rbforster

Try two top spades - if the jack doesn't fall, draw trump and play to ruff two hearts and hopefully set up the last. Failing that, hope some sort of squeeze against the long heart hand guarding one or both minors. Things are a little more interesting if the J♠ comes down doubleton. Now we can essentially play to set up dummy by ruffing the 3rd diamond and pitching the last club on our high hearts.

There's an argument for treating the "stopper asking" cue bid as any solid suit (including a major), to help handle strong 1-suiters. Especially with hearts (over 2♠) you only get 2 levels of strength with 3♥ and 4♥ (vs 3 levels with spades over 2♥). The obvious advantage is that stronger hands are likely to be able to out in 4♥, which is a little lower than a quantitative 5♥ invite :(.

I agree with Josh's summary :) I'm a 2♣ bidder, but I have a generally obstructive view of competitive auctions and my partnerships open light so there's less risk of getting hanged by partner later. In my preferred methods (Overcall Structure) I wouldn't have 3♣ available anyway, so perhaps this influences me to make non-jump overcalls a little lighter than usual with good long suits. (Although in OS, 2♦ is available to show ♣+♥, typically 4=5+, I think I'd treat this hand as just clubs)

Bidding (1♦)-2♣ aggressively Some other examples and specific hand discussion - example 1 96 T7 A95 KQ6532 example 2 A9x JT Q8x KQT86

On this auction, it sounds like opener was hoping to hear about a spade control. After the jump to 3M setting trumps, I have read some people play that cue bids show aces specifically, while 3N shows king(s) but no aces (over which 4♣ asks which). Often opener with a distributional hand and only a few side losers will care a lot if you've got K opposite his stiff or A. 2♣-2♥ in these methods is an immediate artificial negative, showing less than a K.

Am I misreading the auction? It looks like West is in fact on lead against 6♥, so how was it a lead of of turn? Somehow he lead the 4 and then changed his mind and lead the 5 instead?

I don't think South balanced 5♦ with xxx♥ which gives him 0=1 majors and a pile of diamonds and some clubs. So the question seems to be 1) try for a club ruff and play partner for the A♣, or 2) hope partner has a slow trick in both minors (Kx♦, Qxx♣) and will get them both if we don't break those suits I was originally thinking of trying for a club ruff, but I think there are more hands with soft values that might pass my opening than those with the A♣. I'll try a passive A♠.

Perhaps you need to buy one of these cars at a police auction and put your own sign in the window - This vehicle was seized by the police without due process and sold to me for cheap!

I certainly agree with you on the numerous abuse of power and conflicts of interest problems raised the forfeiture drug laws. I'd say taxation comes to the same thing however, and you can do the same things about it - vote for people who support your view and/or bribe (err lobby) the lawmakers to change the laws to something you like better. In the case of forfeiture, a few well publicized media cases about abuse of power and theft by police officials based on fabricated crimes might get the rules reconsidered a bit. Isn't it enough to throw people in jail for their crimes once they're convicted? Since when do we steal their stuff too?

How sure are we that 4N wasn't blackwood (and 5♣ zero)? Aside from this hand, what's the expert treatment of the balancing jump to 4N here? Natural slam invite or minors (with cue being OM+minor)?

I'm not quite sure about the balancing NT ladder, but I think after 1N and X...1N, you're getting up to around 20 hcp. Unless this means I'm supposed to balance with 2N directly (which I think might be a little stronger than what I have), I think my plan would be to double and then bid 2N. In the actual auction, I think I would bid 2N over 2♦ instead of doubling again (which sounds more like strong takeout rather than strong balanced). Partner has an easy raise to 3N. My auction: (1♦)-P-(P)-X (2♦)-P-(P)-2N (P)-3N-AP

I normally play that bids other than the waiting bids of 2♦♥ show good 5+ suits with 2/3 top honors. As such, I think I'd bid 3♦. Over the expected 3♥, I will not be embarrassed to bid 4♣.

I was recently reading more about Slawinski's leads in an April BW article. Does anyone currently use them and have opinions? Also, a friend was able show me some of the book "Systems in Defense" which covered some of the mathematical approaches Slawinski used to design his system of leads. Any pointers on where to find the whole book would also be nice too.

"#23. If something strange is going on, double the Israeli. "

Hmm.... so what you're saying is that maybe we should swap 2N and 3♣? That way opener plays 3N when he wants to (and we don't) and he still gets almost as much space to describe his hand.

"554, bid some more"? :P

Even without an undiscussed double of 2♦, I think your partner had a clear pass (not 3♣) over the completed transfer. Qx is a fine holding to sit for your double (should you make one), and if you can't double it's a forcing auction so you'll have to bid something and he can respond to that (probably with 3♣).

Thanks for the replies. At the table I bid 2N rather than 3♦, trying to avoid endplaying partner who might need only Jxx to sustain our club stop and not realize it. Still with something in both side suits (which we'd like for 3N), partner might well have chosen 2N has his first rebid rather than 2♠, so it seems he likely to not have one of them stopped. 1♠-2♦ 2♠-2N 3♠-? Over 2N (or 3♦), partner bid 3♠ and I bid 3N not wanting to raise what might have been a 6 card suit on a small stiff. Was I suppose to raise with a stiff here (as some suggested)? When partner has 7 spades, is he expected to pull 3N here to 4♠, or is there no way to diagnose the 7-1 fit here? Alternatively, with only 6 (6322 or 6223) partner doesn't have a really descriptive bid besides 3♠ - 3♣ or 3♥ would be natural 4+ with a minimum, 3♦ on Qx doesn't seem right, and 3N could be a 5(332) hand lacking one of the outside stops.

You respond to partner's 1♠ opening with a 2/1 game force, and partner makes a "catchall" 2♠ rebid (promising no better bid, could be only 5). [hv=d=n&s=sxhjt8xdak98xxckq]133|100|Scoring: MP 1♠-2♦ 2♠-?[/hv] What's your bid and what's your plan? If partner keeps bidding spades (as seems likely from your perspective), how will you decide if he has 6 or 7?

I think I would have doubled 2♦ to show a penalty of hearts last round. Now probably 3N.

I'm with Ken on this one, treating 3♦ as a splinter. I'd bid 2♦ limit+, expecting it to act like a "transfer to NT" when partner has a balanced hand and a diamond stop. If he bids a major, we can always re-cue 3♦ to get the message across.

Are they all Italian? I thought in English you opined on such things.

I thought the point was to pick up MM vs KMxx by considering hooking deep on the 3rd round. Against Mx KMMx or xx KMMM there's no way to get a 3rd trick vs best defense.

Seems like a clear 2♣...P hand. Isn't he always 3226? No, sometimes he's 2227 too :rolleyes:

Just pretend it's a regular 1♦ opener and bid the same as standard. Finds all the same major fits (although minor fits are a little worse since some sequences are more ambiguous).