benlessard

2S. The cheapest forcing bid. The way i play If partner raise you to 4S he should have a diamond tolerance & deny half a stopper or better in clubs. IMO playing fake jump-shift is a lot better than any other solution. (artificial 2Nt etc...)

AQxx Good opps wont go for -500 here. Partner passed hand neg X isnt forcing to game. So i dont expect too much values for partner.

I think its pretty impossible to stop short of game with my hand. At 4H we got doubled for -2/ -500 for a terrible board. Afterward partner agree that he didnt have a 2H bid but said that maybe i should have bid just 3H.

Strong opps did pass 5D and i was surprised when dummy hit, i would have bid 6 (we dont have the agreement that 4D is forcing). Our teammates faced a 3H preempts and after 3S, 5D ,6D down 1. After 3S, 4D is forcing so 5D show the weaker hand type so i think that its now possible to stop at 5D.

passing is a joke.

Against a short club/polish clubs i think its better to play 2C as natural and 2D as both majors.

I think opening 1D is simply delaying the delaying the decision. I would open 3D,4D,5D,3NT but never 1D. I like to play that 2Nt is a garbage preempt and that 3m is a good preempt. So we used 3NT as showing both M. Doesnt happen too often but we are 3/3 for winning imps with it.

IMPs W vs W 1D-------(2H)--------2S-------(3H) 5D-------(P)----------??? AKJTx x xxx KJ9x is 4D instead of 5D forcing ?

R vs W imps (P)------P-----(1S)-------X (2D!)---2H-----(P)--------??? xxx Axx AKxx AKx 2D was alerted as 4 trumps 7-9, opps are very agressive. We have an agreement that 4th hand bidding can be pretty light (when all other 3 players have showned points). Is it obvious ?

1 Keycard no Q of trumps. ive had single raise that manage to be better than north hand.

My style is to double pretty light facing a passed hand so 5H is just too rich for my blood. I might be tempted to double but I think ill just pass.

RKC for D. Sure 4Nt as natural make sense but having a RKC available take precedence. In Meckstroth book they have a similar bidding sequencew where Rodwell bid 4Nt thinking its RKC and Meck pass thinking its natural. So i guess this mean both meaning make sense and you do well to discuss it.

If you play a discouraging S we are going to return H, a discouraging clubs will be for a S switch. A low H is probably spades but its less clear. The Q of H has to be for for clubs. You bid spades, lead H. So any weird signal should be asking for clubs otherwise youll never be able to ask for a club switch.

Passing make no sense, our 6th diamond is almost worth an ace. Nobody would pass 2Nt with xx KQJ AKQJT xxx yet our hand is better than this. The main point of the hand is what is our upside to compensate the information that we will give to the opponents ? 1- is it possible that 3D is a much better contract than 3Nt and if so will we reach it ? 2- is it possible 5D is a better contract than 3Nt and if so can we reach it. I think its clear that the information you will give to the opps is more costly. So 3Nt.

Imo double is clearly lead directing. You dont double at imps hoping for -1. On this bidding its impossible that the X show a hand that is hoping for -2. I slightly prefer X to bidding 5C, but i would never just pass. If you dont plan to X then you should have bid 5C not 4.

The difference is that after 2D you can X to show a good take-out or to pass and double 2H to show a light take-out (here its likely that if you bid 2H to play you wont get doubled) Also there is the possibility to biud 2H to show a michael.

Im sure that learning Romex today is a poor WORKLOAD/result gamble. But Rosenkraz books contains real gems espicially for slam bidding. Spirals scan wich is IMO the best slam method. How to respond over a partner preempt. Importance of controls (A or K) instead of HCP Romex stayman etc. There is also very good small gadget all over the books like 3C------(P)--------3D is asking for a 3 card M (so that when you bid 3M its always a good suit. A 1Nt artificial is playable if you have a stayman that can handle a wide NT rebid wich isnt too hard to have. The downside is that you lose the preemptive power of 1Nt and that in competition its tough for opener to show extras.

