mghmaine

Pass. WTP ? He said it was NF, so 2H isn't 10-15 or 7-16 or anything including opening values. You have a minimum opener, know pd does not have 3S cards and have tolerance for Hs. This may well be your last plus score.

I do like SJS, but regardless of that your adv partner erred in bidding 3H IMO. That bid took up bidding room and just repeated his values. He perhaps wants you to learn some system where a 2H rebid is all but meaningless and so one must bid Hs 3 times to show a good 6-carder. He should have bid 2NT or 3C over 2S. On the auction you had, I suggest 6D over 5C.

First, I'd likely get to 6S or 6NT. Second, I would likely not open as West but, with all due respect to Mike 777, I would rather open as West than open 2C with the East hand.

It makes no diff whether 2D is GF or not. 2H would be forcing in any non-weird style, so 3H is a splinter. If you play splinter, a good rule that the level above a force is a splinter. In this way, over 1D-1S, 4C would be what you need to say to splinter.

In a pinch I've had good luck asking partner to just bid 1S.

Ruff S. Play C to K and take D finesse. Ruff second S. Draw trump and cash CQ. Run Ds. In 5-card ending dummy has SK, HQJ, CA8. I have HAX, Dxx, Cx. When I play 2nd to last D I pitch SK (unless of course LHO pitches S ACE :)). On last D LHO is squeezed between his HKx and C109.

1) 1C=17+ 2C= Ds, positive 3D = big D fit 3H = Q 3S= Q 4C=Q 4H=Q 4S = Q 5C=Q 5H =Q 7NT 2) 2S= 5+S,4+C, "anti-canape" 6S allowed only if min or sub-min 2NT= relay 3H = 5-3-1-4 decent opener 6D

Seems not to hard in not very sophisticated natural methods 2C-2D,3C-3S,4C*-4NT, 5H*-6S In the above, 3C is natural and denies 4-card M. 3M is natural. 4C, in our style, is a cue in support of Ss. An opener without Ss would have to bid 3NT so as not to punish partner for trying for a 5-3 fit. 5H is 2KC without.

Pass. Spades on my left and partner has values in my singleton. No problem

1) Clear Pass 2) Clear pass 3) 4S. Pass terrible. Slam tries not ridiculous. 4) Pass in any seat.

puppet stayman isn't unreasonable bidding, in my view... the garbage aspect doesn't detract from that... i think it adds to it... +++++++++++ OK then: Qxxx, xx, xx, KJxxx. The garbage puppetty thing works only with Ds. But really, I wasn't disparaging puppet, which I play myself (though always invitational). I am just saying I am passing with the above, then bidding 4S over a 2H balance, and in doing so I am pleased that partner knows I have 4 spades only.

Josh said: A typical hand: Qxxx xx KJTxx xx Partner is expected to bid 2N in seach of your minor with 2 spades or with 3 spades but length in both minors. ++++++++++++++ This is a good hand, but actually I'm not that sophisticated. Partner bids 2NT when 2S doesn't seem right. I might well now bid a minor if I have one, that is true. There are many hands at MPs where one doesn't want to defend 2H in the auction 1NT-P-P-2H. I'm not going to adopt garbage puppet etc when just reasonable bidding will do.

When I pass 1NT and my LHO balances with, say, 2H, I want partner to know I have only 4 when I now bid 2S. That, added to the many comments about not knowing if a fit or not, leads me always to transfer with 5.

It seems 1H risks a raise with 3, perhaps under pressure. It is hard to hate 2C. Surely if you have a H game you will find it, but perhaps not a partscore. Dbl showing both Ms is not universal BTW.

Marlowe said, 2C, I dont think, I want to force to game, so 2C. ============ 2C also my choice, but it does not force at all, much less to game, in any system I've played.

Gerben wrote: North is allowed to think and wonder why EW are attempting 3NT on a combined 15-count. Only logical explanation - someone has psyched. It wasn't the 1NT overcaller, he bid 3NT. It wasn't the person with the ♣ either, why else would he jump? Leaves partner. And Partner is known to psych quite a bit ! N is prepared to make better decisions because her partnership psychs quite a bit.

I agree with poster Luis. South does not know to sac and North's hand closer to a pass than a sac. But I do give more blame to South, as it may well seem to North that South is longer in Hs to express the sac preference.

Help suit ! You have no help. Help suit asks usually do not like singletons, but rather high cards. You have a dead min and no help. If you do not bid 3S with this, then what ?

You said in introduction that it was a pure style question. It is not my style to open balanced 11s unless playing 10-12 NT. However, if you have decided to play some system where the 1NT rebid shows 11-13 balanced, then this indeed is a balanced 11, not the worst one I've seeen, and you'll be opening in a good 5-carder. In other words, it sounds consistent with your style to open it.

Yes, I am not only tempted to bid 2S over 1H, I am doing that. In standard, partner is under no obligation to bid 2S with 5-7 and 4 Ss, so a game may be missed. It is true we may get too high if pd has a poor hand and 3Ss. Depending on shape, we will have the methods to stop short of game, but only in 3Ds or 3Hs depending on shape. In this hand, after 1D-1H, 2S-3C, 3NT- I may bid 4D to set a suit and get more information. Partner will bid likely 5C and I 5H. When partner denies Ss I may picture his hand for the 2S jump.

4-card NT ranges very troublesome in a system. In fact, even 3-card ranges should be minimized to the extent possible in system design. However, in 4th seat they are perfectly playable in many systems. I agree with the original poster's follow-up response re: Drury (no need for it in the context of many systems). There are also several good reasons to include a 5-cd M in your opening NT. If you do not have a fit, you have disclosed less about your hand. If playing strong NT, you might stop in 1NT instead of 2NT when a strong hand with a 5-card M would open 1M and then raise 1NT to 2. There are other advantages, and I have found that they outweigh the disadvantages.

I read this thread some hours ago and what was interesting to me is that there was such difference of opinion on this subject, One would think that bidding over reverses would be a rather elementary subject, but here we have a relatively even split on the forcing/non-forcing question. It makes one (me) wonder if what one has been doing is standard or not. There are conventions to deal with bidding after reverses. New York expert Monroe Ingberman long ago established a convention now known as Ingberman, which is available in BBO System Notes. Ingberman was attempting to deal with the problem that a reverse opposite 6-7 hcp simply lacked the power to force to game. That this was a problem suggests that, absent/prior to this convention, there was no way to stop short of game after a reverse. A similar convention is known as Lebensohl Over Reverses. This is commonly described as a convention to allow the partnership to stop short of game after a reverse. That wording also suggests that the problem was no way to pass. Note that BBO System uses Ingberman and defines 2♠ as absolutely forcing. Right or wrong, I use Ingberman and allow it to be passed by a minimum non-fitting reverser. This has caused no conflicts. I note that Monroe Ingberman played responder's suit rebid as "semi-forcing" (meaning non-forcing), allowing passes only by a min non-fitter. In my partnership, 1m-2M is a strong J/S. If you play weak J/Ss you will hate it when partner has a non-fitting reverse, but it may change the way you want to play a 2♠ rebid in the example sequence, as a weak 6-carder may have been eliminated.

Does use of 2/1 GF necessarily mean one doesn't play Strong J/Ss ? Although it may certainly be more frequently helpful to use other meaning for a 3♣ jump over 1♥ (to be followed by 4[♣), there are hands where strong J/S seems to start things off right.

Transfer to ♥s, then bid ♣s. Unless partner shows a bit and interest, I am subsiding as it's matchpoints and losing methods to stretch for slams.