SoTired

My partner would never open 1N with 2-2 in the majors for this (and other) reasons.

What does 2D show? What does 4H show? Let's assume: 2D=waiting. 4H = no outside ace, king, void or singleton. Then 4S seems like a good bid. 5C shows 3rd round club control. Now I can bid 6H because responder is unlikely to have the perfect hand to make 7.

1. I don't like the dbl. I would overcall 1S 2. North should bid 1N over 1D 3. South should bid 2S or dbl 1N Conclusion: N/S bid so poorly and timidly, it is not evident that even if East passed, NS would find the right contract. Over a 1S opening bid, West might have bid 3D fouling up NS bidding, anyway.

I am amazed to see in Neth. that misbids are being penalized. How far is the misbid penalty taken? Say, I play constructive major raises, forget, and raise on 6. Opener carries to a making game that few bid. Is the score adjusted? What if we play Flannery 2D 11-15, and I downgrade a 16, open 2D and avoid an unmakable game that most bid. Is the score adjusted? This is a slippery slope. Once you start penalizing misbids, you take bridge judgement out of the players hands and put in the TD, committee and administrators hands.

Clear 2C for me. I'll risk ending in a poorer 4-3 contract for a chance to escape 1N into a 4-4 major fit. BTW, "Garbage Stayman" defines 1N-2C-2D-2H = weak with 4-4 or better in the majors. This is why "Garbage Stayman" is a convention rather than a convenience for responder when responder holds a 4450 hand and will pass any opener's rebid. If playing Garbage Stayman and responder has the 5♥/4♠ invitational hand, responder bids 2D followed by 2S, but with the 5♠/4♥ invitational hand, responder bids 2C followed by 2S over 2D. 2N by opener over 2H is NOT ALLOWED. Responder could be xxxxx xxxxx x xx. Opener must pass or correct to 2S with equal or better spades. PERIOD.

With a 7M+5m, I ignore the m. Unless partner can bid the m suit showing 4+ cards, I want to play in the M.

both show a 6-4. Traditionally, 646 is stronger than 664. There was a LONG discussion among many experts in a bridge magazine (Mid-Atlantic maybe?) of just this 6♠+4♥ rebid issue. Some experts followed the hand strength rule, some experts always did one way, and some experts bid based on suit strength. Although the narrator (Steve Robinson?) drew some conclusions, personally, I did not see any real concensus. Sooooo... partnership agreement

I think slightly better is ♣AK, ♥A, ruff club, ♥K, ruff 2nd club. I believe that gives you more chances to make if clubs are 5-2.

Standard is present count (also called current count). Example: Against 3N, you hold ♠1082. Partner leads the ♠5, dummy has ♠764 and plays the 4, you play the 10 and declarer wins the ♠J. Later, you decide to discard a spade. You should discard the ♠8, your highest showing an even current count. There is an exception. When returning a suit that partner originally lead (esp at NT), the standard is to return your original 4th best if you have 3 or more cards left. I have never heard of signalling with original count.

dbl. I don't understand 3D. It is non-forcing. Have I miscounted? Doesn't this hand have 13 hcp? 2nd choice is 3N. 4D has some appeal, but we might have 2 club losers off the top.

16hcp, 2 jacks, rest aces and kings. not even 1 lousy queen. 1S = 100, 1N=50. after 1N NF response: 2D=100, 2N=90, pass = 20. If responder raises 2D to 3D: 3N=100, 4D=20, pass = 20. If responder takes 2S preference: 2N=100, 3S=40, pass = 20 (Why pass 2S when you could have passed 1N?)

I remind you this is BIL. I expect partner to have 7 diam on this vulnerability. Partner may have a heart honor or heart shortness. I'll start with 3S (forcing). If opener bids 4D or 4C, I bid 5D. I will pass partner's spade raise. If by some miracle partner bids 4H, we will play in 6D.

What does East have? If East is sacing, wouldn't it make more sense for East to wait until we bid game? So my guess is that East has oodles of diam and hearts and is bidding to make. We are not going to get rich dbling this. Down 1 or down 2 at best. Against our vul game, -300 vs -100 is a 3 IMP gain. As a matter of fact, East may have something like A KQ10x AKQxxxx x. Partner may have something like Qxxxx xxx - AJxxx and both 5D and 5S makes. If we dbl, partner may assume that we have some diam values and pass. And why should we dbl? Do we have something extraordinary that our 1C/2S bids did not show? What?! Two extra HCPs and dblton small diam! That's it? If partner can't dbl this or can't bid 5S, let them play undbled. PASS.

I've always known it to be forcing to 6N and invitational to 7N

I have an invitational hand. I would rather lie about distribution than strength. So I like 3D and 2N better than 2D or 2H.

Original Michaels was intermediate in strength. About 10-14 HCP. Stronger hands started with a dbl. Weaker hands passed. Current thinking is weak/strong Michaels, bidding the 2 suits with 10-14. With <10, you bid your Michaels and pass. With >14, you make a second bid.

Edit to remove entire post. First, my post was unncecessarily harsh. Ralph is trying to help. I apologize for the tone. Second, I misread your post, Ralph. Actually, I agree with much of it. I have some minor complaint about wording, especially "B. Use count signals only when declarer leads." should remove the word "only," because there are situations when you give count when partner leads.

I vote pattern as most useful. In most cases responder is 5431 with less than slam strength and needs to identify the singleton so opener can make a slam/no slam decision. I think the situation where responder has slam strength and needs to discover a 2-loser black suit to avoid slam comes up less often.

pass - you have a better chance of setting 2S than making 3D on a 43 fit. Partner has an opening bid and likely 0445, but might be 1444. If partner has 5d, they are too weak to overcall 2D, so 2SX has better chance for positive.

4C - what's the hurry?

Welll..... if you play that a 2C followed by 2N rebid = 20-21, then 2M = 0-3 HCP, natural 5/6 card suit :)

If the dbl = 4-card major and 5-card minor, then I have heard it called Woolsey

i don't understand this at all. Where in partner's 4H and X did anyone get the idea that partner was asking our opinion? Pass

let's give rho 6card diam and singleton spade for 3d bid. partner has 8-10 hcp and 5-6h. Something like: xxxx KQJxxx Qx x or xxxx KQxxx Qx Qx or xxxx KQxxx Kx xx or xxxx KQxxx x QJx or xxxx KQJxx xx Ax I would guess 4H is 50/50. We have 2 spade losers + 1 or 2 minor suit losers. Maybe we are hanging partner, but 50/50 games should be bid. 4H.