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3N very reasonable call and probably best btn x 3s 3n after 5c have to PASS. p did not pull from 3n lightly and I would not be surprised to see a hand similar to xx xx x Qxxxxxxx. xx xx x Axxxxxxx would be good enough to bid 4c and try for slam.

NO MP 2c = 8 1h = 5 IMPS 2c = 9 1h = 3 MP PASS 1s chances of game slight and no need at MP to press for games under 50%. IMPS 2s just in case -- while being prepared to apologize to p for having this DRECK and still raising. If I had bid 2c --- MP Pass 2s IMPS raise 2s to 3s (with apology note ready)

try to pass in tempo and hide excitement. I am quite proud of my 2d call and will not mind laying it down for the world to see. please please please save those xx for situations where there is (doubt and an alternative) or no alternative 1s p 6s x xx for ex:) lets say you hold Kxx x QJT987 Kxx this is the kind of hand ready made for xx warning p there is a good chance dia probably wont run as hoped and that you are near the bottom for your overcall. Saving xx for situatuions like this has the side benfit of never having to decide to run w/o giving p a chance to have a second say in the matter (who's to say p doesnt have say Qxx JT9x AKx Axx?)

i like the x of 2s a far sighted bid knowing that p would almost never pass it for penalty because they are extremely likely to have at least ten cards in minors (0/1 spade and less than 2 hearts). This keeps the bidding LOW and gives W a chance to learn more about E hand. 3d is just too weak a 3d call would be closer to x xx QJxxxx QJxx and unwillingness to play 2s x with a minimum and dia preference. Your actual hand is at least 2 tricks above minimum and deserves more repsect in the bidding. bid 4s bypassing 3s (and thus 3n) has to be because of extreme distribution and weakish asking p to pick best minor. Once 4s hits the table W should have zero problems bidding 6c and should not be thinking grand because E bypassed 3s to show a weakish/distributional hand.

deleted the stuff of nightmares agree with gnasher play for clubs 3/4 since it is much more likely from an original deal standpoint

3c it is hard to imagine too many hands where game will make aside from 3n. We should try to cater our bidding to that reality and see what is the best and safest way to arrive at 3n (if its reasonable). 3C has several advantages over other bids. 1. it excites p since their long clubs have better chance of running. 2. p may be able to bid 3n right away which probably rightsides the contract. 3. p might have to bid 3s (with no dia stop and extras) we then have to bid 3n but at least we know its feasible. 4. If p bids 3d we can then bid 3s to show partial spade stop. 5. If p is minimum 3c is likely better than 2n.

I'm not sure how to bid this hand. Matchpoints, all vul. x AKJxx x Q109xxx 1D - 1H 2D - ?? Do you agree with 1H or would you start with a gameforcing 2C? What do you do after 2D? pass = 1 the only reason it gets 1 is because there are a ton of worse bids that deserve a zero (think 7d or 7s) and a host of others. there is a huge amount of potential still left in this hand and to pass is just short of dereliction of duty (ie knowingly passing p blackwood request). The potential misfit does indeed inspire a sense of caution but that is all it does. BID 2H The heart suit is good enough to gather 3 maybe 4 tricks at the 2 level (if p passes) and even more importantly it keeps the bidding open in case p had to slightly understate their values. Our potential is so good that games from 3n all the way to a slam at 6c are still plausible Picture xxx Q AKxxxx AKx. 2h is indeed an underbid and it is the potential misfit that keeps us from bidding more at this time. I would be happier with seeing a 2s bid (= 6) or a 3c bid (= 4) than a pass. 2h = 9 (pass has to be right at least sometimes) 2s = 6 (not bad but would leave you poorly placed if p now bids 3n) 3c = 4 (just too agressive for the circumstances though not far off in value) 5c = 2 (WAG that has potential but you might too easily be burying a heart fit or missing 3n). pass = 1 yes indeed sometimes this will work and it is probably a better MP call than an IMP call.

for those treating the x as penalty (please lead a heart p) just how often do you think you will play 1n x?? It would seem far more likely you are letting the opps off the hook in a contract they cannot make and giving them another chance. Playing this as a weak t/o is a heck of a lot more flexible and allows us to compete with nowhere near the downside of x as penalty. Having to pass meekly with a 5 count 4144 might seem safer but at mp especially it is a recipe for one below avg board after another. (at imps it is probably around 5 imps tossed away).

perfectly good start hand is way strong enough to force to game. 1c 1h 2s 3c 3d 3h 3n the 3n confirms the 4144 or (more likely) 4045 hand since there was zero reason to bid 3d if you had dia stopped for nt purposes (principle of fast arrival). Once we have shown our hand it is up to p to evaluate theirs. Just becasue we are stronger does not mean we have to be captain. Let the player who knows what to do next take charge.

