hamish32

Quite a few things with the methods you describe in your post that dont really add up: 1: given partner passed in the opening seat surely a cue bid now would describe this hand. Max pass and 4 trumps no splinter. 2: the structure your partner describes to you says with 7 losers she would bid 3!H. But with 7 losers she has enough for game if you you must use LTC. So that is not compatible with the idea of a pre-empt. Your hand is worth 15 you have the perfect singleton given the bidding. So you should want to bid game any time partner has 4 trump and close to max pass values. It seems like neither of you really knows what 3!H means with any accuracy. For example in my partnership 3H is 4-7 HCP 4 trump. If you range is narrow - what ever it happens to be - you wont miss game. You have many possible actions here you need a meaning for each: Suggestions 2H - 5-8 3 card support 3H - 5-8 4 card support 2S - 9-10 3 card support 1NT - 8-10 spade holds 2NT - 4 card support 9-10 2C/D - 5+ cards 9-10 (possibly intending to support H next with 3 H) X 8-11 both minors no fit

I dont see how your percentages are different at all than what i said. 6H is 100% the best contract.

Our bidding based on a forcing 1 Bid (fantunes style). Not promoting our methods just giving our answer: P - 1S 1NT - 2C 2D - 2H 2NT - 3C 3D - 3H 4C - 4S 5D - 6H 1S 14+ forcing 1NT 0-10 not 8+ with a good 5 card suit 2C Gazzilli 2D 8-10 2H 18+ a 5+S exactly 4H and a singleton 2NT - we are in a game force and want to know the whole shape 3C - 5413 3D - D hold not sure that 3NT is best lacking 4H or 3S 3H - very good H 4C - first or second cue in C with 3 good hearts 4S cue 5D - turbo 1 key card and first round control of D

6H is almost 100% needing just 4-2 breaks in Hearts and Spades. 6S and 6NT are similar needing spades to break 3-3 or the club finesse. However 6S is considerably better than 6NT because of the D situation on a D lead. 7H needs the club finesse and a 33 Spade break so its bad. Resting in 3NT is only good in a room full of weak players. But many people do t have the methods to consider are moysian fit for slam so considering resting in 3NT is understandable i suppose.

No splinter no jacoby. Well if partner splinters you are not so excited with AQx wasted. It a matter of judgment not methods. If i can bid jacoby 2NT and hear 3!S 16+ bal then sure less judgment is needed. However ask your self if you had one bid with the south hand to place the contract what would you bid? I would bid 6S. If partner has 2 aces to go along with their 5+ spades then 6S is probably ok. So if i had 1 bid it would be 6S. Thats judgment. Ask your friend that question and you will find yourself having a conversation about judgment with her and that will be much more educative than a methods conversation. It turns out we can do much better than just bidding 6S. We also have blackwood available. Note key card is irrelevant because we have the K and Q of trumps. If we bid key card we can stop in 5S or 6S. That is cool. Maybe with all the aces we should bid 7? Well that pushing a good thin too far. However it turns out that if partner has shown us 16+ and 6+S and we have all the aces maybe 7S would be ok since we look like we can ruff D. So.... what do we bid to find out if partner is minimum for her bid? Well 2C would get us that information even though we dont really have any C if we consider that our next step is balckwood then 2C to descover a little more about partners hand seems like it might be ok. So there you go we have improved the auction quite a bit. To be able to bid 7S by applying judgment and thinking about just the areements we already have. Cool

No splinter no jacoby. Well if partner splinters you are not so excited with AQx wasted. It a matter of judgment not methods. If i can bid jacoby 2NT and hear 3!S 16+ bal then sure less judgment is needed. However ask your self if you had one bid with the south hand to place the contract what would you bid? I would bid 6S. If partner has 2 aces to go along with their 5+ spades then 6S is probably ok. So if i had 1 bid it would be 6S. Thats judgment. Ask your friend that question and you will find yourself having a conversation about judgment with her and that will be much more educative than a methods conversation. It turns out we can do much better than just bidding 6S. We also have blackwood available. Note key card is irrelevant because we have the K and Q of trumps. If we bid key card we can stop in 5S or 6S. That is cool. Maybe with all the aces we should bid 7? Well that pushing a good thin too far. However it turns out that if partner has shown us 16+ and 6+S and we have all the aces maybe 7S would be ok since we look like we can ruff D. So.... what do we bid to find out if partner is minimum for her bid? Well 2C would get us that information even though we dont really have any C if we consider that our next step is balckwood then 2C to descover a little more about partners hand seems like it might be ok. So there you go we have improved the auction quite a bit. To be able to bid 7S by applying judgment and thinking about just the areements we already have. Cool

