miamijd

If you play low, you don't always need South to play the Queen in order to make. You can still make sometimes if you duck duck regardless of what South plays; it won't cost if South has a small stiff; it won't matter (you can't make) if South has xx; and it can gain big-time if South has Qx (will need some luck in spades, but winning is always wrong). Cheers, Mike

Seems like a normal 1S fourth-seat opener.

Pretty basic, I think. (1D) Pass (1H) X (2H) 3C(1) All pass? (1) constructive 8plus-11 or so Yes, you want to strain to overcall 2C over 1D. But come on. 10 HCP, a TERRIBLE suit, 5332 distribution, three Jacks -- does it get any worse? Anyone who overcalls this hand deserves to hear the auction go Pass-Pass-X swish and go for a phone number. OTOH, the South hand has an easy X over 1H. Yeah, you'd rather your H honors were in clubs, but you're only at the one-level, and it's not like you have a bunch of stray Qs and Js in the red suits. North should then bid 3C over 2H, constructive. 2NT would show a hand that merely wanted to compete -- maybe 5 to a normal 8. North's hand isn't great with the three Js, but it's good enough to make the stronger 3C bid. That will end the auction unless the opponents venture 3H, which I would crack in a second with the South hand. Cheers, Mike

Pretty basic, I think. (1D) Pass (1H) X (2H) 3C(1) All pass? (1) constructive 8plus-11 or so Yes, you want to strain to overcall 2C over 1D. But come on. 10 HCP, a TERRIBLE suit, 5332 distribution, three Jacks -- does it get any worse? Anyone who overcalls this hand deserves to hear the auction go Pass-Pass-X swish and go for a phone number. OTOH, the South hand has an easy X over 1H. Yeah, you'd rather your H honors were in clubs, but you're only at the one-level, and it's not like you have a bunch of stray Qs and Js in the red suits. North should then bid 3C over 2H, constructive. 2NT would show a hand that merely wanted to compete -- maybe 5 to a normal 8. North's hand isn't great with the three Js, but it's good enough to make the stronger 3C bid. That will end the auction unless the opponents venture 3H, which I would crack in a second with the South hand. Cheers, Mike

Pretty basic, I think. (1D) Pass (1H) X (2H) 3C(1) All pass? (1) constructive 8plus-11 or so Yes, you want to strain to overcall 2C over 1D. But come on. 10 HCP, a TERRIBLE suit, 5332 distribution, three Jacks -- does it get any worse? Anyone who overcalls this hand deserves to hear the auction go Pass-Pass-X swish and go for a phone number. OTOH, the South hand has an easy X over 1H. Yeah, you'd rather your H honors were in clubs, but you're only at the one-level, and it's not like you have a bunch of stray Qs and Js in the red suits. North should then bid 3C over 2H, constructive. 2NT would show a hand that merely wanted to compete -- maybe 5 to a normal 8. North's hand isn't great with the three Js, but it's good enough to make the stronger 3C bid. That will end the auction unless the opponents venture 3H, which I would crack in a second with the South hand. Cheers, Mike

Pretty basic, I think. (1D) Pass (1H) X (2H) 3C(1) All pass? (1) constructive 8plus-11 or so Yes, you want to strain to overcall 2C over 1D. But come on. 10 HCP, a TERRIBLE suit, 5332 distribution, three Jacks -- does it get any worse? Anyone who overcalls this hand deserves to hear the auction go Pass-Pass-X swish and go for a phone number. OTOH, the South hand has an easy X over 1H. Yeah, you'd rather your H honors were in clubs, but you're only at the one-level, and it's not like you have a bunch of stray Qs and Js in the red suits. North should then bid 3C over 2H, constructive. 2NT would show a hand that merely wanted to compete -- maybe 5 to a normal 8. North's hand isn't great with the three Js, but it's good enough to make the stronger 3C bid. That will end the auction unless the opponents venture 3H, which I would crack in a second with the South hand. Cheers, Mike

