msjennifer

And so it means that one expects a new partner to have read all the books that one has read ?

I agree with Cyberyetis argument.Even keeping in mind that 1C might be a prepared bid,it is too timid to pass or make a negative double.A straight forward bid of 3 C is a standout bid.i cannot understand the reasoning behind first doubling and then running or so-called "correcting to club" which can easily be confusing unless discussed previously and more so with a non established partnership.A 3 C bid leaves the opener to bid or describe his hand.Wests hand is a 8 loser hand opposite a prepared club and as per LTC 18-(7+8)=3. So there is absolutely nothing wrong in making a bid of of 3C over RHO'S 2D bid.The 3C bid does not deny a four card major suit and promises excellent club support.

I fully agree the bidding as suggested by Cyberyeti. Your partner erred when he opened the hand 1S instead of 1D.Having done one mistake he compounded it by bidding 3D instead of 3H (to show an immediate support to partners forcing 2H bid which shows 5 +hearts).And to climax it all ,instead of bidding 4 H over your bid of 3 S ,he bid 4 S..I doubt if partner ever even knew Acol.

Although it is usual to open the bidding with the higher ranking suit In a hand of normal ( non-reversible) strength there are more other aspects like a convenient rebid,the high card strength of each of the two suits,,the number of losers in the two suits,the total losers in the hand,presence of voids and/or singletons,wasted honors outside the two suits ,the first /second round controls etc deserve to be considered before choosing whether to open the bidding in a six card minor or the five card major.The way the auction may develop has also to be considered.It is not as simple as it appears.

A very nice 2C Relay ( not Stayman)which helps to find out whether 1NT opener has 15/bad16, Or 16good/17 HCP and major and minor suit holdings below the level of 2 NT or 3 of a suit and named "The Explorer Relay " has been developed by my mentor.Included in it are four suit transfers with a way to find out openers 15/1bad16 or 16 good/17 .The 2 suited hands with a slam ambition like a 4 card major and a 5 + minor which are slightly difficult to bid with a slam ambition with Weakish six carded minor or major,strong six carded M/m with slam ambition are all covered in this Explorer Relay.I am not able to give the detailed development as it runs into 20 pages.It is only for advanced and experts.Our pair employing this relay method were the only pair to bid a grand slam by literally counting 13 tricks ,with all cards known almost double dummy style,in the 8 teams all play all finals of a zonal tournament.Not even once has this method failed. I would ,humbly and politely ,request all beginners and intermediates to give a trial to using Baron and transfers instead of Stayman and transfers so that minor suited games or slams in 4/4 fit are not missed.

in the absence of any explanation for the alerted 1S bid ,I shall run the 4 .

My line of play is the same as Winstonm.

With the hand playable in three suits,I shall always pass in 1st or 2nd seat.Even in the 3rd seat ,I shall think twice before bidding 3 C.And why presume opponents have spades when I am in the 1st seat? Such a call may lead to a phantom sacrifice by partner. As per the LTC theory,which I play,I shall open the 22 points hand only 1H.( I open 2C only on at least a balanced 23+ or a hand which has 9 or more winners with a major suited hand and10 or more winners with a minor suit hand).The further bidding does not require much explanation as the hand given has 7 and half losers due to nice 3 card support.I t therefore,as a passed hand,is certainly worth a response of 2C followed later by heart support showing bid.We shall land in 6 hearts after finding the absence of club Queen by using the Spiral RKCB.

PASS without a blink.Why allow them to find a better contract? This hand contains KQ in club .Replace them with xx and put those KQ in spades and then it suddenly becomes a reasonable take out double.A remote possibility not mentioned is perhaps they play limited 1 level openings.A second possibility is RHO misclicked or made a trap pass in a losing session prompting you to bid something.

Is this not a hand for CrissCross trump squeeze ? One can not play on a Vienna coup for lack of entries to dummy. After cashing the DQ the defender should have backed a club to take away one of the entries to dummy in order to prevent the crisis cross.

I play 2NT over opponents 1NT in immediate or last seat as TO in Minors,and the given hand is an ideally suited one for this bid..For other suit combinations there are many treatments available eg.Landy,Astro,Aspro,Cappeletti etc.as per individuals liking.

In this the modern age of bridge one does not give much importance to HCP's which come into action mostly in balanced hands.There are other things to be considered like guard in the four suits, voids/ singletons/ doubletons ,PFA,LTC and other innumerable ones.HCP count is only a rough guide for beginners learning bridge.as they are not still experienced enough to digest things which are too complicated as they think.One has to tell them the famous hand where 35 HCP in a partnership can not win even a single trick to defeat a sacrificial grand slam in a suit with only Five HCP bid by the opponents.HCP lose their grandeur in suit contracts where the distribution rules the game.Experience over years only makes one wise to face the challenges one faces in distributional hands.

One is worried "if partner bids 5D over 4 NT then what?" In other words RKC or BW is not going to solve anything.One is only interested to find out if P has The HA and then if he has,to bid GS hoping hearts will behave or P will have HJ also.My suggestion is to use a bid of 5 NT over 4H asking for trump honors and as played by many the 1Step shows no top honor,2Step shows 1 top honor.So P will bid 6D to show one top honor and you then bid the Grand Slam in Heart.I know that this method is not useful if 2 Top honors are missing and the agreed suit is Clubs.One other way is to bid 4D over P bid of 1H to ask for "specific "Ace/Aces.( Since hearts are agreed 4 H shows no Ace and Heart Ace will be shown with a bid of 4 NT). I do not know much about them but may be the old fashioned Culbertson asking bids will help.

