temp3600

Your partner evaluated his hand as a limit raise for hearts, and so redoubled first, and then raised hearts. I think his hand is not worth a limit raise, only a good 2♥.

I think an important point is that 2♠, in the original post, is a playable spot. It is possible to construct a sequence where player 1 has made a non-forcing bid, player 2's following bid does not show any extra strength or lenght (typically, a preference), and player 1's next bid is natural, but cannot be a playable spot, and therefore has to be forcing 1 round : 1♥ 1NT 2♣ 2♥ 2♠ Spades are at most 3-3, so responder cannot pass 2♠. So I would say that if player 1 has made a non-forcing bid, player 2 makes a bid that does not convey anything extra, and player 1's next bid is a playable spot, then it is non-forcing. If it is not a playable spot, it is forcing 1 round.

It seems natural to start the clubs, so ♣K and a club. We now know a lot about West's hand, and the only problem is to determine whether he has 4 or 5 diamonds. Now West is a competent player, and therefore must have spent some time reading the BBO forums. If he has retained even a fraction of the knowledge here, he cannot possibly be 7-4 for his 3♥ opening. So he is 0=6=5=2, and it is now a pretty straightforward double-dummy problem. If he has psyched with a 0=7=4=2, to protect the ♦Q that he may or may not hold, well that was very cunning of him.

How did East signal on the first trick? If it looks like he has 3 clubs or more, I run the ♣9 at trick two. If not I run the ♠J.

First I don't duck, because if I do they can switch to spades, set up 5 tricks, and my chances are now very thin. Since I am going to need some club tricks, I want to knock out the ♣A immediately. I would like to play twice from my hand towards ♣QJx, but entries are a problem. I take the first trick with the ♥K, and lead a club to the Q. I then continue clubs (♣J and club) until they take their ace. Here's what I'm thinking about at this point : 1) do I know if I have 2 or 3 club tricks? 2) do I duck a heart return if I'm sure West will win the trick? probably yes 3) what if East wins the ♣A and fires the ♠Q or ♠J? depends heavily on 1) 4) don't forget to unblock the ♦6 under the ♦A. The fourth round of diamonds might be a vital entry to dummy

This was the full hand given : [hv=n=sa54h2dak98763cj8&w=s6h953dqjtcat9765&e=skqj93h764d542c32&s=st872hakqjt8dckq4]399|300|Scoring: IMP[/hv]I agree the lead makes no sense, except maybe for hiding the solution a little more. And with - xxx xxx Axxxxxx, West could have defeated the slam via ♣A, club ruff. As several posters have already stated, the key is to throw the ♣KQ on the ♦AK, in order for the ♣J to become a second entry to dummy's good diamonds (who have to be 3-3).

You seem to play that encouragement when partner has led the A from AK means 'please continue with your K'. It's an interesting agreement, but I think the standard meaning is simply 'please continue the same suit'. Holding Qxx, if I wanted partner to underlead to my Q, I would encourage and hope he works it out. If I discouraged partner would not play me for the Q. (Q7 doubleton is the only exception)

[hv=n=sa54h2dak98763cj8&s=st872hakqjt8dckq4]133|200|Scoring: IMP[/hv] The bidding goes : (3♣) 3♦ (3♠) 5♥ (p) 6♦ (p) 6♥ all p West leads a small trump. What's your plan? (trumps are 3-3)

we play different methods (and had a different auction than what i posted) but the decision is identical to the one I posted The fact that responder cannot have 4+ spades for his 1NT bid is important. Here, that point is actually what - to me - tips the scale in favor of bidding 4♥. I would pass after 1♥ - 1♠ - 2♣ - 3♥.

In the line you described, it is slightly better to take an immediate finesse against East's ♥J after cashing the ♥A. You can then play exactly the same way, setting up the 5th diamond as the 13th trick, and at the end pull East's bare ♥J with the bare ♥K, cash the top clubs, cross to dummy with the ♠A, and cash the good diamond. Both lines work when East has 5(+) diamonds because he has to follow to the fifth round, but if he had only 4, he could ruff, killing the 13th trick. By taking the early finesse in trumps, you can establish the 5th diamond without giving him a chance to ruff it.

Pass, but X is tempting. I really dislike 5♥.

Same here.

If West started with HH xx Q10xxx 9762, he can be endplayed by playing on trumps, as Apollo81 stated. Nice!

5♠.

