bigbenvic

My response depends a lot on your opening style. How light do you open balanced hands? is a 4432 12 count to good to pass, how about 11 or a ratty 13? What about the 53e2 or 5422 type hands? If you open light to get more bids in, then I will bid 3♦ so as not to punish partner for opening a good 11 with 5 diamonds, if we are more strict on the opening bids then I'd happily stretch a little and bid 2♣. If we haven't really discussed openings or it's a new partnership I'd follow what gszes said re imps or mps, though to be brutally honest I would probably just force as I have a working 11, pards has either a diamond suit or is 4333 or 44 in Majors (I assume) so I cover his likely gaps well and AKJ95 is a good chance to set up for 4+ tricks in NT and I'm unlikely to be playing the hand which is usually a plus :-)

If I continue on it has to be 3d as 2nt might get partner to jump to 4♥ expecting some trumps in my hand. Partner could have a 3622 and 4 is a good show. Or it could all go pear shaped! Imps I will give it a go for the game bonus is worth a little stretch and at pairs scoring I think I will pass as the risk/reward isn't that great.

2♦ showing 5+♠ + 4+ other I like to use 2♣ as ♥ and other at least 5+/4+ and 2♥ and 2♠ as natural, usually 6 but can be a max with a good 5 card suit.

Is the 10♠ a viable option? (just being cheeky) I'd prefer to have ducked the first heart, hoping to look like I want to win the second round cash the third and deliver an uppercut to partners 10x or Qx. Maybe declarer cashes K♠ before repeating the heart hook.

You've picked up 2 of his losers with the trump Queen and the A♣ so in a normal world at this vul, 3 is making. Either the club length or one of the other 2 minor honours could easily pick up an extra trick for partner and as rmnka447 stated you should be bidding 35% games and this 'feels' like it's right to bid on. Yes it could go ♠, ♠, ruff, A♦ before you start but I'll take those for every time it's cold and also the times when it isn't but you make anyway.

I'm probably going to punt 3nt. There are 24 points left so average for pards is 8. If he has club length or the Queen and 1 or 2 others then we have a source of tricks so maybe we can make game. I hope that in the long run I'll make more 600's (vs 50/100/150's) than go for big negatives. In long matches or against regular opponents I like to punt tight games as it can put extra pressure on them, which can lead to mistakes and extra MP's or Imps.

I'd lead the unimaginative QH. Hope for partner to have a singleton and give him a ruff. I take his double to be penalty based, we've found a fit so though pass from him wouldn't be forcing it would show doubt as to defend or play, double says he has little doubt, I wouldn't have overcalled this at that vul but I am a wimp! North probably has 4 Spades and didn't double 1H so he was waiting to penalty pass it, perhaps he has 5 of them too?

Isn't that a very dangerous action to take? If you do it often you risk being got for an unethical action (fielding a psych) and if partner has his bid you'll create pressures in your partnership that aren't needed. I'd bid 4d see CSGibson's post above.

At this vulnerability I would pass in a heartbeat, just do not have the suit quality to bid at Red in this seat. Make it Green V Red and I have a tougher decision. The question I have is that if you pass and it goes (4♥) P (P) X (P) ?? Now what. Is 4♠ an underbid?

I'm leaning towards opening 1♣ and maybe I can continue to compete until I get doubled in 3,4 or 5♣.

I bid 3♥ which asks for a stopper and shows a hand with a long solid suit looking for 3nt if hearts are stopped. I promise no more than a hand like Ax x AKQxxxx Jxx. If partner bids 3nt and opponents are silent I will bid 4♦, the over-rule of 3NT shows slam interest in diamonds, partner is forced to cue or bid 5♦ without a first round control. if partner bids 3♠ (the usual denial of a stopper) I will bid 5d suggesting I am expecting to make or go very close. the usual bid for hands similar to my minimum above is 4♦ so I show extras. With one partner, with a good hand but no stop in hearts they can cue a suit at the 4 level however this must be a hand prepared to play in game in my suit no matter which suit it is! If they bid again in some way I just bid 5♦ (if I'm able too!)

At red vs red I would pass with suits that empty. The odds long term for me just don't stack up in favour of bidding. The risk of having 5+ losers is too high for me. If partner has only 1 trick for me then I am in 800 territory. between us we could have 2 or 3 tricks in defense but there isn't enough 'power' in my 6-5 to warrant forcing to the 5 level at equal vul. Also our hand isn't a wash defensively and there is no guarentee that they are making, I suspect the will but many more bad things could happen if I butt in, they could discover they have slam on or we could go for 500 when they are 1 off, or we could go for 800+ when they are making.

