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5c. My intent is to make slam exploration as difficult as possible for the opps at all forms of scoring. I have no intention of backing in later since I will have just as little clue as I do now how high they belong. I can sympathize with the idea of not going for a number when the rubber seems doomed anyway but I feel the odds of the opps having a slam are so high that making it tough for them to bid slam properly looks well worth any penalty we suffer in 5c. The 57 distribution keeps me from having p consider 5d as a final contract for our side because it is probably just too darn difficult for p to choose the right minor.

I am in a strong contract that that will only be beaten by 6n (maybe a bit over 80%) making or the 7 level making (28% or so). IMHO I would try to take advantage of the fact that I am playing in hearts and go for the strip and endplay. trick 1 win heart lead trick 2 heart trick 3 heart trick 4 spade A trick 5 spade K trick 6 ruff spade trick 7 dia ace trick 8 dia K assuming the Q has not fallen trick 9 exit a dia if west wins the trick the hand is over (lead a club or give ruff/sluff if east wins the trick they must exit a club (or give ruff/sluff and we play low and now lho must hold both the Q AND the T of clubs for us to go down this LOP is around 90%

I am way uncertain I can defeat 6h w/o a club lead so I am going to bid 5c now and x if they reach 6h which should mean P I told you what to lead and now I am reaping the rewards of all that I sowed. Bidding 4s has appeal but I have serious doubts a x of 6h would ask for a club lead vs a dia lead. 5c cant really be natural (unlike 4s) with the only real downside being the opps get to 6c which has no chance of being beaten (sigh). Of course going down 2 in 5dx can also be a sort of downside at MP but I am betting good opps can still get to probable slam and do not mind preparing for it.

They cannot have started with the JT7 since the 7 appears first trick and surely tossing the J from JT7 can never hurt unless you are bending too far over the table. Once the 7 appears from partner what is the best play to dissuade declarer from playing p for Kx? Peeps toss honors against me like snowflakes I gotta start playing against an easier crowd:)) but I like your point

there is plenty of space in partners hand for a singleton spade K PLUS we have no strong reason to fear being endplayed. DUCK

Stupid game grrr I am unsure. we need lho to hold 3 dia and rho to hold 2 dia and the way the hand was played rho would KNOW it was safe to part with the 9 if they began life with the 97 thus making a strong case for restricted choice. The 7 is required from K7 but 97 would have been 5050 which seems to ME (sigh) the combination of events would make it higher that rho began with K7 rather then merely going with the longer suit has the greater chance of holding the K. I would have played low and gotten lucky?? Why isn't there a high level mathematician around when you need one???

Noone has mentioned that the 3d bid by south has (to me anyway) DENIED 3 hearts (no x over 2s). This is important because a lot of extra deduction/bids can be made once both players realize that south has a limited heart holding. North should have realized the futility of 3n when south chose 3d rather than 2/3n. Picturing south with at most 4 major suit cards means north should have been aiming the partnership toward a club contract since they do not have much in the way of extra values (that means I would have chosen 4c instead of 3h). Over 4c south has an easy 4h bid in case p can play hearts opposite honor x and 5c should become the final resting spot. I am not good enough to get to 6d.

3s was much safer last round when the unlimited lho could have tried 3n or even x of 3s. 4d being a bad place is a MP position in a IMP match.

4s I need about ten reasonable hcp from p to make game and the bidding has shown this to be a reasonable probability. P will not raise to game with those 10 hcp I need. I have no temptation to try 4h since there is a monstrous risk of completely losing the spade suit. No neg x from rho and no 3n try by lho seems to indicate we will not get slaughtered in 4s and that greatly increases the risk vs reward ratio in our favor.

One of the largest downsides (at imps) to a weak NT is the lack of super accept. I loathe to back in after these types of auctions w/o solid intermediate values (10s and 9s) due to the small % of chance they have underbid. Not enough reward for the risk involved here.

I am sort of guessing here your hand is something like AKx AKxx AKxx AQ? If this is IMPS I would bid 4n and if p had the club K I would bid 7c. At MP also 4n but if p has the club K I would go for 7N

I think the heart A followed by the dia 9 sends the best message about needing a dia return. Returning the 9 immediately might seem like doing the obvious but what if that 9 is not so easy to read as a singleton (I know I have never had an opp bid 3d with AQxxxx:)). If p decides we need the heart A they might assume a heart switch is needed to set the contract instead of a dia. Leading the heart ace eliminates that line of thought.

I bid 3d then looked to see what all the OTHER votes were all about. Deduced they were probably 3d bidders that did not have that choice in original poll. It is amazing how helpful a simple raise below game can facilitate the bidding by allowing partner to work with more information:)))))))

I have no real heartache passing 2s at MP (especially since we have already suffered through bottom 3) though I would have bid 3s. I think a vastly superior continuation over 3c is 3d even if it misleads p a tad about distribution. It is the short club that is the most interesting aspect of your hand and if opener can eek out a 4d bid you can correct to 4s. You have no guarantee 3s is right and 3d rates to be better then letting opps play 3c so why not make the descriptive bid?

what is a star challenge?