Pretty basic, I think. (1D) Pass (1H) X (2H) 3C(1) All pass? (1) constructive 8plus-11 or so Yes, you want to strain to overcall 2C over 1D. But come on. 10 HCP, a TERRIBLE suit, 5332 distribution, three Jacks -- does it get any worse? Anyone who overcalls this hand deserves to hear the auction go Pass-Pass-X swish and go for a phone number. OTOH, the South hand has an easy X over 1H. Yeah, you'd rather your H honors were in clubs, but you're only at the one-level, and it's not like you have a bunch of stray Qs and Js in the red suits. North should then bid 3C over 2H, constructive. 2NT would show a hand that merely wanted to compete -- maybe 5 to a normal 8. North's hand isn't great with the three Js, but it's good enough to make the stronger 3C bid. That will end the auction unless the opponents venture 3H, which I would crack in a second with the South hand. Cheers, Mike

I don't think the fourth best heart is so bad at all. Let's give your partner the following hand: xx AJxx AQx Axxx Let's give declarer the Kd and dummy the Kx H, with declarer having a stiff H. Now you lead a H, and partner plays the J and Ah. Let's say declarer ruffs the second heart (perhaps not best). Now if he tries to establish a minor suit first, your partner can duck and give you a third round ruff. And if declarer draws trump, your side will end up with control If declarer pitches a minor card at trick two, you just got a trick you wouldn't have gotten if you had led a minor card. As I said, any of the four suits could easily have been right. If the lead was the problem, you just got unlucky. I wonder, however, if the bidding went the same way at all tables. I also wonder what the entire hand was; perhaps there was something you overlooked. I can't imagine 2/3 of expert players leading a diamond (there's nothing wrong with a d lead, but with no standout lead, there's nothing especially right about it, either). Cheers, mike

Not to demean the OP, but this is one of those questions that really has no answer. Anything could be right: 1. If dummy has short H, a trump might be needed to cut down dummy's ruffing power 2. If partner has AK of a minor (or AQ over dummy's K), leading that suit might get us a ruff 3. Probably the declarer has only 5 spades. If declarer has the short hearts, it's possible that a H lead can start an effective forcing defense. Flip a coin. I don't know the right answer ex ante, and neither does anyone else. Incidentally, over the 2S overcall, 2NT Leb followed by 3H after the 3C relay is purely competitive (partner should pass), not an invite. There are three levels of hands (competitive, invite, GF), but only two bidding sequences (direct 3H or 2NT first). One of the levels can't be shown. If you elect to distinguish invites from GF hands, you lose the ability to make competitive bids. That is an enormous loss. Much better to upgrade most invites to GF (and downgrade the truly bad invites to competitive). Cheers, Mike

3NT. The opponents' suit is going to block unless LHO has AKQJTx. If RHO has two of the top five honors, it always blocks. And if RHO has one of the top five, then it will block unless LHO leads low. But he won't, because he will have KQJTxx AQJTxx AKJTxx AKQTxx AKQJxx You're telling me you're going to lead low with one of those combinations? No, you won't, you'll lead an honor and block the suit or else establish a trick for me. Hey, that 8 is a big card if RHO has Ax or Kx. So I'm not losing the first five tricks. Hopefully, partner will have enough so that I can make nine, but if he doesn't, there's no guarantee 2S is going set.

Here's another advertisement for my favorite convention -- good-bad 2NT. If you play that, then 2NT either shows a game force hand or a hand that just wants to compete. Partner will generally bid 3C, and then you can pass with clubs and a minimum competitive hand, bid 3D or 3H to show a minimum competitive hand with those suits, or bid something else to show the game force. An immediate 3x bid shows an invitational hand. This one doesn't quite qualify on brute strength (the Qs is a waste on offense), but the 6-bagger and the distribution make it worth a 3h call. Partner then has an easy raise to game. Without good-bad, you are stuck. If you bid 3H, partner may well pass when you have a cold game. If you bid 4H, you may go set 1 (maybe even 2) when the opponents cannot make 3S. Cheers, Mike

