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Is this an above average hand? It surely is. I would prefer this hand to an average balanced 12 count, which nowadays is almost never passed I would also not mind ending in 3NT opposite a balanced 12 count though the hand is worth more in a trump contract. I will not always make 3NT but neither do you when you open balanced 12 counts. If you pass this hand you have no reasonable chance reaching a grand slam. Rainer Herrmann

Of course you can move to a completely artificial system after 2/1 game forcing. In the end it will not be much different to a relay system. Playing natural is not space efficient. I prefer a compromise. Responders 2/1 responses show 5 cards in hearts and diamonds and 2♣ denies 5 cards in the other suits, so is either a club suit or anything else including if you like Jacoby type hands but . Over responders first bid I employ a switch bid. The next highest bid shows a balanced or semi-balnced or a minimum hand. 2NT shows the suit which gets lost by the next highest bid. That way opener will repsond ,most often with the next highest bid. Responder rebids are now, say after 1♥-2♣-2♦ Two of openers major does not promise 3 card support but is simply a waiting bid to let opener describe his hand further and bid a 4 card side suit or 2NT (with 5332 or sometimes 5422 with strong doubletons and a poor 4 card suit). Two in the other major shows at least 5 clubs. Opener is expected to bid 3♣ with Hxx or better. (If you need better support bid openers major) Since responder has denied 5 cards in diamonds you can play that 3♦ agrees openers major with a Jacoby like hand. This is space efficient Rainer Herrmann

Works also on 4-2-3-4 Rainer Herrmann

If 2♦ is catchall, with which I agree, you do not need 2NT as well. All balanced or semibalnced hands can bid 2♦ first. Play a rebid of 2NT as showing diamonds. A big advantage is that responder can agree diamonds with 3♦ now. Obviously this is not standard, but logical and effective. Rainer Herrmann

Of course this needs agreement, but as far as I know this is one I have seen mentioned before in bidding discussions, that is differentiating between an immediate 5♥ and the one via 4NT. Of course even more common might be that 4NT is any two-suiter, where partner assumes minors, but when you correct 5♦ to 5♥ it shows clubs and hearts, in which case you can not use it for the above purpose or you accept there is an ambiguity when partner responds 5♦ to 4NT, when it is either a club-heart two-suiter or a superstrong heart overcall. Rainer Herrmann

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This poll is a bit confusing. People answer with Minorwood if it has been agreed upon. Of course you agree in advance what bids mean. If you have not agreed to Minorwood it is not Minorwood and if you did it is. No need for a poll. I think the poll is about what it should mean in an established partnership. I vote for Minorwood and with an unsuitable hand I will start with an ambiguous new suit as an advanced cuebid, which will be clarified later. If I have a game invite I can choose bidding game or I pass. Rainer Herrmann

Partner could have bid 4NT followed by 5♥ showing a stronger hand Rainer Herrmann

What would you bid now with a heart control? The answer is obvious. You would bid 5♥. It follows that when you don't do this your points must be in the black suits. Just bid 5♠ and an intelligent partner can bid the slam. He knows you have nothing to cuebid in the red suits. Optimism on your part is unjustified since partner can not even discard heart losers on expected club length in dummy. So 4♦ was a game try? And what would you do with these hands if partner bids 5♠? Where are partners points for a slam invite? Does the failure to control bid a red suit over 5♣ not mark your hand with the ace of spades and the king of clubs? Only a weak player would consider passing 5♠ with either of these hands. Keycard is not the old Blackwood. Standard is you start cue-bidding first or second round controls and then end up checking whether sufficient keycards are on board. When partner apparently knows that all side suits are under control and you hold ace and queen of trumps and partner does not use key-card this is significant and one inference is that partner should know about a ten card fit. Either partner has a void in hearts, in which case your failure to control bid heart will encourage him, or more likely partner has Kxxxxx in spades and your queen of spades is not needed for slam. What you are left with are 8 HCP. If partner can not bid slam over 5♠ forget it. A possible hand for partner ♠KJTxxx ♥Kx ♦Axx ♣Ax, where a heart honor instead of one of your spade honors in your hand would make slam good. Rainer Herrmann

