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Q1. Either a spade or a club could be right. As I would expect partner to make a lead-directing double with a spade void and a side A, I probably would choose the club. Q2. I would not double 5S with a void for two reasons. First, it looks like 6H may not make. If I X 5S, I may end up defending 5SXX or 6NT, each with disastrous results. I would double 6H for a lead. Partner ought to be able to work out what to do. It's a lot harder for the opponents to bid 6NT now, because West can't know I don't have AQd and East can't know I don't have AKc. Q3. West should XX to show that he has spades taken care of and that South's X is based on a void. It's still hard to get to 6NT, however, as neither E nor W has a club stop. Q4. If the opponents X 6H for a lead, you pretty much have to sit for it. Neither E nor W has a club stop, and if you bid 6NT, you could find yourself going for a phone numnber as against a push board. Q5. Well, if you're sure that the opponents have their slam and are way behind in a match, you can pysch a lead-directing X (especially with a stiff in a side suit) to try to get them to leave their making spot and end up in a worse one. I've never done it or had it done against me, but it's been known to happen. Cheers, Mike

The only auction where 2C gets you in trouble is (A) in MPs where partner has 5 spades and a minimum (and not even all of those) or (B) in IMPs, 5 spades, a minimum, and 0-1 clubs. Certainly possible. 2S is probably wrong when partner has 4 spades, 2+ clubs, and a minimum. Also possible. If partner has more than a minimum, either bid should be OK so long as you have decent methods (2D third-suit forcing if you rebid 2C or a way to check back on 3 vs 4 card support if you bid 2S). Thus, assuming you bid 2D and you don't play Reverse Flannery, then if partner has a minimum with 5S, 4H, and 0-1 clubs, he just bids 2H (non-forcing) to ask you to pick a major (you'll bid 3C with a huge pile). If partner has an invite or better with 5 spades (maybe 4 hearts too, maybe not), he uses 2D third suit forcing, and you'll be able to hit all of your major suit fits. If you do play Reverse Flannery (2H is a 5+/4+ minimum response; 2S is a 5/4 invite), then 2H is a game force with 4+ hearts and 2D is probably best played as game forcing also, though you can play it as a one-round force, too. Again, you'll hit all your major suit fits. Either way, no need to make a crazy reverse into 2H, and no huge loss from bidding 2C. Cheers, Mike

Depends what your major raise style is. Some theorists like three-card raises (Lawrence); others hate them (Meckwell). Personally, I would bid 2C, but that is because I only make three-card raises when there is absolutely no other bid available (after a 1s response, that generally means 3145). Yes, a 2C bid could lose on this hand if partner has 5 spades and a minimum response, but it could also win if partner has 4 spades, 3-4 clubs, and a minimum hand Generally, partner is slightly more likely to have 4 spades than specifically 5 (6+ he's apt to rebid spades). But the fact that you play a strict up the line system negates this somewhat (might even push it in the other direction). Here in the US, most players bypass a 4 card diamond suit (or even a 5-carder) to bid spades, so 4 spades is going to be much more common. Cheers, mike

3d seat is no different than 1-2 seat when it comes to five-card majors opening 1NT with 5332 shape. 1. WIth 17 and a five-card major, it's generally right to treat it as 18 and open 1M unless you have the worst looking 17 count imaginable. The reason is that partner is going to pass 1NT with a lot of hands that can make game (support and a 7 or mediocre 8). 2. With 15-16 and five hearts, it's generally right to open 1NT. The reason is that if partner rebids 1S, you have no good bid. 1NT is now a distinct underbid; 2 of a minor misstates your shape badly; and 2NT is a gross overbid. 3. With 15-16 and five spades, expert opinion is split. I think the majority of experts probably open 1NT most of the time, especially at IMPs. I like this approach, but some don't, and I'll play whatever partner likes here. The pluses for 1NT here are (A) harder for the opponents to compete; (B) gets your hand across in one bid; © right-sides everything. The minuses are (A) if partner has 3 spades, you may be better in spades, especially at MPs (IMPs not so clear); (B) if your best spot is a 5/3 minor partial, you'll miss that. That's in real life. With GIB, I think you'll get the best results opening 1NT on all 14 counts with no 5-card major and all 15-16 counts with 5332 (even with a 5-card major). 17 and a 5-card major better to open 1M so as not to miss game.

