apollo1201

Opener probably has a highly distributional hand, 4-6 at min, could even be 5-6 or 4-7. With reasonable but not super strong HCP strength, I guess. And a sg diamond in declarer who’ll easily establish the suit. I am not sure I can cash 3 tricks. Let alone 4 with some unexpected help from an almost broke partner who couldn’t even find a competitive C or H bid over 1S. Could 5H be a cheap save, idk. But I sincerely doubt it is making. I’ll reluctantly pass and if possible in tempo. After all, in an ideal world, I cash HAK and CA on the lead, then declarer misguesses trumps finessing me for the SQ, or concedes me a D trick when establishing the suit.

11HCP, lousy suit(s), tight honors in short suit, no intermediaries. If you open at 11´s, yes. If you start at 12, given there are no reason to upgrade this disgusting collection, no. Especially with S that you might mention later. Make it KQT9x xx QJ9x Kx and it becomes much clearer.

Pass in tempo. And pass again at 4S, I’m not punishing partner who tried 4S with AQ to 6 or 7, void D and a side K. Minimum at red but realistic. We can’t expect nearly solid trumps and both rounded K. 5S might be in danger if we lose say a H and 2 trumps. Or 3 trumps when they split 7510 or worse around the table. But if we are Xed, I am XXing. Won’t be cheap, but will likely lead to a blow bath.

And W squeezed between his S and H because discarding before N on the run of a long minor in dummy 🤣🤣

When you open 6 something you usually intend to make by yourself or just be -1, and also you believe you won’t be able to scientifically find out if partner brings you the additional trick and not inadvertently blow a grand slam bonus. Maybe at green against red, it is not that much the case? I don’t know… But if that is the case, opener rates to have AKQ to 8 or 9 and void H, plus strong short minors with a small card (AKx(x)(x), AKJx, AQJx…and void or sg A in the other). Why should I be the only one to be 2-suited around the table? I know I have a natural trump trick, but that doesn’t mean partner will score one in a minor. Pass is therefore tossing a coin over that assumption. So I have to bid 7H as confidently as the 6S bid was made. A cheap insurance (I won’t be able to trump or discard all my S on dummy), but cheap save for cheap save, it might induce a 7S bid somewhere, and I’ll know what to bid on that. And partner won’t defend to 8H!

Playing vanilla methods, I guess it has to be 3H, 2H is really an underbid, even with a sg K and so much stuff in H that you don’t wanna trump with. And it’s red at IMPs. Partner must have felt lucky, though, that you didn’t bid 1S, what would his rebid have been? Ag least opening 1D looks safer as it leaves a 2C rebid open, barring the relative suit strengths. He knew with a 16-count 1444 that he’d likely have to lie at some stage in the auction, but opening 1C seems to put a bad start in what promises to be a shaky auction. Lots would have opened a strong NT, if they don’t play weak…

Partner has at max 10 HCPs and we need S KQ, HQ, and some of D points, which are probably not well positioned after the overcall on the left. Major Jacks could help as well, given distributions will not be flattish. That is asking too much. The fact that slam makes doesn’t mean we should be in it.

Late on the thread but I bid 4H just in case they bid 5C, to motivate partner (or cool her down) to bid on. Seems it was a well thought move, since now with only good news for me (good S, 4H to the Q and a DQ that will necessarily be useful), partner will gratify me with a 5H bid.

3H Idk if it is standard, and idk what my partner thinks, as I just « found » this thinking abt this hand, but with 44 M and enough for game, partner can bid 3S, *denying* 5H. Indeed, with 5H+4S, she can X, and if I have 3 or 4H, our fit is found, while if I have 2 or less H, I’d bid 3S with 4, again finding our fit, or 3NT if I can, or sth else. On those actions anyway, it is always hard to know if we « try » a major, when we have a stopper, or if we bid 3NT as soon as we can, given partner won’t be able to bid this and will bypass tthe contract if we bid 3M and it is still not a fit. Here it is easier though.

Lazy bidding by N. Partner showed an unbalanced hand with equivalent strength to a strong NT (otherwise they’d have opened 1NT!), with almost always a singleton (barring concentrated blacks 5422’s), so you have at max a wasted Q. But partner will more often have a sg D, and in that case, the HQ could help fill holes in partner’s residual suit. The rest of your hand consists in an opening strength, an extra trump in a suit headed by KQ, and a potentially useful CJ. What more does one need to at least investigate slam and cue 4D?

