apollo1201

Not sure if it is a slam try or a game invite with 6 as I just play 2C implying 2D answer, and 2D GF relay. So not a big expert of check back that btw gives a lot of info on declarer’s hand. Not even sure what 2NT means (max with 2 hearts?). In all cases, it is on how to judge this hand in the context. I put some criteria, not necessarily in the right order, that I like to analyse. HCP - 13, right in the middle of the 12-14 Shape - 4432 but the doubleton is in trumps (more about that later) 5-cd suit - no Honor structure - rather good, grouped honors in long suits, not too quacky but KJ / KJ is not as great as A / A, especially when tabling dummy Trump support - almost the worst you could have (a bigger honor would be better but you could have xx), did you deny a 3rd heart already? Intermediates - the C9 doesn’t look promising yet, but makes the C suit rather attractive, on the contrary, my « presumed » D suit is not appealing at all (not that I recommend opening 1C, though) Overall, the hand is really in the middle, with good and bad news. Maybe a bit more bad than good depending on what 2NT meant. If partner’s style is conservative and if it is IMPs you could have a go at game. Otherwise probably better to pass. If partner was looking for slam, 3S would be a cue bid and a bit too encouraging. 4H would be really a horrible hand and you don’t have that. So 3NT, yes but no, the middle road, would be my choice. Sth like I’m not overly thrilled but I have a few things you might like, I’ll let you juste if they are enough if you continue investigating, but I won’t be taking charge and making decisions. Make my Jack the Queen of trumps and I’ll cue.

This one is for you 😝😝😝😝😁😁😁😁😁 for once Partner gave you a 2nd chance. Given the auction, unless opps are crazy, partner doesn’t have a trump stack. Maybe HA or HK but he expects them to go down by overall defensive strength, you opened and they have some more points if you expect 9+ for the 2S bid (and that your pass was not forcing). In all cases, partner’s X doesn’t obligé you to pass and with such an offensive hand, and partner’s expected honors, a high level contract in either minor looks like plain sailing. If you suspect that partner will not get 4NT, bid 5C. But I would have acted the round before.

I don’t think W bid 4D but even with the 3D bid, partner knows 4S likely make (2 aces + a trick from partner, maybe CQ scores but maybe not), and at green 5D should be very cheap (2 aces + 5 or 6 tricks on average from partner and a few ruffs), even if partner preempted with less than usual given the vulnerability. And if you bid 2D, they’ll bid 5D but this time to make. Even doing a slam try is possible but xxx trumps is a bit less that what partner could expect for a slam try. So even if 3D is clearly not such a good bid, the 2 subsequent passes by partner are truly bad. Same story again.

Tough calls, and eager to see the results. On the phone I have to « spoil » but will read David with great interest after! 1) I am not committing to 4S, not enough cards or spots. 4mX, 4S or even 4NT could be the right spot. The best way to know is X to convey values and use forcing passes thereafter (if LHO runs to 4m and partner passes, or if it gets back to RHO and I can pass their subsequent 4m bid). I’ll respect partner’s choices. 2) Hell. Someone has 6 C (or 7 bad) and didn’t bid 3C. I can try to go scientific (red opps who didnt open won’t bounce the bidding now) but not sure I’ll find HA and SK. Or CA and they have a natural opening lead. If I need to gamble, I open 6D, otherwise 5D. 3) I already said I had a fair hand with 3C. The black jacks are nice but as cute as they may be, are they big enough to fill partner’s suits? So bidding 4S could be enough. But that DA might be all partner needs. I guess with Jxx Kxxx KJx Jxx I might have bid 2NT rather than 3C. So 4D is probably best and disciplined, hoping all will stay under control. That is 2 encouraging bids with a nice but not that powerful hand. 4) Waouh. Is that a 7-6 with 2 « holes »? Or 7-5 maybe AKJxx and AKQ 7th? I certainly have good news with the HA (partner’s void is more likely D than H) and SQ (and who knows, the ten of C if LHO has J 5th) and I feel we must play a slam. But I am not sure which suit, will « 5NT pick a slam » work here? Maybe 6C is safer. But I’m not passing. 5) Yuck. What does RHO pass mean? If I pass, is LHO obliged to bid if they have a plain 16-count? If I correct to 3C, is their pass forcing? Passing could have them rescue us with a 2NT or 3 red call, but it it goes pass pass X all pass, the 3C correction will be equally hammered. Bidding 3C now might avoid the bloodbath. I’d like to know which suit could be longer, can it be 5S and 6C, or 6S and 5C. I was told the cheaper can be longer so that partner, picking the cheapest call with no preference, will be in the better fit. I am more enclined to pass…

