PriorKnowledge

100% agree. xxx xxx Kxxx xxx, with the K in opp's suit wasted against partner's likely singleton or void, means you are competing to 3S with ZERO. This is such a lunatic bid, it is similar to reading one of those reports about someone dying from crazy and stupid actions and nodding your head when the report concludes, "Alcohol may have been involved."

First time here with no access or knowledge of "BBO-Advanced". Forgive me. I was thinking, what the F... is LTTC? Reading farther I realize it is "Last Train". I have never heard it called "LTTC". IMHO, Last Train, Serious 3N, Mixed Qs, RKC, 4SF are all part of the advanced player's slam toolkit. I do not think Last Train is "obvious". In the auction, 1C 1S 3S 4D 4H, it is not "obvious" that 4H does not necessarily show a heart q-bid.

TY2. Partner has made a free 5-level bid. We have AKxx support, A of our bid suit, 3 cards in one of their suits and singleton in the other. 7H is more likely to make than not making 6H. Passing 5S is timid, indeed.

I don't like the low heart nor low club. I lead a small spade as that is most likely to throw away a trick.

I think this is totally infantile To try to make rhymes that are purile But what the F*** I'll jump on the truck Even tho this is a manure pile

Why do I have to guess to bid a 3-card suit when partner can bid 7-card suit? How can partner pass 4H with a 7-card club suit? I would NEVER apologize. This is partner's fault.

If the following is not part of Zia's notes: Open all 12's, some 11's, a few 10's using Rule of 20/19 Tend to ignore honor location for all basic bidding (i.e. any 4-card is 4-card, any 5-card is 5-card, etc), except for hand strength re-evalution 1-level overcall with any 5-card suit and any 8hcp 2-level overcall more soundly, either good suit or good hand open all strong 2-suiters at 1-level weak 2's on any 6-carder within range vul preempts more careful, non-vul preempts more careless weak 2's don't care about 4-card major, outside aces, or void unless it makes the hand too strong will upgrade/downgrade hands based on distribution, honors in long suits, extra 10s or 9s, wasted strength, aces and kings vs quacks When stuck, Will fudge distribution before strength and minor suit length before major suit length Frequently use Law of Total Tricks in competitive decisions Will splinter with singleton Ace if hand has extra strength I am intimidated when partner is world-class (uh oh)

2S p 4S p p X = takeout? NO. 4N=takeout, Dbl = penalty. Remember, South passed 2S 2S = terrible bid, 0-10 is too wide a range 4S = normal X = speculative dbl. Seems OK to me XX = Someone does not understand math. Penalty XX is almost never profitable. 4SX making is plenty of points. But a 50 spade break or other bad luck could turn a par result (everybody is in 4SX) into a terrible disaster

I would bid 1♠. I overcall at 1-level with any 5-card suit and any 8hcp. This hand is much more. Plus it makes difficult for opps to find heart suit. I hate "backing in" to auctions.

oops - deleting

If RHO has ♣quack-8xx, the suit is dead. If you lead a small club, overtake LHO's quack and return a small club. RHO has obvious duck to kill club suit. If you duck LHO's quack, LHO will continue spades and again kill the club suit. If LHO has ♣quack-8xx, you have similar problem. If you run the ♣10, lose to quack, and take a 2nd round finesse, you may lose to RHO's ♣QJx, which comes up more often. Now suppose LHO has ♣QJx. You lead the ♣10, winning LHO's cover. Now what? How do you safely get back to hand for 2nd round finesse? Don't want to cash 2 ♦ and lose to RHO's ♣quack-xx I think the solution is take ♠A and ♣AK to test waters. If clubs are 3-2, lead a third ♣ and weather the heart switch. If clubs are 4-1, you need a heart trick(s). Based on last fiasco, I'll let someone else figure out best heart play line. :P

Yup - and you probably should have bid 7N instead of 7S anyway. Why lose to the ♠Jxxx or 5-0 spade split when partner may have ♥AKxxx or the ♣K?