I think it is the other way round. You overcall 1S and then balance X to show a max overcall with support for the un bid suits. To me, X then 2S would be at least a K better. And (gotta check with partner, though) probably not so pure in terms of shape, rather 5233 but even stronger, or 51(43) or 6133, 62(32). But to answer the OP, X then new suit over a minimum answer from partner who could be broke is 17/18 or so, at least, taking shape and suit quality / length into consideration.

The hand is not as good as its shape and point count would suggest. The suit is weak, the longest « side suit » is a blank honor (at least it is the A!), and there are some tight honors. At least do we have lots of A and K’s. Despite all that, game is not a remote likelihood. It could « often enough » make. At MPs, Im not pushing. so I would invite. Or pass. To bid 3H next and better plan the play. Might bid 2S (look at your S and only prime values elsewhere) or 2NT general strength. A lot of this will depend on the field and the opps level. At IMPs, green, I’ll invite at least but bashing will be less revealing, even if it is an overbid, IMO.

I think smerriman gave a good example. Cueing a K or a sg will always be a cue and partner will not always (unless they have AK) know what it is. Then what, are my KQx good facing the ace, or are they useless, and these 5 points will be lacking in other suits to make the slam good. That is where the « tight definition » that other posters mentionned plays its role. Splinters need to convey a well and narrowly defined strength (but sufficient for game obviously!) meaning « partner, if you have no wasted points facing my shortness and the overall appropriate strength for slam, knowing how much I have outside the shortage, then slam might be on, let’s investigate, but otherwise, just bid game and make it😉 ». Therefore I think splinters are useful to the extent they are properly used and not just bid for the pleasure of making an extravagant jump and show to the opps look how clever I am I know a convention you guys might not know.

Not (yet!) playing 2/1, an easy and almost natural auction. 1S (this hand is so much better than some quacky12 points 4333´s, I’ve not been dealt those 10-9 for nothing) - 2C (or 2D, your plan is to get to 3NT unless partner turns out with 6S or 4H) 2H (compulsory here unlike 2/1 when you could show them after a forcing 2NT) - 3H (forcing, just in case) 4H (min despite good shape but xxx C is worrying) - pass (flattish 14 HCP made of K and J’s, yes, Kx S is good but the rest is not really better than what we’ve expressed so far)

Actually after the transfer you can use 2NT as forcing and not showing a balanced invite with 5-cd M (*). Opener’s duty is to clarify whether they have a 3-cd (sometimes 4!) fit or not. Then all can go, BW, 3 w/o Q but you can conclude if you have 9 or 10 trumps. (*) those invites have to go through Stayman, then you rebid 2M over partner’s answer (or jump to the M game if you find a 9-cd fit). Well, with H, if partner replies 2S, you bid 2NT and pray. Good partners who accept the invite will always remember to bid 3H with 3-cds en route to 3NT. A very revealing auction that I have never seen, though.

It seems both partner and opener exchanged their cards after the opening, then switched back after the final pass. Anyway going down is bad score for you since it must be only minuses the other way at 2 or 3NT.

I guess it is the equivalent of a delayed TOX of 1C-1NT? Opps likely have a minor fit and half of the deck, we have presumably a S fit and half of the deck. Let’s say I pass and see where they run. But I’m probably bidding 2S after, even if partner doesn’t bid them. And then *not* Xing 3m if they compete. This deal will not create a lot of IMPs anyway. Unless someone has an MP score of +470 or 530. Which at teams, with reasonable persons, expected flattish distributions and balanced strengths around the table, should not happen.

3H if forcing promising 6 3D otherwise To see if partner gives a belated H tolerance or repeats their S (showing 6, now). If partner bids 3NT instead, looks like 5134 or « worse » and 3NT will not be a piece of cake. I’d like the H 10 however to confidently bid 4H over that. Toss a coin maybe?

I can’t find words to describe your partner’s bidding. Let’s say I’m not a native speaker. Your X is also very cautious, 4H (even undiscussed, what can it be except an extreme 2-suiter with blacks) will put more pressure. A plausible auction 2D - 3S - 4H - 6S, with a smile saying « and please now, make the guess » Bidding 4 then 6 is bad bridge as you let opps exchange a lot of info. Your goal is to disturb them as much as you can so that they cannot use their methods to find a slam (or stay away from a bad one). But if they bid 7, I think it is safer to bid 7. A void is likely and partner probably won’t have a defensive trick, so all H and D will provide tricks. I don’t see how your partner could find a X. The top is to let very timid opps play 5+2. But it is not easy to find.

