Siegmund

My first thought was to invite... and my second thought was, partner already knows I have a singleton heart, and has already failed to get excited, like he would if he had A32 of hearts and knew all his other cards were working. He's either dead minimum or has wastage in hearts and just made a courtesy 2S call. Voted pass. Even though with the same cards after 1D-P-1S-P-2S I'd be considering blasting before settling for an invitation.

I am enjoying the discussion. I got to watch declarer guess wrong, but could tell it was a reasonably close decision, and couldn't tell what I would have done if I had been playing it. I am glad others enjoyed considering the problem too. The thought of a club immediately crossed my mind too but I thought there was enough chance of a 6-2 club break I didn't mention it in the OP.

♠AK43 ♥AQJ2 ♦J3 ♣763 ♠986 ♥943 ♦AKQ98 ♣K4 You don't have to like your auction, but here it is: South deals, favorable, and opens a 12-14 1NT. West overcalls 2C promising the black suits. Partner propels you into 3NT after using Stayman. The opening lead is a club to the jack and king. You are obviously set unless you win nine in a row. Are you going to play for the drop in diamonds, or will you play a diamond to the jack and finesse on the way back, expecting West to be short after his vulnerable 2-suited overcall?

This is a fairly good hand for Unassuming Club: 1C-1H 2C-2H (any 19+ / either 6-9 or 13+ with a fifth heart, usually not 2-suited) 3NT (or explore one more round and then bid 3NT maybe) It's a terrible hand for Malfoir, which will be forced into 1C-1H 3C (19+ 5+) but land on its feet, after either 3H-3NT or just 3NT by north,

Fluffy's post is excellent. Especially when playing 2-way game tries I go a step further, and use the HSGTs specifically to ask partner to upgrade honours in my second suit, NOT to accept my game try with shortness in the suit I ask for help. A singleton is not what I want opposite my KQx. Also bear in mind that the suits above your help-suit are ambiguous, while the suits below your help-suit you have deliberately bypassed. If it goes 1S-2S-3D, partner hasn't been told yet whether his HK and HQ are good or bad, but has been warned to devalue his CK and CQ.

I read about that 5S opening in Patricia Fox Sheinwold's Husbands and Other Men I've Played With in 1993. Twenty years later I am still waiting to be dealt a hand where I can use it. In all fairness, I have seen exactly one hand in that time when I wished I could open a preemptive 5M (an extreme example of the "3 or 5 hand" you sometimes get with long hearts and short spades), and no other meanings for a 5M opening besides those two have crossed my mind. Maybe I need to agree to play 5S asks for trump honors but 5H is a preempt!

Unassuming will replicate antonylee's auction. Malfoir gets there the hard way. If opener stretches to bid 1H -- he is allowed to bid 1D with 7 or 8, if he doesn't have spades: 1C - 1H (1C includes weak hands with 4 spades, as well as 15+ bal 16+ minor 19+ any) 1S - 1NT (11-18 4 spades, natural) and now opener has the same decision re trying 2H as in Polish and Unassuming. If he takes the low road (and I think he should): 1C - 1D 1S - 1NT 2D (exactly 4 spades, 5 or more diamonds, still 11-18) and responder will leave it there. So I guess put me down for 2DN rather than 2HN. Heh.

I would be asking for the HA and going to either 6D or 7D, if I were north. Yeah, it goes down if opener doesn't have even the DQ and the suit breaks badly.

Malfoir will reach 6C, probably the same way as Antonylee's. (1C-3C is constructive 6-9ish, 6+ clubs no 4CM.) I won't know about the 7th club in time. At least I will know there is no need to look for a 4-4 heart fit, so I can concentrate on clubs after 3S-4C. Unassuming Club uses a strong 2C and a preemptive 3C response so the in-between hand has to start with 1D. This produces a really slow start to the auction: 1C-1D 1H-2C (19-20 bal, or 19+ 2-suited, or GF / artif 6-9... jump to 3C now would be 0-5 with 7 clubs) 2S-3C (finally a couple of natural bids) 3H-4C (a couple more natural bids, and everybody starts to panic) And now hopefully opener believes responder and we carry on to 6C. Here again I will not be confident of being able to play 7C, even after I know partner has CAQ.

I realize that even when I played "classic" Polish I wasn't playing it quite the way it was in the books... but when I played it 1C-1H-2D (almost) set hearts as trump, and wasn't something I would have done with 6 spades and 3 hearts. I can't help thinking something more like 1C-1H-2S-3D-3H would be the start in Polish-without-fancy-asking-bids world. (And then what the heck does north do?)

Malfoir opens the North hand: 1D-1S (11-18 exactly 4 hearts / natural) 2D-3S (5+ diamonds / natural GF) 3NT (singleton spade) and now South has to choose between 4S and 3NT. A more thoughtful north might treat his queen as worth 4S or even cuebid his ace of hearts, rather than bidding 3NT. Playing Standard I also open the North hand, intending to bid 1NT over 1S, but in Unassuming Club that rebid isn't available, so in Unassuming I am endplayed into passing as North. 1C-1H 2C-2D (19+ any / 10-12 any) 2S-3D (finally two natural bids in a row; responder likely 4H5D not 5H4D for this sequence) 3S and now it is North who has the tough choice to make. I think he opts for 4S on the singleton rather than implying he has the club stopper. So, put me down for 4S whichever way it goes.

