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5NT seems pretty obvious, no?

I suspect most folks would play a X of 2S as spades, rather than as takeout of clubs.

Vulnerable, you need a lot more shape than you have in order to compete. The risk of -1X or -2 as against a part score just doesn't make bidding attractive. Even white against red, I would hesitate to bid here. That's because there are three ways to lose. You could get Xed and go set two if partner has nothing. If partner has a trick, you could go off one when the opponents were off in 3C. Or if partner has most of the missing stuff, you will likely make a part-socre, only to find that the opponents were going to be -2 in 3C for +200. Only white vs white would I X in MPs. Cheers, Mike

If your "friendly" club members hate it when the director is called, maybe you need a friendlier director! Cheers, Mike

Personally, I would bid 5C after 4C. But I think 4D Last Train and key-card are also very reasonable. A 4H call is a little conservative, but not totally unreasonable. What I absolutely don't think North should do is to bid 4D as a diamond cue-bid. First, let's think about what 3H means. The auction 1H-(2S) creates some difficulties. If you raise to 3H with any standard 6-9 raise, then how do you handle a limit raise? You have no bid. So the typical answer with heart support is to have four ranges, roughly as follows: 1. Less than 7 with four-card support or a really great 7 with 3-card support: Pass and bid 3H if partner reopens with a X, as he will often do 2. A really good 7 (can be a bad 7 with four card supp) to 10 or so: 3H 3. 11-14 or so: 4H 4. Good 14+: 3S North has exactly what I would expect for a 3H bid -- right in the middle. On the plus side, there is four-card support, a good source of tricks with the clubs, and a stiff diamond. On the minus side, there is no trump honor, no first-round control, the J of spades is pure waste, and it would be better if the stiff diamond were a small one, not the J (more potential points for partner). Now let's think about what kind of hand South has. After (3S) and 4C, South almost certainly has a stiff spade (for their bidding, West should have six and East three), the Ace of clubs, and good hearts. If South has the Ad and the AKQh (possible), then slam ought to be a great bet. If South is missing any of these cards, we probably don't want to be in slam (though if South has 6 hearts, we don't need the Qh). Is 5H going to be safe? Not necessarily. What if South has x AKJxx KQxx Axx Now you will be stuck trying to guess the heart position to avoid off one. So there is certainly some merit in settling for a 4H bid. Nevertheless, that's about the worst hand I can posit to justify South's bidding, and even there 5H will make more often than not (cash-cater a heart honor and finesse East for the Qh on the second round, and you'll be right well over 60% of the time). So I think 5H will make the overwhelming majority of the time, and some move toward slam is thus safe and warranted. I see three possibilities: 4D, key-card, and 5C. Let's take them each in turn: 4D: This is fine if it's Last Train. Basically, that would mean you're telling South that you're good enough to be interested in slam, but aren't good enough to be able to bid key-card all on your own and don't have any particular feature you want to emphasize. That's arguably your hand. With first-round control of three suits, a really good six-bagger in hearts, and a stiff spade, South can now trot out key-card. You'll end up in 5H or 6H, depending on whether South wants to gamble a bit with the trump suit. But if 4D is a cue-bid in diamonds, I don't like it. South is going to get really excited with something like: void AKxxx KQxx Axxx I don't think you want to be in 6H here, but if you bid 4D, that's exactly where you're going to wind up. Key-card (whether 4S or 4NT): This actually has a lot of merit. If South has AKQh and Ad, you belong in 6. Otherwise, you probably want to stop in 5H and should be relatively safe there. When South shows 3, you can ask for the Q, and now South has to judge whether six and the AKJ are as good as the Queen. Tough. You probably end up in 5. 5C: Since you rate to be safe in 5H, I like this call a lot. You show a good source of tricks in clubs, but warn partner that you probably don't have control of diamonds or spades. Aha! That's your hand! Partner has an easy jump to 6H over this bid. Cheers, Mike

There are three cases I can see: 1. The declarer knew the partnership had agreed to play Jacoby 2NT. In that case, declarer should have alerted the bid during the auction. Having failed to do so, either declarer or dummy should alert the opponents as to the failure to alert (and as to what 2NT and any subsequent bids are agreed to mean) before the opponents make their opening lead. The opponents don't have the right to know what declarer and dummy actually intended. They do have the right to know what the agreements were. 2. The declarer knew the partner had agreed to play 2NT as natural, but feared his partner might have mistakenly thought they were playing it. In that case, it's better to wait until after the hand is over to discuss things. Asking questions now risks confusing the opponents. 3. The declarer wasn't sure what the partnership had agreed to, and was asking his partner. This is fine, but the question should not really be "Was that Jacoby 2NT." It should be "Opponents, wait one second please before you lead. Partner, did we agree to play Jacoby 2NT?" If the answer is "yes," then your side has the duty to alert the opponents as to what the 2NT bid and all subsequent bids (if non-natural) mean. If the answer is that 2NT was some other conventional call, same thing. If the answer is that 2NT is a natural bid, then the opponents can lead, with no further information required. Cheers, Mike

