TomSawyer4

Depending upon exact content of the South hand, six spades, six diamonds, 4NT, 5NT, seven diamonds or seven spades. All obvious from the biding. Is this some sort of test? Do I need to say more? Your bidding shows either a two suited hand (5-5 in Spades and Diamonds ) or a distribution like 5-1-4-3 with a strong hand (18+). Responder showed his long diamonds and his A or Kx in hearts by bidding 3NT. When you bid 4D you showed you couldn't play in NT, indicating a two suiter, with a likely singleton heart, i.e 5-1-5-2 or better. From there, its only a matter of counting tricks, and points don't mean much given the distribution. If he needs more information to decide between six and seven, 4NT is blackwood and 5NT is grand slam force. Since you were shocked, I'll guess he can count 13 tricks in 7D.

Skipping all of the discussion about a different hand: Partner probably has a decent hand (10-11+)without a long major. Declarer could easily be void in either major. Leading a diamond does nothing for the defense, and could easily finesse partner holding Kx(dummy void). Leading either Ace could set up overtricks when the board shows up with the right cards. I can quickly design hands with eight diamonds, a major suit void opposite a key five, running 13 tricks by ruffing the major suit ace at trick one. Declarer's contract appears to be sound. That leaves the club suit: Its more likely declarer has clubs than either hearts or spades. Leading the King could be easily be self-finesse, even given its more likely than not declarer doesn't have the Ace. On the eight of clubs I'm hoping to find partner with the ace, a club return or major suit finesse at trick two, and hopefully results in set before yielding control to declarer. In the alternative, if dummy has the ace, my King is probably dead anyway, but declarer is forced to make a key decision at trick one, when he has less information. If partner doesn't have the ace, the doubleton is unlikely to be recognized in time, and I'll probably still get the King of clubs in any scenario where I would have gotten it with protection. More simply, baring the king of clubs by leading the eight most likely leaves me no worse off, and could result in a quick set. Any other card could result in overtricks. I lead the eight of clubs.

I remember this hand, although its inverted NS. The auction was: !NT-P- 2C - X - 2S -P- 2NT - P -3NT - All Pass. As I recall, GIB, in its usual wisdom, lead a diamond. Since the Ace of clubs is marked by the bidding, making nine tricks was/is easy from there. Before you ask, no, it was not a weak no-trump. It was, and is, a standard 15-17 NT, combined with a lot of experimenting with exactly how GIB responds to 1NT bids. I won't explain further on this issue.

Its beyond my abilities to solve that, and Intuitively I would take the AKJ of spades from that choice, but: How about a third line: Win the King of Clubs and cross to the Ace of Clubs, lead the four of diamonds and play the deuce underneath it, forcing the defense to be perfect to claim three diamond tricks. At worst, defence takes three diamond tricks and the heart king must be onside to make the hand This has the advantage of making whenever East is forced to take a diamond (even by roughing) and has no diamond to return. I.e. Club is rough/slough, Heart is the needed finesse, spade is a free finesse and the AKJ, heart finesse choice all over again but with more knowledge and no worries about the Q of spades.

First of all, we're way off topic. You are correct that I have not played Goren since about 1975, By the method you quote the hand adds to 12; Goren required 13. You are scoring double for the king and the singleton. I don't remember anyone who would have waited for 14. And, I said that I wouldn't open it. I didn't want to talk about this. By the (modified for simplicity) K-S count method I use, the hand is worth 10.75 exactly. Since K-S point count is known to be slightly conservative, I would review a 10.75 hand for redeeming features, for example a five card major and late position. I don't have to consider whether the presence of a T9 in either of the longer suits matters (see Hardy: Standard Bridge Bidding for the Twenty-First Century, 2000, pp. 11-12) because ten nine combinations are already taken into account. In this case, the hand is worth 10.75, and there are no redeeming features. I would pass from all positions. I will say nothing further on the topic.

Does no one remember that a "standard" cue bid is a 17+ takeout? Michaels isn't standard. In this case, since partner must respond at the four level, I wold expect more like 20+, and I'm a little surprised given your two club opening, but ultimately nothing unusual or improper (without seeing the hand).

repeating the hand at issue: xxxx AJx KQxxx K The issue at hand is Goren. Goren did not give full credit for singleton kings. Nobody? I'm proud to be part of the 00.001%, and I would not normally open this hand in any position.

Since no one else mentioned it, Rubber Bridge houses normally require that everyone play the same system. That way everything is about the play of the hand, and no one gets a perceived advantage by adopting another bidding system. Since the 1970's Rubber Bridge Standard has been 5 card majors, sound preempts, strong 2's, strong NT's, 4 ace blackwood, gerber, forcing jump raises, non-forcing 1NT response. All rubber bridge players know this standard inside out. While there is little cross-over between Rubber Bridge and Duplicate, there is still enough that it has helped to maintain the standard. There is also a huge advantage to being able to show up at a tournament without a partner and sit down and play without having to discus bidding.

xxxx AJx KQxxx K is not an opening hand, and therefore not an issue. QJxx AJx KQxxx x is distinguished by the normal procedure of asking for Kings before a grand slam, which I skipped. That leaves: xxxx AJ KQxxx Kx, which cannot be made, and is also not distinguished by any of the 2/1 methods I've seen presented in this forum. AND, At the risk of starting a new forum discussion, I would argue that Goren is as full and complete as any modern system. It merely requires a little more card sense to play well.

Playing with bots, I've had success opening this type of hand with 1NT, all the way down to 12 points (12-16). Going forward, I treat the hand as 4-4-x-x w/ 15 points. This has the disadvantage of occasionally missing 4H games, but the advantage that almost everyone is trained to lead major suits against NT contracts, in this case to their detriment. If you're not willing to open 1NT with this hand, I recommend you abandon the idea that a 2H rebid is 6 cards -- also 1S-1NT-2S. The semi-forcing (pass) approach works well, until your partner is planning to make a limit raise over your bid. In the limit raise case, bottom board is guaranteed. Also, bidding 2C here is an alert convention. The "2/1 standard" is irrelevant to the alert rules.