2C is the normal call. What else can you do? As others have pointed out, North might consider a responsive double over 4H. I think the hand is just barely good enough for that call over the 4H preempt, but others might disagree. 4NT seems normal enough. Both sides have 9+ fits, and likely at least one side has a 10-fit. You have all of your strength in your long suits, and you have only 3 short-suit losers. If you are beating 4H, there is an excellent chance you can make 5 of a minor, and if you are not beating 4H, you almost certainly have at least a good sacrifice. You are not likely ever to find 6D even if North makes a responsive double. It's not even that great a contract, b/c in addition to having to find the Qc, you will always go down if clubs are 4/0. Cheers, Mike

I don't think either North or South acquitted themselves very well on this one. I'll assume "standard" 2/1 bidding. I'll also assume that South had only 3 spades and that East had 5 (there are 12 cards in East and 14 in South, but from the bidding, it seems as though East ought to have another spade). The first round of bidding seems very normal. In the second round, however, things started to go off the rails. I wouldn't take 3C from North as 100% forcing. Suppose I am sitting South with something like: Qxx AQxxx x Qxxx Do I really want to bid again? Not unless North has extras for his bid, I don't. So I think North probably should bid 2S as a game force designed to elicit more information from South. South's 3D bid is much worse. There is no way this is forcing in standard systems. If your partner has opened and you have enough for game, you can't make a non-forcing bid below game. I think South should bid 3NT here, although admittedly that could be wrong-siding the hand. North's pass of 3D seems like a radical view to me. 16 HCP opposite a 2H 10+ bid means we need to be in game. 3S appears right on the auction, asking partner to bid 3NT with a spade stop. My auction would probably go something like this (I am going to assume East bids 1S with his 7HCP and 5-bagger, even though I probably would pass at IMPs). 1D (1S) 2H 2S 3S(1) or 2NT 3NT (1) showing a hard stop (As or Ks) and probably only five hearts (with 6, rebid the hearts) The reason for 3S is to right-side the hand. Here, 3S needs to be showing, not asking (even though in most cases it would be asking), because with no stop for NT, South would just bid 3C, 3D, or 3H, and with a soft stop, South would bid NT. If you don't like the 3S bid carrying this meaning in this auction (or don't think you can segregate showing from asking depending on the auction), then South can bid 2NT at his second turn and North can raise to 3NT. Cheers, mike

Another way of looking at this is that in MPs, the major suit has to make only one more trick to be better than NT. But in IMPs, the major suit has to make two more tricks to be better than NT. Cheers, Mike

You usually bypass a 4-card diamond suit to show a 4-card spade suit unless you have game-forcing values. 1S is generally played as FSF with 3- spades; 2S is generally played as a game force with 4 (or occasionally more) spades. The trouble comes when you have a hand with 5 diamonds, 4 spades, and limited or invitational values. Now you must choose between (A) bypassing diamonds and (B) bidding 1d and not being able to show spades over 1H (you'll have to bid some number of NT). Neither (A) nor (B) is the end of the world. Bypassing diamonds can be problematic if the opponents come in with spades and partner has 4/4 in the minors. Bidding 1d may get you into a NT contract when you have an 8-card spade fit if partner is 4423 or 4414. Neither one is disastrous. Personally, I generally bid the 5-card diamond suit (unless it is awful) and take my chances with NT, but if my partner wants me to bypass, I will. Cheers, mike

There is another method besides up the line and Walsh, sort of a split the difference approach. It is more East coast (Walsh is more West Coast). In this approach you bypass 1d with all 4/4 hands pretty much regardless of strength and some 5/4 hands (if the major is good and the minor is weak and the hand is less than an invite). 64 hands bid 1d Any of the methods is quite playable. A lot depends on what methods you like on subsequent rounds. Another factor is what you open with 4-4 in the minors. If you almost always open 1d then Walsh works ok. If you like to open 1c sometimes, depending on the strength of your suits, then bypassing 1d with 5 and 6 card suits can be costly if the opponents get the bidding high quickly in a major Cheers Mike

