SoTired

BTW - Playing "better minor" 1C=4+cards 80% and 1D=4+cards 95%. So there is little risk to 2D. (Some play that 1C=2+ and 1D=4+ and usually 5+ except when opener is 4441)

As I said in a previous post, playing SAYC, 4N is not that poor a bid. It is aggressive, but not an "Idiot" bid. If opener did rebid 3D, it would not help responder.

For slam, responder needs opener to have 1) controls in both minors, and 2) 3 of 4 missing keycards. That's a lot to ask for. 4N did not attempt to answer #1 which is just as important as #2. Playing 2/1, responder should bid 3S and see if opener q-bids a minor. In this case opener has controls in both minors, so ace asking might occurred anyway. Playing SAYC, responder does not have the luxury of a forcing 3S. 4N is aggresive, but not that poor a bid. If responder found opener with something like AKxxx xx Axx Kxx, then 6S makes on normal breaks. As it was, 5S only went down due to the poor spade break.

This is a difference of 4 parts per 1000. That is probably within the margin of error and, even if accurate, it is close enough to zero difference to not affect our bidding approach. So our holding length in the enemy suit does not change our chance of having a fit with partner. So.... overcalling a 4-card suit at the 1-level if: 1) hand not suitable for 1N overcall or t/o dbl 2) Suit is particularly strong 3) Hand is full opening bid Partner still treats it as 5-card suit. Is that a final consensus?

#1: 2N=17-19. I'll risk the hearts to show my strength. If we rebid 3D we may force to a poor game. If we rebid 2D and partner rebids 2H, we will be stuck because a secondary 2N shows about 16. #2: 4H. Normally, this hand is worth a 3C invite, but I will upgrade it since the opps are bidding and raising my singleton, meaning partner's honors are likely in diam and hearts.

This is too simple to be complex. The only thing you have to think about is getting 3 tricks. (Actually, if you are good enough to realize the CoC, then you are good enough to solve this problem :)) If we needed to get 4 tricks, we would finesse and hope the doubleton K was onside. We still get 3 tricks almost anyway we play the suit. Finesse won't help because any 4-1 break will stop 3 tricks if you finesse and any 3-2 break will get you 3 tricks no matter how you play. The ONLY hand where the finesse and playing the Ace first makes a difference is the singleton K offside. In ONLY that case, you get 3 tricks if you play the ace first and don't if you finesse. So play the Ace first

obvious X for me. although a little lite for initial X, 44 in majors makes up for it

Now, 6D This is a perfect hand for keycard blackwood or even regular blackwood. With an 11-card fit, if opener has the 2 missing aces, we can count 13 tricks. (Either opener has the ♠K or 1-1 break) I bid 4N initially. Since we did not do that, we need cooperation from partner. We bid 6D, denying the ♣A and showing the ♦A and obviously looking for grand. If opener does not have the ♣A or has the ♣A but not the ♥A, opener will sign off in 6S. If opener has both, then opener will bid 6H and we can bid 7S.

my style: good

I am happy you simplified it. :)

We hang partner not when opener is weak, but when opener is strong. If we can have this hand up to slightly less than an LR, opener may make a poor pass/invite/4S decision that would be more accurate if our minimum had the traditional limits. OTOH, when opener is non-invite or less, we make things more difficult for the opps. Justin says raising with this produces better results in the long run. Any other expert collaboration?

Don't most play that 1D 1S 3H = inv spade raise with heart shortness and 1D 1S 4H = GF with heart shortness?

I think the implication is clear, Ken. The COC (CoQ?) implies that when the hand is a 1S opener, you don't open it 2S. But you have a 2S preempt to fall back on on any hand less than a 1S opener, so you don't have to "stretch" to open. The choice is not between 1S and pass, but 1S and 2S.

So you having 4♣ with opener does not make the odds higher that partner has spade support. Is that right? Then why did Mike Lawrence say club length makes the 4-card overcall more attractive? Is it just the unlikelyhood of a club overruff?

enuf hiding.... If west guards hearts and diam, you must cash ♣A to squeeze West and you won't know West is squeezed until you try cashing the hearts. So for the squeeze to work, after running the spades, you must cash your 3 minor honors before trying the hearts. You can't try the hearts first, because you won't know what to pitch on the 3rd heart. Sorry... I don't see any way you can combine the squeeze and a finesse. It looks like an either/or situation. And the squeeze is higher probability than a finesse.

This argument is brought up so often, but it is still 100% wrong. If you overcall 1S over 1C, then by the same argument length in hearts makes it more likely that partner has more room for spades in his hand. no... if they open 1C and your length in hearts does not affect partner's length in spades. But if you have length in clubs it does. How can you not understand this?

1) Responder could bid 2S over 2C. Not all will do that 2) Opener has to bid more than 2S over 2H. 4S would not be wrong, but opener could bid 3S and responder will bid 4S.

One way to bid this is: 1H 2C 2H 4D 6H 4D is a second round splinter with 3-card support and opener has no trouble bidding slam. if opener bids 3H instead of 2H, responder has to recognize that an opening bid opposite a jump opener = slam.

1) Jlall said what I said in previous post of this thread: raising with 2-card support is usually wrong even if partner had a 5-card suit. It is just a worse disaster on a 4-2 fit. 2) You are only allowed 13 cards in your hand. If you are short in one suit, that means the odds are higher that you are longer in another suit. So if you have 4♣ with opener (playing better minor a 1C opener has 80% chance of 4+♣), that means partner is likely short, meaning there is more room in partner's hand for spades.

dbl - no question. A good partner will have a 4-card major or a 5-card diam suit to bid.

I think these disasters occur more often not because of a 4-card suit overcall, but because a player with only 2-card support incorrectly raises competitively. So, usually, the bid was wrong even if the overcall was a 5-card suit; it was just a bigger disaster when the overcall turned out to be only 4 cards. But sometimes your partner must bid and decides (correctly) that raising your suit with a doubleton is the best bid. So there are risks. But there are risks to passing, also (or making an offshape t/o dbl). Just because you defend does not mean you have avoided a disaster and holding an extra trump does not always save you from one. When the whole thing boils down, experienced experts have discovered they get better results in the long run with an occassional 4-card overcall. I won't argue with them on this one.

STOPPERS? Is this what this is all about? How many stoppers are you expected to have with 6 HCP? ;) If you want to upgrade J10x and bid 1N, fine by me. But don't bid 2D because you don't have major suit stoppers. [sorry - too many negatives.... but too incredulous to fix it]

I really have no clue what 2D (p) 3S means or should mean. And, without thinking, a splinter seems a good choice. But if you think about it, a splinter makes no sense. A splinter allows the splinter partner to re-evaluate their hand and discount honors in the splinter suit. But since the weak-2 bidder is weak with little strength outside the trump suit anyway, this re-evaluation won't produce useful results. Normal splinter evaluation would make: xxx xx KQJxxx xx a slam hand; whereas, Kxx xx KQJxxx xx is not a slam hand. That does not make sense. So either a fit jump or a control jump makes more sense.

If opener has 3♥, then 4H is probably our best spot. If opener has either red queen, then 3N will likely turn out best. The problem is, if you bid 3H trying for a 5-3 heart fit, opener will bid 4C without hearts and you've passed 3N. So using the Hamman's Rule, I bid 3N