Blofeld

Justin, it's in the thread title: "all pass to you". I don't like 4♥ as there's too much chance of missing a slam. I'll start with a strong artificial bid if I can, or 1♥ otherwise.

I liked the 2♦ bid.

2NT, though I was tempted to pass. But we could easily be making game if partner has a good hand for the bidding so far, so I can't justify a pass.

As I imagine most of you have guessed, I chanced a 3nt bid, which didn't work out very well. On the actual hand, partner had: ♠KQJ943 ♥A63 ♦AT7 ♣7 with which I maintained that he should have taken some action over 3nt (not that it excuses the 3nt bid). Is that reasonable? For the record, LHO had ♣AKTxxx and RHO had ♣Qxxx (and the ♠A).

mike: presumably with five spades and a club stopper partner could try a double, and then pull 3♦/3♥ to 3NT?

I went for a simple 3♠. 5♦ looks like it might work; I hadn't considered that. Do the 4♣ bidders think that it shows a 3-4-0-6 shape precisely? I would have thought that it was just the cheapest force in clubs.

[hv=d=s&v=n&s=s7hkjt54dkqj94cj4]133|100|Scoring: MP 1♥ (3♣) 3♠ (P) ? Playing Acol, and 3♠ is forcing. Opponents intermediate ; LHO slightly aggressive, RHO more conservative.[/hv] I think I may have made a bad decision. What do people think of the 3NT and 4♦ bids?

Well so long as he doesn't need his feet for anything this sounds solvable ...

I was too much of a coward to lead ♦s, although I did want to. Is a club lead obviously worse than a major?

Why not pass 5♣x and see what else (if anything) partner has to say?

3rd seat favourable I don't think that I want to be predictable. So, I'll vary what I bid. Sometimes I'll pass. Sometimes bid 1♠ (which looks probably more helpful than 2♠), sometimes 2. 1NT is less appealing playing a strong no-trump than a weak one, where the bid is partially protected, but ...

In Acol, 2♣ and then 3♣. In 2/1 I suppose I have to bid 1♥, but then I think I'd try 2NT over 2♠ (wouldn't 3♣ be fourth suit forcing?)

If the doubler is sitting on ♦T9xxx, has guessed at my hand from the auction, and psyched a lightner double to get me to run out of the making 7♠ into a non-making 7NT, then ... he/she deserves the good score I'm giving him/her.

What's the world convention? I can't find anything about it online.

I once had a fistful of kings, but my partner was fishing for swings, his psychic "one club" (he had been down the pub) led to 6N off five for my sins.

I don't understand East's 2♣ bid. Why not wait until the bidding gets round to you again. Then you can see what North's intention was ; if to play 1NTxx, you can now run ; if to run away, you can assume that you and your p have at least half the deck and perhaps penalise 2♦.

whereagles: how does that work over a 2♥ opening? specifically, is 2♠ natural? (if so, forcing?)

I think I'd pass. It could go horribly wrong, but the hand is looking a likely misfit, so I want to stop at a low level, and I think there's a reasonable chance of a decent score in 2Dx.

I like Luis' approach, and think it will work on most hands, but I can see disaster if LHO weighs in with 2thingies, and partner, holding exactly the right hand for the rarely seen Fairport Convention, will jump-cue 4thingies (showing six diamonds headed by the queen, 9 points precisely, and a club shortage (if a singleton, it must be an EVEN card)). Now you're rather too high on a misfit hand. But I suppose that it is Matchpoints.

Couldn't partner still be 3433? Certainly unilaterally deciding on clubs seems a bad idea, but if you can retreat to 4nt the investigation might not hurt.

What did the ♣2 show?

I read 3♠ and 4♠ as cue-bids, showing the top two spades. Partner also has a club control, or he wouldn't bid 4♠ after you've denied one with 4♦. As you have the necessary heart control, 4NT seems a reasonable cooperation bid. Now bid 6♦. I think you're missing one of the minor suit aces, but 6♦ should make. I don't like to risk 6♠ or 6NT.

I should point out that mrsock has answered a question slightly different from the one posed. In the case of 5332s the answer is doubtless correct, but with two doubletons scoob asked how often at least one doubleton will have neither ace or king, and mrsock gave figures that say how often both doubletons will have neither (assuming that he means what he said). Justin, that figure will presumably also include AK, AQ, AJ, KQ or KJ holdings. In particular, I don't know whether the simulator will count these at full face value, so you may find that hands with KJ tight are getting counted as 13HCP even if you wouldn't assign that value to them, and boosting the numbers for this sort of thing.

Could you let us know how partner will know what to do after you bid 1♥ and 5♦?

Do we know anything about the opponents? If it will make it more likely that they'll let me buy the contract in game, I might try starting with just 1♥ or 2♥ and carry on bidding until they pass/double/whatever. On the other hand, if they're likely to overstretch to compete, then 6♥ will put them on a nasty guess as to whether to bid 6♠. I prefer 5♥ to 4♥. Sure, there are times when 4♥ will be passed out, but there are far more where they'll bid 4♠ (unless the opponents are really cautious, in which case 4♥ is probably the right bid). Now they'll have a better chance of correctly guessing what to do over 5♥ (you're not selling out to 4♠, are you?) I don't really like 3nt. Far too much chance that they'll run a black suit, or if p has stoppers, that he won't have a way of crossing to your hand. If you want to piss around, some number of ♠ is better.