There is another method besides up the line and Walsh, sort of a split the difference approach. It is more East coast (Walsh is more West Coast). In this approach you bypass 1d with all 4/4 hands pretty much regardless of strength and some 5/4 hands (if the major is good and the minor is weak and the hand is less than an invite). 64 hands bid 1d Any of the methods is quite playable. A lot depends on what methods you like on subsequent rounds. Another factor is what you open with 4-4 in the minors. If you almost always open 1d then Walsh works ok. If you like to open 1c sometimes, depending on the strength of your suits, then bypassing 1d with 5 and 6 card suits can be costly if the opponents get the bidding high quickly in a major Cheers Mike

There is another method besides up the line and Walsh, sort of a split the difference approach. It is more East coast (Walsh is more West Coast). In this approach you bypass 1d with all 4/4 hands pretty much regardless of strength and some 5/4 hands (if the major is good and the minor is weak and the hand is less than an invite). 64 hands bid 1d Any of the methods is quite playable. A lot depends on what methods you like on subsequent rounds. Another factor is what you open with 4-4 in the minors. If you almost always open 1d then Walsh works ok. If you like to open 1c sometimes, depending on the strength of your suits, then bypassing 1d with 5 and 6 card suits can be costly if the opponents get the bidding high quickly in a major Cheers Mike

There is another method besides up the line and Walsh, sort of a split the difference approach. It is more East coast (Walsh is more West Coast). In this approach you bypass 1d with all 4/4 hands pretty much regardless of strength and some 5/4 hands (if the major is good and the minor is weak and the hand is less than an invite). 64 hands bid 1d Any of the methods is quite playable. A lot depends on what methods you like on subsequent rounds. Another factor is what you open with 4-4 in the minors. If you almost always open 1d then Walsh works ok. If you like to open 1c sometimes, depending on the strength of your suits, then bypassing 1d with 5 and 6 card suits can be costly if the opponents get the bidding high quickly in a major Cheers Mike

In connection with the use of 2S range-finder or clubs, you should consider using either 2NT or 3C to ask for five-card majors.. Let's say you use 3C (which is more common). In that case, 3C asks only for a five-card major (if you were interested in four-card majors, you would use regular Stayman). Partner will bid 3M with a five-card major, or 3D without one. After 3D, a bid of 3M can indicate either (A) shortness in the bid suit or (B) a three-card fragment with shortness in the other major. Either way is playable, but I prefer (B), because it makes it tougher for the opponents to double your short suit for a lead. So on your hand, the bidding might go: 1NT 3C(1) 3D(2) 3S(3) (1) five card major ask (2) no five card major (3) Short hearts; likely 3-1 in the majors If opener had shown 5 hearts, responder would have bid 3NT> If opener had shown 5 spades, responder would have bid 4S. Since opener showed neither, responder highlights the heart shortness, and now opener can take the appropriate action. Cheers, mike

You can escape "jail" by adopting Kickback (one over the trump suit is key card) instead of RKC. Then you always have room for the Queen ask, too. On your second auction, spades should be trump. If responder wanted H to be trump, he should bid anything other than 3S (including 3NT as some sort of unserious, serious, or "moving along" slam try). Cheers, Mike

3D on two of them? Not quite. 3NT with Qxxx in front of the heart bidder? Seems likely the opponents run five H right off the top, and they probably have at least one more high card winner if not two. I suppose you could pass 3C, but you're kind of in the soup no matter what you do.

2C planning to double 2H on the way back around is certainly possible. The upside is that you won't get into a bad spade contract if partner has only four. The downside is that might well miss a really good spade contract (including potentially even a game) if partner has 5+ spades. Cheers, Mike

If you bid 3C over 2S, you are apt to find partner with: Kxxx Qxxx xx Jxx Now partner is going to bid 3S (what else can he do), and you may well be too high. Cheers, mike

Not so easy to reach slam scientifically. As Timo indicated, certainly 2S ought to be "third suit forcing.: After 1x - 1M - 2x, where x is a minor, the bid of the cheapest unbid suit is artificial and forcing; this is pretty standard stuff. Timo's suggestion that 3C also ought to be third suit forcing is one treatment, but I suspect that the majority of experts might consider 3C natural in the absence of prior discussion. Using 2S as artificial, you get: 1D 1H 2D 2S(1) 2NT 3D(2) 3H(3) (1) artificial game force (2) diamond support with a hand that at least wants to investigate slam (otherwise, since opener indicates he can play NT, just raise to 3NT) (3) cue-bid; should indicate a max hand for the bidding so far (i.e., some slam interest) Once responder finds out that opener is max for his bidding, then with a 6-loser hand, a five-card H suit that might set up opposite Ax, and a ruffing value, I think responder can force to 6D. Cheers, mike

