rmnka447

Put me in with the 2 ♠ crowd. You have distribution (stiff ♣) and a suit.

I'm voting for pass at this point. Yes, you do have more than half the deck in HCP, but you've showed a good hand by doubling twice. Your RHO has opened and rates to have at least 11-12 HCP. That leaves roughly 6-7 HCP for both responder and partner combined to hold. Partner has made a minimum response and has not shown any further interest in competing. So any bid that forces your side to the 3 level is unlikely to have a positive result. If you take the contract, the hand will likely be played out of your hand with little likelihood of getting to partner's hand so you can take advantage of your tenaces. Conversely, your hand is much likely to play much better on defense. Your ♥ honor sequence may provide exit cards that will put the opponents in the position of playing into your tenaces.

Put me in with 1 ♠ response and preference to 2 ♦ crowd.

Sometimes preempts work. Here is a good case. There's no way to know exactly what your partner's hand is. Pard could be pushing a tad or really have a very strong hand, but you can't know which. So, the best policy is to stay "fixed" and accept a probable decent result of 4 ♠. Reserve trying for slam for when your hand warrants pushing on by itself. Normally, that would include a control in the opponent's suit, good fitting cards with partner, etc. Here you have about opening values, but a rather tepid holding otherwise. Partner has to have an awful lot of values to make 12 tricks opposite your hand. Give you something like ♠ AQxx ♥ x ♦ Axx ♣ KJxxx and slam comes much more into focus as a possibility. Now the presence of a double fit and controls makes the 5 level safer and slam a much better possibility.

4 ♠ wtp. Partner clearly has a big hand. Partner cannot have a ♥ stack. If the 4 ♥ bidder also has a "good" hand, making game may be a problem. But it's also possible the 4 ♥ bidder is just trying to steal the contract. You can't tell which it is. There is a big premium at IMPs for making vulnerable games. If game makes your way, you'll have to beat 4 ♥ DBLd 4 tricks to offset the value of a vulnerable game. That doesn't seem very likely based on your cards. So it's better to bid on and try for the 10 trick game. Who knows, maybe the opponents will take the push to 5 ♥, at which point, you can pass any further Dbl by partner.

Pass. I'm not sure what partner is doing bidding 2 ♥ now rather than directly over the DBL. However, partner is responsible for his/her actions. If partner has done something stupid, it's on them. I've seen too many times that trying to "save" partner is absolutely wrong.

I'm a 6 ♦ bidder. A strong 2 ♣ opener may let you find 7 if it's there, but it may also let the opponent's find a 6 ♥/♠ sac.

Let's see - 9 HCP, 2 QT, satisfies rule of 20, and you have 4 ♠. That's offset by a very mediocre holding in the long suit. Close call, but in any reasonably aggressive partnership, I bid 1 ♣. If pard likes to bid a bit more conservatively, I'll pass and try to intervene later.

I would pass over the double. 3 ♦ puts us in a game force, so we are in a forcing pass situation when the opponent's sacrifice. To supercede responder's decision to DBL, which essentially says don't bid on, I'd need to have some extreme distribution/playing strength. With 3 1/2 QTs, I sit.

3 ♥ never 4 ♥ on the auction given. That may even be too high. I'm not opening this hand 1 ♥ ever. I might make a weak 2 ♥ opening bid when playing in a very aggressively bidding partnership. Qx and KJ tight are worth less than their point count. Only 1 QT.

2 ♥. It only promises 5 ♥ and not much else in values. The problem with Dbl is that partner may respond like it's a nondescript 9-11 count. I'd expect overcaller to have 6 good ♣s and a descent hand -- might be more playing strength than HC values. Overcalling a forcing or semi forcing NT in 4th seat requires a modicum more strength because the opening side will be looking at 23-24 value on a lot of hands.

First, I'm not making any 2 level call showing 2 suits with this hand. Partner has already passed. So with a mediocre fit, any preference partner takes can potentially lead to a blood bath. Yeah, game might be there if partner holds ♥ AKxx, but a part score looks like the limit of the hand our way most of the time. On a considerable number of hands, the opponents may be declaring. So I'm making the call least likely to get partner off to the wrong defense. I bid 1 ♦.

3 ♣ really just says that balancer has ♣. Opener could have opened with a 3 card ♣ suit, but it's also just possible that the opening bid was a real suit. So, the 3 ♣ bidder ought to have at least 6 decent ♣s for the 3 ♣ balance. A balance in a suit also tends to deny opening values. The other side had an opening bid and response, so both sides rate to have about half the points -- making the hand a part score hand. West likely is void or singleton in ♣. The first rule of misfit situations is to get out of the auction as quickly and cheaply as possible. (Occasionally, this might mean missing out on a better contract. But more often, this approach just keeps from raising the size of the set penalty. ) West should only bid over the balance if holding a suit which is likely to play better than balancer's suit. However, West had a chance on the first round to make an overcall at the one level in the three remaining suits and didn't. So that's highly unlikely. West should realize that any HCP in his hand are more likely to be useful to his partner, then balancer's ♣ values will be to West if West declares.

