LBengtsson

X looks best, your strength (18 good points, ♥Qx not included) is all enough to compensate for poor shape 3253. 3♦ looks wrong given your balanced shape. making guessing bid of 2NT will give poor result if opps. cash first 6 tricks. however, 2NT might work if partner has ♥ stop and useful side cards and suit (♣Kxxxx. But I still go with X as best bid here

Too strong for 'Pass' and could miss game because if you 'pass' then bid later partner will not think you have 12 high points 1♣ rebid 2♣ suit too weak 1♣ rebid 1NT wrong. playing weak NT opener this shows 15-16 1♣ rebid 2♦ wrong. this is reverse showing 17+ sometimes stronger in some systems 1♦ rebid 2♣ wrong except if you play specific system where this is allowed as distorts suit length. shows longer ♦ than ♣ 1NT opening on 5422 balanced 12-14 yes! 5422 is two suit heavy but still considered balanced. even better for this hand if partner transfers to major suit as you have a King in both of them to help.

cheating again in bridge :angry: :( cheating players must be banned for LIFE. from all events and from all clubs. that is my opinion. you would have thought after all that Boye Brogeland and other honest bridge players did to eliminate cheating shark from the game that players would now stop their dirty tricks. no, as nige1 has posted, cheating it is still is here. Edited. Cut/paste this from Bridgewinners Bad news for bridge by Roy Welland Aug. 4 Fulvio Fantoni is confirmed to be a player on the Italian national team. This means he will be playing in the upcoming EBL qualifying event for the world championships, and as Italy is the host country, they will be guaranteed a spot in next year's Bermuda Bowl. Sabine and I have formally withdrawn from our position on the German Open Team for the upcoming event. We had been very much looking forward to fighting for a spot in the Bermuda Bowl. I hope someone will consider running a concurrent event for those who feel similarly.

I prefer 3♦ as super accept here. but it is still difficult to get to 6♣ after this imo. though will also say hand as I play 'super=acceot' is not a SA imo. just minimum high points (15) and 4 card ♣ support. the three '10' cards are useful but not as useful as another Q.

agree. supporting ♦ could lead to a 6♦ contract when 6NT from your side would be preferable. the ♦ support can wait. it is important to find out if partner has a 6 card ♦ suit or a 4 card major here. you should be in charge of the auction after partners 2♦. I think the worst can happen is that you arrive in 5♦ when 3NT makes with overtricks if playing match points.

partner did not raise ♦ so I will go for crazy and lead ♥K, small ♥ may block suit

17 opposite 13 high points and no 4-4/5-3 fit make game more likely to be bid than slam as other posters have said before. well done, Cyberyeti if you get to slam especially if opps make a bid, though when opps make a bid that gives you maybe extra bid to describe your hand.

there is no wrong 'tweaking' ( a new word for me) a system. the first precision system had a forcing stayman 2♦ bid, not a transfer. transfer bids over 1NT were first used in the 1950s by Olle Willner of my country, and then made popular by Oswald Jacoby. Wei precision came out in 1969. how many precision players play forcing stayman now: my guess 0% how many play transfers: my guess 100%. we all 'tweak' - change - bridge systems. that is how they 'evolve'. the good will be kept and the bad will be discarded. what is an authentic bridge system? I know a little about Acol bidding: it began as 4M, now many players play 5M as standard. if that is not 'tweaking' then what is?

yes, I can explain. west bot does not know who has the ♣9 when east leads to second trick, so overtaking the ♣J with the A will cost a trick if south has this card. so bot blocks suit instead. which proves that if east bot lead ♣9 (4th high) at trick two, it is easiest for human to work south cards and not block suit. whether bot still blocks suit on ♣9 lead also at trick two is a guess...

agree. but also got me to think. what if partner has ♠x ♥xx ♦KQxxx ♣Kxxxx 6♥ is down except if very lucky distribution pick up ♥QJ, and 6♦ makes most times. how do we get to 6♦? I agree 5♥ is sensible bid (no confusion bid) over 4♠ but what would 4NT - 5♣ - 5♥ show? a 6-4 kind of two suiter like this? or would 5♥ be a cue bid agreeing ♣? if you had agreement in place at least this type of hand could be shown, not technically a true two suiter but gives partner a better idea of the hand you have 6-4 shape. a direct 5♥ over 4♠ just says ♥ only, no other suit to offer.

good hand Winstonm. I have been timed-out. lol! took to long thinking about best line. instinct says let ♣ lead run round to ♣Q as defender having led low club probably has top honour also (♣K) gut feeling says take ♣A and lead ♠ from dummy to ♠K and try to make this loser into winner by stealth. I like AL78 analysis but not sure is quite right. good defenders will find ♦ ruff if ♦ are 3-1 so that is not in equation.

good problem,jillybean. I am bidding 4♥ now. double fit. may be overbid but 3♥ does not do hand justice.