the real problem here is the 2n bid---this bid will never tell us anything useful (unless p rebids 3n and we can gamble on 5d). over 2d lets start with 3c if p bids 3d we can now pass in comfort, 3h p showing extra values and "something" in hearts, ----(we can now bid 3s (p can bid 3n in comfort) or ----if p raises to 4s -probably very short in clubs- 4s might be best spot pass), 3s this has to be a 4 card major (surely not meant as stopper with with Qxx max) bid 4s, 3n near top both majors stopped might as well gamble and pass at least 3n is rightsided. 4c 3n obviously was never going to work so we have to convert to 4d, 4h/4s (splinter) slam should be 5050 at best so just bid 5d hope you are not too high. 5c convert to 5d, passing 2d is acceptable only when you have a very narrow interpretation of your weak 2's and the interpretation is toward the low side (ie 5-8). 9-11 and pass is just too cowardly especially if your p can have a side 4 card spade suit.

nice thing about MP is if you are wrong its only 1 board. 3N seems to be a puny target. what makes this hand so good is its 64 distribution with solid spades. Yes indeed, p will occassionally have the perfecto 3n hand but is far more likely to offer help for a 4s contract. Opps usually are hard pressed to X (especially at MP), with nothing resembling a trump trick, so 4s is unlikely to be x very often. 4s also has the benefit of giving the last guess to the opps and taking up a ton of space in case they want to explore for slam (yes it is anybody's hand). P should realize my 4s bid is based primarily on good trumps and an offensive (not defensive) hand since I failed to x then bid 4s so we should rarely get overboard. Having the spade suit gives us some extra flexibility. 3s a sound average call unlikely to win any prizes. 4s=8 3s=5 A more interesting question would have been what to bid if my main suit was hearts vs spades. Off topic but then I would choose 3h precisely because I do not have the flexibility I have with the spade suit. We need to save the 4h bid for the very strong offensive hands with great hearts. Here ARTK78 points out a 4h bid could easily get us overboard. If the main suit was hearts 3h = 9 4h = 2

p has to be crazy to be attemting 5 level save v/nv so we assume p has a decent reason for 5c if p has say xxxx xx Kx Axxxx i like the odds of club K with lho even if p has xxxx xx xx AKxxx the 5h bid greatly increases the odds of a heart lead vs a deadly dia. there is no guarantee we can set 5s so 6c is sort of a safety bid especially at imps where we should be able to limit the damage to -200 vs at least 420 for opps and we might just make it:))))))))))) huge plus

2d inv invitational or better I would do this no matter 3+ or 4+ dia main advantage is it sets trumps if i wish to find out about dia Q and possibly allows p to show extra values so we can aim for 7n vs (a probable) 7d. This also allows for exploration of heart stopper and an easy 7d if p has none.

MP PASS (most positve scores keep one from getting a zero and sometimes work out nicely) IMP cant ignore spade game need as little as xxxx Axxx Q xxxx have to bid 1S too much risk of missing game with passs

MP 3c IMP X At MP there is no great need to search for sketchy game contracts and our hand is no great shakes for defending 2d X. 3c will miss out on some hard to bid and low % major suit games but wont often yield a zero if the opps can make 2d x. If the bidding goes 2d 3c 3/4d I can now back in with x with much more comfort. IMPS reaching difficult games is VERY important and x is clearly the most flexible in that department. I would have zero problems raising 2s to 3s. If P leaves the x in and it makes it is probably not a huge loss (if opps make 2/3) since it is unlikely we have a game.

1 PASS i have no good reason to give preference (and possibly encourage p) with this dreck. Game will have to be a huge longshot at best and so far we are not x in 2d. 2d could easily be superior to 2h and we can always run back to 2h if 2d is X. One working K and maybe heart J are insufficient reason to hope we can make any kind of game. At IMPS play as safely as possible. MP bid 2h because its MP scoring and minors dont MP well. 2. I would hazard the heart A mainly hoping it does not matter (lho has the K) but also hoping we might get in a couple of heart ruffs the dia A and heart A (maybe even spade K) 3. This is a system question and I dont know if 2/1 or sayc type. If 2/1 we can safely rule out p having say x Axxxxx xxx xxx or some such because they have an easy 1n forcing call. That means playing 2/1 game should not really be a strong consideration. Playing 2/1 I would pass(10) or bid 2h(9) and lean toward pass. Sayc I would have to bid 2h just in case p has a hand like x Axxxxx xxx xxx.

you would never be embarassed to lay this dummy down in 5d but you might be embarassed huge if you X 4s and it makes If p has a singleton spade and wishes to go to 6 you should have excellent play If p is void in spades and wants to consider 7 you should have excellent play. X here essentially says we have little potential at 5 level lets defend. X is more for a hand with two aces and out and no big fit for p. You are too strong and your dia fit is too large for X:))))