If you play feature, then Timo's auction is easy-peasy. If you play some form of Ogust, it probably goes something like this: 2S 2NT(1) 3H(2) 4NT(3) 5D(4) 5NT(5) 6C(6) 6NT(7) (1) Ogust - asking about opener's hand (2) Good hand (for a weak 2); bad suit (3) Key card (4) One (or 5C if you play 1430) (5) Have any Kings? (6) Yes, Kc (7) well, with the Kc, better to have the lead come up to the red suit tenaces. Cheers, mike

Percentage-wise, it looks like 3/3 diamonds is a slightly better shot than leading the Jc at trick 2. But it's close. Cheers, mike

I don't mean to be flippant, but how many times in your life are you going to get a ten-bagger? I've been playing 40+ years and I've never had one yet. Don't worry about these hands. They never come up and no one really knows how to bid them. Cheers, Mike

If you think this hand is worth an upgrade to 20 (I don't), then you should have opened 2NT. Having failed to do that, 2NT now is about right -- 18-19 balanced or semi-balanced. That's what you have. I don't think this hand is worth an upgrade to 20, because it has too much stuff in a short suit (H) and not enough stuff in your long suit (clubs). If you open 1C and partner passes your 2NT ribe, you are not likely to make 9 tricks before the opponents get 4 spades and a club. Cheers, mike

If you were playing a system other than a strong club system in the USA (or on BBO, for that matter), your call was illegal. You can't psyche your strong bid (1c for strong club systems; 2c for most other systems). If you do, you are subject to penalties.

I'm not so sure that the percentage bid is 3NT, even at teams (MPs it's an obvious 5D bid over 1NT). There are hands where 3NT makes and 5D doesn't, and there are hands where 5D makes and 3NT doesn't. But on the hands where 5D fails, it won'b do so by much. On the hands where 3NT fails, it could be down 5 rather easily. Going -50 rather than -250 does save some IMPs. I think 5D directly over 1NT has to be reasonable. No need to get fancy here. Cheers, Mike

Well, I would say a third method is more common in "Standard Expert American," if such a thing exists. 2H in this auction is often played as artificial (third suit forcing) with at least invitational strength and at least 5 spades. Otherwise, you have no good bid with (A) an invite with 5 spades that isn't suitable for a 2NT call; (B) a game force with 5 spades (3C here should be semi-natural); or © a game-forcing hand with diamond support that is not suitable for bidding NT. All of those hand types are very common. If you play some form of Reverse Flannery responses (2H over 1d shows 5/4 in the majors or better with 5-8 or so and 2S shows specifically 5/4 in the majors with 9-11), then you limit the hands 2H shows somewhat, but if you don't, it can show a very wide variety of hands (those with 4+ H and those without). It's really an overstressed bid, but there is no good alternative. Opener will generally bid as follows over 2H artificial: 2S - three spades min 2NT - 2- S; 3- H; some semblance of C and H stops; min 3C - generally 2- S 3-H 6D 4C min that doesn't want to play NT 3D - 2- S 3- H 6+D no club stop; min 3H - 2- S 4H any strength forcing (one of the weaknesses of the structure) 3S - 3 S max 3NT 2- S 3- H some semblance of C and H stops; max That leaves us with the 5-5 invite, the 5-5 GF, and the splinter. A lot of folks use the second-round jump to 3H to show the 5-5 invite, which generally works semi-OK. Bidding 2H artificial followed by 3H then shows the GF (you don't need to show 5-4, because partner will raise hearts with 4 and fewer than 3S). Other players use the second round jump as forcing and give up on the 5-5 invite unless opener's third bid is 2NT (they will bid 3H) or 3H (they will raise to 4). The logic here is that if opener bids 3C or 3D, he has a minimum, so you might as well get out in a minor partial, and if he bids 3S, you have an eight-fit in spades. I don't have a strong preference. If you play 2H as artificial, you have to give up the 3H splinter bid. That's a very useful bid to have when it comes up, but (A) 1D 1S 2D heart splinter is a pretty rare auction and (B) there are other ways to handle it that although aren't as good, work out halfway decently most of the time. Cheers, Mike