I am very happy I spent yesterday sharpening my aXe:) x does not prevent p from going to game it merely shares an opinion that 2s x seems like best given the bidding so far.

I see no real benefit to cashing the club Q right now. My guesstimate on the hand places rho with heart A (maybe K) (If lho has the heart ace and did not try to cash it I would hold my hand closer to my chest) and lho with a pretty fair number of clubs due to rho lackluster club 6 as a negative signal. I am guessing lho is similar to 4315. I would hook the diamond.

I am clearing the spade suit primarily because I want to get a better handle on what partner major suit distribution was. If they were 33 it is fairly easy for me to consider discarding the heart suit on any run of the diamonds. I see no strong reason why declarer suddenly has to have 6 diamond tricks and p holding Kxxx is certainly viable even if declarer had AQJxxx. If p is 22 majors then setting nt looks bleak as we will come under tremendous pressure if there is a run of the diamonds where we get squeezed btn the club A and the heart suit.

When u look at your hand what are the plausible game/slam contracts? Once you have done that see if there is a way you can successfully explore the vast majority w/o risking the obvious 3n 4M contracts. If your 1n bid is unlimited there really is no limit as to how many tricks these hands are worth so exploration is even more important than merely taking up bidding room. If we start with 3d we start to accomplish several things. 1. We inform p we have a GF hand (replace the spade J with a small one and I would much prefer a 3s bid) 2. We leave open hearts spades diamonds and right sided NT as game/slam level contracts. 3. We keep the bidding lower which allows for the greatest amount of exploration w/o the risk of being passed out with game almost a certainty. For those that feel 4c should be gerber please concoct a hand or two where that makes sense. I would vastly prefer 4c as a self splinter setting spades as trumps. If I were a queen stronger 4c would be my bid of choice. 3d = 10 4c = 8 better have good partnership agreements in place though 4s = 7 only because it is probably our best spot 3s = 6 2n = 4 2s = 3 2d = 2 3n = 1 I like 3n better than 2h for ex:) and that's assuming both partner play it as solid spades.

The main disadvantage to crawling stayman is it loses the 1n 2c 2d 2h and 1n 2c 2d 2s invitational sequences and there are other problems where even smolen can get lost (among other changes). If you are unwilling to give these things up it might be best to just transfer to the major with the best BODY if there is no significant HCP difference. Q5432 T9872 I would choose the T9872 suit. If the suits are approximately even IMHO chose to transfer to hearts. This give you a surprise out with 2s if it appears one of the opps is salivating while they are wielding (or passing) the axe. If you transfer to spades (always) and the opps compete your 3h bid should be anything but WEAK. You have been let off the hook and do not have to compete with a weak hand.

when I first began playing I would regularly pass with hands with only 3 aces A5432 A3 A54 543 for ex: this actually worked well in the world of the bridge club I was playing in at the time since no one would believe it. The problems began when p wanted to consider slam and since I was a passed hand they would never consider the idea I might hold 3 aces. It also became a problem in competitive sequences where once again p could not picture me having those 3 aces. In the long run I probably won a few matchpoints that way but got killed once I gravitated to imps. Partners also get quite agitated when you routinely pass with 3 aces so it is not a great idea from that perspective either. Another thing to think about when you decide to pass with 3 aces how much more will you add to those 3 aces and still pass? I feel in the long run it is a bad habit that only gets worse over time.

4h ok it was not a choice in the polls however p being a passed hand means there is very real danger the opps have a game AND even if we have game (and they do not) p will not be able to bid it xxx Txx Qx AQJxx. I wish to try and make their life as difficult as possible. The decent suit makes a penalty x/conversion very unlikely

Logic dictates it if at least forcing one round. Artificial or not. If responder had a weak hand with long diamonds and 4 spades they would bid 1d not 1s. If responder has a weak hand with long spades and cannot stand 2c they will bid 2s. The only time there is a problem with this is when responder has a hand like QJxxx xxx QJxxx void. In the long run it is probably better to just bid 2s (did I hear someone say a NF 2h?) and it is a shame we lose the dia suit.

maybe a better question what % of the time would this make 6n opposite 15 16 17 hcp in p hand (ie query each hcp level) also query 15 16 17 with a 5 card suit in partners hand. Also helpful might be how often 6c makes via the same questions. Just a thought.

I strain to open 1n with 44 majors see no good reason to avoid that tendency with this collection. My hand has gotten worse as the bidding has proceeded with the potential dia misfit. Do not wish to encourage p with Ax xxx AQxxxx xx any more than I have to so PASS.