ochinko

What matters is whether your bidding makes sense to your partner. The standard meaning of a takeout double is to let your partner pick up the trump suit. Misdescribing your hand, and blaming partner for trusting you doesn't look like a good idea to me. When you failed to bid clubs right away and your partner have chosen hearts 6C from you sound like a simple cue bid pushing your partner towards 7H.

First, you pretend to have at least three hearts, then your bid means you have no 6-card suits when you have a 7-card suit. How are you going to convince your partner afterwards that the clubs in your line are better than the hearts when your LHO jumps to 4Sp after your double? Look at the actual hand. Is it likely that your partner is going to leave you in 6C instead of correcting to 6H? East leads a small trump, and you're down in 6H while 6C is cold.

No matter which system you play, 2♥ is at least a 1-round force. The reason for it is logical. Even if 2♣ only shows 10+ hcp, a new suit by opener is forcing, because the rebid shows 12-18. Consequently, a 2-o-1 responder can't pass opposite a hand that could have up to 18. Thank you, Roland. Wasn't completely sure, so I decided to be on the safe side :) Petko

And is consistant with a 4NT opening when you're 6-6 in the minors. :) Yes, it comes only once in a leap year but who opens 4NT anyway? We too have no normal use of 2NT since it's covered by our strong multi option.

With 4 out of 5 key cards I certainly would want to play a slam. We all know that Blackwood is over(ab)used, it just seems right here. What if opps have two quick tricks in clubs and because I bid scientifically they found them and we couldn't discard a club? If I decide to cue bid here it would probably be a psychic 4C. :)

Quantitative means that if the opener is at his maximum HCP in the line should amount to 33. If South believes 4NT is quantitative, Pass is right with the minimum. The bidding sugests there was a misunderstanding. Can't apportion the blame without knowing their agreement. If there is no agreement, North should jump to 6NT to avoid the possible misunderstanding. If I was South, I'd probably pass 4NT too. And once again, as flytoox found, there's likely to exist 7D here. An expert pair should have the tools to find it. I'm no expert, but I still search...

1Sp - 2C 2H if it's 1F, else 3H - 3NT 4Sp -... I can't open with 2/3Sp because I have a strong hand, not a weak one, 2 aces and a void. The last thing I'd want here is to preempt my partner. Since I have 3 losers and 4 quick tricks, 2C would be right even with so few points if my hand had only one suit. But we still could have a slam in hearts and not have a game in spades if they brake badly. For the same reason I can't open 4Sp. It would be even worse than 2C because now my chances to find a spade slam virtually disappear.

1NT (assuming 15-17) has about 6 losers. I have 6 as well, so I won't close the bidding in 4Sp, nor will I inform the opps of my shape by cue bidding. I'll go for Blackwood just in case, then I bid 5 or 6Sp.

Not only double but 2/3Sp, 2NT (unusual) - all go to the trash can. It is obvious that the only thing I can bid is clubs. The quesion is - how many? 5C is too committal. Why not 3 or 4C? I too am willing to go 5C when LHO bids 4Sp (and double 5S), but any help from partner will send me where I'd really like to be - in 6C. 5C may even go down, and I'll be in 3 or 4. On the other hand, when I bid the clubs slowly, I'm more likely to play 5C doubled to make :P I have a partner who should have a say too. I am not weak, so I don't have to close the bidding trying to guess the contract myself. Even 2C is a much better bid than 5C.

After the opening I count hands with a fit in losers rather than points. So 4Sp from South means a hand that would make a game if North has 9 LTC, i.e. South should bid 4Sp with 5 LTC. North sees only 7 in his hand, so the slam is obvious. If we look at South's hand, it actually has 7 losers, so my rebid in his place would be 2NT, not 4Sp, even if that would mean to hide the fit for a while.

I lead boldly the CQ :P My plan is to find the CK in partner, and if the Q gets ducked I continue with the small club. It is very dangerous to cash the SA because the only entry in partner's hand, so that I can ruff a club, could be the SK. I expect to see one or three small spades in dummy. I know that partner has exactly 3 spades (thank you, Marty Bergen), and 3:1 break in opps' spades is more probable than 2:2. If partner has CA instead, she ducks encouragingly - again I get that vital club ruff. If partner has CJ10xx I still haven't conceded a club trick. What's the point of leading a diamond anyway? Is it likely that we have a trick there that should be taken fast? It's a very simplistic rule, and shouldn't be applied blindly, but to set a suit contract when you have the Ace of trumps, you usually look for a ruff either in yours or in partner's hand. I can't see where the partner could ruff, so I hope to ruff a club.

