vinchy

3♦, or pass, depending on how weak 3♣ was (ask)

I would not have followed the same bidding pattern, but why not 4♠ after partner's 3♠? There's no way he will pass, and in this situation it communicates what partner needed to know.

(Not so familiar with MPs) 4♥ or 3♦, depending on how I read my partner and opponents on the day For most cases, I would want to be in 4♥ even with a 4-3 fit. Unless the feel is that partner has a poor 4 heart + poor and long club suit

3♠

[hv=pc=n&n=shaj842dkq82ck975&d=s&v=b&b=7&a=p1s2h2s3c4s]133|200[/hv]

[hv=pc=n&s=s6hdjt875432cqj62&n=saqt753ht9dcakt75&d=w&v=e&b=16&a=p1s2hpp2s4h7cppdppp]266|200[/hv] Tell me if I'm wrong, but this is the hand I would expect from an author. Everything breaks.

Seeing as it is meant to be somewhat challenging (with a prize involved), I will venture 7♣ is the answer OP is looking for. :)

I would interpret (and if sitting N, bid) the double as a beg-partner-not-to-pass bid.

Is there too little value of 3d as a preempt to justify this? In my current system, this would certainly be a preempt. I would only play this as strong after (1S) P (P) as mentioned. As for hand strength, I would consider the N-S hands to be of ideal strength, for their purposes. (S as a strong diamond hand, N with sufficient support) As N I would definitely go to 3NT.

Most people at my level, including my current partner, would probably concede, I wouldn't. There is that small chance, and even if it gains nothing, it makes the opponents more wary of my play in subsequent hands.

You don't really read that well, I do like your sharing but in this case if all you want to tell me is not to bother trying or finding new ways of bidding, I don't think I am learning much. Yes I do know RKCB, but always curious if there are other ways of showing it, perhaps at an earlier round of bidding.

Looks great, will spend some time checking it out (when I do have sufficient).

In any live game or tournament, I believe that there is always signals from your opponent that could give away indicators of their hand strength, how much they like it, and such. Bridge may not be poker, but given that these signals are ever-present, would you try and factor this into your bidding decisions, and perhaps also your playing decisions? Also, if playing against weaker opponents, would you at all consider bidding "higher than should be making", and simply outplay your opponents and hope for bad defense? So far, I can say, I try. B-) Playing mechanically with no regards for these human factors would make of us robots.

This is quite good. A signoff from North, and then just ambition from South. I do know it's very far-fetched but does nobody here have a device for: 1) Showing first-round controls of all suits, early 2) Showing a singleton Ace (or two) 3) Asking for the Queen of hearts To think of such things would be better than accepting that there is limited bids for such a task with due consideration given to the less-than-optimal HCP and distributional concerns, I believe that is how the game develops.

If you are not "playing seriously enough" to have any ideas of bids that could (with whatever remote possibility) describe this hand, then don't post in this thread, let someone else do it. I was hoping to find players who would avoid the standard bidding - I am not saying that is how everyone here should play, just fishing for devices that could help in the describing the hands in this particular set. Yep, I am definitely going nowhere in this game by simply trying to find out about different bidding styles - (note, not just mikeh's style and philosophy of bridge). Should stick to the bread and butter.