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Pass Ben you have only 12 cards there.

Do you bid 1NT with 4-4 ? I always played double to show 4-4 and 1nt to show more :) Anyway with a pickup partner i would assume he has 4-4 in the unbid suits and too weak for what he think he needed for previous round D, therefore i would bid 2h since with about 22 hcp they would make this 2d. But with someone i trust not to have 4-4 in the unbid suits i would pass now. Partner is more likely (looking at the bidding and my hand) to have clubs then spades, even if he has spades they doesnt spit well, opponnets are vul, partner can be strong(13-14 hcp would be nice) and 2d is a good bet, sure it wont always work but will i think its better then the guessing alternatives.

With no agrement i would go with the strong version, but i think its a good idea to play something else since 18+ is rare and you can find another bid with it anyway. So i would prefer the natural invitation way, or other conventional meaning.

For me 4c is cue bid aggreing diamond, new suits at the 4 level are usually not nat, and when partner show a solid suit its even more obvious.

Hand 1: --------- Might be too late to take it from here, i think you should duck the first or second club , if west lead from good suit the squeese will work. Hand2: -------- Take the A of heart, if east play heart hearts are 4-3 play A club, and unless west discards play another club. You will make on 3-3club, or 4 in east's hand. dont play club to the 8, because you dont like the diamond return. IF hearts are 5-2, you are basicly on the diamond finnese, you can still play to the A club, and if east go up with K, which is how normal ppl spits their honoors play small, this will add some chances, you will make if east is KQx or KQJX, if not the finnese is still there.

I remember that post with 6 hearts and 4 spades, where some of us like Ben Ron and myself thought the right bid after 2c-2d is 4H. Why do you need a key card for minor now ? partner can have a doublton in this minor, so why not just bid 3m ?

I dont think Gerber is a bad convention, almost everyone play it after NT. Its good when we dont have a trump suit. The are alternatives for the 4c, like 1NT-4c some play as showing hearts, so they have can play 4H/4S naturally and decide who they prefer to be the declarer of the hand. there are some less ovious sequences , for example 1NT-2c 2H - 4c here also 4nt is quentative but some might play 4c as splitner and i myself used to play this 4c as showing 4 card club suit (3c would show 5 cards) to find slams (not that i recomment it) same after transfers 1NT-2h 2s 4c could be played as a self splinter.

"To become member of the "StArS" private club, be nominated by a Gold-Star or a Host(yellows). Or let us know your good level in the tournaments open on sundays with a regular partner. For a good club's level, the players with -50 in the club's ranking become non-members and can participate in tourneys only by substitutes. For more infos, contact us at StArSBridgeClub@hotmail.com" Looking at the member list, its not easy to get in.

The right answer is that 5H depend on the other bids in the system, if the system allow control checking the 5H wont be asking about controls, if the system allow trump quolity checking then it wont be about trumps either.

I began to read about squeezes in the link given here to Richard pavlicek page, and i must say i like it.

North is ur hand, and dummy (east) played the Q of club.

When I was a child, that's what I was taught. When I got older, I found out that learning about controls is far more important than learning about 5-3 fits. That's why people do things like play Zar points and cue bid. This hand is an excellent example: this is a hand where controls are going to be the difference between going down 2 at 3NT and making 6 in a black suit. Want to know the first thing I learned after the rule of 11? When your partner has control of the auction, and he asks you something, tell him what he asks for, not what you think he needs to know. If your partner wanted to know if you had two spades or three (he already knows you have two), he'd bid 3♠, not 3♦. Instead, he's asked for controls. So tell him. Bridge is one of the simplest games out there, usually the things you learn in your begginer's life are much more importent then those you learn as an expert, here is a good example finding your major fit is way more importent then anything else. (might miss something but id say finding a major fit is the most importent task in bridge, before counting points, controls, stopers, or anything else i can think about right now) Zar points is just a nice evaluation system, if you cant find ur 5-3 fits u can throw zar to the garbage. Cue bids are slam bidding ment to do 2 things, first check if we have extras for slams and only second check that we dont have a quick 2 losers in a suit. too many people misplay cue bids as an alternative to ace asking question. Again cue bids are far far less importent then finding ur major suit fit. Stopers (i never know if u mean controls or stopers) are another misuser tool, too many ppl check for stopers when its better to just bid 3NT and hope we have them, the stoper checking reveal alot and should only when other conditions exist. Now to this 3D bid, a forcing bid like this one, or 4th siot forcing, or new minor forcing, or checkback, or magister, is a general all around bid which has some task you can list in order of priority, ill list them from most importent to less importent 1. finding a major suit fit. 2. finding a stoper to play 3nt from the right side. 3. creating a forcing auction when you have a fit or ur own suit/s to show. btw 3S isnt the way to show 5 spades, 3sp is usually plays as an invitational with good 6 card suit. some might play it as GF but nearly every time responder bid his suit again it show a 6 card. Examples : 1x - - 1y almost any - 3y = 6 card suit.

Ok maybe i dont know you enough, but let me teach you some basic that you might have forgoten. When you have a game strengh: You first look for a major fit, if this exist you play in major, if there is no major fit, you look for stopers, if those exist you play in 3NT notrump , if there are no stoper you consider between a minor fit and a 7 card major fit. This should be your normal bidding procedure, sure there might be an excpetion here and there.

