Ayjay

Thank you for your thoughts. I would've thought that with 7-4 in the majors, a 3M or 4M bid would be more appropriate?

Hi everyone, A friend of mine was faced with a dilemma when he held this hand in first position. Nobody Vulnerable. Qxxx x AQxxxxx x He didn't want to open 3D seeing the side spade suit. He decided to open 1D instead, since he was around 5 to 6 losers. He argued that it was unlikely that partner was void in diamond, 1.5% probability in fact, and the loser count was therefore quite valid. He didn't want to miss game facing a partner with a ten or 11 point hand. As it happened partner responded 3C my friend rebid diamonds and his partner raised to 3NT having a singleton diamond going 3 off. 3D was the contract. I myself would have passed this hand and waited for developments. Any thoughts?

When showing or asking for stoppers it would be also useful if the person with the stoppers bids no trumps first, protecting his honours. This may be easier to do when asking. This way, the no trump bidder can even bluff in the hope that defenders will be reluctant to lead into declarer's tenace. Treating a jump to the 3 level in a new suit as a mini splinter is a great idea. Responder can sign off in 3NT with wasted values, cue bid aces or use 4m as RKC.

Thanks everyone for your comments, @ Ahydra, You're quite right. My partner and I actually open weak 1NT. I've probably mixed up the honour cards. West may have had 15 points. I also agree with the points made by Fluffy and helene_t. Especially at teams, it's important to bid game even if one of the suits are potentially unguarded, since it's likely that the opponents will bid it anyway. I'm somewhat less inclined to use this approach in matchpoint scoring however. I have had several occasions where my partner and I successfully steer clear of a treacherous 3NT to get a good result at matchpoints. Also, the fact that the opponents don't lead the weak suit doesn't necessarily mean that they won't run the suit when they get the lead. I like ggwhiz's suggestion very much though. It makes full use of the system. Cheers

Hello everyone, In the version of inverted minor I'm used to, we use stopper showing after 1C-2C or 1D-2D, so that we can establish whether any suit is wide open before reaching 3NT. I recently ran into a problem playing Acol (4 card suit openings) with my partner, [hv=pc=n&w=sat3hk94d753ckqj5&e=sj52ha5dak8ct8743]266|100[/hv] The bidding went 1C-2C What am I supposed to bid here, and how should arrive in 3NT? We'd probably get there comfortably if we weren't worried about checks. Cheers

(1) Consider the following auction.... N...................E....................S......................W 1♣*.......... 1NT**................? * Artificial 16+ ** Two suits of the same shape (either ♣&♥ or ♦&♠) and point range UNKNOWN Is Easts bid legitimate? Is he allowed to make a bid that is not only ambiguous in terms of suits but also in terms of values? (As it happened N-S missed a fairly straightforward slam, giving them a bad score.) (2) Next, is it acceptable to open 1NT (or natural 2NT) with values slightly less or more (by 1 point) than the specified range, after downgrading or upgrading the hand? For example: [hv=d=s&v=n&s=sqjhkjxxdkjxxcajx]133|100|Would I be found fault with if I were to decide to open the above hand 1NT instead of 1♣(16+) in precision?[/hv]

I do apologise for my omission. This sequence of bidding actually took place at a local club tournament, not on BBO.

[hv=d=s&v=e&n=sk42hkxxxdqjxcxxx&w=saq3h9xxdxxxcaj9x&e=sj97haq10xda109xcqx&s=s10865hjxdkxxck10xx]399|300|Scoring: MP[/hv] The bidding goes... ..S..........W..........N..........E Pass.....Pass......1NT......2♣ Pass.....2♦.....Pass.....Pass Pass 1NT is alerted as a balanced 10-13 HCP 2♣ is alerted as one of (a ♦ suit/♥ and a minor/equal strength or better) 2♦ made 9 tricks giving EW a bad score of +110 as they are better off in NT EW requested that an adjusted score be given since N did not have the required values for his bid. The director ruled that no adjusted score would be given, North's opening bid being too minor a deviation to be considered a system violation/psyche. Any thoughts about this?

These are very enlightening and humbling comments :) Didn't mean to create such a stir by saying that the standard 'book' opening was 1♦. One positive in opening 1♦ as far as I'm concerned is finding a 4-4 diamond fit, which would otherwise be elusive. But then again one would have to deal with having to play in a 4-2 fit every now and then.

Say you're playing 2/1, holding 12-14 HCP and a hand with 5-4 in the minors. You're opening strong NT so 1NT is out of the question. The standard 'book' opening is 1♦ My question is, are there any exceptions, considering suit quality for example? For instance I would be strongly inclined to open 1♣ with the following extreme hand: ♠42 ♥J6 ♦Q642 ♣AKQ83 I know of many people wouldn't. My apologies if the level of the question is too basic. Regards Ayjay

My personal experience is that even with the aid of tools such as Roman Key Card blackwood and Jacoby 2NT, natural systems like 2/1 are at a loss when it comes to slam bidding, where systems like Precision triumph big time with their asking bids (alpha, beta, gamma, epsilon etc etc.). It's very crucial for example to know if partner has second round control in a specific suit, in order to reach a slam. Can anyone shed some light? An efficient method of cue bidding perhaps?