Declarer has several possible ways of setting up a ninth trick at trick 6 : 1) the diamond finesse, 2) playing West for the ♠10 (10xxx - AQ or 10xx - AQx), 3) playing East for ♠AQ10(x) and the ♦Q. Declarer went for 2). I find East's double aggressive. From declarer's point of vue, East has already shown ♣K10xxx and the ♠AQ. He probably needs the ♦Q for his double, but the bidding suggests that card will be poorly placed in East's hand. (Again, I think the double is very optimistic.) Declarer seemed to believe that East had it, and was right. Does he need the ♠10 too? Are the poor club suit and the likely badly placed ♦Q enough indication that East holds AQ10, and not simply the bare AQ? Tough decision...

I would show diamond support the first time with West's hand. If only 3♦ is available to support diamonds, then it is usually played with a wide range, from preemptive to a good game invite. If two bids are available to support (weak and good raise), then I think this hand is a minimum for the good raise. N-S might compete up to 4♥, E-W should reach 3NT or 5♦ (best).

I would've bid 4♥ instead of 3♥, with the super fits for partner's suits.

2♠, a slight overbid as others have said. I hope to be better placed to choose between 3NT, 4♥ and 5♦, depending on the form of scoring. Note : I play that opener showed 5+ diamonds and 4+ clubs.

♣A and a club. I think partner is very unlikely to be singleton in spades : that would give him a lot of hearts and diamonds, and he probably would've gone farther than 3♥. Also, South with three spades might have bid spades after his partner's X. He knows North has a weak hand, and so is probably showing a 5-card spade suit. <edit>If South started with the doubleton ♠Q, I take it and play him for a heart void.</edit>

I don't like opener's reverse much, I would have rebid 2NT. It seems to me responder got ambitious because he thought they had a 9-card fit, since the other features of his hand are rather unuseful (bad spade suit, likely club duplication). About the play, I would take the diamond in dummy and play a heart to the K. If the A is onside, great. If not, there is still a small chance in spades.

1♣ 1♥ 1♠ 2♦ 3♦ 4♥ p

X. Several good things can happen.

North probably has at least 4 spades for his 4♠ followed by 5♠, which leaves South with something like KJ98xx in spades and the ♦A, but not much else in terms of honors. Does he need to have the ♣Q for his red vs white 3♠? I think it's hard to tell : Would someone bid 3♠ here with KJ98xx x Ax Qxxx but not with KJ98xx x Ax xxxx? Maybe. With KJ98xx x AJxx Qx and not with KJ98xx x AJxx xx? It seems unlikely. Since I don't think there's a strong clue as to who holds the ♣Q, I'll just try to get a good count of the hand and finesse against the defender who's longer in clubs. So I'd cross to dummy in trumps twice to ruff the small spades, then pull trumps, play the top diamonds and ruff the fourth round. I know how the hearts and diamonds were distributed, and I'm betting on spades being 6-4. This line seems to give up on a diamond/club squeeze, but that's not the case : in order to be squeezed, the defender with 4+ diamonds needs to hold at least 3 clubs to the queen well, and if he has 3+ clubs, a correct count of the hand leads to a successful club finesse.

With a minimum 6-4, I would rebid the 6-card suit and forget about the 4-card one. Only with a hand worth 3 bids would I mention the 4-card suit at my second bid.

I'll start with the two sequences where responder rebids 2NT first, because I think they're clear-cut. 1♥ 1♠ 2♥ 2NT 3♦ shows a minimum 6-4, not interested in game. Most of the time, responder will pass 3♦ or go back to 3♥. Sometimes, his hand will improve enough that he'll go on to game. (with a great fit for diamonds for example) x AKJxxx Q10xx xx 1♥ 1♠ 2♦ 2NT 3♥ shows a non-minimum 6-4 and is game forcing. x AKJxxx AQ10x xx If responder bids 1♠ then 2♠, I think opener's bids show the same thing (♥-♥-♦ : minimum, ♥-♦-♥ : non-minimum), but I'm having a hard time coming up with actual possible hands for the minimum sequence. 1♥ 1♠ 2♥ 2♠ 3♦ Opener, minimum, knows partner has a weak hand with spades, and is adventuring at the 3 level without a known fit. That seems impossible. 1♥ 1♠ 2♦ 2♠ 3♥ Opener probably should have a very strong hand here, just short of a game-forcing rebid. 3♥ is non-forcing. Maybe K AKJxxx AQ10x xx or x AKJxxx AKQx xx