smerriman

Normally, you give up the natural 1N (transfer to clubs), not the redouble.

Doesn't line 1 work in both those cases? If you finesse first, the jack drops under the ace at trick 2. But masse24's line looks very promising. Edit - I think I see what you mean; you were comparing to that line, not the same line as nige1 (was confused by your quote about singleton K, which both these lines pick up). So you're right, A then leading towards the Q loses to J9x, but gains for Jx and 9xx, so is better than the triple finesse after all.

On this note, if East is trying to show count at trick 1 as described, why would they play the 5? Seems a pretty ambiguous choice.

In this case wouldn't you get to exactly the same contract? Or are you really not bidding 3NT over 3♠? With weakness in both majors, not pinpointing them to the opposition when you quite possibly have 9 running tricks isn't exactly the worst bid GIB has made.

With 10 HCP and 5 hearts you would bid 2♥. Double here shows exactly 4 hearts, OR a hand with 5+ hearts that is too weak to bid 2♥. (Obviously, it depends a bit on your shape / where your honors are located, since pass is an option too.)

That means those cards let declarer make 3♠+1, while the diamond restricts the contract to 3♠=. You can click the Play button and click cards to see how things adapt with various lines.

For what it's worth, if you click on the GIB button, you'll see that a diamond lead is in fact the only way to hold declarer to 9 tricks. Though of course, the fact the diamond lead didn't work doesn't necessarily mean it wasn't the best lead.

Or somewhere on page 1, possibly. But then again, this.

This is not true; none can be both singular, and plural. It's a common grammar myth that it can only be singular. It can mean "not any" (plural), or "not one" (singular). Even the King James Bible has an example with the plural form (it's not a contemporary thing); so good luck correcting that ;)

10 or more, or exactly 16? 10 or more isn't important; it isn't until the hit the limit of 16. I often go to MyHands a while after playing some hands, and notice some are missing; I check back the next day, and they show up. Probably because someone is sitting at one of the 16 tables and not bidding, etc. But if you mean they've been played by the full 16 tables, show up in my hands initially, then disappear again, then I have no idea.

I believe they only appear once the board has been completed by the requisite number of tables (which may take some time).

I would start with: 1C - 1H 2N - 3C (Wolff) 3D - 3N (Slam interest in clubs) That should get us to 6C at least, but after that it depends a bit on whether that D of diamonds is the queen of not.

I'm reading it just fine. See the word 'response' next to the first 2♦, and how it is in the box for 2♣? That means it is a response to the 2♣ bid. See how on the right of the 2♦, 2♥, and 2♠ boxes say RONF, 2NT asks feature? They are conventions played over weak two openings.

Are you referring to this? The first 2♦ mentioned is a response to a strong 2♣ opener. The second 2♦ is a 2♦ opening bid.

I don't know what you're saying here. 2♦ doesn't mean "I have nothing much", nor "weak with diamonds".

Well, 5♦ is clear after you read the definition for 4♣ :) As for 3♠, who knows. It appears it has defined its previous pass as 0-2 points. If it passes again, it describes that as 0 points. Probably has a rule that with support and a "maximum", keep the bidding alive.

If you move the jack of clubs to West, then the line to make is very cool, but I'm not saying anything since all I did was look at it in double dummy. Whether East opens that hand 1♠, I don't know.

I don't think 'suggests' is the right word. Neither of those suggests opening 1S to me.

Clearcut 1N for me. I play 3♣ as Puppet as per here.

GIB will happily double when it considers itself too strong to overcall, but simply has never been programmed to handle continuations.

Thanks, that all makes sense. I agree regarding your last paragraph - but I also think that weak jump shifts are even lower frequency, and people start to stretch the hands they bid them on even more. So if the choice is between those two, I'd rather go strong. (For jump shifts to the three level, invitational is clearly better than either.)

See my posts. clubs()<2 is not a splinter; clubs()<2 and diamonds()>=4 is a splinter (and would only apply if you had bid 3♣). It looks like that misunderstanding is the primary reason you got unstuck by bidding 2♠, thinking you had a splinter hand in the first place, and your confusion over why you then couldn't show your club shortness (because it promises a splinter for diamonds). And that sim still doesn't match the 3♠ definition.

So the system on that page is plain wrong? As is the later example:

While I'm here, I actually have my own question about Soloway and Karen Walker's interpretation of it that I've always been meaning to ask. She says one option is: She also says: With the hand described above, after: 1♦ - 2♠ - 3♠ Is a new suit still a splinter for diamonds, or a cue in spades? If the latter, doesn't that mean we could be playing in a bad spade fit (possibly 5-2 - or even 5-1!) instead of a great diamond fit? If the former, how are spades set as trumps? If I need to bid 4♦ to set diamonds, what do I bid when wanting to play in spades but have xx in clubs? I know there's an alternative form of Soloway with relay responses, but the version she mentions must be playable.

The definition GIB uses for solid suit can be found here: https://www.bridgebase.com/doc/gib_descriptions.php I therefore ran a sim with these conditions: The results over 500 deals: 13 tricks: 48.8% 12 tricks: 34.8% 11 tricks: 12% 10 tricks: 4.4% 6♠ is a terrible bid - but only because of the high chance of making 7. After hearing 3♠, North should never be stopping at less than a slam - GIB just isn't good enough to find 7. Edit - I like Cyberyeti's definition more, which could have one loser - adjusting the sim to use those figures still clearly gives 6♠ as the minimum contract you want to reach.