Kit Woolsey is fond of saying that leaping to slam is always wrong. I am pretty sure Kit is a better player than North. I do not go as far as Kit does and I might leap to slam for a number of reasons. But there are not too many. 1) I have a surprise in my hand and the slam might well depend on the right opening lead which is not obvious from the bidding so far. Bridge is not played double dummy. 2) I am playing with a much weaker player and I fear a bidding misunderstanding (like getting passed prematurely). 3) I can not think of a sensible way exchanging further useful information or consulting partner. 4) I want to force the opponents to an immediate decision whether to bid on or not. Rainer Herrmann

We know from the bidding and play that West has very likely a doubleton club and the diamond ace and East has 6 clubs. Simply assume that West has the diamond jack as well and sole control of hearts, either 4 or more cards there or much less likely queen and jack with less than 4 hearts. If he has queen third in hearts he might fail to unblock in the endplay. Simply ruff (with the 9) and play all your trumps. On the last trump if West keeps control of diamonds he can not keep more than 3 hearts. End-play him in hearts. If he came down to 2 diamonds play diamonds from the top. This also works if East has the jack doubleton in diamonds. Of course you might have to guess against expert defense what has happened after trick 7. Simply check to how many spades East follows and assume at worst the most likely distribution for East thereafter. If he follows to one spade assume 1=3=3=6 or 1=2=4=6, if 2 spades 2=2=3=6, if 3 spades 3=2=2=6. Rainer Herrmann

The contract is poor. Making this contract without clubs requires either 5 spades and 3 heart tricks, which is a 9% chance, or we need 7 tricks from the major and a second trick from diamonds. The latter is tricky because East can go in with a diamond honor from QT or KT once our spade entry is gone. Playing on spades first does not look good. If the heart finesse works I see no urgency taking it on the opening lead. If the heart finesse fails there may be advantage not to take it since East will not be able to continue hearts. Since we very likely need some club tricks I see two alternative line of play 1) Win the heart ace and come to the spade ace and run the club 9. If the queen of clubs is with West we have at least 2 club tricks , 2 heart tricks at least one diamond trick and hopefully enough time to establish spades for 4 tricks in time. If we get 4 tricks in the minors we need only one of the major suit finesses to work. We are not home, but our chances look better than establishing spades first. 2) Win heart ace and play king of clubs. Defenders often duck this assuming you have the queen too for such a play. If the club king looses to East,East will probably switch to diamonds and you can insert the 9. If West wins and continues hearts your percentage play is to take the heart finesse and continue establishing 2 club tricks. Not sure which line is better, but both look better to me than playing on spades immediately. It probably depends which black finesse is working. line 1 may be slightly better. Rainer Herrmann

I do not mind your raise, but never (and when I say never I mean hardly ever in Bridge) play your partner for zero points, when the bidding starts one of a suit pass pass to you .... It will take a lifetime of Bridge for 2 yarboroughs (or nearly so) to happen on the same deal. Partner is almost never broke. Also since your balancing doubles start weaker than in second seat your partner needs more to show strength in response. I would jump with an opening bid (obviously unsuitable to take immediate action) opposite a balancing double. Rainer Herrmann

The 4-3-2-1 is actually quite precise for low level notrump contracts. If you upgrade with useful intermediates you will be doing fine. It is not so good when it comes to high level suit contracts where first round controls are very important. Given that you do not know where you will end up with in the bidding to concentrate too much on the perfect hand evaluation method is not worthwhile. What matters more is to be flexible and understand what improves a hand and what makes your hand deteriorate in value. Visualization of partners hand is particularly important I give you 2 examples. Example one: Which of the following hands do you prefer as dealer? 1) ♠KQJ432 ♥KQJ2 ♦KQ2 ♣- 2) ♠AJ5432 ♥AJ32 ♦A32 ♣- The first hand has 17 HCP , the second 14 HCP. The distribution is the same. Most players I know, whether good or bad, will prefer hand 1. Beginners in particular are mesmerized by the number of honor cards they hold. I prefer hand 2. It is at least as good as hand number one. Reasons: Both hands are very suit oriented because they are very distributional and have 10 cards in the majors. Point count is of little value when you expect to end up in a high-level suit contract. Quacks are overrated. In fact an ace is as valuable as a king and a queen. There is no good reason valuing an ace as 4 HCP but a king and a queen as 5 HCP. Example two (taken from a recent book on hand evaluation): You have 3 hands (13 HCP) to choose from: A) ♠A8732 ♥KJ85 ♦T3 ♣AJ B) ♠AT872 ♥AJ85 ♦9 ♣ A65 C) ♠T8732 ♥Q865 ♦AK ♣A6 You are third in hand. Which hand do you prefer and which one do you like least? There is little doubt that B is best and C is the worst of the three hands. B has everything what is good. Aces, distribution, useful intermediates in spades and a valuable jack in hearts. C has 11 HCP in short suits. A is somewhat in the middle. Now your partner passes and the bidding proceeds: Pass 1♠ 2♦-2♥ 3♦-? How do you value these hands now? C has improved beyond recognition and you should simply bid 3NT A could make 3NT, but it is against the odds. B is now the worst hand to have. Pass and hope you are not down already. A typical hand for partner would be ♠xx ♥Ax ♦QTxxxx ♣Kxx (not possible opposite B where he could have ♠xx ♥Kx QTxxxx ♣KQx instead) Rainer Herrmann

