Sambolino

why misguess? it's down to guessing only if declarer has A9x in clubs and in that case he must guess it right. if he has K of dia pard has AK of c, and if he has K of c he's down always

duck this and next diamond

if one has a little time it could be analyzed like this (i prefer to buy a book tho and remember what's right :) ) what we got here is 16 combinations - 6.25% per combination 3-1 - 8 combinations 50% QTx K KTx Q KQx T KQT x and vice versa 2-2 6 37.5% KQ Tx KT Qx Kx QT QT Kx Qx KT Tx KQ 4-0 2 12.5% let's consider 4 plays - Ace; finesse 9 and then J; finesse 0 then A; and finesse J what never matters is: 4-0 on right, all 22's except KQ sec on right and half of 3-1's which is 62.5% 6 combinations are left and they are to determine the best play QTx K KTx Q KQx T KQT x Tx KQ KQTx A wins : QTx K KTx Q Tx KQ fin9 then J wins: QTx K KTx Q KQT x KQTx fin J wins: KQx KQT Tx KQ so seems like #2 is best (i'm in a rush so may've missed something, just wanted to show the principle)

maybe a bit closer but still not automatic - depends on my holding

disagree. this bidding itself gives no clear clue about trump lead

of course bluff is likely here and there are 2 options imo - solid minor or heart supp but as mike said our h holding almost excludes 2nd variant. thus it's quite realistic rho is actually strong and i don't want to gamble for pard to have sJ (or pick singleton on the table etc) to achieve what? -1?

Agree. Agree

Because 1453 or 1354 would have doubled 1S. I don't play lebensohl in this position (I play 2NT as two places to play, though arguably natural is quite a good meaning) so I just bid 3D. right, i was rash - although there are some 5431's you'd overcall rather than double

why is 1363 protopypical and not 1453 or 1354? i want to play 3c even in moysian because i won't be forced to ruff in hand with longer trumps. i guess the other question here intended may be "is this worth a game try?"

i'm also torn between pass and 3nt; i've seen world class players very often passing with, like, 15 in this position so what's so spectacular about 17

i really don't think 4h will come back so often

i really dislike 3nt, didn't even consider it as an option

double

ace of clubs, diamond to the dummy, club. if rho ducks smoothly i duck

noooo... JQK i thought, misread jchiu's seq.

agree with jchiu. especially if YOU doubled

right, 5H

i like every one of these

i like this. everything is questionable except K10 sec if W is declarer, N should (although this is questionable too) cover with Kx and K10. so that's something. that would imply 2/3 chance for finessing 10 if vice versa, N has a choice to duck. sooo... it's late and i'll be enjoying this tomorrow.

this is very interesting position, quite common too. i saw steve weinstein (not actually sure if that was him) on a recent vugraph dropping K10 sec.

Um, if you cannot smell this slam using a natural approach, when it seems to be screaming obvious for the reasons that I just articulated (and easy to get to), then perhaps you should re-consider playing relay precision until you learn how to analyze hands. RP seems to be a crutch and not an asset. i couldn't smell slam but i can smell impudence

i know how to solve this easily playing (relay) precision. i don't see a way to even smell the slam playing natural sys

passss

who said 5h denies diamond ctrl? 5d would be just plain natural in this sequence. i expect from p: ♥ void fifth A or fourth AQ in ♠ fifth KQ or sixth K in ♦ third A or K in ♣ anything less would be a heavy overbid

pass