PhilKing

I'm very comfortable with E/W being awarded -400, but I think people are being way too soft on South. South was in a position where there were four key pieces of evidence available. They ignored three of those and utilised the only one that could lead to an adjustment when it proved to be wrong. By not even considering East's play at trick one, East's spade return and the lack of a Michael's, South had stopped playing bridge, which is a Sewog in my book. There was nothing deliberate about this - South was presumably too tired to play the hand properly, but I ain't giving them +430.

Who said they opened spades?

I would not give South anything here.

Punish them!

If I had realised that you were suggesting, of all things, passing over natural interference with an invitational hand, I would never have indulged in creative editing. :ph34r:

He was psyching. You can always double first and show stops later, so you are basically giving up nothing and are coincidentally forced to defend correctly. Partner may whack two of a major.

See above.

Then it's not a natural diamond.

It looks like everything is covered, as long as you never have clubs or a balanced hand.

This is completely the wrong way round. If all you wanted to do was compete, why should you care if they jump around? Whereas if you are invitational, if LHO preempts, you have flubbed your invitational raise.

I think it establishes pretty emphatically who is the world's leading exponent of French standard bidding ... B-)

Is: AQ Axx KQx AQTxx enough? or does he need five key cards ...

I did a short sim that suggested the South hand is worth a slam try if the 2NT range includes 22s, but not if that ended at the five level. There were a few hands where five went down, but the real problem was hands such as: K 8 A 4 2 A K 6 A Q 8 7 2 Where partner can hardly be blamed for raising. There were many similar hands, where partner likes his hand but needs room to establish we are off two key card. The ox does not always hold HH doubleton spade.

You can chuck half of this out the window and cover all hand types with a few much simpler agreements. 1. Forget everything you were ever told about "slow shows". It's just rubbish. All relatively balanced hands where strain is in doubt can be handled with an initial double. Against a natural overcall, the cue bid show a hand that cannot stand a penalty pass from partner. 2. Your 2NT lebensohl bid should be interpretted as mildly constructive, and can cover all the unbid strains. 3. Don't give up playing in "their" suit. You have loads of ways of bidding the other suits and you simply do not need these cue bids. With the above in mind, the defence to 2♣(majors) would work as follows: Double = it's our hand (usually balanced). Subsequent double penalties. 2♦/2♥/♠ = natural. There is no need to play "M as cue bids. I had a hand recently against David Bakshi where he bid 2♣ on a 3451 shape, planning to pass a 2♦ response. But even if they promise 54, that does not mean we should never play in a major. 2NT = lebensohl. With a purely competitive hand, one can pass, so partner can break the puppet. 3♣+ = forcing (you could play 3♥/♠ = splinter, both minors GF if you want some frills) Pass and double = take-out Pass and 3m = clubs Pass then 2N = both minors With the above in mind, the defence to 2♦(Capp) would work as follows: Double = it's our hand (usually balanced). Subsequent double penalties. 2M = nat 2NT = invitation one suiter. Any suit possible. As above, with a weak hand pass and bid. 3 any = nat GF Pass and double = take-out Pass and 3m = weak Pass then 2N = both minors Against any overcall where they may have the suit overcalled, the first double is for take-out and all other actions remain the same, except that we can't be sure of getting another go. Even so, I would still play that 2NT implies some ambition, and is never done on absolute filth.

I'm going to take a deep breath and just let it go this time.

I play Five Clubs as a hand that wants to play in, of all things, 5♣ - partner will not remove since I could have ♠xxx ♥KJxx ♦- ♣KQJTxx. In my trademarked version of good/bad 4NT I can't lebensohl for clubs - only for diamonds, via 4N pick a minor. But that's OK since I can't have a slam try in clubs. Edit: overlapped with MikeH saying much the same.

You are ahead of anyone who took the heart finesse. Diamond to the ten looks clear to me.

Is Ken Rexford in da house?

Yeah, I googled it and came across 40B3. FWIW I agree with Z that this is wrong, but allowing varied agreements would cause extra complication.

I'm not up with the modern EBU rules, but when I was a junior I know we were not allowed a defence to insufficient bids. I know not whether this is analagous or still in force.

I don't think they are allowed a discussed non-standard strategy.

4NT. It's a guess. I guess to bid.

FWIW I don't think South would ever lead anything other than a spade. It was just another horse for the appeal, albeit one that should never have been given starting orders. For me it just boiled down to the heart jack issue.

We had both overlooked the (very appealing) second seat one-of-a-suit strategy to show a weakish hand with a decent suit plus an entry. If they declarer that strategy, I will counter with some passes over their pass(non mixed obv - just pass bad 15s 1NT on good 15, 3NT decent 16 or 17) and judgment over their bids. Anyway, I am now persuaded most 15 counts are not worth 3NT. And this hand looks like a downgrade today.

As discussed elsewhere, passive leads are overrated by DD programs, because whenever they pick up partner's suit, the double dummy declarer was going to get it right anyway, and partner always finds the right switch where mere humans will sometimes erroneously return partner's suit. It is entirely possible that the received wisdom of leading fourth highest on occasion is not completely wrong.