AL78

MPs, 5CM, strong NT, 1♣ opening could be short. ♠QJT83 ♥T73 ♦854 ♣T5 Partner opens 1♣, pass on your right. Do you respond 1♠ or pass?

I am not familiar with MLTC, but with the verson I was taught (-A,K,Q = 1 loser each), a weak NT hand can have from 6 to 8 losers.

2♦. It is no different to what I would open and bid holding x KQxx AQxxx Qxx on which I am not opening 1NT either. Yes I might occasionally flounder in a 5-1 fit with a minimum hand opposite, but on the other hand partner might rebid their spades, or have enough to bid 2♥, or have 3+ diamonds and 2♦ is the best contract. There are always going to be hands which are not possible to bid perfectly and it comes down to finding the least worst, rather than the perfect bid. I don't subscribe to the idea that opener rebidding a suit always shows six, because of hands like this where the four carder is higher ranked than the five carder, not strong enough to reverse, and partner responds in a suit ranked above the four carder. I have never played 2/1 GF or forcing 1NT so that might make a difference.

I can understand 4♠ on the basis of HCP counting, it's a min and normally fast arrival shows a min. Opposite a hand making big noises, it is better than minimum because of the aces and kings, and it is likely all those honor cards will work near perfectly with partner's strength. Opposite 4♠ I think North is worth one more nudge with a 5♣ cue. If partner can be bothered to cue their dimaond ace 6♠ is worth a punt.

No, and yes, a single raise could be a poor six count. It is becoming apparent there is a hole in our methods to handle the mixed raise hands. I probably would have bid game at IMPS after partner bid 3S, but it is not as desirable to bid thin games at MPs, as the fact I got a top from everyone else also being in the part score, because I got a favourable lead to make the extra overtrick illustrates.

Do you think it is worth a 3♦ response based on the system I stated in my OP? I'm wondering if I should have worked out partner would not bid 3♠ without extras such as club shortage and I should have raised to game.

Do you think playing the jump raise as mixed is better in the long run than playing it as a pre-emptive raise with 4 card support?

On the wrong end of a huge hand bias for the third time running (partner declared once in 24 boards) I picked up this hand: East ♠AKJT8 ♥AQ5 ♦Q7 ♣832 [hv=d=w&v=0&b=8&a=pp1sp2spp3c3sppp]133|100[/hv] Our system is 5 card majors, strong NT. Opposite 1M, we play 3♣ as 10-12HCP, 3 card support, 3♦ as 8-11 HCP, 4 card support, and 3M as a pre-emptive raise. Although I held 16 HCP I felt that partner likely had a nine loser hand, so game was very unlikely save for the perfect hand opposite. Partner did have the perfect hand: West ♠7542 ♥K83 ♦KT852 ♣6 A spade was led which picked up Qxx on my right, +200 which was a top at the time, no-one else found the game. Should I have been more ambitious?

Yes, if trumps are 2-2 it is trivial. I was thinking if trumps don't break evenly.

I'm impressed if you have the methods to reach 7♥ which is an excellent contract. If you are in 7♥ and get a passive trump lead, what line of play do you take? Is there anything better than drawing trumps, testing the diamonds ending in dummy, cash the club ace throwing the diamond if they don't break, and going for the spade finesse (if the diamonds are 3-3 13 tricks are there)?

How would you bid these cards, dealer North? [hv=pc=n&s=s764hjt5dq98ca743&n=sakjhakq632dak32c]133|200[/hv]

Play the queen to make it look like I've finessed against West for the king, then lead a spade. If East wins hopefully they will misread the situation and continue with hearts.

Here is the full deal: [hv=pc=n&s=sq3hjdj7632cqj753&w=sat7hkq852dqt85c9&n=sj95hat93dacakt84&e=sk8642h764dk94c62&d=n&v=0&b=1&a=1cp2c2h2nppp]399|300[/hv] If you would blast to game, you did much better than me. 5♣ is there on a big crossruff.

This is a new partnership and I haven't played with her long enough to fully work out her bidding style, but my guesses are as follows: 1. Most likely is partner would raise with support and holding the other minor. 2. Yes the raise shows at least four cards. Parther could be 2344 or 2254 shape. If she is 3334 I'm not sure if she would respond 1NT or 2♣, I guess the former. 3. As above, I would only expect her to respond 1NT if she is 3334, so yes she could be balanced or semi-balanced and raise. I cannot infer she dislikes the idea of declaring in NT just from the raise.