The modern trend to open 2!C with extreme but weak hands causes quite a few problems if you don't discuss continuations. Here 1!S would not be passed and leads to a decent auction 1!S - 2!H 3!S - 4!C 4!D - 4!H 4N - 5!H 5N - 6!C 6!D - 6!H 7N 2!H = game forcing 3!S = solid !S better than min (suit setting) 4!C/4!D/4!H = cue first or second 4N = key card 5!H = 2 no Q 5N = king ask (all keys held) 6!C this king 6!D this king 6!H this king 2!C used to show 23+ hcp or 22-24 balanced if partner opened 2!C and you held that responding hand with !H and !C you can pretty much bid 7N or you could offer !H then !C twice knowing that you where deciding which grand to bid. If you open 2!C showing a hand that could be weak with 8.5 playing tricks then you must show that specific hand by jump bidding on the second round. I.E. a failure to jump to 3!S shows the serious 2!C opener described just above while a jump to 3!S shows the hand with solid !S and 15-20 HCP. Now partner will find the same sequence above because 2!C then 3!S set the suit making 4!C by responder a cue for !S. Another alternative is to open 4!C and 4!D to show the tier major !C=!H & !D=!S and 8.5 playing tricks.

It does not matter what 3S means. It only matters what agreement they have about the meaning of 3S. The standards have not slipped there is something you are failing to understand here. Re-read the posts and solve your annoyance by developing your understanding. I repeat the wost bid is 2C. But 3S is a good and easy to understand / flexible response to an understrength 2C. 3S says its not him that has the strong hcp hand its me it is 1 2 or 3 suited and if you listen to the auction you will find out which and be able to decide how many spades to bid as a sacrifice.

Its an individual so there is no agreement and you are only entitled to know agreements. However the term ‘cue bid’ just means that it is not showing spades. Its a forcing bid not showing spades. Since you opened 2C as a psych without a game forcing hand the opps need to get into a constructive auction while avoiding the risk of a X being passed for penalties. You have 13 hcp maybe this hand has the unbid suits with game forcing values. That would be a reasonable assumption since 3S is forcing and not showing spades and we are now at game level. It could also be a slam try in a singlesuited hand. For example 3S then 4H is much stronger than just bidding 4H. 3S then 4H gives the added expectation that slam is likley. I think the worst bid at the table is 2C it requires the opps to let each other know that 2C is not based on high card strength. 3S achieves that nicely. I am not sure why you are complaining about it here.

We play this as a power X: that means it shows some (generally unbalanced) hand by opener or some game forcing hand by responder. Except in pass out seat where it could be converting partners pass.

We play Mosca a system with strong forcing 1 bids so we would also open 1!H on this hand. If you are playing standard you might not open 2NT if your agreement is that you need a hold in every suit. You should play puppet over 2NT so that you dont lose the 5 card heart suit. So opening 1!H in our methods we follow up 2!S with a power X. You might want to google power X invented by the italians they are great in auctions like this when you have to bid the best slam from the right side. (Yes with a !D hold i would just rebid 6NT but here with no !D hold you are playing partner for A or KQ in !D if you rebid 6NT so im not going there). A power X shows 18+ it saves a lot of room in this auction where 3!S would use a whole level of bidding room. After a power X north has enough to bid 4!C setting the suit for slam investigation. Now opener cues 4!H showing the problem in !D and responder bids 4!S cue. Now we play turbo here so opener bids 5!C showing 3 or 5 key cards and responder can raise to 6NT or 6!C rightsiding the hand.

If you X and partner bids 3M now you have to try to make 9 when you might have been beating 3D. If you C you do so in the hope that partner does not bid C and that he has enough to raise to 4M. When you have such a bad hand he may reaise to 4M and you go light when you are beating 3D. I pass no different at imp or mp.

Playing a strong NT with Tom response: 1NT - 2C 3C - 3D 3H - 4C 4D - 4H 4S - 4NT 5C - 6C 7D 1NT = 15-17 2C = game try plus values 3C = max 5+D 3D = 3+ D at least a mild slam try 3H = hold (A or K) 4C = slam interest first or second round control in C (no control in S) 4D = waiting 4H/4S cue fiest or second 4NT = turbo 2 or 4 key cards 5C = control in C suggests all key cards held 6C = Q of trumps + this Q grand slam try This is our sequence

Nige 1 above has it exacly right.

Nige 1 above has it exacly right.