1NT here is a decent 8-11 or so. It absolutely does not suggest heart tolerance. Generally, you will have 1-2 hearts, but a void isn't out of the question. I think 1NT here is possible at MPs, but at IMPs, I would pass. If partner has a really good hand (which he could if East opened light in 3d seat), he'll bid again. Since you are a passed hand, X is probably best played as Snapdragon here (2 hearts and a club suit; take your pick). If you weren't a passed hand, X typically shows an opening hand with 2 or fewer hearts, no good suit, and lacking the stoppers for NT. But as a passed hand, using X to show cards doesn't make a lot of sense. Cheers, Mike

I would pass, but if I were going to make a call, a responsive X is the only real choice. That keeps 4S, 5C, 5D, and even 4HX (if partner has unexpected H strength) all in play. I just think I'm a King short for that (I might try it with Qxx of diamonds rather than xxx). Cheers, Mike

Well, you have to admit, that is as bad as it gets -- partner isn't even playing with a full deck. Go ahead and add another heart. Cheers, mike

Kc looks like the obvious lead to me. If partner doesn't have the A or Q for his bid, then get a new partner. You probably need to set up a club trick to go along with your H, D, and S tricks before the club trick goes on dummy's diamonds or possibly hearts. That being said, either major Ace could be right, too. The Ah has decent chances of getting a ruff for partner. Partner might have a stiff heart (a stiff spade is more likely); then you might even get two ruffs. Or he might have 22 in the majors with the opponents' hearts 3-3, in which case you can also get him a H ruff. THe As could work, too, especially if the opponents' spades are 3-6 and dummy shows up with shortness in a minor. The opponents appear to have bid game on distributional values (they only have 20 HCP or so), so cutting down on their ruffing power makes sense. The trouble with the As is that it gives up a round of control if you need to set up a club trick and dummy has strong diamonds. Overall, however, it looks like we have a lot of potential defensive tricks, so I would take the safe route and lead the Kc. As I said, if partner doesn't have the A or Q, get one that knows how to bid next time. Cheers, Mike

I'd like this hand a lot better if we had another club. As is, the outside entry is subject to attack on opening lead if partner has the Qc instead of the King. Still, it's likely that partner either has (A) four spades; (B) the Kc; © AQd or (D) Axx of diamonds and they split. Even something like: Kxx AQx QX KTxx which is as awful as it gets, gives you a fighting chance at 3NT. So I think I'd just bid 2C and then follow with 3NT over 2D/H. Cheers, Mike

Partner should have defended a bit differently. You have to cash your two clubs and two hearts and THEN lead another club, and it's not all that hard for him to work out what to do. You didn't mark partner's X as responsive (which is pretty standard), so I will assume it was for penalty. In that case, you know partner has to have a spade trick for his double, and that trick is likely the Ace, as he's in front of declarer. So with AK of hearts and a stiff club, why would you lead the heart King? You wouldn't. You'd either lead your stiff club to get a ruff, or more likely you'd lead the Ah, not the K, and then shift to the club, so that partner (thinking you don't have the King) would return a club, not a heart, when he won his trump trick. Partner knows this just as well as you do. So partner should be able to work out that your club switch was from a doubleton (hopefully, not a tripleton), not a stiff. Once he's worked that out, it's easy-peasy. When partner gets in with the Ace of trump, he should lead back a heart (he's shown three, so you won't lead a third heart hoping for an overruff). Now you lead your other club, allowing him to cash the KQ of clubs and lead a fourth round of clubs for a potential trump promotion if you have Jx of spades (or Txx if partner has a stiff Ace -- not likely). Cheers, mike

6C is not so fantastic. You will likely make if West's spade holding is (A) Kxx, (B) Kx AND East has the Kh, © Kxxx and you guess the Kh, or (D) Kxxx with AQJd. Not bad, given that West overcalled and thus is a slight favorite to hold the Ks, but not wonderful by any means. And that doesn't consider 5/0 trump breaks, 6/0 heart splits, and the like. Mike

I'm not sure what the problem is, honestly. You will get to 3NT by North one way or another. I play 15-17 NT, so I would open 1S (there is no reason to upgrade this hand). 2C (2D) and now you can either pass (my choice), in which case partner probably bids 2H and you end up in NT, or else bid 2NT, in which case partner raises to 3. If you pass and LHO bids 3D, you'll bid 3NT when it comes back round. Seems like 3NT ought to produce 9 tricks, no? Cheers, mike