Most play the 3H bid is a game force. Most commonly played structured reverses: After 1C 1S 2H: 2S = weak, 5+spades. Opener can pass with min reverse 2N = relay to 3C. If opener bids anything other than 3C, it is GF. If opener bids 3C, then: ......Pass, or 3H = weak preference, non-forcing ......3S = 5s, GF 3C = GF preference 3H = GF preference 3S = 6s, GF There are other bids, but this should suffice for 95% of hands.

The 5-6 jump reverse does not come up as much as the mini-splinter. I can bid the 5-6 simply by reversing and bidding again, but have no other way to show the mini-splinter. So why have 2 ways to show one unlikely hand and no ways to show a more common hand?

By not doubling partner is offering me a slam. The opps think 6D will be profitable for them. Do I have anything more to show? If I had a diam void, it would be clear to bid 6H. On the bidding opps must have 10+ diam, so partner can't have more than 2d maybe less. So partner knows I have 1 or none or has a singleton diam. So my diam singleton is known or duplicated. I bid 5H already which shows my 5th heart. Is the AS enough to bid 6H? That is about all I have that partner does not know about. Suppose opps have 10d and we have 10h. That's 20 tricks for the Law. If we can take 12, they can only take 8 which is more than our game. No matter how you look at it... it is close decision. But if partner only needs the AS for slam, partner would probably have bid 6H already. Partner needs more... Maybe a club control or a diam void or a top heart honor. I have none of those things. Dbl

the first one 1D 1M 1N 3C = weak 4-6 to play is standard when playing New Minor Forcing 1N 2C 2D 3C = weak 4M6c is part of extended Garbage Stayman. Many experts play this, but it is not standard.

Double then spades over a preempt shows a 5-card suit. It generally does not show extra strength like a dbl then bid does over a 1-of-a-suit opening. 3C X p 3H p 3S = Something like KJxxx AQx AQxx x 3C 4S = Too strong for a 3S overcall

When I have a 6-card major, it is either a weak 2 or a 1 opener... Never pass (unless too weak for weak 2). I hate "backing in" to auctions. I personally open any 6-carder, but understand others who are squemish about xxxxxx suits. For those passers out there... How many times would you kick yourself if the bidding proceeded 1N p 3N p p p making even tho partner held ♥Kx? Or lefty opened a precision 1C?

2S X 4S = Let opps guess whether I am strong or weak. Don't help with the opening lead. With my minor suit values over the dbler, this should have good chances.

Yup - then 2H rebid works best and 2C rebid is a disaster. I prefer the 2C rebid for 1 main reason: Bidding 646 is typically stronger than bidding 664. If responder has a marginal game invite hand we will be in 4H or 3N rather than 2H.

I agree with Justin. You have defined weak twos as "Constructive". I believe the three categories are Constructive, Common?, and Destructive (Not sure about middle name). Constructive weak 2's are sound with restricted values (4 point range, any 6-card suit fits that) Common would be more loose, say 5-8 with good 6-card suit or 9-10 with most 6-card suits Destructive might be 5-7 card suits and 4-10. Responder makes no assumption about suit quality. I think most experts who play a variable weak 2, play Constructive or Common when vul and Common or Destructive when non-vul.

If opener did not want us to raise clubs with club support, maybe opener should just bid 3N?

It is common for forcing pass followed by bid over dbl = mild slam try and strongest simple action. Certainly, with such a nice hand, opener would make that call. Responder is little lite, but made a competitive decision based on nice shape. Tough luck, no fault. Next time, you'll have Jxx KQxx xx KQxx, bid and make the difficult to find slam, and your table will be showered with gold coins from the spectators.

Another "Why bother having a partner" hands. Partner has bid 2 suits. Our first obligation is tell them which one we like best. Treating the 3C jump-shift as a relay to 3N makes no sense.

QD (in case my shy partner has AJx), tho xD has merit. Why bother having a partner if you don't trust his/her advice?