jogs

4♠. 3♥ was already an overbid. Should promise limit raise or better with four card support. I like 1♠ - (2♥) - X to show limit raise or better with only three card support. In a contested auction nobody cares about the minors.

I'm with Frances, with no discussion there's no such auction. I'm wouldn't raise to game regardless of hand.

Turn your head and eyes away from declarer. Look at dummy. Tell declarer not to play to the next trick until you're ready. Educate your partner. If declarer doesn't think before playing from dummy, he should wait 30 seconds before playing to trick one.

They didn't stayman. A major is right quite often. 50/50 guess between spades and hearts. You shouldn't have posted the results so quickly.

Why would they double? They should be happy to run the first 6 spade tricks undoubled.

I doubled with x Kxxx Kxxx Kxxx. The auction went 1S - X - p - 3H, p - 4H. 4H could only be beat by expert defense. RHO was not up to it. Partner was surprised I bid 4H. I said either you have the aces or RHO has the aces. Since LHO has nothing on this auction.

I suspect if you ran 1000 or more iterations, the mostly likely number of spades held by West would be three. West wouldn't bid 4S after a double with only three spades. The total number of spades would be higher than diamonds or clubs. Also only spades can be bid on the four level. I think 4S would fare better than double.

If I were playing puppet, the auction would have started: 2♣ - 2♦ 2NT - 3♣ 3♦

Would be nice if you include vulnerability. I would pass if opponents are non-vul. They seem to take liberties non-vul.

Plenty of players play that way. Very few admit it.

Don't think of it as minimum. It's based on offensive playing strength. The reality is that in a contested auction you wouldn't hold 18+ HCP more often that once in a blue moon. Many of us have never held that many HCP in a contested auction during our playing life. That's SAYC and 2/1 players and other natural system players.

The expert community has been bidding 4♥ with this hand for over 30 years. TBW APR79 p9, Ed Manfield writes bids mean one thing in a constructive auction and another in a contested auction. Now that you have shown your hand you will not be tempted to bid over 4♠.

Agree with you. The OP is a handhog.

The ♣ Q is a winner in this setup. Kxx opp Jxx. Pard has T9x. Doesn't matter who holds the 13th club.

Can you cite the article? Which publication and which month, year did Miller write the article?