yunling

LoTT is not very accurate, and so is HCP. People use them because their accuracy is ok most of the time and they are very easy to remember and use. Sophisticated methods are, of course, theoretically more sound, but you have to do some extra work to put it into use. For most players it is just not worth the effort.

As responder I'll just bid 4♠ over 1♠-2♠-3♣ which makes it almost impossible to reach 7♣. I don't see why should I bid 4♣ here. This 4333 9 count is far from great, I'm more concerned about going down in 4♠ due to information leakage, rather than missing a slam in ♣. Playing strong club and relays you can find out everything, but probably they will interfere and you end up in 6♠ anyway.

How much shape/strength does 2D promise? If it is always 55 then we have a serious game try, otherwise I'll just pass.

4♥ without hesitation. This is the worst possible hand.

Don't think anyone can reach game here, it is a misfit anyway. 1♠(11-20, 5+♠)-2♥(5+♥-5+m less than invite) P

My simulation shows that "pass or blast" works quite well(probably a winner)even if you have a 3.25 count range for 1NT opening. But in reality many people are not very good at evaluation and just concentrate on HCP counts thus they probably have a 4 count or wider range for their 1NT, which is why a 2NT invitation is needed. I prefer to just play forum standard without a range ask.

[hv=pc=n&s=satha98754dtcaq75&n=skqj9832hqj2d8c82&d=s&v=n&b=15&a=1h2d2s3d3h5d5hppp]266|200[/hv] West leads ♠5, plan your play. Not really a hard problem, but I got it totally wrong at the table :(

I'll pass without doubt, this is a dead minimum.

I counted to 7.5 so a direct 3NT for me at IMPs :unsure:

Double post deleted.

Opener has 17 and responder has 8 in my home-grown evaluation method :)

North underbid by a king. A good example for seriou/non-serious 3NT…

I learnt the method from cuebidding at Bridge by Ken Rexford.

If 2♣ promise 6 then responder can immediately find out if it is a misfit, or make a preemptive raise, while if 5♣4M hands are possible, you can be left in a hard guess. But almost all precision players in China are playing 2♣ as 6+ or 5♣4M, while most of them (especially the top players) are combining it with a nebulous diamond. I asked them why to play this way and they think my question is very odd and just say "oh don't you want to bid clubs holding 5 of them?" Maybe there are secrets that they don't want to tell me :(

If you don't play strong twos, then it shows a minimum opening hand with 6+♠.

KI can help here. Inquiry 2/1 also use a version of Kaplan Inversion. So 1♥-1♠-? 1NT = strong 2♣/2♦ = natural 2♥ = ♠ 1♥-1NT-? 2♣ = strong 2♦ = natural 2♥ = ♣

With a bad diamond suit and slow values in hearts, I think this hand is qualified for a void splinter in clubs :unsure:

Hard to decide whether to duck the first trick or not, I think the exact number of the lead is needed here. The potential of a ♥ ruff as well as a ♣ ruff is really annoying. I'll probably think for a long time before taking the wrong line :(

A natural GF 2♦ is not a part of my system, but if I'll play that, my idea is 2♥ = bal or 4+♣ 2♠ = natural 2NT = 6+♥ 3♣ = 4+♦, then 3♦ is non-serious 3♦ = 5♣ Can't put all 1-suited hands in 3♥, that's too high.

Start with ruffing 3 rounds of club while drawing trumps. Don't know which line is best then. Probably I'll just play ♦9, hoping south will cover.

I'm revisiting the posts about riton 2♣ and it seems everyone has accepted that it should be combined with Roman 2M openings(2M as 12-15 5M&4+C)as Henri Schweizer suggested which I had some difficulty to understand. I would rather switch 2M opening and 1M-1NT-2M, so now a direct 2M shows a minimum opener with 6+M. Advantages: 1. Showing a 6 card suit immediately is good for competitive auctions 2. With a 6 card major, it is less likely for you to look for fit in the other major, while you gain some 5-3 fit in other major that are lost when playing roman 2M 3. Less information leakage if the hand belong to opponents Does this make any sense?

The range for 3♠ here is ambiguous. Just don't bid it if you have no discussion of that.

Sorry that I have never been to Taipei and there's not much information available on the internet. Maybe you can go to 台北國際橋藝中心 and ask someone there. It is located at http://ditu.google.cn/maps?safe=strict&client=firefox-a&hs=Rz8&rls=org.mozilla:zh-CN:official&biw=1467&bih=680&q=%E5%8F%B0%E5%8C%97%E5%9C%8B%E9%9A%9B%E6%A9%8B%E8%97%9D%E4%B8%AD%E5%BF%83&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hl=zh-CN&sa=N&tab=wl

I don't think a weak NT with 3 cards in the other major is worth a double at 3 level.

My programme tells me to lead C6, and I trust her. Certainly this is a good 5 count, not 0-4, so you cannot follow the recommendation for weak hands :)