TylerE

Systemic small spade. Declarer always has hearts double stopped on this sort of auction.

Well, having denied support twice already I'm sure the "field" bid is 4♠ so as to utterly confuse.

Because no director will ever (or could ever enforce that). Even people who CLAIM to play sayc never actually play it right, for a start (Pop quiz, what's 1m-2NT?) But fundamentally having a CC posted means *you actually play that*. If I, as an opponent can't take that 100% to the bank, that is far more disadvantageous to me than not having any CC posted at all. Known unknowns vs unknown unknowns.

100000% disagree. Never set a CC that the pair isn't actually playing. That is far worse than no CC at all.

If this isn't a 3♠ bid (which promises diamond tolerance, btw), I don't know what is.

Why do you think this is impossible? 4NT was a quantitative invite, 5♦ is declining and showing a suit.

Unclocked = Just don't do it.

3♣ is a hopeless bid. You get 100% of the blame on this one. Even if partner has 9 clubs you'd rather play this in hearts. I also tend to think that opening 2♣ rather than 1♥ in the first place is probably bad. Opening 2♣ on wildly distributional hands rarely works out, as you never have room to show the shape. 1♥-1♠-3♣-3♠-4♥-p...easy hand.

We're discussing Meckwell, which like DONT has the double as the start of a shape showing relay, so this isn't relevent.

There is no "law" Agree whatever you want.

You mention two options. I will mention a 3rd: PASS With no particular offense strength it is often better to see just how far they will go to hang themselves. I will go even farther and say I do not find SNT overcalls particularly useful, and in fact in my main partnership do not play them - instead of we play 1NT as a 3 suited takeout, which can be as weak as 6 or 7 HCP since we don't have to worry about partner passing it. All strong balanced hands start with an X.

Why does 3/5/3 make more sense than 4/4/3 or 3/4/4?

2♥ seems pretty obvious to me. Survive the first round!

You're not doubling to show values. You're doubling because you're 3 suited.

They already do.

On what planet? Not Earth.

Not supporting a known 8 card major fit is the worst bidding sin you can commit. I don't care for 2♥ either, but that was not the fatal injury.

Stoppers are for bottles. Partner responded. Any heart lead is coming up to my Kx.

Decent hand with long running diamonds. NOT a 20 count. I'd expect something like xx Kx AKQTxxx Ax maybe.

Calling the south hand a minimum = LOL

He's playing against bots, nots actual humans. Bots are quite happy to pass out a 1-bid.

Yes, but then the ACBL couldn't turn money into monsterpoints quite as rapidly, which is all they and BBO care about.

Namyats 4♦ opening. Shows a single suited hand with 8.5ish playing tricks. 4♣=♥ 4♦=♠ Would rather 2♣ than 1♠ though. Too much chance of 1♠-AP for my liking, and there's so much random rubbish partner can have where 4!S is just cold. I would also suggest that any evaluation method that says your second hand is STRONGER than the first is not just bad but unplayable.

No no no no no no. How the HELL can 4♣ be gerber here? That is just DUMB.

I think a 4M opening on that in 3rd seat is practically routine. Now, if he did it on AKxxx and happened to catch his partner with Qxxx, that's be different. But, more or less as you saw, opposite any hand with either the QD or a black ace 4h is going to be really good, and opposite less it still had chances.