gszes

while I am generally unhappy with the bidding the real problem occurred when responder bid 6h over 5h. Opener has never had a chance to define their power in the bidding. OPPOSITE an undefined hand, the only reason to bid 6h over 5h is when you are missing a key card. Bid 5n asking for kings (and showing all of the key cards) and surely opener will suddenly see fit to bid 7h with their wonderful 16 count which they have not been able to show so far.

I have not read the spoiler yet sooooo double and I do not think it is particularly close. It is far too easy for partner to get shut out here and our x may very easily save this hand for us. If we have a game it is most likely in the majors and x now greatly facilitates that outcome. If perchance p tries 3n, our club Q could very easily prove to be an invaluable card. Too few down sides. IMHO x = 8 pass = 4 and most anything else a zero to .5

I see zero reason to not begin with x and introduce clubs later. I really want to give partner an idea of our distribution in case 3n is not a viable contract. Using 3c as a GF runs the risk of missing out on a vastly superior dia fit in case 3n is not a viable contract.

VERY late to the discussion sigh Opener has a very large range even if their hand is only 11 to 14. If we intend to et up a lot of space, with something like a splinter bid, it is almost always best to have at least 2 ways to further define our POWER. The slower we go the stronger we are. Let's say my hand looks like AKQx xxxx Kxxx x I know I want to get that 1s bid in for a variety of reasons but when p bids 2c I now have to make clear the offensive potential of my hand. I would also stipulate the REASON these weak hands (11 to 14) are jumping around is that we have a perfectly safe 3H bid to show all STRONG (15+) game forcing hands (these could be 3 or 4 card support). To show my first example hand I would bid 4h over 2c because I am at the bottom of my power range and therefore our slam chances are the least likely. I would bid 4c to show the same distribution with 13 or 14. This treatment may give our side some extra space needed in case slam is in range and responder is interested. IMHO It would generally be wrong to use a jump to 4h to show any kind of hand other than a 4441 or 4450 minimum. The use of bidding 3h over 2c as GF allows sufficient space for slam exploration and clarification of strain. FWIW I use my non GF systems as forcing to at least 2N and that opens up a whole lot of extra space at the expense of forcing our side to play in 3h instead of 2h when both opener and responder are minimum for their bidding.

I see no benefit to ruffing the 3rd dia with my 7 (which means I would duck). If I had the 9 or T instead of the 7 I would most likely ruff in case partner began with 6 diamonds and my ruff might create an upper cut situation.

Having already bid 4s I see little option but to x 5c. I do not know if this will perk up partner, but it should at least convince them that 5s seems reasonable, since their large fit will surely negate at least 1 if not 2 defensive tricks N might be counting on. I knew I would regret opening 1 measly club but I admit the thought of opening 2c was never seriously considered even when I saw it as an option.

I do not see why north was in such a hurry to bid 4s. This bid at unfavorable might be nothing more than KQJxxxxxx void xx xx. I see little reason to preempt the opps here. Any contract N does not wish to x they can bid 4 or even 5s later in the bidding if need be. The delayed bid should be read by partner as strong in the sense that N expects to come pretty darn close to making the delayed bid in their own hand (else a preempt immediately).

if rho had not been a passed hand I would open 5c. I chose 1c because the odds are in our favor of making game atm and I see no strong reason to preempt partner. I will undoubtedly come to regret this decision (sigh).

I echo the opinion that all both are non forcing. They are suggestions that opposite a "normal" 2N bid the minor suit at the 3 level is probably the way to go. They both show that extra length that requires good hand reevaluation skills. Hand 1 would readily be willing to bid 3c with void AKxxx xxx KQxxx and would rarely be disappointed with any normal looking dummy. If dummy contains something exceptional it is probably a good idea to consider 5m as a final contract. xxxx Q Axxxx AJx just might be the magic hand to make 5m and I would try 3d as responder to make a 5c game try which opener should happily bid. The same principle would apply to example B. The 1n response limits responder's power no matter the system. The 3d bid should show some exceptional length (6+) and the mere presence of the 6 card suit brings 5m or 3n into the picture. This once again requires opener to reevaluate their hand opposite this new information. Both non forcing but informative nonetheless. The main thing to consider is that the dia suit should not be as good as 2 of the top 3 honors since 3n would seem to be a vastly superior choice of final contract vs 3 of a mere minor. AKxxx Axx Kxx Ax Qx x Qxxxxx Kxxx an easy 5d possibly 6 while 3n is in serious trouble with a heart lead.