Opener's 2D rebid after 1NT (F) is a weakness of the 2/1 structure. You just have to live with it. Here, I think most folks would be stuck in 2S. With Qx, I think most experts would take a preference back to 2S rather than raising diamonds. Generally, you are going to play a part-score, and if you have one fewer spade, that's going to be offset by the fact that you are playing a level lower. 2S also leaves room for opener to bid again and show his hand. 3D implies 0-1 spades most of the time. If you partner bids 2S, I think you have to pass. Very unlucky. If you had another point, though (let's say the Ks was the As), you could consider "patterning out" with 3C. Then you'll get to 5D. After partner's actual 3D raise, I would try 4D, because partner ought to have a stiff spade, which combined with your stiff heart means that you should score at least two tricks more in diamonds than in NT. Cheers, Mike

Ac is a big card in their analysis. If you have an outside entry, I agree it's close with five. If you have two outside entries, definitely the K is better. With no certain outside entry, you have to lead low. Cheers, Mike

With respect to KQxx(x), I would be interested to know whether the advantage they found was in tricks taken or contracts defeated. I would bet it would be tricks taken, which is vital in MPs, but not as much in IMPs. At lot of it depends on the auction and whether you are playing IMPs or MPs. At MPs, if you think the opponents are strong, K from KQxx(x) is often right to cut down on the overtricks. At IMPs, where you just want to beat them and don't care about overtricks, if you have determined that your best chance is to set up the KQxx(x) suit (often it isn't), then you are better off leading low. With respect to QJ9xx, it also depends on the cin practice, low is only likely to lose in these situations: 1. Declarer has AKT or AKx with the T in dummy 2. Declarer has HT(x) (H=A/K) and dummy has Hx(x) (one of them has to have three) 3. Dummy has HT tight and declarer has Hxx Low will do better in the following situations: 1. Partner has Ax, Kx, or Tx 2. Partner has A, K, or T singleton 3. Partner has AK, AT, or KT doubleton 4. Partner has 9x or 9xx with HTx in dummy (declarer will play your partner for Q9 or J9, not QJ) 5. Dummy has AKT (declarer is not likely to hook the ten) If you are looking to maximize your tricks, Q may be better. But if you are looking to set up your suit to defeat a contract, low is going to work more often. Cheers, Mike

Part of it is standard stuff. Part is partnership agreement. Another part of it is IMPs vs MPs. Standard stuff: 1. Generally, the standard lead from KQxx(x) .. or QJxx(x) .... is low. If you don't find partner with a touching honor, your lead is going to fail one way or the other, and if you do, leading low is better as it will both tell you the position and unblock the suit. 2. The standard lead from KQTxx is the King. From KQT9(x) or KQTxxx, you lead the Q to ask partner to unblock the Jack. But from KQTxx, you can't afford an unblock from Jx in some situations. 3. The standard lead from QJ9x(x) is low, but if you have two outside entries you can lead the Q. The reason to lead low at NT is that it's likely partner will at least have the T, in which case low is better. If he doesn't have A, K, or T, then low still can gain when dummy has honor ten and partner the 9. At a suit, you would lead Q hoping dummy had the K and partner the A. That situation is not likely vs. NT. Partnership agreement: Leads of the A and K depend on partnership agreement. In the US, the traditional method was that A asked for unblock or count (something like AKJTx or AKQTx), whereas K asked for attitude (AKJxx or KQTxx). But I think the more popular modern method is to reverse these, with A asking for attitude and K for count (NOT unblock; Q asks for unblock of J). MPs vs. IMPs At IMPs, you are just interested in beating the contract, so low is generally right even from KQ98x. At MPs, though, you have overtrick considerations, so you might consider leading the K from KQ even without the T if you have good spot cards. Also, at MPs, short suit leads (a la GIB) should be given more consideration than most players give them; they actually give up fewer tricks than long suit leads. Cheers, mike

I'm believing partner -- 5C. I'm going to assume no one has made a mistake in the bidding (otherwise, it's not a good question). In that case, the Multi bidder has a weak 2 in spades that his partner didn't want to raise. That's puzzling, because the opponents appear to have 19 cards in the majors (unless partner is making his bid on 2254). One would have thought that responder, holding lots of major cards, would have bid 3H or 4H (both pass or correct). In the "standard" defense vs the Multi, a X of 2H is takeout, and 2NT is a standard 15-18 systems on. So unless partner has a moose (in which case he would have Xed), those options weren't available. He could have bid 3D and hoped to overcall 4C later with the right hand, but other than that, he had to pass at his first turn. So he could have a wide range of hands now. If partner is 3055 or 2155 (the most likely possibilities unless he has bid 2NT on 9 cards in the minors), then game is a decent shot. If you can't make game, the opponents probably can. So I think I will just believe partner, bid 5C, and put the opponents to the guess. Cheers, mike

