benlessard

Not bidding slam with this is completly dumb. First of all opener can bid 4Nt as natural to show heavy wastage in black suits ' 2ndly you assume defense will always lead clubs. Its not because "you" always have controls in the opps suit when you bid slam that you can assume everybody is doing the same. On this hand 5D doesnt say you dont have the S controls and responder might gamble into slam, 5D just say that youre hand isnt suitable for slam. And it still need some balls to lead the unbid suit when partner sit over the Nt biddier. 3rdly with ♥Qx and ♦xxxx + S well stopped we will bid 4H and not 5D. For me xx akxxx akxxx x or x akxxx akxxx xx are both 6D bids. of course partner can have a terrible hand and 6 isnt there. But its more likely hes got a hand not strong enough to make a cue but that still make 6D. With this auction 1Nt----(2S)------3H------(P) 3Nt---------------4D ??? a split 4H 15% 4S cue 10% 4Nt natural 20% 5C 20% 5D 20 % slam 15% is imo reasonnable. So you cannot say that 5D is dead minimum and the worst hand possible and that 5C is a non garbage raise that doesnt show extras. You cannot bid 5C with all 4D 2H hands some of them (40% maybe) are just to weak to cue. I believe this hand and many other fall into this category. BINGO

I really suggest you to play that 1H------1S ???-----3H as forcing except if opener rebid 2H with a limit raise you just bid 3H and forget about spades even if you got 6 of them. I see about 100 FSF sequence go ashtray every year.

IMO partner is favorite to have only 7H. For me -500,-800 is just too likely.

IMO you should only swing when you are certain to have a bad game. If you are less than 10% of the spot you want to reach its better to not swing and just play your best bridge. I personnaly dont open 1Nt with a stiff in a major because the chance of partner having 5 of them is too high to my taste. But i have no problem with those who allow it and this seems like the perfect hand to do it. As for not making stayman with north hand i think its not a good gamble. AT of diamond doesnt suggest that 3Nt will be better than 4H.

Third seat W vs R 4H preempt = could be mega crap.

I think our hand isnt worth a move, KQx is spades is ugly. If i bid 5C (denying the S A) he will know that ive got some soft wasted S values. But on this hand its so likely that ive got 5 wasted pts. Plus if i bid 5D he will know that ive got 4D and 2H. With AKxxx AKxxx in the red partner will bid slam anyway.

Ive remember a more unlikely but similar example (1C)-----P-------(1S)-------X (P)------2H-----(2S)-------pass (P)-------??? would 3C here be natural or a hand that want to bid 3H but invite to 4H ? I think that since game is so unlikely that 3C should be natural like 6C and 4H. x A Kxxx KJxxxxx (1C)--------X-------(1S)--------2D (P)----------P-------(2S)--------??? or (1C)---------X-------(1S)--------2D (2S)---------P--------(P)--------??? (1C)----------X-------(1S)-------2D (X) suppX----P-------(P)--------??? In these auction wich IMO are quite likely to happen 3C can only be ... 1- natural with 6 decent clubs 2- competing to 3D with extras values and still looking for game. Im pretty sure my partner will know its 1 and that more than 50% of experts will think about 1 instead of 2 but even if they think its number 2 then that doesnt pose a big problem since 3D should be pretty cold. The problem imo is when the bidding goes (1C)----------X-------(1S)-------2D all pass. and you could have bid game. Ive said 2D WTP but im wrong a direct 3D is probably a equally good bid. Its highly unlikely you are going down in 3D while 3C makes and it wouldnt be too surprising if RHO bid 1S with Qxxxxx in spades and that you can make a game.

2S by north is a much better bid than 2D. But if you really like 2D then south should rebid 2H to suggest a minimum hand.

X-------------2C 2S----(X)---pass (no control) 3S (half a stopper No S control)-------4C(extra clubs) 4D (5D maybe)-----------4H (Hxx) pass

North had the possibility to bid 3D to invite to 4H and 3H to just compete. South made a gutsy MP double and was a bit unlucky that KQJ of spades are wasted defensive values. 3H by North is a correct bid.

