HeartA

South has 12 cards only. S W N E 1♥ - 1♠ - 2♣ - 2♦ - 2♠ - 3♣ - 3♠ - 4NT - 5♦ - 6♣ - - -. 2♦ by north is "4th suit forcing to game", and 3♣ confirms ♣ as trump. North, after South's 2♠, knows South is short in ♦. After 3♣, South doesn't have a good bid, not willing to go beyond 3NT, 3♠ seems the best, which North loves to hear (No ♥A was good for North). North now can use RKC (not 100% clear for South which black suit is trump, though ♣ is more likely). After 5♦ (assuming 03-14), North bid slam.

I tend to agree with ArcLight.

To avoid this kind of confusion, I would suggest to bid (Jacoby) 2NT at the first round, or to begin with 2D (and bid S later if necessary). For the given auction, I don't have a clear (simple "yes" or "no") answer to the question. But most likely it shows ♥ fit and slam interest. If responder wanted to play his(her) own spades, he should bid 3C (new minor forcing) and then 4S.

♥♥Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone!♥♥

Agree with flytoox.

I need to add that I passed. I was thinking of opening 1H, but didn't like SQ, so passed.

Your pd opens 1♥. What would you bid, holding ♠Q, ♥KJxxx, ♦ATxxxx, ♣x?

West virtually had nothing for the dbl.[hv=w=skxxxhqjxxxdaxcqx&e=sjxxhkt9xdjtxcxxx]266|100|[/hv] I took ♥A at trick #1, and ran clubs. On the last ♣, West discarded a ♠, leaving SK unprotected. I cashed ♠A and finessed ♠ to get an overtrick.

Last night I had another desperate 3NT: [hv=d=s&v=n&n=satxhxxdqxckj9xxx&s=sq9xhaxdkxxxxxcax]133|200|Scoring: IMP As a substitute for a team match, I didn't know anything about my pd (labeled himself as "expert", from later bid and play, he was not very good). I opened 1♦, the bidding went: South West North East 1♦ 1♥ 2♣ Pass 2♦ Pass 3♣ Pass 3N Pass Pass X All pass West led ♥x (the good news was West had ♣Qx), still couldn't see 9th trick.[/hv]

Great! Then where is the entry to dummy for good diamonds (West will cover your DJ)?

Phil, Only when you have evidence that RHO has KJx(K9x) do you play HQ from dummy at trick 2. I knew I need write more details about the play. What if you loss to stiff K? Or you loss to KJ, will you play drop or finesse again? My line covers RHO with K9x as well. BTW, are you sure you will have an overtrick if RHO has ♥KTx? Don't forget you need to ruff TWO clubs in dummy. After RHO covers ♥Q, how would you know ♥ were 3-1, not 2-2?

You can only carter ♥2-2, or 3-1 with stiff K or J. At trick #3, ♥ to Ace and ruff a ♣ (trick #4). Cash another ♠ honor (trick #5) and ruff ♠ at trick #6. Ruff the last club in dummy (trick #7) and cash ♦AK (trick #8 & #9). At trick #10, play ♥Q from dummy.... This fails only when West has ♥K9x AND ♦3-3 (and East can get in with 3rd ♦) AND East has 4th ♠ to promote a trump trick.

3D only shows a good D only. I would bid 3D.

Pass. What else do you want to bid?

Definitely 4S.

Most of the WCs I played with are OK, better than experts, statistically. But one WC has no clue on bidding and play. First hand, (s)he open 1S on 5=2=3=3 (no problem) with 14 hcp. And rebid 2S after my 1NT response! I asked him(her) why he rebid 2S, "I thought we play 2/1" was his reply. The second hand, he opened 1C and rebid 2D with 12 hcp and 1=0=6=6. Facing my stiff D and 4 clubs, he kept playing trump w/o trying to ruff Ds (DKJxxxx). I couldn't stand anymore and decided to quit, and marked him as "enermy".

Thuogh my opening doesn't have to be 12 hcp, this is still not qualified for 1H opening, even if you use Bergen's law of 20 (19 only) or Zar's 26 (24 only). When I open w/ less than 12 hcp, I usually use Bergen's law of 20 and the hcp would concentrate in the two suits.

I would bid my major (2♥) here with both of the hands.

I would bid the same as what Ben said: 3♦-6♦. When 6D was almost a sure thing, I don't need gadgets. Assuming pd has ♦A, even if South doesn't have enough ♣ for North to ruff, we can rely on ♠ finesse as the final resort unless pd is void in ♠. Finally, if South doesn't have DA, I can expect him to have ♠K, or ♠K on side. To expect South have ♠K asks to much, IMHO. Unless you are regular partners and can be sure what you do, complicated auctions may not get the info you want (even if South has SK), but lead to confusion and "short trump" contract instead.

OK, you want more HCP. How is that ♠KJxxx, ♥Kxx, ♦K, ♣Jxx. Now you have a lot more HCP? Bridge is about tricks, not HCP.

Very interesting, a hand drew so much discussion. To tell you the truth, I am the one who held that hand, playing with flytoox (we were long time friends, but rarely had chance to play together, less than 50 boards). While my pd only raised to 3C, I didn't have the ambition for slam. My 4H was to play, in case he had 4 reasonable ♥ (it is quite possible, isn't it? He had SIX ♠ heading with Ace and yet didn't mention it at all). After 2C was raised to 3C, my hand got appreciated (slam asked too much, game was quite possible): ♠K in good position, ♥ had Ace and stiff ♦. In my method, 2S after 2C was at best invitational. With the real holding, it opened the door to possible slam: I had ♠K support, ♥ and ♦ controls, we could count winners....

I agree with Free and Junyi: the sequece is normal. After opp's preemptive, you can't get the prefect contract from time to time. That's what preemptive is for. Even without preemptive, you have to live by some non-makable contracts.

I forgot to mention that I was playing with a pick-up pd, who claimed herself as "World Class". We had only played 10 to 20 boards. No gadgets (like raptor, I don't play it anyway) were discussed, except "standard" conventions. This is her holding. The actual bidding went: East South West North(me) 1♥ dbl 2♥ 3♥ 4♥ pass pass dbl pass 5♣ pass 5♦ I had ♠KJx, ♥Axx, ♦xxxxx, ♣KT. I corrected 5C to 5D, thinking her hands should be 5-4-3-1 (5♣) or so. The other table played 4S and made 11 tricks. 5C was perfect while 5D went down 2. Who was to blame, and percentage?

Auto-splinter is the key.

[hv=d=e&s=saqxxhxdqxcaqjxxx]133|100|Scoring: IMP East opens 1H, what would you do? dbl or 2C?[/hv]