What mechanisms do you use to find a slam in a minor with 4:4 fit when you've already found a 5(6):3 major fit? I'm sorry if the question is too vague, I hope you'll provide some examples as well. Many thanks. Petko

I believe that opps are more likely to have a fit in spades rather than in hearts, so my partner's high card(s) in spades need more protection than my HK. We could not even have a spade trick, and be able to make 3NT only because the lead is much less likely to be a spade if partner is the declarer. Would you lead a spade if you are East knowing that your lead could provide the vital 9th trick?

How about 3C? As much as I like to land on 3NT, I'd prefer it to be played from partner's hand, even though it would be the weaker one in this case.

I raise. I have the fit and the points, so I won't mind the flatness and the abundance of losers. For me to pass you'll have to replace HA with HK, or CQ with CJ, or two of 10's with x's.

Partner is not very strong (no 1♣ opening) and is probably only showing shape (5-5 in the blacks) so 3NT and not more seems practical :ph34r: Partner could still have 15 points, and I only need 13 (with an ace in them) for us to have 32 combined. If partner has only 11 a pass from him was better than 3C even with 6:6. If I bid 6NT at least I showed that I trusted my partner more than I trusted LHO. If I close at 3NT and make 6 both me and my partner are going to feel more depressed than if I go down at 6NT. 3NT looks like less adventurous and more professional bid. No wonder I skipped it. :rolleyes:

Partner isn't forced to bid after 2H, so what does 3C show - just distribution, or some additional strength? Anyway, I bid 6NT, LHO doubles and cashes both black aces. This is not my day. :rolleyes:

And I wish I always got doubled when I got 15 tricks from the top. Never mind the contract :)

LHO has a Queen at most. Looks like Sp3 is the least likely to concede an unnecessary trick. When diamonds are cashed, you're going to be squeezed out of clubs anyway.

4Sp may make but I'd never bid them with that hand and I'm ready to apologize to my partner afterwards. My points outside the trump suit are worthless - I have no Ace, no King, no singleton or void. And I only have 3 trumps. A spade fit is visible but it's very hard for me to construct my partner's hand that would make 4Sp.

That would shift the type of partner's hand towards a more defensive one so I can only hope she would then chose to double 3H instead of bidding 4C.

I could agree that the result was a product of sheer luck. But I still don't see how it was any of opponents' fault, really. Was doubling of 4C that big mistake? Their bidding seems quite normal to me.

A funny board from a last week tourney. You hold: [hv=d=s&v=n&s=s8hj7daj9862cj875]133|100|Scoring: MP[/hv] The bidding goes: S [space] [space]W [space] [space]N [space] [space]E P [space] (1H) [space]P [space](1Sp) ? You have only 3 cards in opponents' suits, partner seems to be below opening strength, opps are likely to have a game but they haven't found a fit yet. You're too weak for a double, and don't want to mislead your partner, yet you desperately want to participate. So you bid 2NT. LHO insists on 3H, partner goes to 4C, passed to your LHO who doubles, and all pass. [hv=d=s&v=n&n=sak9ha1042dk3c10642&w=s53hkq9865dq5cak9&e=sqj107642h3d1074cq3&s=s8hj7daj9862cj875]399|300|Scoring: MP[/hv] A small heart is lead by East, partner takes it with the ace, cashes two spades to get rid of the heart, Di K, A, and gives to the opponents their 3 trump tricks. You score 510 for 89.66%. It turned out that opps didn't have a game after all. There were many scores of 4Sp doubled -2 where NS get 62.07% and 4H doubled -3 for 82.76%. Best option for opponents was to pass 4C but who could blame them for their double? It was matchpoints after all. I believe the moral here is twofold: 1. Get early in the bidding to steal opponents' bidding space. 2. Allow your partner to participate as well. One eager player wend to 4D doubled -2 and only got 3.45%. You have disbalanced minors but still not a single suited hand.

Me too. You don't even have to think in terms of losers. You ask yourself whether your hand is so strong that you're going to bid a game after your partner takes a preference, or so weak that you are going to pass it. In both of those cases Michaels is preferable IMO. With all hands in between you better bid spades, then hearts. This means that a negotiation is needed beforehand with your partner never to invite you because you could be very weak. This makes Michaels less desirable when your hand is weak and you're playing with a random partner even if she knows Michaels enough to tell which suits you have. It is also important whether you are in second, or in third position. If my partner has already passed on borderline cases I'd happily use Michaels because I'm not persuing a game. I'm with Ben here. Petko

Yes, but this depends on the system. Look at pclayton's post. You can't bid any new suit in this position if you play Andrew Robson's style because it would promise a heart fit as well. You didn't deny hearts, you didn't show both suits. What if West jumps to 5D after your 4C? Your partner can't make an informed decision now, neither can you. Opps have a superfit so you should either have one too, or have two fits. But where?