For every hand like this you will get a hand where partner got running diamonds while 5C has no play. Not saying that 3Nt is perfect but i much prefer 3Nt than 4C wich will often lead to 5C or 6C with 2 trumps losers. I would never bypass 3Nt to play 5m with KJ8x.xxxx in my minor.

2D WTP, passing is gross and there is no reason to believe club is better than diamonds. Over 2S ill bid 3C wich should be natural. I dont expect the bidding to die at 2D so that why i dont have a bid problem with the underbid.

1D---2C 2D---3C 3S---??? 3Nt seems perfectly normal. 1D---2C 2D---3C 3D---??? Here stiff Q is enoguh to raise or to cuebid and support diamonds. KJ8xxxxx is likely to lead to 3 losers facing a void. Bidding them 3 times is unnacceptable for me.

My feeling is that the J of D make a big difference. I would support with Jx or stiff Q but probably not with xx and no ruffing power.

Ive had a couple of similar hands and depending on the vulnerability sometimes i prefer to bid 4S directly instead of making the Texas. Wrongsiding might cost less than allowing a "invite to sacrifice" double. It doesnt really happen often enough so that i can make a good judgement about it. Anyway pass is not forcing.

Bidding club 3 times show much better clubs than KJ8x.xxxx Im repeating myself but 5Nt as P-A-S is IMO a mandatory tool. Its a bid that is at least 5 times more frequent than Josephine. Since 2D show a 5 card suit then south can affort to rebid 3D to show 6 or 7 D after its tough not to reach 6D. Opener doesnt need to show his spades, responder will bid them if hes got 4 of them.

Not really, if you have a fit there is no major reason to let you think that 3Nt will be better than 4H.

One thing that is boging me is that we most of the time he will be 4513 (much more often than 4522 or 4513) and at 3Nt we will probably get a club lead. If we have 2 club stoppers we need 6M tricks. But if we can make 6M tricks its very likely 4M is as good a spot than 3Nt. However the case where we only got 1 club stopper 4M is much better. Still i think a sim is needed before ill settle for 4D (COG) Edited Also what would transfer followed by 2S meant ? We are passed hand so we can make some COG move that will not be interpreted as slam tries.

I think its a pass. With 1 or half a loser will just blast to 4H hoping i can provide 1 trick. With slight more than 1 loser he will X and bid 3H to strongly invite me to 4H.

Playing standard method its a WTP X. The way im playing, X tend to show a balanced or semi balanced hand and partner pass more often then in standard method so doubling with a void is out of question therefore i bid 4C showing both M. At equal length partner will choose H.

One thing im sure is im not bidding 4M. Its either 3Nt or 4D letting partner make the last decision. I think ill bid 3Nt. + I prefer to let partner play 4H because i dont have any honnor to protect.

2D in standard method is a bit artificial and promise at least an invitationnal hands. Surely Q98 ---- AJxx AQJxxx is strong enough to want to force to game. For me 3D is showing a hand with extras and is GF because 2D might not be based on D after all.

Even my spermatozoids (i dont have kids) will raise on this hand. :rolleyes: . Im pretty sure it was an attention mistake a misclik, you get the hand wrong or a they had a huge lead in the imps event, ask any strong player and they will tell you passing doesnt make any sense here. Surely some commented that 6S or 6H is reachable after the 5D preempt.

1D -- all pass isnt a good result but its a normal result. My overcall are heavier than the average of poster here and for me pass or 1S by south is ok. A thing im sure is that having a stiff diamond you have to be more agressive and allow for subminimum overcall because the chance of partner balancing is greatly reduced.

Bypassing 2H with south hand is surely dangerous. Many times 2H or 2S will be the limit. If you have a way to invite and be at the too level than great and you will reach 4H otherwise i think its pretty normal to be in 2H.