After seeing the MILLIONTH egregious robot error (nobody ever claimed I was a fast learner), It finally dawned on me WHY the robot did what it did. IMHO there is a random element programmed to pop up (against me it seems to be every other hand) that forces the bot to choose a bid/play that it DOES NOT DEEM TO BE THE BEST. If we simply eliminate that random element the constant overbidding, underbidding, completely absurd suit preferences (in the bidding), and don't even get me started on defense would simply evaporate. I admit the game would suddenly become MUCH LESS interesting since we would have no good reason to yell and scream at our computers and the scores would become much less radical. PAFF when the computer deems something to be the best it should ALWAYS take that route. If a bid shows 10 to 12 making that bid with 8 is an OVERBID. The machine is showing at least TWENTY FIVE % more than it has and up to 50% more than it has. How about we cut that down to no more than TEN PERCENT in non forcing situations. I may have strayed off topic with that last thought sighhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

rats rats rats thats what i get for going on a lake side vacation at the wrong time GL ALL

I admit I dislike the concept of jumping to 6h. I try to save such guesstimates when no practical method presents itself AND I feel the odds favor such action. This hand clearly fails to meet the second concept since there appears to be a very low chance of partner having specifically the club Q or 1/2 clubs AND 2+ hearts. 2s p 3h (creating GF). The spade ace has a high degree of probability of being discovered by conventional means paving the way for a search for 7 SAFELY. My suggestion is the following: 2s p 3h forcing but more importantly sets hearts for later RKC purposes. We cannot predict what will come next but the non interference method would be a 5d exclusion bid over the 2s bidders next bid. (this will accurately find the spade A (as long as your system is 0314 and not the less useful 1430). If partner does bid 5s you have two reasonable courses of action. 1. bid 7h this will work automatically when partner has the spade A/K OR the spade Ace and club Q OR the spade Ace and 3rd round club control (with at least 2 hearts) OR it place the opps in a very difficult carding situation with that spade ace sitting in dummy. 2. Bid 6c asking for 3rd round club control. If partner has to resort to 6h this will make the opps discarding vastly more simple AND it will not allow for 7h to be bid if partner has the spade AK.

2s there are few hands that will make game and a ton of hands that will go down at 3+ spades. We have a partner and if they can make some noise we will happily accept a game invite (i would be a tad leery of accepting a slam invite (would be a LOT happier if dia K were elsewhere).

With so little needed (from partner)to make game Axxxx xx T8 xxxx I feel compelled to try x. I was curious to see what the spoiler was going to bring. After 4h x and with the opps having a 9/10+ card diamond fit AND heart shortness I feel playing around looking for a penalty just seems wrong. I intend to bid slam even if partner were to show me no key cards so I might as well try for 7 just in case partner has the heart AK. I am indeed willing to gamble p does not have a side ace vs the heart ace. 4n rkc fortunately I do not play or recommend those void showing variants since the information is rarely useful and it can backfire sometimes getting us too high.

CYBERYETI on the money as usual. I rate west as around 18 times (I need a math major for this estimate) more likely to have 6 clubs than east having 7c. Even though the overall odds of west having said 6 clubs is tiny, I have zero problems letting go of the possible overtrick. I have no recollection of ever losing an imp match due to overtricks.

my simplified thinking makes me want 4d 2s 2h 1c so win trick 1 trick 2 dia to A trick 3 dia toward Q. If this has shown the proper results all I need now is the expected 43 spades and the heart K onside. I do not duck trick 1 because a club shift can be fatal to an otherwise ironclad contract.

trick 1 dia A trick 2 ruff a dia small trick 3 small club toward the T If lho wins trick 3 assuming they return a trump trick 4 win in hand trick 5 heart to A trick 6 dia K pitch heart trick 7 club finesse trick 8 ruff club trick 9 ruff a heart high* pull trumps and claim if rho wins the trick assuming they return a trump trick 4 win in hand trick 5 club A trick 6 ruff a club trick 7 dia A pitch a heart trick 8 heart A trick 9 ruff a heart high* pull trumps and claim * if i suspect trumps are 4-1 I can ruff the heart low it merely makes a poor contract a tad worse If this works I apologize to opps