One thing that seems to be missing here is the inference that N has already shown a tolerance for playing 1N X and rho has shown a lack of tolerance for the same with the 2c bid. IMO p has shown they are not broke and we assuredly have over half the deck. There seems to be zero good reason to use X (by south) for takeout when it can be use much more effectively for penalty. S original x pretty much showed a balanced type hand (or a stronger 1 suiter) so playing x here as takeout behind the club bidder seems give up way too much for almost zero gain. All s has to do is pass 2c and that works effectivly as TOX. Since we have zero idea how the bidding would have gone if S was capable of a penalty x of 2c we have to look at our hand and see if it has improved or not after p bids 2h. The club K is now a certain trick either via position or length so it improves. The three top heart honors (in p long weak suit) are golden assets virtually assuring no penalty x from opps if we get to a hopeless game. The only card that might have lost value is the spade Q. There are many great things about this hand plus virtually any finesses we might need are pretty much guaranteed to work. I would be more than willing to bid 3h here. At IMPS I would consider the 3h bid mandatory but MP you might already be ahead of the game just not allowing opps to play 1n undoubled so it is a bit more speculative to bid 3h. To answer the questions 1. QJx QJx QJx QJxx is probably minimum for to in po seat 2. N should be happy to pass with any reasonable balanced 6 count 3. raise to 3h since your hand is around a K better than minimum with virtually no degradation of point count due to position and superb trumps.

yes indeed it is quit possible p has something akin to Axxx xx x KQJTxx and they rab to 3c they can also have say AJxx Q J Kxxxxxx where they would be even more fearful of 3n Your Axx is a wonderful addition that p cannot count on (they think xx) even though p is aware of game bonus they have to make % bid with weak hand and bid 3c. You have to make % bid and bid 3n. When you bid 2n in first place it was reasonable but you have to be able to reevaluate how well your hand works with p newly known long club suit. If you wish to try for a top and pass at MP so be it but at IMPS it seems totally unjustified.

5c because opposite a minimum tox it should rarely go down more than 3 and 4s is a huge favorite to make. This thinking means a lot of 1 suited hands (with some power) will have to choose x vs bidding the suit at 5 level. The weak hand (like the one shown) will occur far more often than the strong one and at IMPS especially it seems prudent to make sure opps do no get a free vul game their way just because we are weak and the TOX was minimum.

if it were up to me---since I might have only one discard I would try to make it as descriptive as possible telling p we have club suit locked up is nice but hardly rates to be as important as other information. P did not lead hearts for a reason since I can play a LOW heart to show A or K I can play a high heart to deny the Q (which can be a very important piece of information to p -especially if they want a club ruff- My failure to play a high heart should promise the heart Q (not J please) and in this case clubs under control. Using this inference I would lead the heart deuce to make certain p leads back a club (hopefully by cashing the K and leading another club. This LOP will lead to down 2 if rho is 6133 and no dia J. As an aside p can tell that declarer has no more than 2 hearts and one heart pitch (from Qxx or xxx)will almost never ever ever cause the partnership any harm and might be of tremendous benefit.

well deep now you know why partnership agreement is so hugely important. the odds of any other the respondents being on the same page for this hand borders on nil. I remain convinced 4n ace asking is vastly more important than any of the offered alternatives but most would disagree good luck.

after 3d and no more bidding by opps pass lets start by keeping bidding low and hopefully clueing p into idea we are minimum dbl extra values 3h confirming 5 hearts minimum and no desire to bid 3n (max 1 stop) 4d confirming heart fit and cue bid 4h really really REALLY minimum 5n pick a slam (partnership rates to have at least 24 hcp outside diamonds (p not bid 3n) if this was gsf we would bid it over 3h 6c offers an alternative pass good enough for me.

HUGE potential with this hand (7 might be easy lay down). I would start with 4n (regular blackwood with no agreed trump suit) if p shows 1 ace sign off in 6h. If p shows 2 aces bid 5n looking for kings gamble on 7n ONLY if p shows 3 kings (hoping they do not have ak dia) else sign off in 6h. This has a special advantage. Once you bid 5n if p has an independent side suit (spades) they can infer we have all the aces and just bid 7 on their own immediately.

after N opens 1d and no more opp bidding 2c 3h max 1 slow loser suit essentially setting trumps 3s cue bid 4c cue bid (I personally like 3n here to be low level rkc but couldnt use it here anyway due to lack of dia control) 4d cue bid 4n rkc for CLUBS since it is impossible for heart hand to be missing any of top 3 honors. 5h 5s two with club Q 6c offering a choice most likely becasue the heart bidder has the one slow possible loser heart suit. If missing club A there is a real danger of a club ruff in a heart contract. 6h it might be safer to play in clubs but w/o at least QJ it is difficult to decide to play in clubs when 6h might be ice cold. with a void in hearts would pass and take chances.