Low spade seems normal here. You know that North is probably 3-3 in the minors and that South has a good hand, so it's likely that the opponents have lots of tricks. On those sorts of hands, you have to build a trick right away. Your partner just needs the Qs to build a trick in spades; he needs a lot more to build a H trick. And even if you lead a spade and find declarer with the AQ, it's quite possible that you haven't really given up anything -- that declarer would have gotten the extra trick himself in the minors. Cheers, Mike

As others have mentioned, I think you do best to upgrade this one to 22 and open 2C, planning to rebid 2NT. This is the nicest, balanced 21-count you'll ever get, so to me, this seems clear. Having opened 1H, however, you know you should have a slam when partner bids 2C. 2C should be 10+ HCP, so that means slam should be a good bet. I would just shoot out 6NT with your hand. Doesn't partner have to have something in diamonds to get to his HCP allotment? Another possibility is a 3S call, but I don't see what that gets you, because partner is going to bid 4C 98% of the time. Cheers, Mike

You didn't say how a lot of other pairs got to clubs. If they play a 12-14 NT, then I suppose they opened 1C and the opponents overcalled in spades. If they play Precision with a NT range under 15, then they would open 1D and get a 1S overcall. If they play a strong NT, perhaps some opponents overcalled 2S over 1NT? I just can't imagine opening that hand anything except 1NT, and I would say the same if the Jx of spades were xx with a J elsewhere. Cheers, Mike

1NT seems obvious to me.

Well, actually yes, not nope. In Std American, when you open 1C and rebid 2C, you will almost always have 6+, and partner should play you for 6. Yes, there are two hand types where you will have five, but (A) they aren't that common and (B) if you have one of them, the opponents generally get into the auction, which helps you out and enables you to avoid rebidding the five-bagger. Type One: x xxx Axxx AKJxx OR xxx x Axxx AKJxxs I would open 1C and rebid 2C over a 1H or 1S response. Generally, with this hand type, you bid 1NT if partner bids your singleton and raise to 2M if partner bids your fragment. But I don't want to bid 1NT here being totally blank in the majors and only having one diamond stop, and making a three-card raise with xxx is generally awful, so the least harmful lie is probably a 2C rebid. Type Two: x KJx Axxx AKxxx This is a really tough hand. You aren't good enough to reverse, and you can't open 1NT with a small stiff (even if it were allowed, you shouldn't do this with a major singleton). If you open 1C (I would), then if partner bids 1S, you are sort of stuck. 1NT shows 12-14, and you are better than that. Since 2C has an upper limit of 15, I would try that. In a way, you're also sort of stuck if partner bids 1H. 2H is a little wimpy, but 3H is a gross mischaracterization with only 3-card support. You have to choose between 2C and 2H; both have serious flaws. Cheers, Mike

This is an area where expert opinion has evolved over time. 50 years ago, everyone opened 1D with these hands and rebid 2C. That was mainly because there was an aversion to rebidding 1NT with a stiff in partner's suit or a low doubleton in the unbid major. But over the years, people found that these weren't the obstacles they appeared, so that opening 1C produced far better results, at least on the 12-14 hands. The 15-16 hands are much thornier. For the 12-14 hands, it's pretty simple: 1. 2245: This one opens 1C and rebids 1NT over 1M, even with a low doubleton in the unbid major. Hey, if the opponents had that many cards in the unbid major, why aren't they bidding it? And if your partner is strong so that you have a game, it's probably 3NT, so why tell the opponents what to lead? 2. 3145: This one opens 1C and rebids (A) generally 1NT over 1H and (B) generally 2S over 1S. Yes, I know neither of these rebids are perfect. But with a minimum, partner generally should pass 1NT rather than bid 2H with 5 of them unless he has a really good 5-bagger. If partner has an invite or better, you can figure things out pretty easily. 3. 1345: This is the mirror image of 2. You bid 1NT over 1S and give the dreaded three-card raise over 1H. Note that these are pretty much the only hands where you ever have to give a three-card major raise, and I find that more than half the time, the opponents interfere either over opener's or responder's bid, so that negative and support doubles come into play and do the job nicely. The bigger problem on 45 hands comes when you have 15-16 high. Now you don't want to rebid 1NT, which is 12-14, but you aren't strong enough to reverse (which ought to show 17+). What to do? 1. 2245: This one isn't hard. You just bite the bullet and open 1NT. 2. 3145: Not as easy. Let's say you have Axx x KJxx AKxxx If you open 1C, you are too good to rebid 1NT over 1H, and to my way of thinking, also too good to raise 1S to 2S. Nothing is perfect here; you have to decide what distortion you are willing to live with. If you elect to open 1C, then you might actually want to consider bidding 1S over 1H. I know it looks radical, but it's actually pretty safe. 3. 1345: Might be the toughest of any of them: x Axx KJxx AKxxx Good luck, Mr. Phelps. You're going to need it. Cheers, Mike