IMO suggesting a save at the 5 level show at least a 6-4 and most likely a 7 card. Its seems better to wait to have a 7 carder and hope to hit 3 card support than to have a 6 carder and hope to hit trump support (3/4) and ruffing power.

1- pass, followed by whatever sac is neccessary 2- 4S followed by pass 3- 4S followed by 6S 4- 5S followed by pass 5- 5S followed by 6S I keep seeing hand like these and people are always bidding diffently. IMO Its clear they make 5 or 6 something and H is likely. Its clear that the sac over 6H is cheap enough. Its likely opener has a 2club opener but decide to open 1H because he felt it would never go all pass. My guess is that hes got a huge 2 suiter. A signle suiter is also possible if they dont play namyats. So there is 2 plan 1- You make life harder for them to bid correctly. You make them guess and hope they guess wrong. 2- You make life easy for them and sac over whatever they bid. What you shouldnt do is mixed the 2 plans. Take a guess over their guess, or forced them to bluff you. If you believe 6H is likely and you bid 5S, then they can bid 6H just to bluff you knowing youll have a cheap insurance available or as a gamble shot hoping to make it because they know they wont get rich in 5SX anyway. Its says "i want to get bluffed or i want to make the last guess". So opener can bid 6H with a fair chance of making it. So imo you should bid 5S when 1- You believe their is a very good chance they wont reach 6H 2- There is a good chance of 6H go down. 3 Its hide a 2nd suit that is crucial to know if the hand mesh well, its the case here if LHO has a 7-5 then Here i think that the chance they make 6H is just too great. You should pass 1- When you feel opps are strong enough to bluff you, 2- are not willing to bring back -1430 because you know that the sac is pretty cheap. The core of this strategies is that if you dont tell them the sac is cheap they wont know. Here for example LHO might also think that RHO has wasted S values and a limited hand becaus of no 3Nt bid. You should bid 4S when 1- Their strenght is unclear for them. Here if you bid 4S at first LHO might think you have the goods are that EAST is broke. But the problem here is that LHO is likely to bid 4Nt or 5m/H anyway and RHO with 2 tricks might "semi-bluff" you and raise to 6. 2- 4S is a bid you would somewhat tempted to make with a lot of holdings Here its the perfect scenario its S over H its W/R. With any hand with at least 3S its tempting to bid 4S no matter whats your strenght. 4S cover a lot of ground and doesnt show weakness or that a 6 level sac will be super cheap. The problem here is that LHO will not pass therefore he will show that hes likely to make a VUL 5 level game. RHO will be quick in raising to the 6 level. You should psych 3Nt or 4Nt when its possible that you have the goods. Clearly not the case here.

5D for -3 or -2 if we can score the K of clubs. Switch the minors honnor and i would be afraid of a club lead and club ruff But like it is 4H is never going down.

WTP pass, if you consider this a problem its because your balancing X are clearly too light. This is one of the sequence why i think transfers over a weak Nt are inferiors.

Believing partner got the club queen I would have bid 5C hoping it enticed a X, with the double you bid 6Nt otherwise we will play 6H. Otherwise bidding 4S make sense, if partner is turn off you bid 6H (becasue hes probably void otherwise you bid 6Nt. PS if you dont play serious non-serious do you sign off or make a move ? the hand was --- AKxxxx KJxx Qxx 6H is the best spot

i would have preempted to 3C with east because partner is favorite to have 5 clubs and will rarely have just 3C. But i can live with pass.

4D / 3D second choice The spades are 4441 or opener is 56 in the black (IMO its quite likely here ). The chance of playing 4H making R vs W are close to 0% However 5D X might be too costly. So 4D seems like a nice preempt. Partner will only bid 5D with short H. Bidding 1H and raising D to a high level will force partner to double 4S especially if hes on lead with a stiff heart. I have no problems if he double 4S as long as he knows hes got 4 tricks on it own.

For me 3H would show half a stopper so im stuck into bidding 3C.