gszes

I added strong 4441 4450 style hands to my multi (seems like eons ago) and that cured almost all of the problems. This is not that tough a hand to bid naturally. The main key here is to open 1c and think simple reverse not taking up any more space than needed early in the bidding. The bidding should start 1c because it is vastly more flexible when it comes to describing this particular distribution and the bidding should proceed 1c 1n 2d Do not waste space especially since a 44 spade fit is no longer possible. 2h "stuff" in hearts no spade stop (may have a partial spade stop) 3s patterning out and the fact that you did not bid 3n shows slam interest since we do not pattern out for no reason (at least 18). 3n big club fit but making sure p does not run from 3n due to worries about the heart suit. With only 2 queens outside the heart suit responder really does not want to encourage opener especially since they do not have the heart ace (a much more slammish card). 4h since the previous bidding could have been done with almost an ace less one more push for slam is needed. The 4h bid shows precisely 4045 and should show a hand with tons of controls. 6c while no ability to cue bid the 4 useful hcp (outside of hearts) along with the approximately 20 opener is showing (along with a heart void) should make 6c a very decent contract. There is unfortunately no way to show extra distributional features without some really well oiled machinery and this will handcuff opener. PASS For those playing 1c 2c as 6-10 and a club fit the bidding will be the same after 2c. For those choosing 1c 3c (preemptive ---I think a poor choice due to cruddy suit and near max and balanced) they can survive via 1c 3c 3d (16+) 3h 4s around 18 4n (sign off try with (probable) double heart stops) 5c around 20 6c pretty accurate but does run the risk of being in 5c vs 4n Remember that opening these hands 1m runs the serious risk of being left there.

There is far too much chance responder made a temporizing 2h bid with the intention of converting to spades at the appropriate level. If responder had extra values the fact that you leaped to 4h surely would have triggered some slam move. The (probable) lack of a forcing major suit raise makes for a lot of temporizing. With AQxx QJT(x) Q(x) xx(xx) we have a horrid time bidding anything other than 2H and converting 4h to 4s. It is all well and good to say responder "promises" 5 hearts but compromises are made all of the time as long as there is a "safe" outlet (4s in this case).

3c I am not overly happy with either my club nor spade stop(s). Advancer is unlimited and our potential targets range from 3n to 4h to possibly even 6d. I would have preferred to be able to bid 2h but since that is taken as natural I am forced to show my game forcing attitude yet concern for NT. Advancer can show stops up the line and who knows where we might end up. Arbitrarily choosing some number of NT just does not do this hand justice.

Chances are slim with that singleton heart K on the board. If we try to run clubs surely the opps carding will keep them on track. IMHO I lead a low dia toward the K at trick 2 hope hope it holds and take the spade finesse hoping to squeeze in 9 ricks that way. BTW I do not like our chances:(

Bringing in the club suit for 3 winners seems to be the only realistic LOP so our best bet (after winning the heart Q) is to play a club to the ace and try to clear the suit. This lop works whenever lho began with Hx(xx) or when rho began with KQ. If perchance lho shows out on the 2nd club rise with the ace and lead a low dia to the ace and low to the Q where we are mainly hoping for JT in rho hand so we can squeeze 3 dia tricks since it looks impossible for spades to split at that point (3d 3s 1c 2h)

MP is a strange game indeed---At IMPS I will be passing all he time (after original x) but at MP it is far too tempting to x 4c on the first auction. We know p has some stuff over there since lho did not try 3n and apparently feels we can come close to making 3h. Since I had the opportunity to pass 3h the second x should basically be promising book and hoping p can leave it in. Too much risk to do this at IMPS but MP it is only 1 board and we might well gain quite a few MP if the opps have gotten overboard. The second auction a follow up x just sounds like extra power we do not have so we pass.

I must admit I think 6h is ummm "optimistic" but there are indeed many ways an invitational hand can produce slam and the fog of war might make defending harder. Having said that, a second club just cannot be right and it would seem declarer has a second suit. If it is diamonds we can do nothing but if it is spades maybe cutting down on spade ruffs can be significant. Trick 2 lead a trump.

If the Jx or stiff J wins in dummy (after a low heart lead) declarer (with a 2nd spade stop) can freely finesse into YOUR hand to set up minor winners. This is not a good thing for our side since we cannot win any minor suit plays. The lead of the Q keeps communications open AND makes certain declarer has no "safe" options in the play (ie it would be just as dangerous to lose a minor trick to you as it would be to lose one to partner). If we get declarer to avoid their number 1 line in favor of something else we may have already won the board. Leading a low heart means the only way we get heart tricks is if p has a sure entry. Think of the heart Q as just a little bit of extra oomph vs a low heart lead.

We are in bad shape here. P has most of our assets and they are in front of the NT opener. That bodes ill for the defense. Maybe this is the right time to mix things up a bit and possibly convince declarer to take more (not less) finesses into partners hand. I opt to start the proceedings with the spade 3 and follow up with the 2 in the hopes everyone will think we have 5 spades. This can accomplish several things: 1. Declarer might put off setting up their own spades right away if they fear they will set up a trick for us 2. If the lead is not horrible (as it was in case 1) we might actually set up our 4th spade or at the very least we might start messing with the opps communications. 3. Declarer might misplay the hand based on faulty distributional assumptions. Assuming we start with 5 spades they miscalculate how the other suits are split. 4. If they fear spades declarer might take more finesses into partners hand and that can hardly be a bad thing for us. 5. The misinformation is hugely unlikely to steer partner the wrong way (they will know we have little outside spades) but declarer won't know. Isn't this game FUN???????:)

We know west does not have a running heart suit (they would prefer pass over the vul nt and take their tricks off the top). If I had to wager btn partner or lho having the missing heart honor I would gamble with partner. Since I would have gambled 3n w/o the 3h bid I see no reason to not try 3n and just hope its not a total disaster.