1h (2/1) 2d natural GF 2h waiting (would not bid 3c here nat even if able since p might be looking for a club stop for 3n and ick) (also denies max 1 loser heart suit 6+ else 3h + extra or 4h min) 3c naturalish primarily looking for spade stop for 3n if not natural or simply wishes more information 3d 2 of top 3 honors = 3 card support in my book. The delayed raise shows 6+ hearts. This bid does not deny spade stop since showing the dia support can easily be of greater importance. 3s tell me more primarily looking for spade stop for 3n also denies 2 card heart support. 4s short spade some extra values not enough to take control of bidding 4n RKC diamonds 5c 0-3 5n pick a slam if nothing more interesting to tell. Could have asked for kings but did not has dia Q did not ask. 6c showing that 4 card support note that if the heart K were the club Q I would bid 7c

after a 1n opening 15-17 we are going to be in at least 6n so how do we search for 7? IMHO 1n 15-17 2s Minor Suit Stayman (MSS) (0 to unlimited) 3d 4+ diamonds denies 4+ clubs 4c RKC for diamonds (you can use CRO here as well) 5d 0 or 3 5h specific king ask (yes even knowing p has no extra kings because it can get us info on club Q yay or nay) 5n no kings but a useful Q (clubs Q is useful because of the MSS bid) 7n can count 4c 4d 3h 2s as a minimum

4h by north I see no strong reason to assume opener is dead minimum and we need little more than a minimum to make game. QJTxx AKxxx x xx should make even if the club K is wrong. A hand such as AKQJT Jxxxx xx K might go down so a 3h bid asking for opener to go to game is just creating another guess.

I admit that 3n is underbid but hardly the worst I have ever seen. My main problem is what was north thinking. South does not have a long running suit (if spades surely they would have preferred spades missing the AKQ of clubs). Even if south is dead minimum it is difficult to see any way 4n would be in danger. I would bid 4n. That might miss some slams but it gives us a fair chance to get to one if south is not minimum. Here it might even get us to the 7 level though north will be hard to persuade given the "top" level of the 3n bid. over 3n (no more opp interference) 4n 5h (interested in a grand) 7c? hard to imagine p looking for a grand missing so much 7n hard tio imagine 7c making and 7n not making.

If i need a top 3c else pass. spades are wayyyyyyy too dangerous p might get carried away with 5 and it can easily be horribly bad. p is highly unlikely to get too carried away w/o at least 4 clubs so the danger of slaughter seems dramatically reduced.

There is zero reason to try and sign off in 4m because even x xx xxxxxx xxxx (as long as the highest dia x is above the 8 spot anyway) opposite a 2n bid has plausible chances to make 3n. This means we can safely "transfer to both minor suits without fear of the bidding dying. The easiest method is to use 3s to transfer to clubs and 4c to transfer to diamonds. If opener merely accepts the transfer they have a minimal hand non slammish else they cue bid. The partnership just needs to remember the intent of the transfer so opener can bid the transfer suit at the appropriate level after exploration.

Let's overthink the hand a bit. This is NOT a humdrum hand. If opener has AQx AQxxx (xx xxx) I WANT very badly to be in this slam. P having this concoction when they rebid 1n is highly unlikely but hardly impossible. I would go slow, bid whatever we use for checkback (here is would be 2d xyz). Then rebid 4h over their 2s bid. This is a mild slam try asking for pretty much exactly what opener (in my theoretical hand above) has to bid slam (else pass). With only 4 spades I would NOT overthink the hand and I would bid 4h over 1n since the odds of slam drop tremendously with no side 5 card suit and a fit. If perchance opener has something like Axx Axxxx (Kx Kxx) this might also be a reasonable hand for slam but those kings may not be worth full value vs queens in the long suits so as opener I would bid 5h over 4h to show the 14 count full of controls and let responder decide.

What would east do if west had opened 1s in the absence of partnership notes? IMHO they are VERY VERY close to a jump to 4s. The singleton heart in the present bidding is even more valuable than in a vacuum. Preempts work or we would never do them. Just try to make a bid similar to what you would do w/o the preempt (that will be pass many times). Here a bid of 4s seems easily called for. There is no strong reason to assume both their 3n and our 4s can't both make so x seems out of the question. x in the PO seat after east passes 3n is truly stretching. blame 93% east 7% north for making a excellent bid. I wonder if North will soon see a subpoena for too many "psyches" in our ever growing litigious fervor.