along with probable short diamonds is more than sufficient reason to bid 4s.

there is no defense here---it seems completely misguided to keep the bidding low either via overcall or double. We certainly do not ever want p to x anything (and we cannot trust an x if p does x in a competitive auction). We have a one suited 9(maybe 10) trick hand there seems to be no reason we cannot bid 5h which describes our hand almost perfectly at this vulnerability (9 tricks) having said this the club k gives me enough to try 4s as exclusion blackwood. If for some inexplicable reason our partnership has agreed to play this as natural sobeit I fall back on 5h. Too many losers to try regular blackwood.

I am close btn 3n and pass and choose 3n primarily because it is difficult to see setting 3h more than 2 tricks and it is easy to imagine 9 tricks in 3n. Spades could be problematic but unlikely to be a disaster with p behind any spade length. If p now bids 4s we can now bid 4n to warn them of the extreme shortness we have in spades. p will then be able to figure out we have the minors since we didn't sit for 3h x. it is possible 4n will still be our last playable game. Just too much of our value is in hearts to insist on 5 of a minor. IMO 3n = 9 pass = 7 insisting on a minor = 3.

cue bbiing is tough for many so congrats on a good post for first one. First thing you need to understand that p will not bother with a "full bodied spade raise" if their hand is good enough to take control of the bidding immediately with a 4n (key card) bid. The main purpose behind the 3n bid is to inform partner of a trump fit and game going hand while limiting the hand potential to one that cannot just take control. That means a dialog is about to happen if slam is going to be reached. Bidding your lowest ranking control starts the dialog (here that bid is 4c not 4h). Just hearing about a club control might be enough to allow p to take control of the bidding. It is dangerous to bypass controls because that should deny control and cause p to stop slam searching. It is aslo important because if you bypass a suit and p continues cuebidding they promise at least 2nd round control of the suit you denied. I also agree with the others that 1M-2N will serve you much better in the long run than a jump to 3n which actually preempts your powerful pair of hands and makes bidding more difficult.

please don't try to learn bidding from robots ackkk 2c is NF yet highly encouraging but opener knows you are a passed hand and may choose to pass. Try to limit your passes as opener to really bad minimums especially in the majors. Remember that p may have a 6 card suit there and couldn't bid a weak 2 due to quality or vulnerability.

overruff and lead a trump. Opps only have 4 left and maybe we can hold our trump losers to two now (along with a club). Never take the dia finesse unless the opps force you to. Do not depend on good luck when its not needed.

too much to drink???? certainly not helpful

E was willing to x 3n and 4d but passed over 4s---this should be a strong clue that E does not have a lot of wasted spade values. That makes our spade singelton (and extra values) golden for slam..I would bid 6c and p can correct to 6d if they wish. Yes we might miss a grand this way but surely if we show this much extra p wont have any trouble bidding seven with a hand just slightly better than ours.

after the 4c bid (up to now a reasonable auction) opener can envision slam (p has at least 5c and 4h and rates to be very short in spades) but there are no tools that can "safely" be used to investigate a club slam. Missing an ice cold slam is not a horrendous disaster when it is one based on huge distribution. Bidding was reasonable by both partners keep up the good work.

no guarantees but it is difficult for your hand to be much better than it is. Only thing that would make it better is a heart fit also and I would just plain bid 4h with that hand. This one is way better that a normal minimum and deserves a 3s bid at worst.

my personal preference is to xx with invitational or greater values (p pulls the xx to 3 level only if dead minimum) if lho bids over xx at 3 level p may pass with dead minimum or raise or x. 2n shows 2 suited hand with 2 lowest unbid (hates the weak 2 suit). 3 level bid non forcing to play and hates the weak 2 suit does not forbid the weak 2 opener from raising with appropriate hand). 3 and 4 of weak 2 suit preemtive. 3n to play talk to partner almost any agreement better than no agreement.

I am not sure what you mean here but I wholeheartedly support the idea of a 4c bid here as a cue bid for dia. It cant possibly be a suit (3c over 2h not 2n). When responder denies a club cue by bidding 4d N has no other choice except 5d (or if partnership allows 4n since p did bid 2n and has to have at least a stop in clubs. 4d is indeed a slam try but it should deny a club control IMO so I blame S. If you are playing 4c gerber here it makes little sense since on most sequences you would have to be lucky to be able to use it:)))))

all was fine until the final x of 4c. Good decision to x vs 1d balance by south, a good competitive 2s bid. 3s competitive by 3 good x to show extra no clear action and if s has extras and spades they can bid 4s. In light of the competitive nature of the 3s bid (normally based more on distribution than power) and x of 4c seems ummm optimistic with maybe 1 1/2 tricks and expecting p to take the rest we need even though they have promised more of a minimum. You have pushed the opps to the 4 level maybe thats all you need to win the board. An x here needs to set them by 2 tricks to protect your possible part score----do you really think you can get them 2 tricks under the circumstances?? u have 2 clubs and p has announced short they may have ten trumps------x is just not safe here.

I swear I would probably do just what you said and not play a heart to my hand like I should and then for the billionth time I would have to say :SORRY P I AM A BIGGGGGG CHICKEN: for not making overtricks. Because if LHO started with 2 4 card minors yet chose spades---------------------------

I took the low road after p bid 1s and bid a mere 2c. This hand has quite a bit of offensive fire power and is easily worth a 3c bid but I think that sort of misses the point here. I am willing to risk an extra level to pinpoint my distribution and bid 3d this has to be 0535 with 0544 I would bid 2d not 2c with with 5(no void)/6c I would bid 3c. This will allow p to see my exact distribution and decide where we need to play. We need to remember that if p suddenly comes alive we have a fair amount of extra values not just distribution and its difficult for p to play us for this much given our original 2c bid.

assuming p follows to the 2nd spade--- rho 11-14 the same as partners we need to find hands that will allow us to set the contract and play for them to exist (at imps anyway not as clear at mp since 1n might be a very normal contract). It is not reasonable to assume p has something as good as xx AQJxx Axx xxx since they would balance with 2h (same situation if they have long diamonds). We need p to have some card combination similar to xx Axxxx Axx Axx xx Jxxxx AJxx AJx xx AQxx Axxx Axx xx xxxxx AKx AJx xx QJxx Axxxx Ax xx AQJx Axxx xxx xx AQJx Txxxx Axx note 7 examples of p hands that require different switches to set and/or avoid disaster. The only way to tell is to play a 3rd round of spades and let partner signal what we need to do. Note that a dia seems safe for all of them but it can be a disaster for hand 7 since p has to underlead the AQJ of hearts to set the contract when they win the club A and thats after you lead a low dia VERY hard to do.