http://bridge.thomasoandrews.com/valuations/original.html provides double dummy numbers. The numbers are different for trump contract and notrumps. (they also depend on the level of the contract). You get relative values from ace down to 8 in the sequence is A,K,Q,J,10,9,8 in the following whole number relations: Trump contract: 82,51,27,14,6,3,1 (the analysis does not differentiate between trump suits and side suits. However this clearly matters) Notrump contract: 115,74,43,23,10,4,2 If you normalize this to 40 HCP per deal you have now 7 instead of 4 cards in a suit, on which you divide 10 HCP and you get of course fractions (rounded to one decimal): Trump contract: 4.4, 2.8, 1.4, 0.8, 0.3, 0.2, 0.1 Notrump contract: 4.2, 2.7, 1.6, 0.8, 0.4, 0.2, 0.1 At notrumps you can say a jack is on average worth half a queen , a ten half a jack, a nine half a ten and an eight half a nine. These are the figures for double dummy analysis (for declaring not defense) and they of course do not take into account specific suit holdings. Lower cards gain a lot if they are accompanied by higher cards in the same suit. You hear often kings are worth more than 3 HCP, but that is not true. The only card which is clearly underrated in standard HCP is the ace. The king is correctly rated and queens and jacks are overrated, particularly queens at trump contracts. Rainer Herrmann

This is not clear when East has a seven card suit headed by KQ or KQJ in clubs and a (likely) spade honor. Whatever, as far as I can see my suggested line of play handles all cases where East is short in trumps. Rainer Herrmann

Correct this is another losing case I can not cater for. You could ruff the second club low, but this might lose to 8 clubs with East, so I think it is still better to ruff the second club high. Rainer Herrmann

I dealt out some hands given the South hand on the assumption that East would have 6-7 spades including the ace or headed by the JT with a maximum of 9 HCP. If North (opener) has less than 4 clubs he must be either 4♠-4♥-3♦-2♣ or 4♠-4♥-2♦-3♣ or 3♠-4♥-3♦-3♣ with 12-14 HCP. This occurred 13.6% of the time (where 2NT may be superior to 3♣). If North has more HCP he would either not have opened 1♣ with these distributions or will not pass 3♣. Otherwise North has 4 or more clubs. I assumed at most 19 HCP for North but excluded balanced 15-17 HCP. Under those conditions North will have four or more clubs 86.4% of the time. Bidding 3♣ does not preclude 3NT (except when North has a weak notrump where 3NT will often fail). 3♣ will often pave the way to a high level club contract when North is unbalanced. An extreme example in one of my 10 000 deal generations North held ♠A92 ♥- ♦K876 ♣KQJ865 with West holding a 7 card heart suit. After 3♣ further bidding would be easier for North South than after 2NT. Rainer Herrmann