One Spade in all seats and all positions.The given hand is not suited for any of the other alternatives. If Texas is being used AND the vulnerability is favorable then 4S opening bid will be in picture.

I know many or practically all will disagree with me.The responders hand as per LTC has 9 losers .3 in spades 3 in hearts 2in diamonds and one in clubs.As one assumes that opener can have a 7 loser hand the responders hand which has zero ruffing values is worth a single raise only 18 -(7+9)=2.I know all will pooh pooh this arithmetic .There are 11 HCP with responder they will point out..TO Illustrate my point further I give a real life hand which helped me win a major tournament on basis of LTC.LHO opened 1 NT (13/15) and my partner bid 2C(Landy), and I passed holding x,xx,xxxx,AKQxxx.LHO bid 2D and my P bid 3 C((void diamonds with xxxx in Club).Now,RHO silent so far bid 4S.With full confidence I bid 5 C which RHO doubled and we made an overtrick.Partners hand was Qxxx,AQxxx,--,xxxx.With 8 opposite 9 HCP, 12 tricks colt.Partners hand has 3 club,1 heart and 2 spade losers 6 total losers and my hand had 1 Spade 2 heart,3 Diamond losers,I.e.total 6 losers .Now,18-(6+6)=6 ,so a contract of six clubs was suggested by the LTC and was made on the table.I know that I am stretching things a bit too much but I keep using the theory when 8+ suit fit is found. HCP and suit length come into play more in NT contracts and additional points for x,xx or void is a very crude theory as one does not know partners hand and so whether the void is opposite KJX or xxx in partners hand.And of course we all know that hand wherein a grand slam is cold in any suit with only 5 HCP and the opponents holding 35 HCP can not score even a single trick.! By the by,this is my NELSON (111) contribution.

I would say '. 3 NT is not a very clever bid .If the session is a losing session then it is a pardonable bid'

A quick PASS.Competing in clubs can expose to either of the opponents of a shortness in club in partners hand.Partner may have over called with AKQxxx in clubs and nothing else.If one competes ,opponents with the information one has supplied,may bid a small or even grand for that matter if RHO is void in clubs.Why pass the information ?

After winning the SA and discovering the 40 trump break, one can make the hand by ruffling two spades in dummy which is very easy if one backs a spade immediately. The quixotic line is to draw all four trumps and take the straight or reverse diamond finesse depending upon ones mood ,but that is for the pseudo-expert (or a beginner) who wants to play a gallery game.Ruffing two spades in dummy is the straightforward play as you get six trump tricks ,three heart,two diamonds and a spade.Simple and elementary unless West is void in H/D and if East returns that suit after winning the spade trick.However,West may make a Lightner double if a void existed.

Double.Whats the problem.?

I shall always open this hand 1S.I don't worry about what East overcalls.We have the machinery to deal with and reach six spade.A 2 NT overcall will make bidding very easy and comfortable for reaching 6S.

The idea of displaying skill level,although good in principle,is not quite correct.There are some players who call themselves experts yet do not have understanding of the basic system.One opponent who labels himself as 'world class' and playing with an'expert' partner could not even visualize a contract of 6 Spades which was cold albeit in a Moysian 4-3 fit and played in 3 NT only to lose first five tricks to opponents and went one off.There are some others ,who I know personally, calling themselves experts yet who are nothing better than intermediates.To solve this issue I suggest that they mention the real percentage of marks or number of IMP scored by them on average of last three months.These figures are easily verifiable from the site itself to anybody.Some of the so-called self experts have an average of plus or minus around 50%.Those who have a consistent average of more than 60% dare consider themselves as experts or World Class or else they will only be world class with 'cl' silent.

Flabbergasted. No TOD earlier but now a dbl after having over called 1NT earlier! Some experts may please explain this auction since it seems an indecipherable one.

It was not at all clever to bid 2C.Let us suppose that your LHO passes and your partner bids 2S then would you pass or bid 3D showing 4/5 in H/D ? That would presumably be game forcing in most of the partnerships.Do you really want to play in 2S with an unknown quality of spades with partner? You did want to play in diamonds,did you not? Then why not make a transfer bid.?I can imagine bidding 2C with a void in Hearts.Personally I will never ever bid 2C with such a poor hand.It damages partner's faith in you.As regards the question 'what does one bid now' I will pass,having already made a bad bid,not to make any other bid as it will be taken as a forcing bid if the double was indeed a penalty double.To be fair I would pass 3 C if I was your partner with 5 carder club suit.In my opinion the double shows 4/4 in majors and asks you to bid your major suit.

One has to mention 21/23+ HCP,(depending on your style),5+ quick tricks (Aces ,Kings and Queens Culbertson style),8+ Winners etc.on the convention card,wherever carrying a convention card is mandatory.This way one fully protects oneself from any further queries by opponents or for that matter the TD.Safety first.

Pass means Pass.Where is the question of a forcing pass? .If one has nothing ,one does pass ,No? Or is one supposed to dbl with a Yarbrough ?