I will try and get my name in the funny papers with the heart Q. I want to try and keep communications open in case p has a minor entry and 3 hearts. If opener has KJx or Kxx and the board Jx the opening lead of the Q accomplishes this aim.

OUCH a really really cruddy hand for sacrificing and yet we do not want to give the opps a free run to bid possible slam. I will guess to bid 4c and hope that makes it difficult for the opps to bid accurately. Just not a good hand to try any higher and even 4c makes me a tad queasy at these colors.

I admit I would x 6d and expect p to take it as lightner so they will probably have little trouble finding a heart lead. Under these conditions I feel we need to lead a low club back to get a heart back. The 5d bid was aggressive so there is little reason to assume p would pick a club if it was not singleton.

6h If p cannot figure out I want them to bid 6s that's life. Inviting slam is just too hit and miss and it might merely take a favorable opening lead from the heart bidder vs the possible AK holding east hand. Sometimes practical is best and anyone playing 6h as some kind of miraculous 7 level try please inform the rest of us what it might be.

3h transfer to 3s followed by 3n and settle for 4s if p merely converts. Imagine AQx(x) Kxx(x) Axx(x) AKx(x) a beautiful 20 yet 11 tricks is the practical limit. That means we should only really look for slam when opener can show some sort of special hand. A special hand will almost surely have a side 5 card suit and lots of controls. Another alternative is opener has a doubleton (dia or club). The problem is which bid is more practical (showing a long suit or a ruffing value) (and a max but not super accept)--Imho it would be more beneficial to be able to show a long suit since that would still leave open the possibility of a grand. Imagine AQx Kxx AQJxx Ax once opener bids 4d over 3n it really is not tough to imagine 7s. If opener super accepts over 3h (hopefully by showing a long suit) we should try to see if 7s is the best place to settle and bid slam for sure.

voted 2n assuming leb w/o leb would go with 3c If p cannot show extra values we should be more than high enough

Now if we can just get this gszes guy to actually READ the hand properly these ramblings might begin to make some sort of sense. Mumble grumble AT IMPS our best shot is quick tricks on a hand where the splits look favorable for the opps. I would lead a HEART. At MP where giving up a trick can be just as disastrous as setting the contract can be positive, I would choose the spade Q. Dummy is less likely to have an inconvenient holding like (A or K)[(T or 9) x or even xx]. The spade suit still has chances of being the best lead and gives up a trick less often. I think the commentary now matches the hand shown in the OP sorry about that.

rho has a dia honor (hard to imagine choosing a speculative spade lead over a dia with AK) and probably a little something extra but not much with 4 spades. So I am pretty much playing lho for the heart A and the club Q. trick 3 ruff a spade trick 4 low heart toward the dummy and lets see what lho plays. I will generally play rho for 3 hearts if I have to guess. My intent is to play the top 2 clubs unless something about the distribution convinces me otherwise.

Sorry I cut off a large amount of your quote but the fact that your 5d bid did not work on that particular hand does not make it a "mistake". Note that your p was probably relieved you were not playing in 4h after they found out (your 5d bid) that you were extremely short in hearts and they were just as wrong as you were for not pulling to 5h. You made a sound bid that did not work due to the vagaries of luck that's life. Keep up the good work and eliminate those other "mistakes" but do not concern yourself with this one.

At IMPS (where setting the contract is a major objective) I would lead a spade. At MP, where not giving away a trick can be just as important as setting them, I would lead the heart Q on the theory that LHO has a long suit and is therefore less likely to table an inconvenient H(T9)x holding or even Hxx).

It may seem like a lousy way of thinking BUT 6n is a very effective contract since some can be in the 7 level. The thought process behind ducking is simple - we really hope those bidding 7 cannot make it and we are enhancing our chances of making the next best contract.

5d Willing to expend an extra level in order to keep strain and slam alive. P range for 4h is so huge that 4h can be anything from last makeable spot to really ick with diamonds making slam. I feel the % chance of it being the last makeable spot are so low that pass looks like a poor choice. Dia suit is pretty darn good so no strong concern about opps deciding to x.

The main problem with 1s is that it will quite often cause opener to over evaluate their hand because they "suspect" there is a trump fit. Much prefer 2c (sayc) or 1n(2/1). Another problem is that if you try and ruff more than 1 heart it seems quite probable you are creating a trump loser. Why the hurry to "mix it up" when there is a totally "standardish" route you can take? The other downside is what will p think next time they raise your suit? If you want to try something talk it over with p and see it they agree do not spring it on them except in an emergency (not present here). IMHO I would rate the 1s bid as 3 but really dislike 4s rather than at least trying to bid 3n so I would rate the 4s bid around 1.5.

2c 2d 2s 3c with 2n = 0-2 and no spade fit this bid show length and 3+ 3d intending to bid spades later which will reveal this as a cue bid 3n hate this bid sort of but misfit in spades no club fit if p cannot invite sobeit 4c surprised by 3n taking opportunity to show club fit and slam interest can always convert to spades later if needed 4d cue 4s unwilling to proceed further since still unsure about heart control 4n rkc (spades) 5c 0-3 5d queen? promising all 6c yes and either K or Q of clubs not much else pass once could argue for bidding 6s or 6n instead of 6c since responder really cant have more than 2 aces and still bid 3n. This is imps though so 6c would appear to be safer even if it loses some imps to 6s or 6n along the way.

The situation is maybe similar but not specific--It is very unlikely that rho hazarded a vul heart call with KJxxxx IMHO playing the K from AK as a random event is doing nothing more than giving away the ballgame in this situation. There are a huge number of cases where randomizing is correct.