FelicityR

To be cloned. Though I doubt if my husband could put up with two of me :)

I'm no psychologist/psychiatrist/mental health nurse but the simple fact that you acknowledge you have depression and are prepared to do something about it - play bridge! - is so positive. Don't let a few unpleasant people at the bridge table ruin your own therapy. Unpleasant people exist in every facet of life, and I turn away from their negativity. I've spoken to people who have had depression, and the same theme comes up again and again: interacting with other people is good. So just talking and mingling with people in any situation is a way of taking your mind off what brings you down. The worst thing, they said, was becoming introspective, withdrawing from society. I wish you all the very best and take care. Kind regards, Felicity

Ducking the first trick is de rigueur surely? Ok, the overwhelming probability is that the defenders will continue ♣s but it will give you a slightly better count of the hands.

From your BBO profile I see that you say you are at 'intermediate' level, and play SAYC, and this is absolutely no criticism of yourself but many players bash out 4NT Blackwood as a universal bid when they have other options available. As other commentators have indicated, partner might not have the right cards for either 7♣ or 7NT to be bid. The trick with slam bidding is to be able to bid slowly to build up a picture of your partner's hand. The first thing to recognise from the auction is that you have agreed a trump suit ♣s, and that you have an extra card in the suit, and that partner must see as forcing any new suit that is bid, in this instance, ♦s or ♥s. That is the way forward.

Nice to know Mr Mollo's 'Menagerie Tales' are still alive and well :) I have a first edition in my bookcase somewhere: time to re-read it.

Thank you for noticing my error: now edited to 5332 :)

A friend (intermediate level) asked me for advice on opening 1NT with 5332 hands with a five card major and I responded that all experts these days open 1NT whether it is a weak or a strong no-trump. (I might add that I looked for a definitive answer on BBO and Google before replying to her and read a few articles by Larry Cohen, Marty Bergen, Andrew Robson, etc. to name but a few. But I felt a bit short-changed as it didn't go into more detail.) I was thinking do you always open 1NT irrespective of the position at the table or the vulnerability? Let's say you are in third position and have either a 12-14 point hand or even a 15-17 hand. Partner has already passed so the likelihood that you will miss a game is far less, even negligible using a weak NT. And by opening 1NT you could miss a good fit (5-3 or even 5-4). And is suit quality of the major a determining factor too? I'm sure my friend will be better informed, and I'll be interested in your replies too.

In jest only. Milkwood is a system that was invented Welsh Professional Bridge Players after reading Dylan Thomas :)

All great players as declarers or defenders I agree, but bidding and bidding theory is constantly evolving. I played the Crowhurst convention many years ago and thought it was one of the best bridge conventions since sliced bread. And where is it now? As for the 'upstarts' and 'whippersnappers' there's a very long list of Italian and American world championship players together with the greats of the game like Zia Mahmood. The Old Guard has been well and truly usurped!

Thank you for all your replies. Looks like I owe my husband an apology. We arrived in a 4♠ contract on a 5-3 fit going down one, when the same nine tricks are available in no-trumps. I am perhaps 'resulting' on this one hand but I have learnt a valuable lesson here.

If 4♣ is a splinter here then I would bid it. Partner will hopefully recognise a mild slam try and act accordingly.

Trust partner and pass is my view. If partner makes vulnerable overcalls in 2nd position on rubbish then you should get a new partner. The hand is a misfit. 2NT will play horribly, and bidding 2♠ when you have at least 5 over you is suicide.

Playing rubber bridge, strong NT (15-17) and 5 card majors - though I suppose it can also apply to 4 card majors (Acol) too - I had a friendly disagreement with my husband about his choice of opening bid. At love all, in the first hand of the rubber, he held [hv=pc=n&n=s76432hq6daqj2ckt]133|100[/hv] He opened 1♠, whereas I said it would have been better to open 1♦. Do you agree? Which made me think further: if he held a 5332 hand with a very poor 5 card major and a very good 3 card minor, is it all feasible to open a 3 card minor in preference to a 5 card major. A hand such as [hv=pc=n&n=s76432hq6dakjcqt9]133|100[/hv] And subsequently at what point does the suit quality of the major suit make it biddable, let's say JTxxx or Qxxxx or do players always bid 5 card majors irrespective of the quality in preference to 3 or 4 card minors?

West is far too strong for a 2♥ free bid here. Obviously, it all depends what you have agreed with partner about what a 2♥ bid means here? If 2♥ is game forcing then Tramticket's auction is fine. Otherwise, if using free bids, typically, 5+ ♥s (8-11 hcps) then I prefer Double with the West hand instead of 2♥.

Some players play 3♦ as invitational. others as forcing. If the 1♦ opener shows 4+ cards in ♦s - not a total guarantee given most SAYC players will open 1♦ with 3♦/2♣ - then if you do play it as forcing I believe you should give partner a choice of games if the 1NT rebid is 12-14, even though 3NT is what many players will bid automatically with the South hand.

The question - it seems to me - that you need to ask is why didn't partner open the bidding in 3rd position first time around? And the answer that seems logical to be is that he has a shapely hand with mediocre suits, maybe 4045 4054 or 5044, a tad light of a genuine opening, and feared a misfit due to the void. However with the 4♥ opening by West his hand can be re-assessed. I'd look at the double as competitive, primarily for takeout, with a very small percentage option as a penalty double if partner has a stack of trumps over opener. So it's 5♦ from me too.

Agree. It's a poor hand but partner is driving the auction. You have first round controls in both the suits not bid and your 1NT opener didn't promise any more than you have. Cue 4♥.

Partner wasn't doubling for penalties on the first round, and he isn't doubling on the second round either: pull

I suppose it all depends on the range of 1NT. Or maybe not... With my former regular club partner we invariably let the double, except if partner had a very weak hand, run back to the opener to redouble automatically, using Helvic. Now the pressure was on the opponents.

I think that if you make a negative double at the four level in this type of auction you should have a tiny bit of tolerance for partner's opening suit, especially a major, so North should press on to 4♠ with the extra sixth ♠. However, I do accept that if you have a 0553 hand you really do not have any other bid than double too.

If you are not bidding 4♠ with ♠AKJxx ♥xxx ♦xxxx ♣x after partner opens 1♠ in third then, in my view, at this favourable vulnerability you are aware of a psyche and are cheating. My apologies for being so direct but you asked for an opinion on this forum and I have given it.

Decline. Aceless. No intermediates. Anyway, surely you only accept with a maximum, not a sorry-looking 13 count. You have no idea whether partner has ♣s or not, and the likelihood is that as you have 4♣s in your hand he/she doesn't.

Strange thing is, please believe me, when I looked at the problem initially I thought that a ♥ switch looked the right play to break up a squeeze, but I would never had been able to figure out that it was a stepping stone trump squeeze (yikes!) - at this point Felicity opens a new window and Google's this. I also like the other replies about playing three rounds of ♠s to initiate an uppercut. To be honest are you not guessing what the right defence will be at trick two? There seems far too many unknowns about your partner's hand and declarer's hand.

Does declarer follow if you overtake the lead?

I'm not an expert (as I have said previously) but East appears to be 6-5 in the majors. I would lead a trump as that may prevent East setting up his/her ♥ suit with a ruff in dummy