suokko

vs mini NT ♦ J would be sexy lead. Assuming strong I just lead a ♠.

Nowadays doesn't everyone know the ideal preempt is QJ10xxxx Qx Qx Qx? yep. Qx is great value in preemption because it is sure defensive trick B)

You could play for ending like this if you play earlier heart. Of course now defense could make your day hard by leading heart after diamond ace but I didn't do it B) yes. I was RHO here if it gives you any psychological advantage. [hv=n=s?h?dtca9x&w=sqhkqtxdc&e=s8hxdxxcq&s=s?xh?xxxdc]399|300|Scoring: BAM[/hv]

BAM: over tricks are counted too!

Idea is to pass with weak shapely hand. In IMP scoring you gain a lot by defining it forcing and lose very little. In places where nearly all the games are MP non-forcing meaning is a lot more popular.

Maybe K 6th and out? I don't know. It is very unlikely that you have anything good and club support here. Unless you play something stupid (like I do after 1♠ overcall) that prevents you from biding natural 2 clubs.

LHO has diamond length and discards a club on 3rd spade.

Dummy has right to prevent irregularity by declarer. Law 42 B2 "He may try to prevent any irregularity by declarer."

sorry. error there. We are east. North deals and opens. I also forgot the signals which are 4th best leads and upside count and attitude. :)

So lets have some fun problem and defend a hand trick by trick. Rules are simple: Everyone can propose what should be done for currently running trick and then I select the most popular (or the best justified) defense until there is next decision moment. This hand is from Board-A-Match teams so over tricks are valuable too. [hv=d=n&v=e&s=sa64h8752da94caq5]133|100|Scoring: BAM[/hv] You sit as east and decide not to interfere in red/white and biding goes 1♠-1NT!; 2♣!-3♠; ap 1♠ 11-15 5+♠ 1NT was forcing 2♣ better minor 3♠ 3 card limit raise What is our lead?

[hv=d=s&v=b&n=skxhj87xdkqt8xcxx&s=saxxhq9xxdxxcaq8x]133|200|Scoring: BAM 1♣ X 1♦ P 1♥ P P 1♠ P P 2♥ P P 2♠ 3♥ P P P(30 seconds hesitation) [/hv] Biding is not world class :) But there is at least some information available. lead is small ♠. What is your playing plan? When you lead ♦ towards dummy K holds the trick of course. ♣ finesse: 2nd ♦ trick: If you play trump from dummy:

[hv=d=s&v=n&n=sa87hxxdkqjxxcq6x&s=skqxhakqtxd8xc8xx]133|200|Scoring: BAM 1♥-2♦; 2NT-3NT[/hv] ♣J x x x ♣T x K x ♠J K x 7 ♦x x K x Take it from here. How do you play the rest of hand? When you play 2nd round of ♦: and later on diamond holdings are revealed: Are you lucky or not? :)

Isn't it clear from our holding ♣ hat opps are biding for fun :) ok. I agree that my example was bit too much defensive but I don't thing partner has to hold all the values in majors here so ♠ contract may well be better than ♥. Specially if there is entry problems. Let say partner has nice hand like like QTx AKQJx Kxxx x or ATx AKQJx xxxx x? yes. Again extreme example to favor spade contract :)

Would you accept if you just knew that partner has 3+ card support and invitational values? I know it would be better to have different bid for 3 card raise but there was none this time. If making invite in NT then openers hand is a lot worse and should not raise to game but unknown length of spade support probably should just raise to game. @jonottawa: yes. contracts are reasonable but if I saw partner's hand while biding I wouldn't want to end to game level in spades. It would be interesting play problem in 4 spades with heart lead. You have bad entries and chance to lose trump control if all hearts are offside. I mainly posted this as biding problem to see if anyone else would just do constructive raise after strongly surprised comment from the opponent. So contract is 4♠ and you get ♥x lead. What is the best line and how good odds you have for it?

What if partner holds Qxx AKJxxx KJxx x? Is double allowed with this? Is 4♠ better contract? Can I somehow ask partner to choose? Maybe 4♣ is option here.

Sometimes it looks to me that GIB understands possibility of psyche and plays for distribution that is not possible if biding was correct. But it could be very well just bad defense or declarer play from GIB.

None is going to pass with that hand type. You just bid 2M that doesn't deny side suit (even tough doesn't promise either) Problem is 4M/5+m hands which don't have good bid :angry: I have played so that 2♦ is normal overcall strength and 2M is showing major minor canape.

How forcing is responders 2♠? :) It can be anything. But responder reverse is often threated as forcing to game. Another option is to play double as strong hand and any natural bid as NF.

responder is 4-5 majors and ♦ tolerance. Opener has something like 3-1-5-4 hand with 4 small clubs. 3♣=no major fit or stopper or additional ♦ length. 3♠=3 card preference looking for right game.

I would need 7th spade to open weak 2 with this hand type. My partner except more from me in this zone and position so I'm quite often down one in 4 spades if I open this.

In weak NT system 1NT is more limited so you can't bid it with hand that would force game facing strong NT.

Comment from one of the opponents after I did put down the dummy: "You don't much value queens!". Hands and what happened at table: I don't remember all the cards to smallest detail. Specially opponents heart holdings were unclear because of early claim. [hv=d=w&v=b&n=skjxhdkxc98xxx&w=st9xxxhadaxxcajxx&e=sa8xhqt8xdqj9xcqx&s=sqxhdxxxxckt]399|300|Scoring: BAM 1♠-2♠;ap[/hv] Lead was small club so I suspect RHO holding at least one of heart honors and was looking for passive lead. Defense got 2 spades + club over ruff + diamond king for +140 scores. Opponents at other table did bid 4♠ down one so anything staying out of game wins the board. I evaluated this to be very bad invite and something good might happen after 2 spades so I bid it. Too bad there was no balancing action when opponents held so much values in ♠. After tough ATT was biding NT with slow values in side suits. At least this time NT is not good when defense has chance to get 5 tricks before declarer making 9. Looks like I'm nut for biding 2♠ but at least it worked here. Invite would lead to game level which is doomed in this board.

Ambra has 1♣-1NT;2♦ as inv+ relay (responder can have 3-3-5-2 shape too) so this kind of biding is quite playable. I had agreed to play this for quite sometime but it never came ATT so I can't comment on how well it works. Maybe it is too rare to be worth agreeing unless you are perfectionist. I have also been playing Ben's example for 2 years without any disasters. It gains a lot when holding strong hands (both minors, single suited, 1-4-4-4 15-17 or 4 card support)

Depends on what my partner wants ;) I can play both ways. But I bet over half would bid 3♣ with competitive hand and with this invitational hand.

And I have passed 1NT with bad 10 count. It is more like that hand which is good should bid aggressively and if both are good then both should bid aggressively. This way you can find the making 23 hcp games while staying out of bad 25 hcp games.