The suit is terrible, we are red. But I’m 6-4. Bidding 2D at MPs (not proudly). Looking at the stage of the match at IMPs.

The 2nd question is a bit hard to understand but a green W could easily use Landy with AJ9xx QJxx xxx x. Easier in the balancing seat but there is no balancing as N is not passing. in all cases, that won’t change the sequence 1NT (whatever) 3NT (and now, please, if you may find the lead?). I’ve realized that advertising which suit you stop will often help the lead. And 5D is a long shot away with just 9HCP balanced. The opening is 1NT for me because the C suit is too weak to rebid with a jump, while the hand is too strong to rebid 1C-2C. Oh, did I mention that I want the lead coming to my hand?

Opening 2C with a S void at red vs green is wanting to introduce your first suit at the 5-level if not higher because your opps were lazy to bid only to 4S (the 6-5 hand with almost solid spades should bid at least 3, then the other hand would go at 5 minimum). 1C followed here by 4NT would be a better description. Anyway here, instead of bidding 5C, you can pass, which is obviously forcing, to see what partner does. If they bid 5H (probably showing a decent 5-cd suit after the X of 2S), you can raise to 6 (7 might be there but you need HAK and DK and no accident, and partner would not bid 5 only with all that stuff). If they bid 5m, you can show your S void, just in case, although even if partner has the HA, there might be just not enough winners / discards on the C for 7. If they X, showing a non-offensive hand preferring to defend, you can now bid 5C that will show a really forward-going hand (you pass the bucket to partner, they chose, and you override their choice). Here, partner could hope an A, a K, xx fit and a likely S shortage in your hand could be enough, or might push opps to save.

Haha I ve played *with* Thomas😉 Against as well But he is as nice both ways!

Welcome back to the game. Lots of questions but from what you did and suspect would be better, you seem to have not lost too much during those idle years! 1st hand - X is ok, provided (and that is the most important part of the sentence) 4C was game forcing. Then passing the 4S bid would mean partner, I am glad if you bid on, but am not alone sufficently strong or distributed to do so. While X says I am rather defending this than bidding on offense to make a contract, leave this if your hand is flat but bid on only if you think you can make. So it is not pure penalty. Here, the hand is mixed feelings, you have a sg in partner's suit and 3 small in opps, but the rest of the hand is quite nice, with a good honor structure and not minimal. Actually, I think I’d pass, but with the limited agreements you had with partner, and also not sure how weak 4C might be, it was probably safer to X. Given some pairs made 10 tricks in S, maybe partner shouldn’t have left the X. 2nd hand: partner must X then all is plain sailing after that. So it is not an unlucky board, it is 100% on them. 3rd hand: you got lucky because facing a passed hand, I’d have left partner in 2D (figure out a hand such as xx xx AQJxxx Hxx) 4th hand - like hand #2, X is better, partner will bid 1NT and make lots of tricks. In all cases, fitting with just 3-cd is bad 5th hand - the duck is unnecessary in 99.9% of the cases, and the lead in dummy’s advertised long side suit should have immediately rung a suspicious bell 6th hand - partner ate a lion at lunch, the hand is worth a slam try for sure but driving there alone…the good bid is probably at some stage a « mini Joséphine » trump ask, ie bid slam with 2 of AKQ (knowing you don’t have DK, at MPs it is not a slam you want to be if there is also a losing trump trick) 7th hand - your opps were very keen; you were lucky because I’d want a sg with such a rubbish hand to preempt, the downside being partner will bid 4 with a good hand and get Xed with nothing making their way, or may even compete to 5H over 4S, expecting something useful in your hand, and lose 500 while aiming 100 or 300 against 420

1st question is easy. Green, AK 6th and some side goodies. A minimal but normal overcall. If partner next jumps to 3NT, I won’t be ashamed tabling dummy. Now, over the reopening X, 5C would be exaggerate I think, even if partner’s hand is not too well defined at that stage (I guess with 4-cd S suit, they would bid 3S? what strength can we expect?). If we could legitimately hesitate the round before to fit partner over 3H, now I think it it too late to have 2nd thoughts. We could lose 3 tricks depending on partner’s major holdings and C suit (Axx Kxx xx AQJxxx or AKx xxx xx AKxxxx). Comes back again to what can we expect from partner. Easy at MPs and safe choice at IMPs, we’re not even red to consider being lucky or bold.