bigbenvic

I think I'm leading a spade but have sympathy for those leading the Queen of clubs

Did the J♣ have any suit preference meaning? With me it would indicate a Spade entry but if I "know" partner has no entry then it can just be the card I grab, occasionally I'll try to "mislead the declarer even" (said in my Snagglepuss voice) South doubled 2♣ and has none of AKQ so I'm thinking JTxxxx and entries. Could he have passed Kx Kxx AJ JTxxxx, not likely. So as Helene says not 2 kings and I will also cash A♥ and hope that the K♥ is with North and South has Kxx xx AJ JTxxxx.

I think it's a choice between a heart and a trump. I lean towards a small trump only because I think I still have time to find a red king in partners hand if that's our 4th trick, whereas if I lead a heart (assuming the ace) I may not have the ability to stop a ruff (or 2) from occurring. Hmmm a low heart is cute, I might find that North has the K and either North or south has the J and make them guess at trick 1. However my luck always finds south with the King and partner the QJ (or QT9) and I just gave the contract away.

Even point counters should call this an 8 count, 4 for the Ace, 3 for the singleton and 1 for the doubleton. That's 8 with 5 card support. Even if pards is capable of being cheeky with only 3 ♣ I still raise, without any qualms whatsoever.

LOL. I don't play strong jump shifts here (prefer 3♣ from opener as splinter agreeing ♥) so 2♣ is forcing. Even playing 2♣ as non forcing 5 trumps a singleton and a doubleton makes this on shape alone worth a kick to 3♣ Not sure how the bidding goes after 3♣ but you at least get to game.

It looks like a misunderstanding around the 4nt bid and maybe even the 4d bid? I'd think E meant it as I have extras but nothing to cue under 5d and West passed as he thought.... I have no idea what he thought. Maybe without a club cue he figured 10 tricks was easier than 11? So I blame west 100% unless in their system 4nt was to play!

Any bid other than pass has to be an acceptance of the invite (though some play 5m as a 5 card suit to play) but logically it should deny a 5 card suit and I'd agree with mgoetze in that it's probably suggesting a 32 (or 23) 44 shape where 6 of a minor might have better play than 6nt.

Clearly he is not adding points on for length, which I vaguely remember being told to do when I first started, many moons ago. 11 + 2 for length = enough to open. 3d is clear-cut from North, better to show both and let him choose.

Isn't Jacoby 2nt meant for hands without a singleton? or is that an archaic way to play it?

I would lead the 9♣ in this situation and hope that partner reads this as suit preference for a ruff.

I don't think it's a very good line, East passed in first seat so the chances of holding KQ of trumps is almost nil as they would have opened. Rise Ace and play another and hope for 3-2 or stiff honour in west's hand. If an honour pops on the left you can cross with a club and lead towards the J8 to pick up the break.

Because west doubled he's more likely to hold the A♥, so Dk ruff heart to the A ruff is less of a fear than if they hadn't doubled. Could still happen but for East to hold K♦and A♥ and west to double would be just cruel. I expect trick 1 to get ruffed some of the time too so rising Ace could be doubly fatal.

Wow, how to punish partner, overcall on Qxxx and then Sac Vul???? Also what Slam? I lead club 9 and as long as North covers and returns one you get a trump trick as well don't you??

I bid 2♥ the extra trumps make up for the missing high cards and since I didn't bid 2♣ (which would show a good 2♥ raise) partner should not get excited.

I'm with the 3♦ FNJ but more to let partner decide what to do over 4♥. I can't tell from my seat but with the extra info from 3♦ partner hopefully will know if we should be saving or not.

Pass for me, is this a lead problem?

4nt pick a minor? Probably note not my choice I'm just guessing at the winning bid. I'd probably bid 5d.

I'm a min opening hand and have denied 3 spades, so with 4♠ hopefully he gets the picture. if he moves again I can be happier with my hand.

I'm confused, how can 4♦ be don't want to play clubs? Or is this an altered Minorwood with the first step meaning that? if partner has just bid it wrong then I move on as it's a misbid. Though your jump to 7nt seems odd, they could have KQxx KJx QJTxxx - 12 count 6-4 so easily a rule of 20 with no aces, even room to drop a Q or a J and could easily be Kx ♥ and singleton ♣. If no aces 4nt is your likely last making spot and it might be worth making it 'to play' opposite the lesser number of keycards, assuming you are not using it another way.

Sure, If I was afraid of every less than 1% situation then I'd never leave the house :-) 2D is a multi and likely to be a wk 2 in spades based on my hand, so with 12 out there both my left hand, right hand and in this case ;-) centre hand opponent would all need to pass the double. Partner with diamonds would need to be fairly weak to not want to bid and to take the +100/200/500 given that west has passed 'probably' showing tolerance for diamonds and I can and am likely (if his hand is unbalanced) to have an 18+ unbalanced hand then we probably have a game on and pending his strength slam. If he passes, maybe he has a 2362 5 count and no game is making (say losing 2 hearts & a spade in 5c, losing 6 spades in 3nt etc) So for that small risk I'll gain a chance to better describe my hand and hopefully get to the right spot more often than not and pick up some imps or MPs versus the field who guess which spot to be in.

I double which shows either 18+ balanced or 15+ unbalanced (2maj is 10-14 take out of other major) and I'm preparing to bid 5♣ over them jumping to 4♠! If they stay out of and unless partner shows ♥ I'll treat this as a GF single suiter in ♣. I like that slightly more than just jumping to 5♣ (my second choice) as there is some chance of partner holding ♥ IF the weak 2 is in ♠ and or they stay silent (unlikely but you never know) and give us room to explore slam or even grand.

I like the idea of making it a penalty card and giving lefty open slather. Unless he has solid diamonds to cash, righty will win and be forced to lead the heart thus regaining the tempo if I have to lose a club trick to them before setting up partners long suit (assuming 3c showed 5+) unless they lead a heart at trick 1 in which case I have some chance to 'hide' one of my honours so it looks like I was hoping for a free trick in some way. And you never know they could lead a spade for me and give up an extra trick.

2c 2nt (8-10 flat hand no 5 card Maj)) 3c 3s 4nt 5d 5h 5nt (Qs no Kings) 7s* Partner has 4s, 2+ hearts 8-10 points, Ah Qs, no kings, hearts should be fine even without the J, either we ruff it good or he has 3 and we can take 6 tricks, a 4-1 trump break could hurt but cant see 13 tricks in hearts and I like my chances of 13 in spades.

On 1-2-3-4-all pass auctions I was once told lead a trump and if I don't have one borrow one from the next table. (I think that's originally a quote from Rixi Markus but cannot remember the origin)

Assuming that I've already shown 4 hearts with my double I'm bidding 5♦ as I have 6 and a quality suit, whereas I play 4nt as still competing but doubt as to which suit so maybe 44 (though why I'd want to go on I don't know?) but most likely 4♥ & 5♦. I suspect that east has a 4♠ pre-empt and was just muddying the waters hoping to by it with 4♠.