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No hurry? Let's say West bids 2C and East raises to 3C. Now you have a bit of a problem, no?

You didn't indicate whether this was IMPs or MPs. I think it makes a difference. At IMPs, it's probably too risky to bid vulnerable. By passing, you could very easily be exchanging a plus for a minus, but with the ratty H suit, the risk of going for 500 or 800 on a part-score hand seems a bit too great. NV, I think this is a tough choice. At MPs, it's a different story. The opponents ought to have at least 7 clubs (3 for opener and likely 4 for responder unless he has 3343), so partner should have at most two and more likely a stiff. This means we should have a fit somewhere, and that's almost certainly going to be in H (if partner has six spades and short H, he can correct). 2H might play quite well, but in addition, if we overcall 2H, responder may very well show delayed C support, and I would much rather defend 3C than 1NT. NV, I would make the 2H overcall at MPs. Vul, it's closer, but I still think I would bid.

There is a reason that hardly any world-class pair plays Flannery, and very few expert players use it. You give up more than you get. What do you get? The ability to show 45 hands with 11-14 HCP more easily. It's not that big a benefit. First off, those hands don't come up that often. Second, when they do, you generally are OK opening 1H. If the opponents compete, partner has a negative double available. If partner bids 1NT, he doesn't have 4S, anyway. If partner bids 2 of a minor, you have a game force and can find your spade fit later. The only real benefit comes when you are specifically 4522 and have to bid a two-card club suit after 1NT forcing. Big whoop. Flannery is a solution for a problem that really isn't all that bad. Yes, low-level players may have difficulty bidding after an opposing 2D Flannery opening, but for more experienced players, it is probably easier competing vs Flannery that vs a standard 1H bid, because you know precisely what that player has. What do you give up? 1. The weak 2D bid (or Meckwell or Wilkosz or whatever you like) 2. If the opponents buy the hand, they will be able to play it more or less double-dummy (you have just told them your shape and HCP count) 3. If the 2D opener becomes dummy (which does happen sometimes after asking bids), the opponents will be able to defend pretty much double-dummy That's way too much for the marginal benefit. Cheers, Mike

Mini Multi wastes too many bids showing more or less the same hand. If you want to play 2D as a weak two in a major, better to use Meckwell's treatment. Muiderberg is a treatment for the 2H and 2S bids when you use Multi or Meckwell. It's very similar to Meckwell's treatment; the only difference is that 2H shows H and a minor rather than H and another suit. Not a big difference. Cheers, mike

The weak 2d bid works quite nicely as a preempt, especially when it is RHO that has the strong hand and partner can further the preempt at his turn before RHO gets to bid. For anyone short of world-class status, there is no reason to mess with anything different. Your results won't vary that much. If you really want to try something different just for kicks, then probably the two best treatments are Meckwell and Wilkosz. Wilkosz is 5/5 unspecified (with 2H and 2S as weak 2s). Meckwell is simply the base Multi bid; that is, a weak 2 in hearts or spades (with 2H as 5/5 H and another suit and 2S as 5/5 S and a minor).

First round is a clear pass. You don't have a heart fit. Where are your tricks on offense. If partner makes normal weak 2 bids, second round is a X at MPs (never at IMPs). 2H will make more often than not. If partner has the Ah, you are looking at 6 tricks. If he doesn't, then he ought to have something outside H for you. In any event, 2S rates to go down, so you have to X to get +200 instead of +100. If partner makes undisciplined weak 2 bids in first seat, then you are stuck guessing. And as noted above, in IMPs this is entirely different. Then you have two clear passes. +100 is just as good as +110; -670 is disaster. Cheers, Mike

First, why do you think East is so strong for his balancing bid? He'd make the same bid if the Ad were a small diamond. Second, why do you think partner has a H honor and nothing else for a vul 2H opener? Finally, even on the hand you posit, X may still be fine. Give partner the AJh and you take 2 spades, a heart, a heart ruff, a club, and a diamond. +200. Cheers, mike

