AL78

I did ask and the answer I got was along the lines of not wanting to lead away from honors. I suggested leading the heart ace to look at dummy but she said she didn't like that holding AQ.

Partner would be unlikely to know what 4NT means but in the event I passed which shows how much of a clue about this game I have. [hv=pc=n&s=sat982hj5da97cat8&w=sj643hkq72dq82c92&n=sh6dkjt54ckqj7543&e=skq75hat9843d63c6&d=w&v=0&b=8&a=p1c2h2s4hppdppp]399|300[/hv] Two down but not good when you have two slams on. Time to start looking for another hobby :lol: :rolleyes:

Well that is my judgement exposed as being screwed. I did bid 3♦ and it went badly wrong: [hv=pc=n&s=sha8762d643caq975&w=sakq9hk53dt7ck843&n=sj2hjt9dakqj98cjt&e=st876543hq4d52c62&d=w&v=e&b=16&a=1s3d3sp4dppp]399|300[/hv] One down but 6♦ is there on a favourable layout.

[hv=pc=n&s=sq98haq42d98743cj&w=st62htdaqt62ck763&n=sak74hk9876dkj5c4&e=sj53hj53dcaqt9852&d=e&v=e&b=6&a=3cp5cdppp]399|300[/hv] I was loathe to pass out 5♣ as North although I would have liked to be a little stronger. We had a chance to do well as it goes for -500 on best defence. Sadly we didn't find best defence. Partner led the ♦9 and that ended any chance of getting +500. Declarer can now make 5♣ except after ruffing my king out and establishing the queen, he forgot to throw another spade so we got it one down. Due to the poor four table turnout it had only been played twice by the time it came to us, and one of those two pairs was allowed to play in 4♥=.

[hv=pc=n&n=sj2hjt9dakqj98cjt&d=w&v=e&b=16&a=1s]133|200[/hv] Do you overcall 2♦ or treat is as a WJO and bid 3♦?

5CM, strong NT: [hv=pc=n&n=sh6dkjt54ckqj7543&d=n&v=0&b=1&a=1c2h(weak)2s4h]133|200[/hv] What do you do?

I played that a long time ago with one partner, 5CM in spades only, opening 1♥ promises either 5+ hearts or a four card spade suit.

One reason is to avoid wrongsiding a NT contract when you have a strong NT hand, responder has a weak hand and only has 1NT available.

I find it harder to maintain focus if I am on the wrong end of a hand bias and end up defending on three quarters of the hands. When you are put to the test hand after hand after hand, something gives eventually.

Why?

I have found when playing 5CM strong NT in an Acol field here in the UK that one of the weaknesses of the system is having to open 1m on hands the field is opening 1NT and having the opposition get their major in at the one level when they wouldn't be able to at the two level. The field therefore goes one off in 1NT whilst you get a bottom when your opponents make 2S. One of the good things about Acol weak NT is when partner opens 1suit. They either have at least five of them or a decent hand, which can help responder with judgement if the opponents come in. With 5CM strong NT you have to be a bit careful in competition in case partner has opened with a minimum weak NT hand and again if they could only have a 3 card suit when opening 1minor.

That is a comfortable 1♥ opener for me.

I would have put it more tactfully than that but it is along the lines of what I was thinking. To the OP, don't take criticism as a personal attack on you. The two statements "Your bid was bad" and "You are bad" have completely different meanings and should not be equated. I would go as far as welcoming criticism, since if there is a widespread view than an action you took was poor, it gives you something to look at, understand why it was poor, and how to avoid repeating it in the future. Posting hands on here is a very good way of improving your game. I have learnt much from the analysis from the experts on this forum (not just on my bad hands), and criticism tends to be constructive and polite, at least when it is me at fault.

It looks like North decided they had enough to encourage then changed their mind when South started showing slam interest. I think if North wants to encourage, they should be prepared to cue the spade ace and if they think their hand is minimal, they should have bid 3NT instead of 4♣. South was maybe a tad pesimmistic. North has made an encouraging noise with support and South has a three loser hand. What type of hand opposite can encourage where slam has no play and how likely are they to have a hand like that? If North doesn't have the spade ace, they should have the club ace to encourage plus a bit outside to respond in the first place.

