twoshy

What have you been reading? The two of us who played the ♣A did so because of the murkiness of the double, not because of the thought that "Wow, no way RHO could have underled KQx after doubling, that's so strange! It's just so automatic to lead the K from KQx!" Never mind the fact that the opposition have shown a 5-4 fit. I don't know why a diamond is an automatic switch, either. What if our hand was Axxx, xx, Kxx, AJTx? Then if he switches from his diamond jack, he hands the contract to us on a platter. Maybe he thought for a while because he doesn't want his partner to be endplayed on the first round of clubs after declarer eliminates hearts. I thought it was normal to raise here, I could well be wrong though. My rationale is that, sure, while double is often shapely when around the 10-12 range, there's no reason it can't also be 12-14 with a 4333 or a 4342. I would view this subset of hands as being more common due to the likelier shapes. Whether or not you double on this shape has been discussed to death on these forums. It is fair to say that it is common to double on those shapes, though. Also, the 2♥ bid covers a wide range. It could be a reasonable 1♥ response to the double, upgraded in order to get into the auction. It could be just shy of a 3♥ bid, with partner having chosen to bid 2♥ and double later rather than committing to 3♥ on a four card suit with sterile shape. That's why I don't play double as "definitely for penalties." That's why I think it is insane to repress an extra card of trump support, extra distribution and only two defensive tricks opposite a non-jump 2♥ advance, just to defend against what looks like a nine card fit at the three level. Doubled into game. Honesty has nothing to do with it, it's just logic. If my partner passed my double with AJxx Qxxx Axxx x I would find a new partner. Please excuse the snarkiness but your post reads as being pretty damn belittling.

For me, cuebidding over 3♠ is not mandatory, so we have already announced some slam interest. (I think that most people would be able to infer that 1♥-2♣-2♦-3♥-3♠-4♥ would contain a cue in clubs, assuming a balanced GF with three hearts can bid 2♥ and J2N with four hearts.) As a result, I feel I have shown enough by far, given that at least one of our less important honours (♠K, either minor queen) is certainly not working and often two won't be. It is far more likely for trumps to be the issue. When partner has both rounded aces and good enough trumps for slam to be playable, he will move over my 4♥ sign off. Even a hand as huge as A, KJxxx, AKJx, Jxx (for me he would have RKCB'd with this a round ago) is an anti-percentage 6♥ (and will you really be in a position to convert to a 50% 6NT?) Just because partner might RKCB over 4♠ and bail out in 5♥, that doesn't mean you should be sloppy and make another slam try on this mud. If you happen to play kickback or 3041 then you'll get what you deserve for your second slam try -- partner won't be able to kickback, he won't be able to ask for the ♥Q, he will play you for a better hand, and he will bid a frequently poor slam. Cyberyeti's Axx, KQJxx, AJxx, x is a hand on which I would move again: x, ATxx, xx, Axxxxx is enough for a 50% slam and this is already a lot of bidding by responder. (Yes the ♥T is cherry-picked but so is the ♥J.) Even our actual hand without the ♠K has a shot at making slam opposite this construction, and we would only get to the five level (and even then only because of what would have been a fatuous 4♣ cuebid). The issues I have are that we have already shown our hand, that the perfect minimum doesn't produce a slam, and some maximums give us at best a 50% shot at slam in hearts. Making another slam try seems too aggressive IMO.

I think LHO is likely to be 4441 with a stiff club honour or 4432. With 4441 and no club honour I would expect him to raise to 3♥ regularly, even if his initial double was quite light -- in this case he would definitely not pass 3♣X. I think RHO intended his double as takeout or as showing a hand with unclear direction. The reason I am playing RHO to have made a mistake/done something murky is because of the marginal BIT and because they may have had a misunderstanding. LHO's not raising and not pulling with 4441 and no club honour would just be a basic bridge error IMO. My plan is to win the club ace, play the heart king and take a ruff, play a spade to the king and play a spade to the 9. This endplay won't work if I play the club jack first, because I need to use three trumps in hand to draw trumps and the fourth to ruff a heart, so LHO will have a heart exit.

Simple but elegant, good line. An alternative would be to cash the second top trump in dummy to see if they break 3-2. If they aren't, you can still play for hearts to be 3-3 with the club finesse onside. If trumps are 3-2 and the defender with the club king draws another trump, you can still play for hearts to be 4-2 or better.

If I play a third round of clubs now, throwing a spade from dummy, LHO hopefully can't cash the fourth club without squeezing RHO in the rounded suits on the third heart. If he doesn't cash the club, I can win the (say) spade return in hand, cross to the heart king and knock out the diamond, with the spade ace still in dummy.

I would have played LHO for 3325, but why does anyone need to run the ♠9 lol? From the position in the diagram, just ruff a heart low, cash ♠Q, cross to ♣J, play another ♥. Dummy is down to ♠Jx and a diamond, we have ♠Kx and the heart we just played. LHO has two trumps and a club. I thought the main question was our read of 3325 vs 4324. Maybe it's better to run the 9 and lose to stiff T, just so that the 4-0 can also be catered for.

