EricK

With regards to the 2H vs X question. You said you went with double partly because you were strong enough to double again. This seems to be a reason to bid 2H first. That way you basically get to show your whole hand: 5H, 3 places to play, extras. It is on minimum hands, only worth one bid, where you might well choose to double first.

I think 2Sx goes down on optimal defense as declarer keeps getting forced in hearts promoting a third trump trick for EW

But suppose in Nigel’s diagram you instead remove a C? Don’t you need the guard squeeze element now as both defenders have a heart control?

A 4 card major opening is quite preemptive. In fact that’s one of its main advantages. But preempting also preempts partner, and the stronger you are, the less you will want to do that. Here you want to leave room to find the best contract and for partner to be able to make descriptive bids. 1S will very often get a 1NT response which here not only wrong sides a NT contract, but doesn’t tell you what suits he has either. 1C will nearly always get a response in a suit and will allow you to bid NT yourself. Compare this to holding the same hand but with ♣A732. If you are playing a strong NT, then it is far more reasonable to open 1S. We preempt LHO, without really affecting our ability to bid constructively to game if partner has enough (as he will be strong enough to make a descriptive 2 level bid).

In 4th seat, North should open 2♦ or pass. Weakish hands with short Spades are dangerous in 4th seat as often the opponents will have a spade fit and be able to outcompete you. A 4th suit pre-empt is not a weak hand, but a minimum single-suited opening bid. It makes it harder for opponents to enter the auction and makes it easier for partner to know when to compete if opponents do butt in.

Maybe other players had different bidding and got a different lead. Imagine a sequence like 1NT 2C 2H 3NT. Now you are likely to get a D lead, and will likely make 5C 3D 2S 1H or something like that.

Since the robot would expect you to double with 4♠, he would only bid this way with 56 in the blacks. This hand is probably worth a 5♥ cue, as you have the fillers in his ♣ suit.

I would not have led a heart. When you defend 1NT all pass, especially at MP, there is very often no need to rush. If partner has help in hearts you will normally have time to switch later, but if he doesn’t it will blow a trick more often than not. So with a 4 card suit headed by two honours, I think the risk/reward ratio is not in my favour. While no lead is attractive on this hand, I rate either minor as a better MP lead than a heart.

I have repeatedly seen an issue where the given bidding sequence is illegal (a redouble occurs without a double preceding it) and then it gives an error message and leaves the game. The error message is the same one you get when there is an issue contacting the server.

In an ideal world, players make a statement when making a claim.

I would probably accept this claim. But I, myself, would never make a claim without some sort of statement. The laws say I should make some sort of statement, so I do. And I think not doing so is not only (slightly) unethical, but also (slightly) slows down the game as the opponents have to work out the line you intend for themselves. So, not knowing any of the participants, my sympathy here is with the non-claimers. Obviously, I do not play at the exalted level of the people in the OP. And I realise that, at that level, there has arisen some sort of "honour code" where claiming without a statement is accepted. But I still don't like it.

I would pass, but it wouldn't take much more to make me double, and I wouldn't mind if partner chose to double with a hand like this. I agree with Phil_20686 that if you take away the ♦Q then it is much clearer to pass - but I fear that RHO's ♦A will take away my ♦Q!

On 1, West has completely mis-evaluated his hand, IMO. He has 2 first round controls and 2 second round controls - all of which seem to be working, whereas a normal minimum opening will often have half that. Give him, instead, something like ♠KQJ3 ♥6 ♦J952 ♣KQJ2 so he has a genuine minimum opening, and 4♦ is the limit. Since East has know way of knowing which hand West has, it must be up to West to make some show of strength here. Number 2 looks like a fix to me.

Why is this a stupid agreement? If you have no keycards yourself you almost certainly shouldn't be asking for keycards in the first place so you don't really need this as a way to sign off with 0 opposite 3. And it allows you another way to probe for a grand slam.

I think a Vinje cough has quite a favourable ratio of usefulness to ease of detection/decoding. A cough shows 1 even suit and 3 odd, no cough shows 1 odd suit and 3 even. Or to mix it up a bit a cough on an even numbered board shows 3 even 1 odd; whereas a cough on an odd board shows 3 odd 1 even. This way each player coughs on average once every two boards, and they can do it at any time during the auction.