karlson

Looks like a book hand -- if you pitch on the second spade you just need hearts 4-2 and diamonds coming in. If hearts turn out to be 3-3 you can afford to safety play the diamonds (run the 9 on the first round).

I think 3n is a good bid. With a little more outside strength, I'd be a bit worried at matchpoints that hearts might make 11 tricks by ruffing out the spades, but it seems unlikely we'll have enough entries to dummy on this hand.

I think NF is standard, and seems best to me.

3♠ at mp for sure. At imps, I don't think it's a wtp, but I'd bid 3♠ still.

Nah, he just bids 2n again and hopefully this time partner doesn't respond 2♥.

What, really? I think bidding only 4H is ridiculously pessimistic. Even a grand isn't out of the question. I would just keycard over 4d. The 5-level is reasonably safe (just no diamond ruff) even opposite your second hand. I think the idea that opener is supposed to drive to slam over 1h is pretty crazy. Going down in 4 opposite a poorly fitting hand would be quite unlucky, but hardly a total shock. Whether I get to slam over 4d-4n depends of course on whether opener can show the void now. Unfortunately I don't think he will, since 5n (even number of keycards) is ambiguous about the black suit void. Now opener will wish he had splintered instead.

Takeout.

I'm with the chorus of 5♦

I don't have much confidence that 4♥ will get us to the right contract, but I don't see what action will have a better chance of working. I guess I could double and bid 5♥, but I think that's a big overbid despite my supply of hcp.

Why didn't partner bid 2♠ over 2♥? That's much harder for them to double. That's certainly true. On the other hand, partner had a terrible hand with a lousy suit, QJT of hearts, and in general a pretty low odr. But maybe I should have posted partner's problem.

I think given the types of hands Ben will probably be posting here (I haven't looked at the others), it's probably a 1.5 or a 2. In some more global context of bridge hands played everywhere, it's probably a 3.5 or something.

I think a better rule would be something like "If there's no cuebid available lower than the lowest raise and 2n is available, then 2n is a good raise". That also covers the equally troubling auctions like 1♠-2♦-2♠. I guess if you apply it to more than overcalls it makes 1♣-2♠-2NT (or 1♥-2♠-2N) a raise. Shrug, that's probably good too.

1. partner had QJxxx QJT Jx QTx. Bidding was a disaster of -500. I don't know why righty bid only 2h on ATx xxx Kxx Kxx. 2. partner had KQJx J9 xxx QJTx. Bidding was a disaster of -500. (I bid 2d, but geting to 1n will suffer the same fate. If partner comes up with 2c, I think he'll get out for 300)

What the hell, now it's your turn not to limit raise with a limit raise?

[hv=d=n&v=e&n=skqj8ht5dkcakj975&w=st96hakqj4dqj9c84&e=sa5h9876d654cqt32&s=s7432h32dat8732c6]399|300|Scoring: MP 1♣-p-2♦-2♥ 2N-3♥-ppp[/hv] 2♦ was weak, and 2N was good/bad, showing a competitive 3m bid. NS play udca. T1: ♦K-4-2-9 T2: ♣A-2-6-4 T2: ♠K

1. w/w mp. ♠xx ♥xx ♦QTxxx ♣AJxx partner deals, p-(1♥)-p-(2♥)-p-(p) 2. w/r mp. ♠xx ♥Axx ♦Q6xxx ♣Kxx lefty deals, (p)-p-(1♥)-p-(1♠)-p-(p)

If you don't have specific ace ask available, you should definitely open 6♦ I think. It's very unlikely that they don't have a good save in 6M.

I think that given that game will be pretty rotten if south doesn't have the ♠J or if someone's minors are reversed, there can't be all that much blame. I think north's 3♥ was heavy, but not out of this world, especially at MP.

I have to admit that I've seen this type of auction a couple of times from top polish pairs, and it was right every time. Of course it violates beginner maxims, but sometimes the 2♠ bidder has a lot more offense than expected. As a compromise, I've started playing double here as "I want to bid 4♠ unless you have this beat". Of course beginners will still do well never to reproduce this auction, but also, beginners will do well to think of what's going on in the auction and what contract they want to play as opposed to following rules.

If you have a 3-card raise, it's more likely that you have a side suit to show with a 2/1, which rates to be useful information?

This is my usual style (very wide 3m range) when playing inverted minors. I'll admit that sometimes you get to a very bad 3n (partner basically always bids 3n with 18-19), but I hate the less preemptive and less descriptive 1n on 5 or 6 card support more.

I lead a trump. I don't think declarer will bid 4n very often with 2 spades (of course it's possible), and if dummy really is short in diamonds partner won't be able to overruff the first one, and may not be able to overruff the second one. Obviously it's all bit of a guess.

Suppose you play jumps in GF auctions (e.g. 2/1 auctions) as picture, which seems to be standard these days (e.g. 1h-2c-2h-4h shows good clubs, good hearts, and not much outside). When I learned this concept, there was no requirement on exactly how good your suits were, but the requirement for no outside control was very strict. Is this the way you play it too? Recently responder had KJx xx AKQJxx xx, and bid 1s-2d-2n-4s. Opener wasn't sure about solid diamonds, and definitely didn't know about the 6th card, so a great slam was missed opposite AQxxx Kxx xx Axx. ATB? My suspicion is that it's not a bad idea to have very strict rules for this sequence, since there are always plausible alternatives. I suggested exactly 4 of the top 6 honors in your suits, and to maintain the no A/K/stiff outside rule. What do you think?

I think this is a really good auction to play 2n as a heart raise.

I would bid 3n, since it's the most likely game and this may to be our only chance to get there. If I did double, I would bid 3n over 3s, pass 4d or 4s, and raise 4c to game.