Blofeld

3♦ ; feel it's too easy to get robbed passing here. Willing to accept that 3♦ will sometimes lead to a bad result.

I'm passing on all of them. I feel that pass is right on B and C, while I find A pretty tough. Hate my spade holding, though.

4NT not Blackwood?

Want to echo winkle's point - has partner lied, or was there a typo in there somewhere? I think I'd rather play 6♠.

Easy 4♠.

Pass. Double should be P/C on general principles. I'm willing to take the '1 in 6' line on doubles.

I think, the question raised here is why an "expert" in EAST would show you his heart with a heart discard, instead of throwing a spade. This leaves you with the following infomation. EAST has two diamonds WEST has three. The "pure guess" is now a no longer an issue. You know that WEST is 3/5th chance to hold the diamond queen, East 2/5th. Instead of a blind guess you are a 3/2 favorite if you hook WEST. The question is, why didn't EAST discard his known spade. Now EAST could have three diamonds west two, or the other way around. You can't know. Did East share this "data" with you so you could calculate the odds favor finessing his partner? Why would he do that? To help you out? Maybe you think he did it so you would finessee his parner becasue he has Qx of diamonds. In that case, you go against the odds. But, maybe he did it because he knew you were good enough to realize he wouldn't be wanting you help you get the count, so he is pretending to have Qx doubleton so you will not hook his partner. This is a mind game. I think that is the point. If EAST is that good, just go with the odds and play the man with three diamonds to have the queen. Agree with Ben's analysis but not with the final conclusion. If we don't think we can beat East at mind games, I think from a game theoretic point of view we should take the hook against West 60% of the time and against east 40% of the time. Otherwise East will do best by only dropping the heart when he holds Qx.

That's an absolutely lovely idea. Though I've no idea of the practicalities of the thing.

4♣ was the first bid that came to mind.

I think that bidding and play should be kept seperate here: i.e. based on different hands. Otherwise the play is not entirely fair, as different people will have seen different auctions on the hands and so already know different amounts about the hands when they start declaring/defending.

Count me in for 3♦.

Under EBU rules, they've done the right thing in alerting and then explaining no agreement. I'll definitely ask. I think I'll bid 5♣ now. Second choice (according to mood) is to pass now, and bid 5♣ over 4♦, or pass 4♥ (they'll just run to 5♦).

I like double, and waiting to see if partner is going to double 3♥. If this hand is a big misfit, I'd like to defend.

I quite like a 4NT opening on the north hand. It goes wrong when partner has the heart ace exactly, but otherwise works nicely, and may steal the hand from opponents. The actual auction is atrocious, and the 4NT call is beyond belief.

I will be a terrible optimist here, and play for them to go down. Which means hoping that partner has a second spade and a heart honour, and ducking the first trick.

I can answer 1) at least - I can't see how this could possibly fit into Keri.

Tricky hand. I think I have to pass, but 6-4 shape with values in the long suits and a heart void make me far from certain that this is the best choice. But both double and 3♦ are supremely unappealing, so I go with pass and perhaps come in later.

Definitely raised. This is a competitive auction, and the hand is just worth one bid.

2♦. Support with support.

[hv=d=s&v=b&w=skxhdakj7xcjt8xxx&e=saqjt9haq9xxxdtxc]266|100|Scoring: IMP Opponents are silent.[/hv] Playing your favourite system and gadgets, what's your normal auction on these hands? I'd prefer if you gave the standard auction even if that lands you in a suboptimal contract rather than picking some odd bids that simply happen to work with these hands.

I agree with Gerben's analysis. The UI suggests making another slam try, so we can't do that ... thus, a simple 4♥.

5NT should be forcing to 6NT and invitational to a grand, Kalvan.

White versus white is one of the most attractive times for penalty doubles +500 outscores a game +300 is a great score Plus the opponents do silly things non-vulnerable... While I agree that white on white is one of the most attractive times to make penalty doubles, the reversal doesn't follow - we shouldn't be most worried about penalty doubles when white/white. If opponents were perfect, then no time would be particularly more attractive than another to try to take penalties, as they'd adjust their style to keep your expected score to a minimum. This breaks down because opponents misjudge things, and in particular tend to be too aggressive when white/white. However, when we're looking at this hand and asking what to do, we should be regarding the vulnerability as pointing us towards acting (cf. Mike's arithmetic). On the other hand, we should possibly be taking it less seriously than many people do (the people who go overboard and make white/white a nice time for blood). That said, I'm going to pass here and I can't think of many hands I'd bid on. Perhaps double should be penalty of diamonds here?

Voted for double, but with no aces and a singleton queen, I don't mind a 1NT overcall.

Erm, Matt said that we'd shown our four diamonds. There's no reason to think that partner has four. Quite the contrary, in fact. Count me in for 3NT.