Too much money maybe, but no more intelligent than most other people it appears. If flying commercially would allow everyone to fulfill their commitments, that would be the logical choice to make.

I can understand the hesitation and not bidding 2♠ if the opening showed both majors, who knows how partner would interpret it?

With one partner I used to play 2♥ as 5-5 ♥+minor or Acol strong 2♥ or strong balanced, 2♠ was 5-5 spades+other or Acol strong 2♠.

I heard somewhere that the key to doing well at bridge is not to find the brilliancies but to avoid the blunders. The latter are far more common than the former.

For me personally I prefer to try and play solid down the middle bridge and avoid taking punts which may or may not work. I'm happy to be consistent rather than getting 60% one session and 36% the next session like one or two pairs at my local club. If playing sound means not scoring high enough to qualify or win then it likely means my partner and I are not good enough (save for the occasional session where opps punt a million things against you that work thanks to a very specific layout). At club level I'm not sure it is worth worrying about what the field will do. At my club, a couple of pairs in a small field seem to miss 26 point cold games almost every F2F session so what is the point?

1♣ - 2♠: Game forcing with a decent 6+ spade suit. 1♣ - 1♠: 4+ spades, 4+HCP, forcing. 1♣ - 1♠ 2♣ - 2♠: Minimum, 6+ spades, shut up partner. 1♣ - 1♠ 2♣ - 2♦: Natural, 5+ spades, 4+ diamonds, forcing for one round (I think). Having looked at the responses I can see there is a case for weak jump shift responses which allows 1X - 1Y; 2X - 2Y to be invitational.

MPs, playing 5CM strong NT, not 2/1: [hv=pc=n&s=shaq973d5caj98754&n=sakq8762hkjtdt32c&d=s&v=e&b=3&a=1cp1sp2cp3s(invitational)ppp]266|200[/hv] I was South. I thought about opening 1♥ and would have if it had been 56 shape but thought 57 is too much of a difference in length to distort. As expected partner bid spades strongly and the bidding died in 3♠ which just made for an average, however we had a heart slam on. I'm not trying to imply we should have reached it but being in 4♥ would have been an improvement. Can anyone offer some hints on how I/we could have bid this better.

I agree with pass. If I bid I want to hold the values my bid has promised.

According to double dummy 5♣ makes. Partner slipped up in the play at trick two, she meant to call for a club but called for a spade instead. East won, switched to his singleton heart to the ace, heart return, partner called for the king which was ruffed. She then had an unavoidable diamond loser.

I cannot track every card although I do make an effort to work out HCP and distribution of the unseen hands as soon as dummy goes down. When dummy comes down you can usually work out what HCP partner has got from dummy and the opponent's bidding even if partner has been silent (and if he has been silent you can deduce what he doesn't have). During the play you can often deduce where partner's HCP or certain key cards are by the way declarer is playing the hand. As an example, once when I was defending a 3NT contract, partner led a fourth best club and we knocked out declarer's single stop. I held ♥Kx and dummy held ♥AJT9x. Declarer played on diamonds and spades and I got put on lead somewhere around trick eight. I knew partner had 2-3 HCP left and winning clubs so I considered why declarer hadn't touched the heart suit during the play. I deduced that if declarer held the queen or jack they would have gone for a double finesse so I deduced partner held both those cards and I played my king. Declarer ducked and I played another heart which locked declarer in dummy. All declarer could do was cash another winner in dummy before putting partner in with his ♥J and he cashed his clubs for one down.

The problem is how good is partner's club suit? If she hasn't got the ace then 3NT has next to no chance. I ended up passing and got into a mess. Should have gone with my initial gut feeling and just punted 3NT. LHO overcalled 3♠ and I bid 4♣ when it came round to me, which went one off. [hv=pc=n&s=s74ht7dqtcaqjt852&w=s652haq954dj87c64&n=sathkj632da94ck93&e=skqj983h8dk6532c7&d=s&v=e&b=3&a=3cpp3spp4cppp]399|300[/hv] This was worth 25% when one of the four other EW pairs played in 3♠=.