LBengtsson

I would have found the equal defense of leading ♠9 and partner ducking :) (I am only joking) As for an answer to your question, your lead of top ♦ honor is safe, but East has already indicated shortage. Trumps are breaking good for declarer. If partner has any honor cards they are under the strong NT hand, so where do the defense tricks come from? I agree it is difficult to find at the table, but partner must have some high cards somewhere. I was given advice at a young age to try to picture the perfect defense before it happens. I always think it is a good move (like on chessboard) to lead a stiff when you have a control in the opps. trump suit. But, as you say, it might have been the wrong lead, so it is just bad luck that you did not find it.

A good hand to post, AL78. I am tempted by the safe 3♣ - no imagination rebid, and the not so safe 2NT rebid. I choose 2NT and if partner is very weak they may remove to 3♣. This hand is strong with its controls, and if partner has the ♣Q then there should be 7 tricks already there. I have noted that partner has not bid 1♠ but neither has East overcalled 1♠ or 2♠. The trouble is partner may have a weak hand such as ♠Ax ♥xx ♦xxxx ♣Qxxxx where 5♣ is possible. But I still think you need to show your strength with a 2NT rebid. Bidding 3♣ here is losing bridge imo. As for looking for penalties by passing and hoping partner reopens with a X is a fantasy. You might come away with +100/+300 when missing game.

Upside-down count and attitude signals are the opposite of standard count and attitude signals. In a count situation, playing high-low shows an odd number of cards in the suit, while playing low-high shows an even number of cards. In an attitude situation, playing high-low is a discouraging signal, whereas low-high is an encouraging signal. Given standard leads partner knows you have either KQJxx or KQTxx or KQxxx. If you have KQJxx it does not matter whether he sugnals, but if you have the other combinations, leading again will lose a trick. There is more emphasis on attitude than count here so partner should play the ♣9 discouraging imo.

Yes, 1 in 17,000,000 is long odds, but many lotteries have higher odds and are won all the time. The probabilities are only a guide: they do not tell you when you will pick up this hand.

North :angry: (human) South :rolleyes: (robot) East/West :D then :( we missed 6♣

This is a interesting forum post. It is making me think. I have credited +1 to both DavidKok and mikeh without knowing who is right. (And Cyberyeti for the post.) My contribution is not on their level. However... My understanding of a Lightner X is partner is to inform partner to find a unusual lead. I have just looked at the wiki page for this and it said the same :) (I am glad that my knowledge of bridge is right here lol!) Lightner X are, as far as my knowledge knows, made primary for suit contracts where partner can gain a trick by a ruff. Now variations and partnership understanding and agreements could change that priority. Especially if one partner has bid a suit. As I said East could be putting any slam down without any help from West, and if that is so I have no worries gaining a few extra IMPs by X. It would be a fool to be East and X knowing that you can not beat the slam, surely? I think the most important part of this auction is East's failure to X 3♥ suggesting a doubleton honor. So a ♥ lead against 6NT looks a danger. That is why I lead a ♣ as helene_t said. Edit: I was writing this at the same time as David's above post but he posted first

It's a good question. 2NT said to me that where I want to play after 2♣. No more. Partner is a passed hand, you may be minimum (12-13) with 4432 shape.

I had to smile, Cyberyeti :) This is posted in the intermediate and advanced forum, and whilst it may have been played at that level it is a 'ask a expert' question. I have looked at David and Mikeh's analysis and wonder why after East passes 3♥ South jumps to 6♦ second bid! That is amateur bidding, gambling bidding, or expert searching for an IMP swing (or MP trying for a top) bidding so I would want to know also who I was playing against and what conventions they had available to them. At IMPs I would want to know what 3♥ meant exactly - ♦ support, asking for a ♥ stop or ♦ support with ♥ stop (and that is not likely) or, just ♦ support. It seems a strange bid given that there are X, 2♠, 2NT, 3♣, 3♦ bids available so I would want to know what all these meant to the partnership also. That said, the X of 6♦ does not have to be Lightner, and the X of 6NT does not have to be special. East might be putting the contract down by himself as mentioned in previous posts. And what if your partner X the opps. 3♥ bid, does that show ♥ support with an honor, is that available also? The one (very obvious) conclusion I can know is that South must have a big hand for this auction, but whether it is a hand with a second suit of ♣, ♥ or ♠ is a guess imo. If East always uses a X at the 6 level as Lightner, and Lightner X usually says to partner to lead your long suit as I will be void, or a second suit where the opponents have bid but not played the contract, then on this auction, with the absense of knowing the opps. second suit, I would expect partner to the void in ♥. But does not seem likely. Whether I could work out all of this, or every other combination of thoughts at the table and not be penalized for time is another matter lol! In answer to the original question "Does this X suggest anything specific" the only conclusion is that East has a ace and a natural ♦ trick. Maybe East has ♥A stiff and used Lightner X so that it made you you lead a ♥ against 6♦ that is also possible imo. I am no nearer a solution, and it is one for post mortem. I have feeling in my gut that if you lead the wrong suit the slam will be made, declarers and dummys losers being discarded on a second suit. That said I think the safest lead is a ♣ but I am probably wrong.

