gszes

I can also fill in if needed ill be around 20 min to game time unless partnerships are set by then

it is hard to do great penalty x when the long defender trumps are in front of declarer (like they would be in this position). That makes the x a lot less likely to succeed and w should have chosen whatever form of cue bid they use to show both majors and take it from there. East pass is very reasonable with 2 and maybe even 3 trump tricks and partner x behind the opening bidder greatly increasing the chances for a decent set. Note that x would have been much more reasonable if the bidding had gone 2c p p where p can convert to penalty behind declarer. A michaels cue bid followed by 3s (eaat) and wild horses have trouble keeping west from bidding slam.

2/1 1d 2c 4n 18-19 bal if wanted to blackwood clubs have to bid 3c first to set trumps. 6n seems like an easy 6n to me

if your p will bid up the line (increasing the chance you can bid 1n) then you have a definite club fit. Once that happens it becomes decently safe to reverse with 2s. Most of the time p will meekly trundle back to 3c but sometimes they will be able to bid 2n or 3n or 3d or 3h and we can reach 3n. Works almost as well when you open 1d but the safety net of a dia fit does not exist for sure. It is MP though so missing game sometimes might be fine since you are in the top scoring mp spot and who knows if the opps will stretch themselves into a penalty if you pass 1n and then x to show extra values. Partnership temperment is important here so go with what you both like the best. he better you become defending the more you will pass and hope the opps overreach.

We are up to 10 tricks and with it looking like lho began life with 5/6 diamonds the spade finesse seems well above that mere 50% it began the hand with and if it works we are up to 11 tricks and if it fails at the worst we have rectified the count for a squeeze. trick 2 spade A (assuming the Q does not fall) if lho began with 4 spades rho is squeezed in hearts clubs (unless lho was 4360 4351). trick 3 club to A trick 4 spade toward the J. If it holds trick 5 heart toward the 8 rectifing count for squeeze dia 2 behind lho spade 7 behind rho (or 33 spades) noone can guard hearts or spdes 33. no entry problems and we will almost always know how to play hand when we cash the spades. The main difference btn the 2 approaches is that this one does not go down if we take a losing spade finesse (at least not right away that is) and if we rectify the count by losing a spade we do not need to further rectify the count by losing a heart. The temptation to play Trick 2 spade A Trick 3 spade K trick 4 clus to A trick 5 spade to J looms large but hating the idea of going down to lho 4s to the Q when adopting the above will accommodate that holding and many more

I still like strong jump shifts 1h 2c 3s at least 6 spades max loser suit (this is trumps) 3n spade honor should be no loser suit now 4d cue 5c splinter main difference btn splinter and a cue bid is that the cue bid would show the club A or K thus bidding 4h (even if considered last train) would show the club A or K 6s only the worst of dog openings will fail to make 6 here 7s void extra spade and pretty good heart suit for extras

Same principle of negative doubles should apply here. It is much more likely advancer will have some 10 count and the minors than they originally had a penalty pass. The power of the overcaller is a bit more suspect than an original opening bid making it less likely a penalty x will be successful. At least playing it as cards gives our side a wide range of plausible contracts and keeps advancer advised we have some "stuff" over here we couldnot show before. If you want to penalize 2s pass for now (it should still be a good contract for us even undoubled) and hope the overcaller can reopen with x so we can convert to penalties.

club ace P did al they could via preempt so they are not overly strong. That does not mean our spade KJ and their scattering of hcp cannot get 2 tricks. Club ace at least makes sure declarer cannot get rid of their club loser someway (if they have one) and it is unlikely the club ace will set up a trick for declarer and even if it does 1 trick may not be enough.

Homegrown read and use at your own peril. I have always been irritated no mechanism was in place to discover responder "length" in these auctions. Cue bidding has always been important and splinter (by opener) loses a lot of its accuracy when there is even a 5 card suit around much less a 6 card suit. So I chose 3n to mean P I have all side suits controlled (and I am slammish) do you have any 4+ card suits (with at least one of top 3 honors)? Note that an unlimited responder might be able to take control of the bidding just knowing that much about openers hand. It is not a cure all but vastly increases the number of hands that can be bid accurately with little/no risk and not too much to memorize. I realize opener may have a second suit but it is far more likely responder will have one than opener. Opener's inquiries begin with suit quality (until repsonder's quality is known) and followed by length. If opener skips a step then they are interested in length alone. responder bids the appropriate suit. This hand would be bid as follows (after 3s): 3N I have all side suits controlled do you have any 1+or 2 top 3 honor side suits with 4+ cards? 4d I have 4+ dia with at least 1 of the top 3 honors (we have bypassed clubs since no honors) 4h suit quality? 5h 2 of top 3 with JT 5n how many diamonds 6c 4 note that opener can not now bid 6d as that is to play 6h A form of last train asking if responder has an unshown side K to bid 7, there will not always be room to make this bid but it must be used if 6n seems a sure thing. Failure to use it (when available) means 6n is something of a gamble. 6s I have nothing special 6n pass when last train was not available opener should only bid 6n (vs a suit contract) when they feel it will be cold for 12 tricks responder can still bid 7 if they have an undisclosed side K. *note that in all cases opener steps must not rebid their agreed trump suit (this is construed as a sign off) while responder should be ok with it (unless they want to take control) responder steps are as follows and remember responder has already promised at least 1 of top 3 honors and opener has at least 1 (controls in all side suits) 1st = no extra next step by opener asks about JT neither T no J J no T JT 2nd = 2 of top 3 No J or T 3rd = 2 of top 3 T no J 4th = 2 of top 3 J no T 5th = JT