A bit weak for 4NT, partner and RHO have a bunch of hearts. You might survive a 4C bid, hoping it is the right one you picked. But some play 4m ad m+H. I think 3NT is more useful as natural here than showing a not too strong minor 2-suiter. And it is unlikely, although not completely hopeless, that partner can contribute sth useful in S to help our half stopper. And we’re red. Was it MP or IMPs? I think I have to pass - after all, it is not a full worth 15 HCP hand and we’re scr*** in the auction. But not too confident it is the winning call.

Easy 2H. Even so more at green vs red!

Is it a bord a match where some of the points are allocated based on the IMPs difference and some based on each deal? I’ve played an event (4-deal matches) where half of the pts were allocated by deal (you score 0, 1 or 2) and the remaining 8 based on the IMP difference (with an appropriate scale from 0 to 8). With this allocation, I’d be reluctant to take the finesse

Thx Helene I had the hand reversed, and indeed it is a (very) borderline TOX. Only green at pairs worth the risk, I guess.

I thought it was a penalty X based on S, asking partner to lead S. As you usually don’t want to stick your neck at the window in what looks like a misfit auction and more or less 20-20 HCP situation, and as with a TOX hand you’d have done it one round earlier. Or is it just with green greeen?

Slightly off topic, but worth mentioning about game tries more generally in a competitive context, like in your sentence where you want to invite S: - bidding 3 of your suit is just competitive but doesn’t ask partner’s advice, they should not raise to 4 - if opps bidding leaves no room to investigate (e.g. they have the suit under yours), X tends to be the maximal (game try) - if opps bidding leaves space (eg they compete with D while you play S), X is penalty while the suit(s) in the middle show the game try (not necessarily related to the suit mentionned as there might only be one bid available, eg 3H in the example I gave) Here, as others mentioned, the non-bypassing of D might mean sth, although you were unlucky to get the lopsided weak hand KQJxxx vs xxxx.

Partner with a semi-balanced red hand (even 5431) should strive to rebid 2NT rather than the extremely space consuming 3D. OTOH, some play that a jump to 3M is 6 D and 4 M so that your story is told one level lower than standard methods. Should we play this trick, then 4H is a cue agreeing S. Playing standard, it is unlikely we are off 2 aces or one + DK (unless partner has lots of black honors and feared 1D might get passed). But 5H tells that I have a good trump support and nothing else useful to say. Partner will visualize KJxx, 5 spades and no C singleton, and maybe some non-ace side honors. They would be able to figure out what next - probably 6H, more rarely 7 or pass.

The other question being should N be allowed to show H support at the 4-level… W’s bid is...

Yeah, so I was told because with equal lengths, partner should usually make the more economic bid. So a bit the hen and the egg, finally.

I read this story once which was quite funny. A rich sponsor plays with a quite famous champion and says when I bid 4C it is Gerber. Then the 3C - p - 4C! auction arrives. The champion alerts the 4C bid and when his RHO asks what it is, the champion is quite annoyed. The RHO was actually mister Gerber.