some logic is needed. there is virtually no reason to play in a ♠ fit as you have two stiffs that need to be covered by aces, so discards on the ♣ suit are meaningless. you have a ♣ fit of at least 10 cards. its IMP scoring so even if the other side bid a ♠ slam you should be in a ♣ slam at worst. lose a few Imps but what you do not want is partner supporting ♠ and the ops intervening heavily because he will probably never know about the ♣ fit. I think that partner's opening hand in many other systems, especially 2/1 would be opened either 1♣/1♦/1NT so if the ops intervene the auction could (???) be similar except if stayman used immediately. so any bid that shows/sets ♣ as trump and shows a stiff, so 4♦ or 4♥ (if this is splinter agreeing ♣) would be my bid here. at least partner knows immediately that I am worth 5♣ and I have shape to cover his losers perhaps. if the ops bid 4♥ and partner makes a forcing pass, I bid 5♣ content I have not overstated my hand. I prefer splinter of 4♥ slightly as it makes ops bid difficult if he holds big ♥ suit.

maybe old person, maybe mis-click, maybe have sight problem, maybe have illness and hand shake. who has not played the wrong card at one time or other in his bridge life...

1♦ - 1♥ - 2♦ - 4♣ splinter agreeing ♦ - 4♥ first round control - 5nt bid ♦ slam with two of ♦AKQ - 7♦ added: I do not see 5NT to be modern version 'pick a slam' as suit is already agreed, so 5NT is just to find out if partner has ♦A or K or both.

thats the line, like DavidKok, also I would have played but here is the whole hand [hv=pc=n&s=sk965haqda72cqj65&w=sq2h98732dqjt9ct7&n=saj73hkjt64d8cak4&e=st84h5dk6543c9832]399|300[/hv] that line would have lost :( east ruffing next trick ♥ with ♠10 my friend (good player but but not expert) playing south took first trick with ♦A quickly and then sat for a couple of minutes before tackling the ♠ suit which he did by playing ♠k first, then low to dummy capturing wests queen and ending with 13 tricks. he asked us after hand was over was that the best way to play ♠ suit? and we all said 'no' but laughed that if we done it the expert way we all would have gone down. he then said that 3-2 break in ♠ is 68% and that is why he played it his way and made contract with overtrick! I laughed again as I could see how he is thinking. why look for obscure safety play when most of the time the contract will be made by natural play? and yes, the expert play is not lucky to find ♥ split of 5-1 and east with last outstanding trump but if we were playing match points pairs would we have gone for our line or his line? Thinking too much about hand can be bad for bridge health...

interesting line. I did not consider this

its a guess bid that with luck finds a fit. if west is very experienced like partner he should know why partner did not bid 2♠ as a transfer on first round ( and also, by inference, that partner has not bid 2♦ transfer to ♥on first round so is not lto have 5♥ in his hand) so he has some cards but not a long ♣ suit. and east has insurance that there is another suit ♦ that might fit if 3♣ is Xed.

agree cyberyeti though only problem is if east declares a contract, let us say east-west cards are different distribution, and partner leads from ♠Kx. but otherwise I would open 1♠ also.

I played some house bridge at the weekend and this hand made me think. A good exercise in safety play or not? I will post all the hand later. [hv=pc=n&s=sk965haqda72cqj65&n=saj73hkjt64d8cak4&d=s&v=0&b=11&a=1n(15-17)p2c(staymen)p2sp4d(splinter)p4hp4n(rkcb)p5h(two%20A%2C%20no%20Q)p6sppp]266|200[/hv] the ♦Q was led by west. how would you play the hand? (I was defender - east. declarer is a friend, good player but not expert.)

yes, all very crazy. pulse check, temperature check, sanity check. lol!

4♣ bid now. partner will know you are bare minimum for 2♦ overcall as you passed 3♥. west X can never be for penalty here even though there may be a small percentage of hands where north's 3♥ can go down bad (-500/-800). most norths would not bid 3♥ red/white with garbage after partner passes. I expect north to have at least 8 tricks in own hand.

agree. you should not X with weaker unbalanced hands even with stiff/void in opps. suit when another sensible bid is available. 2♦ is sensible though some will bid 3♦ here at white/red. thats partnership style/agreement.

this auction makes little sense, jillybean. not your fault as you decided 1♦ then 2♠ but your partner to raise to 4♠, that wastes value bidding room imo. your partner did not reverse after opening, so what hand could partner have here??? 4414 or 4405 with 15-16 maybe? if the 4th suit is a GF he does not need to bid 4♠. if partner has 4414 0r 4405 with < 14 high points and wants to show a minimum hand by fast arriving, then that's all I can think his hand can be. Im guessing always here, but you arrive in a ♠ slam and partner has a hand or similar such as ♠QJxx ♥QJxx ♦x ♣AKxx and you can never find out about the two ♥ losers...

agree. yes, there are other ways of playing Soloway Js, as smerriman has said, but 2♦ here does not set the trump suit imo. you want to tell partner you have a strong hand from the start. 1♠ is natural and can be NF in some partnerships. 2♠ can be 4thSF (GF) but does not show this powerful hand. the only way is Soloway, and then the soloway bidder is in charge, except if opener has a good hand himself. with 1♣ opener being 2+/3+ in most 2/1 systems, partner can show 4 card major suits up line after 2♦. the reason for soloway which should only be used upto a max of 2♠ imo with 2/1 is to tell partner straight away that you are in possible slam zone.