2♥ imo is a crazy bid. Partner has not reversed, you are weak. The suit is poor. Your hand is poor. It takes the bidding a level higher. Partner will not know what sort of hand you have. Yes, you have misfit, and 1NT is not a good contract (and I agree entries are poor) but tell partner what you have got, not what you have not got. I try to think 'outside the box' on most hands. If this were a 2♠5♥5♦1♣ hand as an opening bid and the bidding went 1♥ - 1♠ - would you never bid the ♦ suit? As it is on your hand, you cannot bid 2♦ as it is artificial xyz and GF, but you must show partner that you have ♦ cover in a NT contract by bidding 1NT. Would you rebid the ♥ suit (in preference to the better ♦ suit) if the hand was a opening bid level and playing a system like 4M. I think 'no' would be the answer.

I will ignore partner and bid 3♣. This surely must show this 6421 hand with extra values that cannot reverse. Partner has chosen to show weak values and tried to sign off. I am worth one more bid. If partner now bids 3♦ I will bid 3♥. I do not like raising ♥ immediately with doubleton honour even though I should show support. But I can not make out this bidding by partner. What has he got? I can only guess that the opening bid of 1♣ could be short and partner cannot give preference. So I will let him know what I have: 3♣ I would think is NF here imo if partner is very weak.

The problem with posting hands like this, jillybean, even though they are instructive, is that when a player has done something fundamentally wrong, as West did doubling South's 1NT bid, then all our answers become nonsensical. We expect West to be the strongest hand at the table, then find South has a stronger hand (points). If West was trying to be 'clever' by making a X on this hand, due to favorable vulnerability, then the scene is set for a disaster to happen, because North is in a better position to judge where the bidding is headed than East. 2♣X makes comfortably for South. East/West can not make 3NT.

I like the Kokish auction, David, but there's no upgrade with this strong balanced hand. It calculates at 28.75 on K&R evaluator. Opposite a Yarborough you may not even make game so I would have caution and just bid 3NT as you did.

I assume system is GIB 2/1 as standard except if advised otherwise. I guess that without some form of partnership agreement the question can not be answered. What would I bid if not using GIB 2/1? I would still show support for my partners suit instead of bidding ♥s. I actually think that you do not have enough to put forward 1♥ on this hand, but you do have enough to support partners opening bid. So without inverted minors I would be bidding 2♣ as support, which I guess is the same as bidding 3♣ with inverted minors given that partner may have opened on 2+♣ in a 2/1 auction.

I have seen this before, where this is a variant of the Helvic convention. Instead of the partner of the opener XX, the partner passes (forcing) and the opener XX which then puts pressure on the opponent who doubled the opening 1NT bid. A clever bridge mechanic given the places at the table. Now the West player does not know whether North or East is weak. If the East hand has 0-2 points and balanced shape and could not bid after his partners X, then the penalty may be against East/West (if all hands are of balanced shape) when North/South are only making a part score. At IMPs it can be a good call as 1NT Redoubled bid and made is game.

I am bidding the inverted minor 3♣ raise. The balance of probabilities says to me that we do not have game, and the opps can outbid us in ♠ suit. Why make it easy for the opps to compete? Yes, there will be 1 in 20 hands I guess where we can make 4♥ and the opps can not compete to 4♠ so I will go with the 19 in 20 hands where we make the most sensible and descriptive bid to partner quickly. If partner now goes 3NT then I will wish him luck. Bidding 1♥ here just allows the opps to compete easily; pass is even worse.

Its MPs, so +500 is better than +400. The ops are not in a 'comfort zone' here. I would expect partner to bid over XX with an unbalanced hand, so I will take that he has a good 15 balanced count, maybe more. I think using a weak NT opening in 3rd at red/white opposite a passed partner does deserve to be punished strongly. Whatever way, either by forcing pass over 2♣ or doubling now, I want to penalize the ops. They might even scramble to a worse contract, but if we can not get them down -2 here in any contract with good defense and seeing the weak NT bidder hand as dummy then I need to give up bridge! lol Though as mikeh said, this is one for full partnership understanding after openers XX. If you have not agreements what to do then simply bidding 3NT should get a plus score but not the majority of the matchpoints.

