Charis

Let's see... declarer has shown up with just 4 pts so far, and is known to be no 4c major. If p can get in he'll cash two more spades and we'll win. For that reason, and to have his bid, assume the declarer has AKQ of clubs. That's 13 pts, and give him AH or he's doomed, that's 17, so he can't have BOTH KD and KH. Is he 4-3 in C/D or 5-2? Or 5 clubs with a doubleton heart? It would be nice if partner let us know his entry and/or gave us some help on the count. Maybe he did? That 8S spade seems like a suit preference, suggesting the KH, and the declarer with KD. If he returned a low spade instead it would suggest the KD instead (hmm, but why let declarer know that) If declarer has 5 club winners, AS, AH, and two diamonds and he's home. But if 4 clubs, he's likely for 4 diamonds, and throwing away even one would give him a winner in that suit, driving out the QD and getting back in for the winner with his AH. So I must hold all diamonds and toss the heart. Looking for errors in my inference (which are frequent) I look at p's signal in clubs. Presumably he's showing count, and high low as an even number. He's got 2, and declarer has 5 clubs. That's bad - are we not sunk? Could p have 4 clubs? No, then declarer has 3 clubs and discarding the club from dummy would be foolish. Am I misplacing the KH? If west has that and 5 clubs, we're sunk too. I'll toss the heart, but not with confidence. OK, enough thinking out loud here. I once again find myself feeling I've got several points right in my analysis but am missing something, and wondering if I'll *ever* be able to figure this stuff out at the table - if it takes me 15 mins offline to run through all the above, how will I ever figure things out in 5 secs? :( Charis

Avid reader unfamiliar with relays, I'ld be happy to take a look. Charis (addy: charisena at insightbb dot com)

Wow, great stuff! Thank you! :rolleyes: I had stumbled across R&S recently and thought "what a gold mine!" Charis

It's a tough call, but I'm nervous that 3NT could go down in flames. Simply swap the W and N hands, heart lead, club return on seeing dummy, and pow, down 3. With the hands swapped, maybe North won't let 3NT stand. He won't expect you to hold 5 spades to the AQT, and the diamond suit is ratty. Give LHO one more of the outstanding Aces and it's even worse. In the actual hand, suit contracts only went sour due to the 6-1 diamond split coupled with the singleton heart. Double seems nice if taken as optional, since with the presumed stopper you're ok if partner passes and we defend. Or the semi-solid long clubs ask for on offensive bid of 3NT. Overall though, I think I'm with Luis on this one :rolleyes: But I will keep an eye out now for 'how well would 3NT have worked over the preempt' - so thanks for pointing this out. Charis

I may be reading too much into the bidding and opening lead, but... Given the emphasis on finding a major fit and no one mentioning hearts, E-W is likely to have a fit there. Yet he didn't lead a heart. Also, if he had AK Clubs, or ace and long clubs, he would likely have lead from that despite the 1C opening call. If everything is onside then you can win any way you like. East has the club length and will know that leading them will win, so I don't fancy taking the spade finesse. With K offside and west dangerous, I need to take all 4 hearts. If east has AK C and K S, he can't have any more pts, meaning I expect W to have QD, QH, JC. I'll try cashing A-K of Hearts, then if Queen falls doubleton I have finesse over the 10 and will succeed. If it doesn't fall, now I go back and try spade finesse. This may not be the highest overall % chance but fits my mental picture of the bid and lead best. (Am I going TOO far in the inference department here?) Charis

My partner's 1!S doesn't mean anything defined, as it's at a social table with my wife :) But that brings me to two (newbie) questions... How are you supposed to play online or at an event with a random partner with such a diversity of opnions on the meaning of bids? Sure the opening bids and uncontested auctions are well defined, and with a well-oiled partnership you can pre-discuss these types of things. 1. Are such questions in a thread like this trying to discuss what may be the best choice for the meaning of such a bid between regular partners, or are you trying to get an idea for what would be most close to 'standard' in the absense of an agreement? Those are two very different questions, and on threads like this I'm not sure which is being asked. 2. What would be considered the standard meanings of the rebids you mention, among random partners who only know "we're playing 2/1 GF"? I could see 3D as a limit raise, a GF raise, a general 'strong hand' forcing response, a help game try, or a control-showing game try. 4D would be a splinter showing support in spades and shortness in diamonds, but limited values? But that's too high lvl for a game try - would anyone use 3D as a splinter-ish game try? 3H could be a fit non-jump, a natural new suit (good suit, non-min hand obviously), a or strong hand reverse. Dbl - could that be a support double showing 3 spades since you don't know if pd has 4 or 5, or would it be a "the hand is ours" bid? I think 1S could only promise 4 - what do you bid with 4 nice spades and say 2 hearts otherwise? (fudge and call them 5? ) The thought of playing with a random partner and a confusion arising between a splinter bid and fit-showing bid is a scary prospect for folks of a low caliber (such as myself :P I don't really know what my bid would be, but I sure would want whatever I bid to be understood as showing good support! Charis

> Hi, why would you want to be booted from the forum? > Feel totally safe disagreeing with anyone here... Oh! I was just playing off your response to Free where such a comment was a compliment :) Thanks for the response :( Charis

Is there something wrong with a cross-ruff strategy for this IMP board? Win AD, ruff a diamond low, take the club finesse, assume it loses and they come back with a trump - win high. Cash one spade, then AC. Ruff another diamond, ruff a club low. Return to dummy with a spade, ruff another club (Jack), and cash the other high heart. That's a total of 10: two high trump, four ruffs, two spades, AD, AC (and one more club if finesse is onside), and it seems to work even if trump are 4-0. Maybe I'll be lucky and booted from the forum :( , but more likely will be told why this isn't a good idea. Charis

Hi, new poster here ;) A preemptive thanks to those who run the board here and the very thoughtful regular posters here - tis both a very informative and friendly place. With a pretty basic SAYC, not 2/1 approach, what's wrong with: 1S 2H 3H 4NT (I wouldn't be prone to rebid a poor 5c spade suit here) Also, I assume pard has 13pts to open, and with my 19 think slam is definitely worth exploring, and lacking 'shape' I just need to find out controls. 5D 6H 1 ace in Blackwood or 0314 RKC, so we're just missing one. With nice hearts I try the slam. Downside to this auction - if it's the Ace of Clubs we're missing we're going down, and perhaps folks here don't like the 3H bid, potentially too few trump? So doing some cuebidding instead of a risky Blackwood, it might go 1S-2H-3H then 4D - 5C - 6H Comments? Charis