Maybe that with a potentially unequal 2-suiter, it is preferable that the longer should be the cheaper? BTW that is why I play 2C for majors

On the contrary, I think it exists, but we lack info from the OP… The rest is my interpertation. I tend to take the fact that partner voluntarily hid support to bid S is to fake a preference should we rebid 2m over 1S. With a hand that doesn’t want us to go to 3M if opps compete, or look for game over a more forward going 2H and fail at the 3 level with our « elegant » 15 HCP 5431 hand. Something like Kxxx xxx Qx xxxx or QJxx xxx Kxx xxx (or a worse quacky flattish hand), a bare minimum 6 « support » points. That is sometimes playing a dangerous game. But avoids getting overflow. Then we have an easy pass. Maybe knowing our 15-17 range will décide partner if they like their meager collection, but we’ve said it all already

The key word is anticipation. True, an undisturbed auction might let you express your shape (or at least 55) nicely. But it not unlikely that your 2nd bid might be at the 5-level. Starting with 1H and make forcing bids repeating D ad nauseam will help partner judge better. Starting with 2C and tossing a coin on which suit you bury when the bidding gets you back at 4S (absent some unusual NT bids or forcing passes, that are probably too advanced notions for beginners) is not as pleasant, right? There is virtually no chance the bidding dies at 1H pass pass pass.

That one is hilarious

3H is not even a fit, could be a doubleton with no C stopper and no rebiddable S (bad 5-cd or 4-cd suit). You can hog 3NT because it might be the last makeable game when nothing fits, or bid methodically with 4D. End playing you in a lousy 4H or 5D. I’ll toss a coin. Not feeling enthusiastic today. Edit - maybe 3NT saves more space and will clarify easier if the H fit is real or not, and also might score better at MPs (scoring method?)

This issue is system dependent and you need to agree on what to do with those hands. Systems with 2 strong openings (2C and 2D for GF « 24+ » vs almost GF « 22-23 bal or strong 2 »), plus the natural 2NT (20-21) are less used nowadays because they lack aggressity (you can’t play multi or 2-suited 2M’s for instance). The solutions I know are: - to play strong 2 majors (2S like this hand) and add strong 2 minors in the multi but again you don’t open aggressively enough for modern taste - to open 1S and agree with partner that with hands that make game over a strong 2 but too weak to respond otherwise, they should respond nevertheless (and you need to manufacture a 3m rebid on this one followed by 3S if you have space to do so) - to have a 2-way 2C opening, either GF or strong in M (8 -8.5 tricks), with 2D establishing a GF, and 2M being if you have a strong 2, I want to stop there (plus other refinements in the follow-ups or the consequences) There might be other methods but you have to pick something otherwise you risk being the only pair in 1S+3 or 4S-1 with this kind of hands depending on what lie you choose with the openings your system allows and what partner has. Those methods have some drawbacks on the precision of slam sequences but allow more preemptive openings at the 2 level. One can’t have it all.

Actually where I’m from is either 30-41 or 41-30. That was even the code of the front door in the building a club I used to play at was located!

There will be blood.

Overcalls at the 2-level with 5-cd suits are more common with H (find fit to potentially play game at the 4 level and use ruffing power to take tricks than with minors (the game in minors is 9 tricks as you all know😁😁and you need a long suit to develop them). The quality of the suit is well enough to be bid. As MikeH says (as always), I’ll describe my hand much better with bidding H and X than the reverse which would overstate my strength. I’ll X with x Axxxx AQx AQxx but that is not what I have today so 2H for me. Which doesn’t mean I’m not signing in for 8 or 1100 when partner is broke and KJ97x are sitting over me (these things happen) - if that was what triggered the question!

Given that you balance with a K less than a TOX, the 1H advance has to go a K higher too, so is more 0-11 than 0-8. After all, unless you have a minimal opening or less, you’re supposed to bid again after Xing.

You’d have made the same bid (X reopen) without 2 of your 3 goodies in D., or without the SA and DK. You therefore owe partner a bid as they’ll jump to 2H only with a hand worth opening or very close to. So definitely yes, 2H.