I generally play 14-16 or 15-17 NT (2/1), but even with a weak NT, I think you went off the rails with an ace-asking bid (and yes, 4NT is quantitative, not keycard). How about bidding 3C after the transfer? Now when partner bids 3H, you can start cue-bidding. It could even be that your best spot is is 7C (Axx xx AJx Kxxxx, for example). Cheers, Mike

*** They certainly rate to have a fit on this auction, don't you think? How many hearts do you have? Zero; so the opponents have a 9-fit unless partner has a single-suited hand with hearts. That's possible, but pretty unlikely. In this case, he does, but if he has that hand, he has to be prepared to deal with bids like 3S. Here, he would have bid 4H without the intervening 1H bid, but with it, he can try 3NT. And yes, when you respond to a double, you must assume partner has a typical minimum double, not the strong one-suiter type. If he has the strong one-suiter, then he'll have to do the best he can. Incidentally, dealing with bids like 3S is another reason to bid 1H or 4H on this hand rather than X (not saying X is wrong; it's reasonable). Cheers, Mike

3S is exactly the sort of hand East has. 1sp here would be a free bid, so it's a great 5 to 8 or so (instead of 0-bad 8). 2sp would be a great 8 to 11. With 12+ you would cue-bid 2D. So what is 3S? A pile of spades and not a lot of strength. Your partner has Xed a 1d opener; how many spades do you expect him to have? At least 3, likely 4, right? So the LOTT says get to the three level now and describe your hand in one fell swoop. Textbook. Yes, if partner has 0-1 spades he'll have to bid 3NT or 4x. Cheers, mike

For what their worth (which isn't a lot), here are my thoughts: 1. Over South's 1D, there are three good choices, not two. A. X is OK. The only possible trouble comes when partner has something like KJ seventh of spades and out and decides to bid 4S (normal enough). B. 1H is fine, too. There are two potential problem auctions. First, it might go all pass with partner having enough for game. For those who say this never happens, exchange the Q and 2 of hearts and that's probably exactly what would happen. Second, if partner bids 1S, what do you do now? You don't have a forcing heart call. 4H? Which brings us to the third option ... C. 4H. You have a five loser hand with great hearts and a spade void. Looks like a good time to shoot out 4H and X the opponents if they bid 4S. Partner will get the message. This bid doesn't fare too well on this hand, but I think it's worth considering. 2. Over 1H, East's 3S bid is perfect. He just picked the wrong hand for it. 3. South did you a favor with his X of 3S. Why would you want to bid 3NT over South's X? You know your partner has nothing but a pile of spades. You either pass and hope your high cards are enough for him to make it (he's down one, but you can't know that) or you bid 4H, which is no longer a cue bid over South's X (if you had a good hand with spade support, you would XX, not make a 4H cue bid). Yes, I see that 3NT works out fine here, but you can't know your partner has the diamond cards you need. 4. East should pass 3NT- 100%. It certainly sounds like (A) West has a very strong hand with a club suit and (B) South has a spade stack. When the opponents make a penalty X of 3x, it's generally not a good idea to play 4x. 5. East should not leave the table in a huff. Someone please notify the BBO recorder :) Cheers, mike

Red vs. white, I'd open this hand with a 4H transfer bid. Transfer? Yes, you transfer the headaches from your side to your opponents. If you pass, you're going to have major difficulties later on, as you discovered. The same is true if you open 1H. Vul vs not, 4H shows 9 tricks or so, so you've got the goods. I don't know what I'd do on the second round with the bidding you gave. Maybe a negative double (let's hope partner doesn't leave it) followed by a 4H call? Who knows. On the third round you provided, if partner interpreted your 4H bid correctly (some sort of preempt), then I think you have to pass. You actually have more defense than you might have for your bid. But now you see why I much prefer a 4H opener. Make your opponents guess instead of you or your partner. Cheers, mike

If you play Precision, this looks like an OK 2C opener to me. Yeah, you're one HCP short, but this hand is pretty much what partner will expect. If you play some form of natural system, it's a matter of partnership agreement. Opening these sorts of hands will (A) make life a bit tougher for the opponents when it's their hand (it's always easier to have an uninterrupted auction) and (B) get you to some 23 HCP 3NT contracts that make. On the other hand, opening will © lead to some minuses in game when passing would have produced a plus and © make life a lot more difficult for partner, because a "minimum" opener will now encompass a much wider range of hands, making the decision as to whether to invite or force game somewhat of a guessing game in a lot of situations. Cheers, Mike