Yes, all 13 tricks are there if the opps. do not lead ♣, but as to your question about 3♣ game try I cannot comment as I do not know how GIB bids though I think that the best bid by you is 3♥ instead of 3♠ after 3♣. To me that would show extra values, and even though you have ignored the question about ♣ strength, ♠ATxx ♥AKxxxx ♦x ♣xx is so much more than a 11 count supporting your partner ♠ suit so quietly bidding 3♠ is telling partner nothing imo. I would like to know if other forum members agree with this, and if someone could do a simulation to see how GIB bids after a 3♥ response to 3♣. Thanks.

Misfits and 2/1 do not fit well especially with semi-forcing/forcing 1NT approach. Bidding like Canape and supressing suit length lead to 'upside down' auctions like this. I would suppress a 4♠ suit dependant on quality, but never a 5 card one, irrespective of quality. If the hand is a misfit, the quickest way to get a plus score is not to overstate your hand and be prepared to duck out the auction at a low level. If the other players on the opps team, or other players who are playing MP are playing the same hands, they will have similar decisions to make. No bidding system is perfect, but using your judgement when to bail out is. Hands less than 24 combined in a misfit are unlikely to have any play for game, and those in a misfit of 25-27 are likely to find game difficult. So I would accept the occasional bad part score where other pairs have found a better place to settle due to our limitation of bidding methods.

Partner is hedging bets after 2♠ to see what you you will bid next? I guess these auctions where 'impossible 2♠ bid' are used are not discussed at length as mikeh said. Could 2♣ be a 3 card suit here? I have not seen any structure myself (although there must be some out there) to what a number of bids after the 'impossible 2♠ bid is used? And what is definition of 3♣ after 2♠: better ♣ raise than 3♣ but how much better, and whether it is limited or distributional? Also, after 1♥ - 1NT - 2♣ - 2♠ what do all the other bids such as 2NT, 3♣, 3♦, 3♥, 3♠, 3NT show? I am guessing myself. As for 4♠ in the actual auction, there is only one way to interpret that: a slam try. Maybe he wants you to now bid 4NT as RKCB for ♣ and have the option of leaving a 5♣ response to play if you feel slam is not there. But then I am guessing again...

But did West lead a ♦ ? :)

Most players would use 3NT as some artificial bid over a one level opening here, especially a major suit. But even without that, if the 3NT no-trump bid is a good range (13/14-15) like a one no-trump opener then opener can decide where the best contract lay. Partner opens 1♠ and you hold this hand, 3NT could well be the best bid though many might use a off-shape 2♣ bid to force and end in wrong contact when partner is strong and has ♣ support. Bidding the poor ♥ suit at the 2 level is not good imo. [hv=pc=n&s=s63hj8642dak8caq5&d=n&v=0&b=1&a=1sp3n]133|200[/hv]

A hand where Precision and control bids win and GIB 2/1 lose. No more, no less. Just not on the side of fortune.

Kaplan Inversion was part of some Precision system, I guess. Which one I do not remember. Here is a BBO forum link. https://www.bridgebase.com/forums/topic/78217-kaplan-inversion/

I remember a few weeks past seeing a Vugraph game with Zia (Mahmood) opening 5♣ with a hand like ♠x ♦AJ10xx ♣J109xxxxx in first position, I forget the vulnerability. Is that a good preempt, is that a gambling preempt? Can you preempt at the 5 level missing the top three honours in your suit? And many other questions.... I wish I had all the hand to show you. But it was lucky. The hand with all the ♣ honours was in 4th position and could not do anything except pass, and if that hand doubled then partner with no ♣ and a weak 6-4-3-0 hand would have chosen to bid at the five level in a major suit, my guess. Every preempt is a gamble, reward versus loss. Sometimes right, sometimes wrong. Trying to work out what the bidding will be after a preempt is just more of a guess. What you do need to know is what sort of hands that partner will preempt on? Having some consistency when making preempt bids and partnership understanding is more of value than guessing where the bidding will go.

The other idea to note is if there was a weak 2♣ bid available (which there is not) it is easier for the opponents to overcall, so as other forum members have said it depends on the position at the table, the vulnerability, and the type of partner you are playing with. So pass, 1♣ and 3♣ are options as the other forum commentators have said. If you are playing a system like Precision where 1♣ is the strong bid, many players could open this hand with 2♣ showing 6+ ♣ or 5♣ with 4♥ or 4♠ and 10-15 points, though some may pass depending on suit quality, and some may pass as they use a 11-15 point range, or again there is the pre-emptive 3♣ option also available. The problem with modern bidding is that if you open with 1♣ in a standard system such as SAYC or 2/1 partner does not know if the auction is fast and you cannot repeat the ♣ suit whether you have 3+ ♣ (sometimes 2+♣) as many play these days, or a better and longer suit. And that might put partner off leading your best suit.