Yes, occasionally you open 1NT on a six-card C or D suit, but it's not common (or shouldn't be). 3D is more of an IMPs bid than a MPs bid. It should show a minimum hand with a good 5-card D suit (maybe a six-bagger) and weakness for NT play. Maybe something like: xx KQsx KQJTx Ax You are apt to get murdered at NT here if partner has 8-9 and fewer than 4 spades (which is what he's shown). 3D ought to be pretty safe (partner rates to have a few D if he doesn't have a four-card major). In IMPs, this bid makes a lot of sense; you want to go plus. At MPs, it's less useful, as NT scores better than diamonds. Cheers, mike

2nt here is two-suited, so you bid as follows: 1. If you prefer C to D, you bid 3C, and then if partner corrects to 3D (showing the reds), you pass or correct to 3H, depending on your hand. 2. If you prefer D to C, it's a bit more complicated: A. If you prefer D to C and either prefer H to C or are indifferent between C and H, you bid 3D. B. If you prefer D to C, but have a definite preference for C over H, you should bid 3C. This one is an obvious 3C bid. You should give up on game, because partner had neither enough to act over 1S nor a hand suitable for a X this round. Cheers, mike

First seat, I think all are easy passes playing a standard bidding system. If you play a strong club system, then 1h on #2 is a possibility. Cheers, mike

There are many ways to play after a reverse. Probably the most common expert treatment is that the lower of fourth suit or 2NT is the "negative" bid, after which opener's bid of 3 of his minor is non-forcing. Some (including me) like to play the negative bid as "good-bad," meaning that if opener "signs off" in 3 of his minor and I bid again, then I have slam interest. Cheers, Mike

If you play Kokish, then 2C followed by 2NT isn't 22-24 any more. It's 22-23. Kokish, then 2NT is 24-25. 2C then 3NT is 26-27; Kokish then 3NT is 28+. BWS doeesn't incorporate Kokish, but I would venture that most top serious players play it. Cheers, mike

2C 2D 3NT(1) 4S(2) 5NT(3) 6C (1) 26-27 (2NT is 22-23; Kokish 2H then 2NT after the 2S relay is 24-25) (2) minor suit interest (3) pick a slam You have 26, not 25 (and a pretty decent 26, too), so you are too good for Kokish then 2NT, which in Standard American Expert shows 24-25. So you have to bid 3NT (26-27), which makes things a bit awkward for finding a minor suit (4C is majors; 4D is hearts; and 4H is spades). 4S shows minor suit interest, so that's what partner has to bid, and now since you have a nice hand with great support for either minor, you can just bid 5NT to tell partner to pick a slam.

It's easy after pass too

I pass on opening bid in 2d seat. I certainly don't pass partners 1s 4th seat opener. Not sure hoe p got dropped in 1s.

The opponents surely have a 10 fit in spades. You have a nine fit somewhere and probably only two short suit losers That suggests that the opponents will surely bid 4s over 4h and that you should then bid 5c. And indeed that's one way to do it Another approach -- and one that makes it tougher for the opponents -- is to bid 4nt over 2s with the idea of correcting 5d to 5h. Partner rates to have better d than h and if you get dropped in 5c that may not be bad at all. I like this approach better in IMPs than in MPs though. If you bid 4h and partner hitches over 4s I think you have to pass. Partner can't seriously have been considering a double because 4h shows good offense but minimal defense. With more HCP you would bid 3s. So he was considering 5h. I think pass is reasonable, because it's quite possible that both 4s and 5h are -1.

Rubber bridge is a very different animal, but in this case, I think the answer is the same as at MP or IMPs. You want to put the opponents to a guess. You know they can make a game, and you know that you can probably make at least 9 tricks in spades (likely you lose one trick in each red and two clubs). Can they make a slam? Who knows. Maybe partner has two defensive tricks for his third-seat opener (third-seat 2 bids can be wide-ranging). Maybe East plays 6H and partner has the Ad. Maybe a lot of things. I would bid 5S immediately. You shouldn't go for more than 300 if they double, which even in rubber bridge is better than letting them score up a 2-0 rubber. If they bid slam, maybe you can beat it. But they will have no room to explore anything. They will have to make an immediate guess with no bidding room at all. Bidding 4S doesn't do the job. West has a lot of bids at his disposal: X, 4NT (two-suited), 5S, and the like. Bidding 6S is unilateral, because now you are the one who has guessed. The opponents will just X, and you'll have to hope you guessed right. And 6S is likely to go for at least 500, maybe 800. 5S gets my vote at any form of scoring. On a good day, the opponents X, partner shows up with: AKJxxx xxx xxxx void spades are 1-1, clubs are 4-3, and 5SX comes rolling home Cheers, mike