I get this and the idea that if the bidding suggests they have values to spare, play partner for the minimum needed to get it down which is consistent with auction, but this is something I find difficult to do at the table. I can work out a range for partner's HCP strength and some of their distribution, but it is going from that to mentally running through a load of hand layouts where the contract can fail, and trying to work out which of these is best to play for. What often happens is I come down to two possible lines of defence and I can't work out which is the best one to play, and I end up taking the one which lets it through when the other would have worked. It is a problem I have at MPs as well when I don't have a standout continuation.

IMP pairs: [hv=pc=n&s=sat652ht3d4cqt942&w=sq74hkq87dat9caj7&n=s98ha42dkq86532c8&e=skj3hj965dj7ck653&d=e&v=b&b=10&a=pp1n2ddp2hp4hppp]399|300[/hv] We play Landy so my 2♦ was natural. We let this through for a 10 imp swing out (only three tables, the other pairs were in 3♥+1). I led a top diamond which is not the optimal lead. It looks like to get it down I have to lead my singleton club, win the first or second round of trumps, put partner in with the spade ace, partner gives me a club ruff, and we eventually make a diamond trick. As a rule I don't like leading singletons if there is another plausible lead available (it risks picking up an honor holding in partner's hand, for one thing). The question is, is the complete killing defence deducible at the table, or am I in the realms of fantasy thinking if I had got off to the right start, we could have worked out the rest and finished the job?

[hv=pc=n&n=sj95hat93dacakt84&d=n&v=0&b=1&a=1cp2c2h]133|200[/hv] Benji Acol, 12-14 NT, IMP pairs, no inverted minors, so 2♣ is a weak raise. Your call?

Can't really compare the odds of any one of the millions of lottery participants winning with the odds of a simgle player picking up a bridge hand with zero black cards. The former is massively more likely than the latter because, in the UK for example, the odds of a lottery win are (when they had 49 numbers) about 1 in 14 million, but there are a lot more than 14 million tickets sold, so the odds of one of those tickets hitting the jackpot is quite high, as the fact that in the UK, the lottery has made over 6000 millionaires since 1994 can testify. Similarly, you only need 23 people in a group for there to be an over 50% chance two of them share the same birthday, even though for an individual, the odds of them sharing a birthday with any other random selected individual are very low (1/365).

Beginners (in the UK at least) are usually taught standard attitude signals on partner's lead, high to encourage, low to discourage, so on your partner's hand, the two would deny anything useful. If you are playing reverse attitude, the nine is the negative signal.

So would I, but the decision on whether to bid 1NT or 2♥ is made with the likelihood you will be left in either, and my point was if we are left in it, I think we'd have a better chance making 1NT than 2♥ based on the likely range of hand shapes opposite.

1NT is the lesser of evils. I am not familiar with xyz but rebidding a poor 5 card suit just looks far worse than telling partner you have diamonds covered, you can't stand his suits. and your heart suit is not rebiddable. MikeH has covered the full reasoning in an excellent post (as always). 1NT might be problematic to play with the misfit and poor communication, but how would you like to play in 2♥ with five to the ten opposite Hx, or a singleton if you're unlucky?

Does the NT strength matter when it comes to the transfer or pass question? If the combines strength is 20-22 HCP, if the 1NT is 15-17, responder has about 5 HCP which will mean limited (or no) entries to play toward the strong hand. A weak NT hand will have about 8 HCP opposite, so more chance of an entry or multiple entries. It is possible that playing in the suit can improve trick taking potential through the trump suit providing an extra entry through ruffing in order to play to the strong hand.

I'm impressed with a slam bidding sub-system that can extract information about the presence of critical cards down to queens so precisely.

Nor do I, and I can't think what would make it look like a good action with a flat weak NT hand. I wouldn't be surprised if EW were like another pair at my club that play on BBO sat next to each other with their ipads.

[hv=pc=n&w=sak2hak9dak76cak5&e=sqjt85hdqt93cq973]266|100[/hv] This extreme hand came up last week in a club MP session. How would you find one of the four grand slams available (7♣ makes because the clubs break 3-3)? This is the strongest hand I have seen at the club.