I think there is likely to be only 16 total trumps on the hand, perhaps there's a double fit to make 17 but 16 'feels' right to me. I'm not bidding 3 over 3 so the question for me is pass or double? It would depend on the style of overcalls that we use. If we are the solid 11hcp old school style then I am happy to double this with 4 trumps 2 aces and a shortage, otherwise I think I'll pass.

for me and my partner, this auction would show doubts about the spade suit. His cue then 5h after my cue suggests a hand with xx or xxx in spades. As I have AK I bid 6h. If I was unbalanced say AK AJxx AQJTx xx I would bid 5S to try and find the perfect slam if pards had something like xxx KQxxxx - AKxx which though a fantasy (ie perfect cards) is possible on the given bidding. However I'm not that strong and bidding slam does tell partner I have minimum for my 4h bid and the Ace of spades.

I think they have a 9 or 10 card fit. We have an 8 on most occasions. We probably have a double fit on clubs which ups the number of trciks for the hand. So we are either 9+8+1=18 tricks or 10+8+1 or 19 tricks. I think 19 is most likely where pards is likely to be 4144, 4135 or 4153. On 19 tricks if we are making for 620 we may only get 100. I think that we are getting +620 too many times for this hand to pass as we won't get the reward out of the penalty. I think I'm even bidding game on the reverse vulnerabilities but it would be a little harder than this choice.

My partner is not leading 3 from jxxx on this auction, no way. If he does we'll be having a chat later! I'm winning Ace and giving him his ruff, I expect declarer to be void in hearts.

Bidding 1♦ and passing over 2♠, is it making? Maybe partner has many more black cards than red and we don't have a good fit. Perhaps the other tables bid 2nt find themselves in 3 hearts and Club club, lose a trump club taps me and opener has a 2434 type hand. Could be -200 versus -110 or +100 if we can beat 2s. Yes I'm creating a 'fantasy' but not giving imps away willy nilly isn't bad bridge. Bidding 1♦ with me is much better IMO than forcing to the 3 level, opposite a passed hand when Vulnerable, with 9xxxx in my Major, against decent opponents you'll give up -200 or -500 too often to gain on winning the partscore battle.

Is there anything wrong with ruffing a spade in dummy to lead trumps after you win J♦ and pitch a spade? If AQx onside you gain by leading J from dummy, if spades are 5-2 and east has the 8 of trumps he can get an uppercut but I thought that not losing 2 trumps plus a ruff could be important.

No-ones going to pre-empt to extremes with their hands given they've all passed, so I feel 'safe' opening 1♥ and trying to find slam. Perhaps 6♦ is the place to be and this gives me the best chance of that and keeps 4♥ 5♦ & 6♥ in play as well. I only have 13 hcp so even if partner can't bid someone will balance given the number of spades out there.

I'm happy to let this run, win the 2nd round and play Jd from dummy. Hopefully there is a stiff 10 in wests hand or a stiff Queen where East covers (highly unlikely) If the Q pops from East I think ducking hoping for stiff Ace is my only chance now. It would be so much easier if North declared the hand, sigh.

I think 5 clubs is a shot but reckon that he may only have AQxx x xx QJxxxx and 3 losers are possible. Note that partner didn't bid over 1h and as such slam looks a long long way away, even with me having 3 valuable honours for him. I think we can beat 4 hearts, make 4 clubs and 5 is going to need him to not have the Qs and have a red winner. I'll bid 4 clubs, I wish 3nt was encouraging in some way but I don't think I've ever discussed this situation so I wouldn't want to try that on here. I kind of hope they bid 4h so I can double and get 3 black winners and a spade ruff when 5c isn't a make.

I would bid 3♥ forcing suggests 3nt as an option if Pards has a stopper, its used when you have long strong minor, or a half stopped heart suit with a reason to want 3nt instead of 4♠. As he has a fifth he bids 3♠ which is stronger than 4 but not strong enough to cue (given he didn't jump to 2s his hand is limited already) ps made 11 but not gwmn's way!

I'd open 1♥ and rebid 2♣ as the jump in clubs shows a ♠ raise with a stiff (or void) club. 2♣ rebid is unpassable so I have no fear of that. I have no fear of playing it in 1♥ as there are 24 points and 13 spades in the 3 other hands, someone will chime in with a bid.

At this vulnerability I am a max, I also downgrade the singleton Queen so effectively I am a 9 count. If the Q was Qx I would open 1♠.

I'd open this hand 2d wk both majors. would probably go 2d-3c-3h-?-4h assuming the ? isn't >than 4h. In that spot I might try 3nt! North should still bid 4h over that. That aside I'd double with the south hand as others have stated Ax in partners suit is great holding to have, I have 4-4 in the reds and if partner passes this wont be pretty for them. Of course North then can bid confident of a 9 card fit and would probably take a shot at game with the 6511 shape. So I'm blaming South (70%) more than North #30%) though I'd bid 3h with the north hand, I'm not selling out to 3c with 11 cards in the majors.