4S-N in Unassuming: 1C-1H 2C-2S (19+ any / natural, 6-9 or 13+) 3S-4S (4 spades / confirming 6-9 only) In Malfoir, it's less clear: responder is on the cusp between 1D (0-7 any), 1H (natural 8+) and 1S (natural 8+), because if opener has a minimum hand (and he does 2/3 of the time) he will promise 4 spades and deny 4 hearts, so responder often bids 1S with 4-4 or even 4-5 in the majors. 1C-1H-2NT(19-20; 1NT would be 15-18) followed by a checkback type auction is one obvious path to 4S-S. 1C-1S will lead to 4S-N of course. If North takes the low road, 1C-1D 1H-2D (artif, 19-20 bal or huge hand / transfer to hearts) 2H (confirming 19-20 bal, 2 or 3 hearts) then north might bid 2S or might just raise NT...

In Malfoir, and possibly also Unassuming: 1C-1H (1S) 3H (19+ with 4+ hearts -- 16-18 with 4 hearts not possible) then cuebids. It is not clear to me from the Unassuming notes online whether people still use a 2C rebid by opener on any 19+ here after 1S since the overcall consumed no space, or whether a natural strong jump is necessary. As long as jump shifts are still game-forcing (they aren't in textbook Unassuming) I would consider 1H too, trusting the 18HCP over the 3 losers temporarily, becuase showing these 5-5s can be such a pain.

Enough of a disadvantage that "everybody" playing SA or 2/1 who played 20-22 ten or twenty years ago is now playing 20-21. Adding in the 19s will indeed cause it to come up more often, and cause you to go down in 2NT more often as well as have less precision in your slam auctions after 2NT. It may be worth it, in a system where you are gaining something significant by putting the balanced 192s here. (If all you are doing is taking flat 19s out of your natural 1-bids, no.)

The obvious 1C-p-1H-(1S)-1NT path to 4H applies for Unassuming. No Texas hiccup, probably just placing the contract at 4H.

Plenty to go around, but West's first pass is the most obvious place to point a finger.

One more 3AM doubler here.

Hard for me to imagine north passing. Either it's a 3C preempt or a 10-15 2C bid in most these systems. Over 3C, I play 3D asking for 3CM, and finding none, we will subside. If North stretches to 2C (6 clubs no 4CM, in Unassuming or Malfoir): 2C-2D(transfer) 2H-2S (tolerance not enthusiasm / natural F) 2NT-4NT (natural, D stop / quant) is possible, but so is South getting excited and plowing on to 6C.

Unassuming club: 1C-3C (6 clubs, 3-6) 3S-4S (19+ natural) Antonylee chose 1C-1D-1S in Polish; I think this is awfully heavy for the 1S rebid, and can see it going 1C-1D-2S, then a raise, but all roads leading to 4S. [Edited to add the morning after: at 3AM I saw 20 points not 18 in South. Antonylee's auction makes more sense now. Opening 1S also within the realm of possibility, in systems where it is 11-18 and big 1C hands start at 19.]

Unassuming club: 1C-1H 2C-3D (19+ any / 6-9 or 13+ with Qxxx+ diamonds -- 2D would show 10-12 range) 3NT -- this is opener's first chance to support hearts so he ought to have 4 if he bids 3H here, and most responder hands with a fifth heart would have bid 2H over 2C. Malfoir: 1C-1D (0-7) 1H-2C (artif 19+ / waiting 5-7) 2NT-3NT (19-20 no 4CM / to play) or, if opener chooses to call this a club hand rather than a balanced hand 1C-1D 3C-3D (19-23ish club one-suiter / 4-7ish, 5 diamonds) 3NT Can imagine about 3 different auctions possible in Polish. Will let our other polish club contributor pick one.

It's the very worst hand I can imagine myself doubling on (even NV -- perhaps I need to worry more about the vulnerability here than I currently do) but I do double on this now. If you asked me any time between when I learned to play bridge and about a year and a half ago I'd have passed.

Happy to see Leaping Michaels getting some love. I have experimented off and on with using otherwise idle jump shifts to take pressure off the strong rebids since the 90s, though no solution is exactly perfect.

I would assume 4D is NF -- a lot of hands bid 3S here expecting to take 10 tricks in something, wanting it to be spades if possible and diamonds if not. I will admit 6D is possible opposite some tip-top maximums but I can't see how I can justify bidding it. If partner has only one hole in trumps (KQJxxxx or similar) he won't have another working face card and I'll be needing 4-3 clubs + no early trump lead to kill the ruff + a spade finesse to make it. At IMPs, 5D rates to be safe most the time. At MP I would rebid 4S, going down opposite a void, but sneaking 420 past 400 a bit more than half the time.

Unassuming Club: 1D-2D 3S splinter enthusiastic cuebidding, which I hope ends in 6D, but a real risk of getting to 7, with all the aces and kings and solid trumps. Malfoir: 1C-2NT(13-15 or 18+)-3D-cuebids-6D. Again I am not sure I can diagnose the 3-3 hearts and lack of queens in time to avoid 7D.

1C-P-1D-(1H) 2S(19-22ish)-swish is a distinct possibility for me, if North is pessimistic. A bit embarrassing. If North finds another bid, 3D-3NT might get passed, or might wind up in 5D. Moot because I expect the vast majority of Easts to open 2H.