TylerE

You're going to have to explain what " I assume that the strong ♣ is blocking for a normal 4♥ opening." means. As stands..I obstain...passing with E hand is just from another galaxy.

So you're saying that against GIB's 1N, I should bid 2!D on basically 100% of hands?

Standard American is OK. The system defined as SAYC is irreparably brain damaged (1m-2N auctions, just for a start)

GIB does not play penalty doubles, even if it claims to. Just treat all robot doubles below 7NT as takeout.

From my experience the impossible happens at least once a session.

Stop counting beans and actually evaluate your hands.

In the real world, I think I'm pretty much always bidding 6c on all of these.

I would assume the Ace of Diamonds is quite a bit worse, as given the X it's somewhat likely getting ruffed, and it's not that unusual for W to have the Kd here. Diamond preempts can be a bit suspect. I think the real mistake here is to open 2♦. That's the kind of bid that destroys partnership trust. Open 3♦ or pass. By underselling the length you're impeding partner's ability to further the preempt considerably. Ax or even stiff A is pretty good opposite 7... much less good opposite 6.

I really dislike saccing at the 5 level holding 2 likely defensive tricks. This is the WORST sort of hand to sac on...too much defense, not enough offense. Wouldn't surprise me if everyone is -1. A hand like, say !S x !h JTxxxx !D AQxxx !C x and now we're in the ballpark.

I haven't seen 20-22 in anything published in the last 50 years.

In a vacuum, maybe. But in real life, on your hypothetical board, there will be several pairs either missing game or in slam going down, so the odds of 5M are really much worse than you're portraying.

4S

It's a good bid because then you don't have this horrible 2♥ rebid. Sometimes you give up on some auctions to gain on others.

The obvious slam off two cashing tricks? What am I missing? Or is this just your usual rambling?

In my system: 1D (2+, 10-15) - 1H (1S) 2H - and now S should have no problems

Never downgrade a 15 count out of 1N. Ever. You should be upgrading many better 14s, if anything.

For that matter with an ok-ish 10 E outta find something to open in 3rd even if W doesn't...

There has been no meaningful work on GIB in years, maybe a decade.

2NT seems obvious

Less about points, more about playing strength

Strong disagree. Can't W have that same hand without the AH? 3N could easily be off 6 or 7 top tricks. This is made even less appetizing from E's perspective in that his non-c honors are surely under rather than over the outstanding high cards.

An inaccurate CC is 1000x worse than no CC.

1. Passable in theory, but very rare, basically only passing with a super-weak 4441 type hand that couldn't stomach passing 1m. 2. That this is NF is what makes it SA and not 2/1.

World's easiest 1NT forcing over 1s