If South has a non-minimum for this auction then I'd like to see what a minimum is. He has raised on ♠Txx opposite a passed hand. Assuming silent opponents, I would have passed a 1♠ response without the ♥J. Calling ♦KQ a "ruffing value" and three small spades a "double fit" when spades are just about guaranteed to split badly on this auction is just poor judgement IMO. LHO didn't raise hearts so is more likely to have three hearts rather than four, while RHO didn't open a weak two so is likely to only have 5♥. I think that you have two heart losers most of the time and your "ruffing value" in diamonds is possibly opposite a doubleton. As for doubling 4♥ opposite a normal 3♣ bid... I wouldn't expect more than one off, and the contract making is definitely a possibility. That ♦KQ is a horrible holding under the doubler. However, it would be useful to know what 3♣ normally means, especially by a passed hand in this non-support double partnership. Constructive and non-forcing is certainly playable. It would also be useful to know if North-South play Muiderberg.

I guess your system is a strong club with a strong NT? Partner must have ♦54, because he would play the 5 with 542. Looks like he is 3424. Given that he led from at most ♥KJxx, he must have the ♣A. I duck, win the second diamond and play a club. Partner wins and keeps plugging away at ♣, then declarer has to lead hearts for himself, just in case he has ♥AJxx. Declarer will probably advance the ♥9 when on table after the first diamond so I'll cover and partner can put me with the ♦A to play clubs. Declarer has misplayed so we should be in for a fine score anyway. By the way, I always try to get the best score possible ;)

Such gold mines of entertainment too :D

I'd have just bid 5♠ over 3♣, just keeping it simple and reasonably descriptive. Would normally want a better suit but whatever. I think 4♠ at either turn to bid is insipid.

Yes, clear 1NT opener if 16 is in range. Easy pass now, too. Partner's by no means done with his singleton heart, unless he is light on values, in which case I'm quite happy defending 3♥ undoubled. I still don't like my hand if he doubles 3♥ but I would try 3NT.

The lead and the lack of them competing to 3♦ marks ♦Jx3-QTxxx. LHO doesn't have ♠AK or 6 so those are splitting 5-2. Neither player has a singleton heart and RHO probably isn't 2254, with which he may have had the values for a takeout double. So the shapes are likely 5233 opposite 2353. Most of the time I think I'll need the ♣A onside and to guess LHO's doubleton trump honour. There's a small extra chance by playing spades first. Say I play a ♠ to the T and A/K. Now if they don't switch to clubs I can win the diamond return (say), play another ♠ to LHO's top honour, win the return (or the second ♣ if necessary), ruff the diamond in dummy and play the ♠Q, discarding a ♣ when RHO ruffs in. He's endplayed even without the ♥K, as his trump switch would set up an entry with dummy's Q to play towards the ♣K. This gains as long as hearts break 2-3, regardless of how the honours are split. If something goes wrong (RHO has two ♠ honours to the A/K/J, or they switch to a ♣) I'll try and guess LHO's doubleton ♥ honour. I think the HCP split is more likely to be 8-14 or 9-13 than 10-12. The alternative is to play RHO for ♥KJx and to eventually be able to force them to lead clubs. Maybe ♦A, ♥Q and K, ♦K, ♦ruff, ♥TA, ♠ to T. If RHO wins J and unblocks the other honour - unlucky. Otherwise one of them will be forced to play a club, even if you need to discard once on their winner. I prefer the first line of playing a ♠ at trick two. Possibly I'm missing a way of combining the two lines.

This auction is slightly easier than 1♦-1♠-3♦, where you may want to bid the other major naturally. After 1♦-1♥-3♦, 3♠ shouldn't be natural; it could be natural if you're intending to play a major suit game with 65 in the majors, but it does not start out as that. Since it is ambiguous, I prefer that it always offers a choice of games, typically between NT and ♦ but you may end up playing a decent 52♥ fit or stumble into a ♣ fit (or the right major fit opposite 65). Some people like to make advanced cue bids, though I leave that up to your partnership style. A direct 4♣ or 4♦ over 3♦ is a slam try in ♦. A direct 4NT would be quantitative for me. Summary: - The way most people play, 4♣ and 4♦ are slam tries in ♦, the latter denying a ♣ control. - 3♠ is usually choice of games but whether or not this could be an advanced cuebid is open to interpretation/partnership style. - 4NT could be quantitative or RKCB, depending on partnership style. Having said all that, I wouldn't make a slam try on this hand and would just bid 3NT.

A strong 6+♦ suit and interest in 3NT opposite a ♥ stopper seems pretty normal tbh, kind of like the auction (1♥)-2♦-(P)-P-(X)-2♥. (Edit: note the latter is obviously a bit more limited by the simple overcall but it could still be quite strong.)

Leading the J from AJx may be even better when dummy has K9x or Q9x. When dummy has anything less than the 9 as the intermediate card, it will be very hard for declarer to guess this correctly when you hit the magic layout, since the J is a normal switch (whereas the J may seem like a bit of a Greek gift with the 9 visible in dummy). However, you have to weigh up the risk if the auction marks you for not having extra length in the suit; declarer might have no choice but to rise on the second round if he lacks the 9.