I guess East has probably 7 clubs for his bid and West the heart ace. The play gets complicated because there are many scenarios. East most likely distribution is 7♣321. A shortage is only slightly more likely in spades as in either red suit and equally likely in either of them. Therefor I see no point in trying to reach dummy, which might open the deal to a defensive cross ruff Win the club ace and play a low spade from hand. Case 1: East wins with a spade honor. If East plays a second club, ruff high and run the spade ten assuming West follows. This looses only if East has KQx in spades and East gets a heart ruff or possibly when he plays back a third spade and West has the heart jack. Seems unlikely from the bidding. You should be able to mange 4 spades with West If East plays a heart and gets heart ruff. Take a spade finesse against West playing for divided honors. Case 2. West wins with a spade honor. If West returns a club, ruff and play spade to the ace, assuming West follows. Whether East follows or not ruff the remaining club high. There is no problem if trumps are 3-2 or if West overruffs. If West has 4 spades and does not over-ruff, play him to hold at least 3 diamonds. Play 3 rounds of diamonds ending in dummy and then play a heart to the king. (The assumption is that West has the ace of hearts) If West wins he will have to return a red suit or trumps and West gets only 2 trumps and the heart ace. If the heart king wins play your last diamond. If West ruffs low you overruff and end-play him in trumps. If he does not ruff you exit in the 3 card ending with a heart for a trump trick If West gives East a red suit ruff (say heart ace, heart ruff) you will need to guess who has the remaining spade honor. Rainer Herrmann

1) First you do not know whether your LHO has spades or not. The raise would come after your bid not before 2) You know only that RHO has at least 6 spades missing KQ. If he has only 6 spades missing the jack as well he would have a very empty suit. Not everyone preempts with a poor suit 3) Conclusion the chances that your partner has 3 (or more) cards in spades is less than 50%, since you know of at least 8 cards between RHO and you. Not what I would call odds on. 4) Give RHO the spade ace, which seems very likely. Assume for the sake of the argument your partner has 3 spades, which you consider odds on. Since there are 10 cards left in spades the chance that one of 3 cards will be the jack is no better than 30%. Therefor overall chances for the holding must be less than 15%. I said the probability for spade help is low. I have never said the probability is zero and even if you have a second stopper in spades, even then you have no guarantee 3NT will make. (Of course your chances have markedly improved in this unlikely case) Rainer Herrmann

All very low probability scenarios. Yes even I would bid notrumps if I deemed it likely that I will have 8 immediate winners outside of spades. Experience has proven time and again that this is very unlikely when you hold a balanced hand with one ace. We have the balance of points and aiming for a very likely minus score is not a way to win at this game. Sorry you often make good points but this is just plain nonsense. Rainer Herrmann

Unfortunately what is the chance that opener will have 3 spades including a spade honor when the bidding starts 1♣-2♠. Bridge is a game of probabilities I would immediately agree if your spades were KQx instead of KQ tight. It has been known for ages that such things matter. Here it matters a lot. Projecting what will likely happen in notrumps and who is more likely to win the race establishing his suit first is not very difficult. There are times to be optimistic and there are times where you should be cautious. That is what is called judgement. Resulting is the opposite. A similar scenario arises when holding Ax in openers suit when considering an overcall in notrumps. Some call this not a stopper because 4 HCP are tight up and you can not hold up long enough. KQ tight is even worse. 5 HCP tight up and you can not even hold up for one round. In fact counting this as 5 HCP borders on insanity. If you can not do better than counting HCP you will never get beyond the basics in this game 3♣ is the only sensible option with this hand assuming you play a standard system. Opener is very unlikely to hold less than 4 cards in clubs when the bidding starts that way. Rainer Herrmann

I do not get this. With the actual hand you require essentially the club king and an ace for slam. If you take the 2♣-2N route you risk that partner bids slam with a balanced hand missing an ace and the club honors. That would still give him up to 11 HCP. I can not blame him. Only if you bid clubs can partner appreciate his values properly. In my opinion there is no rush to bid notrumps on the actual hand. With ♠ AKQ ♥ xx ♦ Kx ♣ AKQJxx partner can be short in clubs and it will not materially affect your slam chances. I might still bid clubs with the latter hand, but only because I do not know whether notrump is a good idea due to my heart holding. Rainer Herrmann

Wrong-siding happens but tends to be over-judged. Of course you show your clubs vigorously. (3♣ followed by 4♣ or 4NT seems appropriate). If you bid straight away 4NT over 1♣-1N an expert might credit you with such a hand since you did not open 2♣ I would never stop below 4NT if partner responds 1N , whether playing precision or ACOL Rainer Herrmann