Whenever you're void in your partner's longest suit, you have a misfit. So I think you ought to be a bit pessimistic unless you can find a fit. There are 11 HCP in a big red hand with a nice 5 card ♥ and broken 6 card ♦ suit. The hand only becomes a big player if partner has fit with you. So I'd be reluctant to consider it a game force hand and would make a forcing 1 NT call on the hand. If partner bids 2 ♠, I give it one more try with a 3 ♦ bid. If partner persists to 3 ♠, he plays it there. 3 ♦ also gives partner a chance to bid 3 ♥ on a weak 6-4 major hand.

1 NT. Some good players hate opening NT with two wide open suits, I don't.

At MPs, I'm a basher bidding 3 NT. If partner doesn't have any help in the majors, then we've probably got scads of minor tricks. If I bid 1 ♦, I give advancer a chance to provide major suit info to the Dbler which can only help the defense.

I Bid 1 ♥ hoping to be able to make a forcing 2 ♦ bid the second round. If 2 ♦ is not forcing, then I'll make a forcing 3 ♦ bid the second round. After partner's second rebid, I'll follow up with 4 D on the third round. If the two red suits were reversed (♥ KJ10xxx ♦ AKQ10xx), I'd prefer to bid 1 ♦, reverse into 2 ♥ and rebid ♥ the third round.

I'm rebidding 2 ♥. With my favorite partner, we play the cheaper of fourth suit or 2 NT as the potential weak bid. The 2 ♥ reverse promises that ♦ are a real suit, but could be only 4 if 4-4-4-1.

Agree with the consensus, East's 3 ♣ call is risky. That being said, West has no business bidding 3 NT over the 3 ♣ bid.

Hand #1 I'm ducking the first round of trump. It might be important to retain the A if trumps break 4-1. Hand #2 I'm cashing 3 ♠ tricks, then taking the ♣ finesse. The opponents can score 5+ ♥ tricks when they get in, so I've got to take my 9 tricks quickly. Hand #3 I'm passing. The opponents aren't in a good spot, so I don't want to give them the chance to find a better one if I DBL.

Hand #1 - East should see that his minor cards fill in partner's suits probably insuring at least 10 minor suit tricks in a 5 m contract. Also, partner shouldn't hold any more than 3 M cards. Bidding 4 ♠ on a broken 6 card suit is betting partner has at least ♠ tolerance, something you just can't know. Hand #2 - The interference has made it difficult to identify all the features needed for slam to be right. Not sure you can bid it. No blame to anyone on this one.

I'd bid 3 ♠. Since 2 ♠ would be invitational, 3 ♠ to me says to partner "bid 4 if you have any reasonable excuse to do so." With both black suit KJs, it seems like partner will need a little something for 4 to make. So partner will have a chance to pass with a truly terrible hand.

Pass over 1 NT. You have 0 QTs. Even with a minimum opener, the opponents could be looking at 22,23 points between them if responder has a max standard response. With no top honor cards, you may be looking at a -300 or worse doubled opposite an opponent part score. Pass over 2 ♠. Even more reason to pass now. First, partner didn't compete over 2 ♠. Partner is also marked with some ♠ holding. It could be anything from ♠ 5432 to ♠ AQ10xx but you just don't know which. The problem is that if you double you are unlikely to have the 2-3 defensive tricks that partner may need to beat 2 ♠ doubled if partner passes it. This hand looks like one where a lot of pairs will be playing in 2 ♠. So passing is likely to get you an average or near average result. That isn't necessary a bad thing at MPs.

2 ♥ gets my vote at red vs. white. Partner will picture your hand almost exactly as it is. So whatever action partner takes is likely to be right.

Partner has shown a good hand. So as overcaller, you need to let partner how good your hand is. I think most people play that 3 ♣ would a minimum overcall and be non forcing. Your ♥ KJ9x are probably worth more than their actual point count because they sit behind the ♥ length. So I'd take a positive view of the hand and treat it as the equivalent of an opening bid. The most descriptive bid at this point is 2 NT. It says partner I have an opening bid and ♥s stopped. Whatever action partner takes next is likely to move us in the right direction. 2 NT also has the advantage of saving some bidding space. This can be important depending on your response methods to an overcall. If 2 ♠ would have been NF constructive, then 2 NT lets partner show his suit under 3 NT. If partner had a 3 card raise with limit values, partner can still sign off in 3 ♣.