Strategy always wins out over tactics. If you examine the strategy needed for this hand playing low trick one favors lho underleading QT(xxx). This ia inconsistent with making 3n where it seems almost necessary to have 2 heart stops. Trick 1 insert the J. We need 2 heart stops not 1 for 3n to have any real play. There are many more AQ(xxx) holdings than QT(xxx). ANYWAY assuming we played low at trick 1. At this point lho could have set us anytime by taking the dia Q and cashing hearts. It looks to me like lho led from Axx and are playing this ducking game since they have no really good options. Playing lho to be incapable of counting to 5 defensive tricks seems silly (though not impossible I suppose). Just lead another dia and get your ninth trick the only reasonable way you can.

good luck

At IMPS we do not want to miss game when p has that A and (club Q) or 3Q and a J type hand and opening 1c is a vastly better way to reach game then opening 1n. I would also rebid 1s if able but if p bid 1s I will go for 4s since I do not need responder to be anywhere near the top of their passed hand to make game and even if they are near bottom we might have some chances (slim). I rate this hand as roughly 19.5 in a spade contract and 18.75 for NT or hearts. So I will eventually bid 4s (if a fit exists) or 2n/3h depending on the bidding. I would be leery of raising hearts too much since p did not open a weak 2 (surely they will go to game if they did not open a weak 2 because they were to good right?).

don't you just hate it when lho produces a card that is already in dummy:)? Anyway I am rising with the A at trick 1 so as to preserve some badly needed entries and who knows maybe the J will drop. Please always provide the bidding so we can make some logical conclusions about the opening lead (for ex: what made lho avoid a club lead?). I am not making this hand if both reds break 41 and since dia appear to be a huge favorite to break badly I am going to need 32 hearts and since it seems certain lho has lead a risky short dia it almost an iron clad guarantee rho had the club A instead of the heart A (or K) that lho was hoping for so they could get a ruff. trick 1 dia ace (u can let me know later if the j dropped stiff since the hand is easy that way and I will play on as if it did not). trick 2 heart A trick 3 heart J trick 4 heart to the Q no sense in risking long trumps being with long dia there is little to no benefit (unless u won trick 1 in hand) trick 5 spade and play the A or T as needed. We will need 3 entries back to hand to lead toward spades twice and get back to 5th dia. Note that if our assumptions about the opening lead are correct we need that spade T to provide us with our 12th trick 4d 3s 4h 1!D ruff. For those considering trying for AK and ruff a spade small to drop QJx (or trying for 2 spade ruffs) how can we get back to the 5th dia? We would be back to depending on the club A onside trick 6 dia to K trick 7 spade toward KT and take finesse if lho follows low trick 8 winning spade and we pitch a club trick 9 dia to Q trick 10 ruff a dia trick 11 ruff a spade trick 12 play last dia trick 13 let them have that one I am done and no more overbidding for me:))))) 29 bal opposite semi balanced sheeesh

lets approach this from another perspective. Let's say you had this hand 1st chair 15-17. You are normally quite happy to open 1N dealing with the averages that the remaining HCP are split around 8 apiece among the other 3 players. Would you be equally happy to open 1n if you knew lho started with 11-14 balanced instead of the expected 8? That's what I thought:) PASS and be thankful lho has warned you about the danger to your hand. You can support whatever p decides to lead and a pass here may very easily be the only way to achieve a positive score on this hand.

I will be there in case of emergency (I don't want JEC to get sick of seeing me play)

you have a club and 2h losers and need to hold your spade losers to 0. Any extra undertrick is almost meaningless at imps so concentrate on making your contract. If you decide to play lho for short spades you have to imagine what holding they might have to allow you to make game not just play whimsically to the 8 which is guaranteed to make you lose a spade. You are missing QT653 so spades so the relevant holdings (which will allow you to make 4) are west holding Q T QT Q6 Q5 Q3 T6 T5 T3 note that even if rho has 3/4 spades the odds of rho holding the Q are 4 of the 9 examples. Once you see that then your best % play is top spade from dummy and low toward your hand which not only works in most of the relevant cases but also any time lho has Qxx trumps (ie your original assumption was wrong)

don't get too jaded hoping for 4 card trump support all the time:)

rho has T9 or T(765) or 9(765) While playing the T from T9 causes no harm imagine the extra damage from playing the T or the 9 from the other card combinations. Opens up the suit for 4 easy tricks for at best an almost useless piece of information. Playing the 9 from the T9 at least gives p a clue you might have the T in case they wish to continue the suit. Do not confuse this situation with following suit with a card below that of dummy/declarer where playing the top of a sequence might be of benefit.

SHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH DON'T advertise this too much or we will suddenly have some sort of "politically correct" police suddenly throwing anyone that psyches in jail since they are obviously treating their opponents with disrespect. I say this as someone that rarely psyches but still find it useful on occasion.

I think N just forgot to imagine what the south hand must look like after the x showing spades and dia. The opps have bid and raised clubs on what looks to be around 18 hcp. P will not often have much less than 8 to enter the bidding this way. We have a singleton club and a hand not too far from a max. Sure p will sometimes have the useless club K but this bidding seems to indicate that will not happen much so not being in game seems just wrong. I would bid 4s and be surprised if it did not make. For the real pessimist maybe a 3s bid will cut it but at IMP style scoring you would have to be having a really bad day (I hear they pay a big bonus for bidding vul games).

You hold J43 9876 void QJ5432 you WILL bid 1h. When p bids 1s you will pass because you have essentially lied about having a "real" response. When seen from this light the 1s bid was never ever completely forcing. It was forcing only to those hand that were "real" responses. Then the concept of a one bid hand was introduced and suddenly that 1s bid was non forcing to any hand with 3 spades and less than say a fair 8 count. More recently the 1s bid has been used to show an unbalanced hand and with this more accurate distributional information a few more misfit hands will decide to pass. I admit to preferring 1s forcing to any "real" response no matter if 1s shows an unbalanced hand or not (the criteria I use to decide when to bid 1s vs 1n with a balanced hand takes almost 2 pages of notes). It is always a balancing act trying to find the right strain while not wasting too much space in the bidding and keeping the bidding alive will pay off with huge dividends on occasion. Just don't be shocked if someone else is taught differently and drops you like a hot potato for seemingly no good reason. Bridge is always about being on the same page.

1d usually means 0-7 2d 8-10 and 3d 11-12 (the previous 3 generally denying a club stop) with most gf bids starting with 2c, The 1/2/3 d bids are for generally balanced hands. This hand has a huge amount of potential but the overall lack of power seems to take a 2c bid out of the picture but a nice 3c bid asking p to bid nt with a club stop should get the hand type across very nicely.

excellent decisions by N and S each step of the way. The 2nd x was particularly excellent since the spade A is a much more suit oriented card than KJ (where I would have preferred 3n). South knew p had good strength for this bidding and rightly judged to play in their sides most likely contract. I would go so far as to assign a 10 to every bid made by N/S and we should be asking who these future stars are:)))))

this is not life or death. Just trust partner and if things go wrong discuss it later. xx = 10 if p cannot make 6n when we could have had a measly 12 balanced then their bidding was truly bad. We have oodles of extras. p = 8 you plain do not trust your partner but 6n x should still bring in a tidy sum so even pass is a pretty nice option 7c = 3 a ridiculous lack of trust and hoping/praying the opps have the "right" ace might work around 33% but you really should recognize p expects at least 1 missing ace and this pull even if it works is damaging to partnership trust and quite frankly insulting so the rhree ranking is somewhat higher than the bid deserves. I would probably start a new partner search or at a minimum ask why my partner had decided to start masterminding the bidding.

I normally open 1c with this hand type. The dia suit is of such good quality I feel this is an exception to my normal practice. I am "proud" to play either minor and prefer the flexibility offered by 1d followed by 2c in this instance. What would it take to get a 1c opener to change their mind about opening 1c?? 7 A32 AKQ2 87654 surely 1d has to be considered in the discussion and with 7 A32 8765 AKQ32 even the staunchest 1d opener has to be leery in this case. This hand pattern may indeed have no specific solution in the form of it is always better to open 1c vs 1d or vice versa. For those distributionalists (always 1c or always 1d) please consider the extreme examples presented above and see if you can really reconcile your absolutist choice with them. While I open 1c normally I will change to 1d with any minimum hand (less than a reasonable 16) if the dia suit contains at least 3 of the top 5 honors or the AK. Are there any other "flexible" openers out there that want to offer some criteria of when they would choose to open 1d vs 1c? Maybe this topic can be interesting to standard bidders after all:) Once one decides to open this hand 1d most rebid problems over 1s are over but there is still the problem of what to do if p bids 1h. I would bid 2h mainly because I do not want the opps to easily discover their 8+ card spade fit. If p cannot move over 2h then we are unlikely to be in a terrible spot (always a good thing)