+1. I would add that playing XX to show "I want to play opener's contract XXed doesn't make much sense at all at the 1-level, but starts to make more sense as the level of opener's bid increases. I generally play it that way starting at the 3-level. Cheers, Mike

Double. WTP?

This depends on (A) how strong or light your openers are; (B) what exactly your hand is; and © how aggressive you like to be; and (D) what system you play. If you play halfway solid openers, then 12 HCP with 54 is generally going to be worth a game force. I would bid 2C. If you play somewhat light openers, then it's going to depend on how aggressive you are, your hand, and your system. Personally, I would just start with a GF-2c bid and hope something good happened. Hey, haven't you ever made 3NT on 23-24 before? This works for Meckwell consistently, so why not for me, too? :) If you are more conservative, then why are you playing light openers? Seriously, though, if you don't want to GF routinely, then some 5c4s 12 HCP hands will still be worth a GF; then you start with 2C. Others won't, and then it depends on what your system is. If 2C over 1D is a GF, you have to bid 1S. If 2C over 1D is GF unless you rebid 3C, then you likewise have to bid 1S, because if you bid 2C, what do you do when partner rebids 2D (which he will do will all hands with 5+ diamonds in most systems). If you can bid 2C and rebid 2S without creating a GF, then you can start with 2C. Cheers, Mike

Just as an aside, why are you using 4S as Gerber rather than 4C? Using 4S, you can't sign off at 4NT. What is the gain? Cheers, Mike

Congrats on winning. As for what to do on the hands you posted, I agree with mikeh.

I would just bid 4S. Odds are tremendously against partner having the Ah, and even if he does, you still need to score the fourth club (not a guarantee) to make 6. On the other hand, if you mess around with something like a X, the opponents might find a monster red-suit double fit and bid 5D or 5H over your eventual 4S. Now what you gonna do? Cheers, Mike

2D isn't much of an overcall; it is fraught with danger (if the cards were different, the auction could easily go pass-pass, X by East, float). NV at MPs, however, it has merit, both for a lead and for interference purposes. That's the only time I would even think of making it. Vul it's awful, and at IMPs it's god-awful. Here, assuming your playing against good opponents and not idiots, West has to pass, and your partner should raise to 3D. Now the opponents are probably stuck, and you buy it there. If you are NV, your -100 is probably going to be a very good score. If you are V, however, you will be -200, which I think will be quite poor, as I doubt too many E-W pairs are going to reach this very thin game at MPs. Cheers, Mike

a real toughie. I think those who insist that North has to bid 3NT instead of X are resulting a bit. I think it’s a coin flip. X wins when partner has spades or a good hand with clubs (reverse partners minors and you have an easy club slam). 3NT wins when partner has diamonds, especially if he also has a H honor I can’t fault X or 4d. I don’t think I would pass 4d, though. That is almost certainly not the best spot. I think I’d probably try 4h (if partner would take this as tell me more) or 5c. If partner bid 4s over 4h I’d pass and let him play the 4-3 fit as he can take h taps in his hand and I have a side source of tricks. Just my two cents Cheers Mike