Lorne50

You could add 4N over 2N here to show a hand 4-4 in minors that would have bid 6N over a max but now wants to play in 6 of a minor if you have a good fit and decent controls in the context of a min opener. ie no longer good enough for 6N but happy to play in 4N if no good fit. I play that and find that when it comes up (about once every 5 years!) it is nearly always a top.

I only bid 3N if I can hold up my ace (preferably twice) or I have a solid minor so I have a chance to run 9 tricks. Dble has several ways to win (including defending 3S*) but 3N needs partner to have a spade stop as well or it is very unlikely to make.

Alert rules depend on where you play. (but the answer is probably no).

6N for me. Take away a club and I would invite with 4N (as long as I am not playing online with an unknown partner!) but the 6 card suit plus possible long diamonds for partner swing it in favour of bidding the slam.

I just replied to this in another forum ! North is minimum with a singleton in partners first suit, poor trumps, likely wasted values in diamonds and no high card in the other suit partner may have some length in so 4♥ is clearly right. On the other hand South can see slam will make opposite many minimum 2♥ bids so should make another try.

It's not just that 3-1 is more common than 4-0 as you are looking at specifically 1 out of 2 possible 4-0 breaks against 1 out of 8 possible 3-1 breaks. The odds or 4-0 are 13/26 * 12/25 * 11/24 * 10/23 = 4.78%, the top line of each division being the vacant spaces in the hand you want the card to go and the bottom line the spaces in both hands at the time each is dealt. For 3-1 if you assume the Q dealt first it is 13/26 to go in the right place, then the next 3 cards are 13/25, 12/24, & 11/23 which comes to 6.22% (and you get the same number if you repeat it for the Q dealt 2nd, 3rd or 4th). so the relevant 3-1 break is 30% more likely than the relevant 4-0 break in the cases where one of these two breaks occur.

I think I am staggeringly good compared to what I might have so even though partner might have bid 2♠ with slam interest I think I will still try 5♥. The 5 level looks safe to me and I assume partner will sign off if he has no heart losers so my ruff(s) are of no value.

Shouldn't 3N show a doubleton spade and 5 hearts so responder does not have to guess which major to look for when 5-3 in the majors?

If you think 4♠ is right now you should have bid it last round before West was able to describe his hand nicely to his partner. I do not think it can be right to bid twice so if you try 2 or 3 spades first time you should now pass.

I ran a simulation with the first 2 hands having no bid, 3rd hand a normal 3C opener (7 cards or a good 6 card suit) and 4th hand fixed as shown. Results for number of tricks made over 1000 deals were: . <=8 9 10+ ♣ 528 283 189 ♥ 613 190 197 ♠ 376 254 370 NT 806 93 101 Difficult to be certain but it looks to me that 3♠ is a winner - it beats pass given that it makes 624 times (unless partner raises a lot when he shouldn't and 3♣ also makes quite often if you pass. What I can't model is whether dble gets us a decent score since partner may pass for penalties or bid a major or bid 3N but gut feel looks like 3S is a winner.

Should South bid 5♥ rather than 5♠ ? I seem to remember somebody once describing that as a 'sweep cue bid' promising all 3 aces as any hand with just one ace could not justify going on in such an auction - after all North did sign off over 3♥ which already shows a good raise in spades.

4D is 100% forcing and definitely a possible bid. Partner should have raised. 4S is also possible, forcing and asking partner to describe his hand as well as he can. Here he should bid 4N (natural I hope, otherwise you have no chance) and you may play there or decide to raise (not that slam is very good). I also play that 4N is a good club raise and 5C weaker which is more useful that using it as RKCB when the auction is cramped but that is not an option here opposite a possibly short club. It also has to be agreed with partner or a wheel will fall off!

I bid 2♥, but with 4432 shape I bid 3♥.

That would work for the problem I posed but if the oppo jump raise you get pre-empted when you have a good hand which is potentially more expensive than getting pre-empted with a bad hand so I am not certain it is a good trade off, although I have to say I do not often see jumps by the oppo after 2N.

If the oppo open a weak 2 and you are balanced there is a hole in standard methods. 16-18pts plus a few good 15's or bad 19's can easily bid 2N. 22+ can bid 3N after a dble or for some bid 3N straight away. So what do you do with the hands in the middle? If you dble you know partner will bid a Lebensohl 2N with any hand that would pass an initial 2N leaving you fixed. You could lower the range for punting 3N so there is no gap and accept a few silly contracts when dummy has a 2 count - is that the norm? Has anybody ever tried agreeing multi style responses to a Lebensohl 2N to get some help when you have 20/21 pts, so after 2N: -3C says you are happy to play 3C if that was partners idea -3D says you have good clubs and want to play 3N if partner has clubs, but happy with 3D if that was his idea -3 other major says you want to play 3N if partner was going to stop in 3C or 3D, he can pass this if that was hid idea -3 their major says you have the other major and want to play 4M if partner was going to stop in that suit, 3N otherwise. Does it make sense? Anybody ever tried it?