hmw

Thanks for your input. I forgot to mention that the system is not 2/1, so east's 2♣ promised 10+ and a Club suit. I have realised, in retrospect, that 3♠ was an overbid. It should show a good 6-card suit and 16-21, but we don't have quite the same requirement to suit quality as The Badger would expect. I agree that if East has slam interest, he should cue bid 4♦ and the final contract will be 4♠ (which makes). East thought however that 4♣ was a cue bid, but West took it to be natural and raised to 5♣ (which goes 1 off). I now hope we will have a fruitful discussion when we meet again next week!

[hv=pc=n&w=saqj832hk85d543ca&e=sk9h74dkjckqt6542&d=w&v=b&b=4&a=1sp2cp3sp]266|200[/hv] IMP pairs, playing a natural 5-card major system, including cue bids and RKC-1430. Two questions: 1) What do you bid as East, and why? 2) East bids 4♣ - what do you bid as West?

I always wondered about the final total scores and the results that are shown for each board, which I thought appeared to be some sort of subset, but I couldn't ever work how it was selected. I once worked out that the winner's total score could not have been achieved playing the boards that were shown, the winning total being much greater than the sum of the top scores on each of the boards. After reading your answer about the 20 different sets of boards, I still don't understand what the results shown are based upon. Can you explain that?

I play a natural 5-card major system, but show number of controls after a 2-club opening, so: 2C - 2UT(4 controls, A=2, K=1) 3D - 4D 4UT (RKC 1430) - 5H 5UT (extras?)- 6SP 7UT I think it is better here to show diamond support immediately after dealer's 3D, rather than to show the spade suit as a possible alternative trump suit, which might leave dealer with the problem of what to bid next. 4UT might seem unnecessary, since dealer already knows how many aces partner has, but I'm not sure how otherwise to ask for extras, and here 4UT followed by 5UT does the job. For me, 5UT direct after partner's 4D would ask parter to bid 6D/7D according to how many diamond top honours he holds. After 5UT, I think it's best that partner now shows the spades, rather than bid 7D. Dealer then should have sufficient information to bid an inspired 7UT, or maybe I'm also influenced by seeing all the cards!.