KurtGodel

[hv=pc=n&s=sk4hdqjt742ckjt84&w=sat972hqj862d3cq5&n=sqj53hat74da85c73&e=s86hk953dk96ca962&d=s&v=n&b=15&a=1d(better%20minor)2d(majors%2C%20constructive)d(penalties%20of%20at%20least%20one%20suit)3h(slow)ppd(penalties)ppp]399|300[/hv] Good opposition, East is one of your regular partners and you know him to be aggressive.

Are you telling me you opened 1♠ smoothly?

Partner has: xxxx xxx xxxx xx. Oops!

I think it's normal to bid 3NT at teams when vulnerable.

Kxxxx KJxxx Kx x is a completely ill fitting minimum, game still is not that bad (hopefully some spade spots in there). I bid 4♠. Edit: Out of curiosity what are your other pre-empts?

I would say that nearly all experts will play this as quant. If you play texas then you can bid 1NT - 2♦ - 2♥ - 4♥ as a balanced slam try. With every other hand you can either bid your 2nd suit or auto-splinter. If you don't play texas you can fake a suit. I had the following auction with a world class partner (not playing texas). AQx Axxx Qxx Axx (my hand) KT98xx KQ AK Qxx (partner's hand) 1NT (me) - 2♥ - 2♠ - 3♦ - 3♠ - 4♦ - 4♥ - 4NT - 5♦ - 5NT (specific kings) - 6♦ (having denied a diamond control earlier, I must be showing the queen) - 7NT (I can count 13 tricks) At the other table they bid 1NT - 2♥ - 2♠ - 4NT (key card) - reply - 6♠. 15 IMPs to the good guys.

No, you don't make grand slam tries missing the queen of trumps (unless you have ten cards, and then you just pretend you have the Queen). I think common agreements are that 5♠ is a cue, 5NT is the King ask. Since I normally play that bidding 6x (not the trump suit) asks partner to bid grand with a 3rd round control I play that 5♠ is the king ask: then for hearts 5NT shows the spade king, 6m that minor king and 6♥ shows no kings. Likewise for playing in diamonds now you can bid 5NT with a major suit king and 6♦ with no kings. So I use 5NT as: please bid grand with a 3rd round control in spades. These agreements are not that useful as they don't come up very much! Playing the next step up (which is not the trump suit) as the queen ask is pretty standard though.

Presumably it's logical to play Lebensohl here. Edit: I guess scrambling is also a sensible treatment, but I think you'd be bidding a doubleton spade more keenly than a 4 card minor.

Partner is short in spades, the hand should play well in hearts, I bid 3♥. I think most people play x here as takeout of the suit opened anyway.

It doesn't really make sense for the number of diamonds you have to be only one less than the number of clubs, since you will always have at least one more club than diamonds. We can't really pass out just because partner couldn't make a negative double, partner could have quite a lot of minor suit values and be unable to bid. xx xxx QJxxx KJx is hardly a monster, but I'd like to be in 3NT opposite that. Even if it's not our hand we should still be competing.

You can't really think it's winning bridge to pre-empt with this hand?

What tricks did you think you were taking in diamonds?

It may also depend on what a direct 3♠ might have shown. For example if you play leaping Michaels then 3♠ here would be the minors, and then there would be more of an argument for playing 4♣ here as a cuebid. Not playing any unusual treatments I would assume that 3♠ is either probing for NT or a heart raise, and if 3NT gets pulled it shows a cue. That would make 4♣ natural, it might just be that there is no standard way to play this sequence.

We are a passed hand, I don't think our hand could be that much better than this, it's fairly rare we have a slam force here (not impossible). I would kind of like to know what we are playing, if partner can be 15-17 balanced here I don't think I am moving, if partner is showing a shapely minimum then I am not moving, if partner is showing spades and clubs with a good hand I think I'll try 5♦, we must be worth something with all our controls and working queens, I can't believe that we are going down in 5, and having passed originally partner will know the kind of hands we will be moving on.

It says something about you that I considered it possible that you were asking a serious question :rolleyes:

Whoops, I'm not exactly sure what happened, but I didn't see the hand you posted the first time. I would definitely be leading a major suit on this, it seems like they might not have too much to spare, so I shall go passive and lead a heart.

It sort of depends what the range of 1NT is surely? If you are just playing Acol it seems pretty clear to pass, we have a bad 16, are we really holding out for a good 9? I would pass at teams too, unless you are going to tell me that this 1NT is a bit wider than normal.

I think this one largely depends on where you learned to play bridge, in England (where I'm from) it's almost taboo to bid this way holding fewer than 5 clubs. Maybe it's just the way I've been brought up, but to me bidding two suits shows an unbalanced hand! I've tried playing the American/French/Polish...etc way, but I really dislike it, I doubt that one is much better than the other if you have a full range of other agreements. I now normally play transfers over 1♣, so we don't miss our spade fits when responder is weak 4-4 in the majors and opener is balanced with 4 spades.

Well as has been said already, I think it is clear to bid 1♠, although I might be persuaded to pass vulnerable at pairs, I'm not sure what our basic system is, as this hand is probably a borderline strong NT, so that might affect my decision. Double is undeniably takeout, just because you so rarely can make a penalty double. Bidding over partner's double is quite tough. I think at teams if the opponent's were vulnerable I would consider passing (I don't think -180 is the end of the world), but at other vulnerabilities and forms of scoring it's a bit more tough. I think I would bid 2♠, just because we are known to have at least a 7-card fit, whereas that may not be the case in hearts. Also, as partner is very weak their hand might not be able to provide many tricks unless trumps is their best suit.

Well, now you are confident that it was a psyche, you know partner has some values and some hearts, I might just bid a practical 6♥, because there is no chance that partner will be confused by this. Yes it might be that you are making 7, but you can't have everything after they get a lucky psyche. Partner of the psycher might have to double 6♥ anyway. Next time your opponent opens their short suit in 3rd it will be their partner they catch with 5 card support who won't be able to stop raising. You win some, you lose some.

I think one of the bad features of our hand is the A♦, if we swapped that with any of our cards in the other suits we have a complete monster, but how useful is an ace facing a void/stiff?

I presume you bid 4♥ slowly :)

I feel like we are at least an ace short to bid here...sure game could easily be making, but also when it isn't both the opponents have a penalty double available, and we really really could go for a lot here.

I was gonna make a raise but then I got high... 4♠ from me.

Opening 2♠ with this hand is silly, we just have too many tricks. Not making a takeout double with this hand is silly, we have loads of good cards and a great shape. I assign the blame as follows: 100% East and 100% West.