Yes, you should X with either hand (I'll assume the first one is missing a small heart). The big factor here is that you have no wastage in the opening bidder's suit. Honors in the bidder's suit aren't great for suit play. Even the A or K (which admittedly would be well placed) would be better off somewhere else. Cheers, Mike

You can give yourself a slight extra chance in case South has 5125 with K(J) fifth of spades and QJTxx of clubs. Take the K and Ac before playing hearts. Then if South has a stiff ten, North gets endplayed. Even without this wrinkle, the hook is a slightly better % play, as you can pick up 40 with South. Cheers, MIke

After a 2-level overcall (including 2NT), "standard expert" is that X is a double negative and pass is better than the double negative but with no clear bid. This treatment seems to work pretty well. At some point, however, you probably want to shift and have X be penalty. Where the dividing line should be is something you need to agree upon with partner. Cheers, Mike

Transferring to 4H is pretty normal opposite a weak NT. It's a good two-way shot. If partner has a maximum with prime cards and a good fit, you just might make it. If partner has a minimum, the opponents might have a part-score or even a game. Playing strong NTs, however, a normal 2D transfer would be pretty automatic.

Assuming you play a 2/1 system, the question is whether or to open 1S with the West hand. If you do, you will reach a very bad 3NT game. If you don't, you'll likely end up in 2S going plus. That's not to say you shouldn't open 1S as West. Personally, I would pass. You have an aceless hand, two HCP are a stiff Queen, and you're in second seat. All reasons to pass (1S has more of a preemptive effect in first seat than it does in second seat). But I can't criticize a 1S opener; it has its advantages, too. Of course, this is an easy 1S opener if you play a strong club system, but then partner will make allowance for this sort of opener and not force game with the East hand. In 2/1, East has a GF hand. No clear-cut answer; you have to decide what style you want to adopt and live with the ups and downs. Cheers, Mike

14-16 works tremendously well with a strong or multi-purpose 1C opener (Precision variants, Polish club, and the like) and with treatments like transfer Walsh (not generally legal yet in ACBL-land). It doesn't work quite as well in standard, because you end up having to jump to 2NT with a bad 17. That puts responder in a bind with certain 4-5 HCP hands: he doesn't want to hear a 2NT rebid on these hands. Especially at MPs, I honestly think a better solution is to make 1NT a really good 14 to a moderate 17, and upgrade the good 17 hands (including ALL 17 hands with a five card major) to 18. If you really want to open most 14s 1NT, then I would prefer your first method above: jump 2NT for 17-18; 2NT opener for 19-20; 2C for 21+. But then you almost HAVE to play Kokish 2H, so that you can distinguish 21-22 (2C then 2NT), 23-24 (2c-Kokish-2NT), 25-26 (2C then 3NT), and 27+ (2C-Kokish-3NT). Cheers, Mike

There is one other well-known option no one has mentioned: 2H. If partner raises hearts, that means he has 5 spades (with 44, he'd have bid 1H, not 1S), so you just correct to spades and partner should be able to figure it out. If he bids 2S, great - raise to 4. If he bids 2NT (four spades, weakness), then you can either raise to 3NT and hope your 2H bid fetches a club lead or else rebid 3C. If partner bids 3C, you can try 5C. And so on. Cheers, Mike

I think it's a close call. Personally, at IMPs, I'd pass (the chances of the opponents' having game seem greater than the chances of our having game, and their suit outranks ours). At MPs, I think I might venture 2D. But I don't think you can criticize either call much. I do think partner should have Xed 1S. Sure, it's 4333, but the four-card suit is the other major and all the HCP are in Aces and Kings. Gotta get in the bidding on those hands. 1NT overcalls on 14 are generally awful. Overcalls show a 15-18 range; there is only so much mileage you can get out of a 1NT bid. Making it apply to 14-18 hands puts too much stress on the bid (partner is going to try for game with a decent 7, and now you'll be overboard). Cheers, Mike