MickyB

No, it's played partly because you'll often give away less information through puppet - e.g. 1N:3C, 3D:3H, 3N doesn't tell oppo whether opener has four hearts. I really dislike 1N:2C as five-card Stayman, there are a bunch of hands below GF values with interest in both majors that are difficult to handle without vanilla Stayman.

Anyone care to do a sim?

It's very likely that at least one suit is breaking 3-3. RHO's most common shapes are 6(322) and 6(331). I think you should play on diamonds first, intending to play on hearts next. If RHO shows up with two hearts and three diamonds, I would play him to be 6232 and risk the club finesse. [The finesse is not necessary if he shows up with three hearts and two diamonds, because LHO is then squeezed in the minors]. Edit: Sorry, slow post, EricK beat me to it.

I see they played 2C as 4+/3+ majors either way, does anyone have any more info? Cheers

Sorry I forgot the scoring [again]. The hands I posted were all IMPs. I think I've not got used to the "new" BBF not including the scoring in the diagram.

I felt 4N was right too. Vs us, this hand bid 4S; The hand opposite was x Axx AQJxx AQ97 and found a 5C bid, raised to 6C, making 13 tricks with KJxx club onside. At the other table, the hand in the OP bid 5H, hoping this was pick-a-slam showing a 1st round heart control along the way. Opener picked 7C, so we gained a rather fortunate swing.

I doubled and led a club, this was -790. A diamond is +200, a spade or a top trump is +800. I wondered after if there was a case for a top trump, even with QJ on your right you often won't have four trump tricks. The opposing hands were - JTx xxxx KQ9xx x xxx QJxxx A AKQJ A diamond lead allows you to play another round when you ruff the 4th club which messes up the timing for the endplay.

I quite like this rule, assuming it only applies after a 2N opening not a 1N opening. 4H was successful on this hand, partner held xxx JT987 A9 JTx, so 4H was massively better. Trumps were 5-1 but it was still worth a swing when four rounds of diamonds stood up.

I agree with Zel, bridge is no less watchable than [precisely one of] chess or poker.

Sounds like you've not noticed the double of 5H.

Ah yes, sorry, not sure why I mentally converted "4+diamonds" to "4=diamonds".

The double squeeze with hearts as the pivot doesn't work unless you've ruffed RHO's spade out. RHO guards spades and diamonds past dummy, LHO guards hearts. I think ruffing RHO's spade card out only gains if he is 2-3-4-4 precisely i.e. LHO would need to have stiff jack of trumps.

Edit: Let's say it showed a good hand that doesn't want to bid. I'm also interested in how you would play it by choice.

[hv=pc=n&s=s6haq73dtcakqt954&n=sa84h654dak9843c3&d=s&v=n&b=15&a=1c(%20Nat%20or%2017-19%20NT)3s3np4cp4dp4np5hd7cppp]266|200|SK lead[/hv]

[hv=pc=n&s=sa74hakdkqj5ca742&d=e&v=e&b=6&a=p2n(20-21)p3dp3hp3nppp]133|200|Would you have bid differently at any point? Any call other than 3H would have shown a good hand for hearts.[/hv]

[hv=pc=n&s=sak7532hdk54ct843&d=n&v=n&b=5&a=1d(4%20cards)2h2s4hdp]133|200[/hv]

[hv=pc=n&s=sq65hakt9dj65ct54&d=n&v=b&b=13&a=p1h(5%20cards)p3h(weak%5Bish%5D)p4h]133|200|Do you double, and what's your lead? Pips outside trumps are approximate[/hv]

In his Bridgematters interview, Chip Martel said it was clear to rebid 1NT when playing weak NT. I think he went as far as saying he'd give up weak NT if he had to rebid 1S on balanced hands with four cards. I agree - when you have some extras, but not enough to comfortably commit to 2NT, you want to show your strength ASAP - which is why I play a strong(ish) 1NT opening in the first place! Playing strong NT, it is closer, but I am still firmly in the camp that rebids 1NT. - On unbalanced hands, I am much better placed, both in terms of reaching 2C/3C when it is right, and 4SF auctions as described by jallerton. - On balanced hands with four spades, there are swings and roundabouts. Rebidding 1NT limits my hand better and makes it easier to reach 2H. - On balanced hands without four spades, the losses are small - eg 4S5H invite is likely to get higher in my style. I've intentionally ignored information leakage to defenders because that is very hard to quantify. After 1m:1H, 1NT, I think it is important to have a way to show 5H4S weak, although most pairs seem not to now two-way checkback has superceded simple checkback. If you open 1C on all weak NTs, I think it is clear to rebid 1NT on these hands; I would hate to play that 1C:1H, 1S could be a 4-3-4-2 12-count or a 4-1-3-5 12-count.

What if you want to play game opposite a 3-card LR but not opposite a 4-card LR?

To Phil and Zel - Is 1N:2C, 2S:2N natural or transfer? If the latter, how do you bid with INV with 4 hearts?

This is only true if both North and South are barred from the auction. There are loads of situations where you shouldn't double a contract that you know is going off, for fear that they run to a contract that makes. If RHO is balanced then it is unlikely that they will make 3C, but to describe it as a serious error is pretty harsh, especially as a double is likely to help oppo if RHO has psyched.

Or West reminds North what the bid means and misses out on benefitting from their system forget. Not adjusting is ridiculous. While you can argue that West should know/should double anyway, there's no way he wouldn't have doubled if 2NT had been alerted. It's not part of the game to put up extra hurdles by giving MI. Besides, you don't want to reward anyone who decides to deliberately not alert in this situation.

Partner has JTx QJT xx AKxxx. We pushed them to 3H but still went -140 with +620 on. Obviously they've lucked out by missing 4H on trumps 2-1.

[hv=pc=n&s=saq985hdj9865cq97&d=s&v=n&b=15&a=p1h(4+%21H)p1s]133|200|IMPs. If you pass, the auction continues 2H-P-P.[/hv]

It was probably the look of fear that you'd call the TD and get an adjustment to 4S X or similar.