Now a 3♦ bid is reasonable. But now, you'll notice, the last thing you want is some sort of ambiguous 3♠ call. 4♣ works fine- you'll end up in 5 or 6. So does 3NT. But 3♠ doesn't tell you anything you wanted to know about. I've been playing for 23 years, and I'm still an Intermediate. Slow learner, I guess. 3sp isnt ambigious its simply showing 3 cards spade and does so below 3nt so we can still play there if we got no fit. I am very surprise to see you are playing bridge for 23 years. I thought you are younger then 23 years old, a new player. You say you're a slow learner so let me tell you one thing and pls dont be offended, you are oviously a smart guy, and lpaying bridge for a long time, i can think of just one resson why you arent an expert, and this resson is you do not open your mind enough, not a good listener, you should try to learn from others, even if someone is 99% wrong try and look at he 1% where he is right and learn from it, i suspect today you are more or less doign the opposite, you look for the 1% wrong. Hope you take it for the good as i ment it.

I guess i wasnt clear, its a mistake to open 1NT, but you already did and have to live with the concicuences.

I posts this in this forum because i hope to get begginers and intermidite votes, but adv+ are also welcome to vote. [hv=s=saq752hqj98dq7ca7]133|100|[/hv] I know you would never open 1nt with this hand but maybe you had one spades hiding between the clubs and you already did. The bidding goes 1NT (2c)* P (2D)* ??? 2C - cappaleti showing one long suit. 2D - asks partner to pass with diamonds or bid his suit. Assume These are all your options.

Given the vulnerability and scoring, I think under normal bidding it's a 3♣ bid. It's a guaranteed fit (partner opened 1♣), invitational but not forcing...partner has enough information now to determine where the hand should go. This is a close call between 3♣ and X for me. The long clubs imply that we may have fewer club tricks than we think- we may have a 10 card club fit, for example. If we do, that makes for a dangerous X. So I guess it isn't a close call for me after all- it's 3♣. What it is not is a 3D bid. You don't have a hand capable of a game-forcing bid, and you don't have much in extras. If partner doesn't have a real diamond stop, 3♣ is the limit of the hand. Remember, the guy bidding 3♦ isn't one of the beginners and intermediates who do not double when its meaning is unclear to them.. This is the expert choosing 3♦ over pass, X, 2♠, 2NT, and 3♣. You are avoiding the problem, so you treat this as inv and not rnough for game, i could argue with you but why should i lets just add a bit so u will have a GF AQxx Ax xx Kxxxx now what ? btw jtfanclub im curios for how long do you play bridge ?

OK but what if partner has more offensive hand like: Axxx Ax xx Kxxxx Does he still double 2D ?

Since 3H is clearly GF and asking partner to cue bid, i see no point in playing 5h as a control asking of any suit. It could be asking or showing good hearts, but i voted for the asking to bid on a maximum hand. Anyway i would never bid 5H because for me the bridge table is not the place to test your partner, if we didnt discuss a bid i dont make it.

It doesnt look very promissing. Partner must have something in spade and therfore cant have AJ of heart. Partner can hold at max, the J spade and A of heart, but then declarer already has his game made. To have a chance to take it down, partner need the K of spade. my hopes are to find partner with J of heart and K of spade, i will play heart now. But this would actually not be enough with a good declarer holding up the suit twice, or take the first round. still it got some chances of a mistake by declarer, but the real chance is that partner has 3 spades to the K, in which case we will take 3 spades + 2 hearts. Im leading my heart K. This is what i hope partner has. KJx Jxxxxx xx xx 1 down no matter what declarer do with his A of hearts.

I seriously doubt it matter to find which book has more data on squeezes, i will always prefer to read an enjoyable book to boring math one, im pretty sure the more enjoyable will find better ways into my skills, and this is the importent part, the skills should past from the book into your hands, the purpose is not to go back home after a turney open the book and see if here is a solution to the hand you played, the pupose is to know it at the table, i prefer to know 9 of 10 at the table because the 10th wasnt in my "enjoyable but not complete book" then make only 2 but have all the 10th in my book at home.

Look at Bridge Guys.

Yes you have a point, but first usually to show 3 card support come before showing a stop, and second the 1nt already showed (or atleast almost did) a diamond stop since the double already showed diamonds.

A diamond back would not effect the squeese. One thing is 100% playing spade will decrese by alot the chances of squeese. But I can give a nice ressoning to your line, giving west heart lead is not from a short suit, if he has 4 spades, then he is unlikely to have 4 diamonds and therefore the S+D squeese is not necssary because diamonds are 3-2. If west doesnt have 4 spades then there wasnt a S+D squeese anyway. good point :huh: it would be stronger if west will turn out to have small 4 spades and not Jxxx because with Jxxx he might lead heart with less hearts playing passive. :D Enough for me on this thread atleast for now. gn B)

I said that if west will continue diamonds you will have to guess but thats a bit unlikely. I think the best thing i can tell you is to think about all this, try to see what distributions you will make by ducking a spade, and what will you make by ducking a club. write them down, then try to calculate what are the chances of those. (no need to be exact, because club is about maybe 10 times better)