rbforster

The bidding in a more readable format: 1♣-(X)-P-(1♠) X-(2♠)-P-(P) X-(P)-? Here's a hand consistent with the bidding: x AKxx AKJx KQJx What else could partner do besides double for takeout, twice?

Some people I know play a very simple forcing pass system - P 12+ 1C 8-11 1D+ 0-7 suction-style ferts (so 1D is hearts or blacks, weak, etc) Higher preempts were just more distributional and still suction (including NT openings). The "4th suit", impossible among the suction combinations, was the asking bid with an invitational+ hand. They also used TOSR style relays throughout. For example, Pass - ? 1C any semipositive response (then 1D is the GF ask, continuing with 1H+ as below) 1D any double negative response (1H Kokish, others nat NF) 1H+ TOSR positives 1C-? 1D GF relay (then TOSR relays) 1H Kokish (hearts or 13-15 NT) 1S+ natural NF Very simple and symmetric.

Regression - a forcing pass relay system. I find the webpage confusing but the system interesting. It seems to do a good job of putting the extra relay space (relative to a strong club) to good use with varying degrees of stopper asks, etc.

For everyone who plays the standard X=penalty, bidding is weak approach, what's your call after: 1♠-(1N)-X-(2♦*) *transfer P-(2♥)-? 3♦ I guess, or maybe 3♥? Is 3♦ game forcing or just invitational?

1NT for takeout :huh:

I see no reason to disguise my hand - I've got a semiforcing bid in spades (9 tricks) so that's how i'll bid it. Here that's 2♦...3♠. In standard I'd open 2♣ and be willing to stop in 3♠ opposite a negative response. Remember that if partner doesn't have the 1 trick you need for 4♠, he also won't have the entry you need to finesse in trumps... I don't like my odds of dropping both the K and J of spades playing the suit out of my hand.

I know strong jump shifts are out of fashion, but 1♥-3♦ is a pretty good description of the North hand.

It seems like the normal lead would be the Q♥. I suppose there's an argument that responder will be often invitational on this sequence and liked what he heard about opener's diamonds. This means responder will tend to have at least a couple of diamonds (to be happy opposite Kxx, stiff not so good opposite that), so i suppose we could try to get partner a diamond ruff if either he's void, stiff A, or singleton with a trump entry. If so, I'd lead the 2♦ as suit preference for my A♣.

1H-2C 2D-? 2H is normally shows 3 card support and agrees hearts. 3H might be a splinter in support of diamonds (?) 4H sounds like a picture bid, values in hearts and clubs only (with heart support)

I thought (potentially) light openings were a prealert only, rather than an alert. Alerting every precision 1M opening (9-15) seems kind of annoying.

Suppose the defense continues by switching to a low club. Declarer ruffs and leads a diamond to his Q and your K. T1: ♦A, x, 7, x (udca) T2:♣x,♥x,♣x,♣x T3: ♦8, x, Q, K Now what?

In 2nd seat you hold the West hand and hear the following auction to 4♥, having made a double on your second bid. [hv=d=s&v=n&n=saqj9xxhqjxxdt8xc&w=s8xh9xxdak9xcaktx]266|200|Scoring: MP (1♥)-P-(1♠)-P (1NT)-X-(4♥)-AP lead A♦, partner discourages[/hv] What's your plan for the defense?

Your example is a normal example of the minimum hand I'd open in my methods under the Rule of 18. Opposite these sorts of openers (up to 15 points), I usually force to game as responder with a misfitting 14 count and with fitting 13 counts. I will point out that there's little harm in bidding a forcing NT on most misfitting near GF hands and waiting to see what partner bids. You can then upgrade or downgrade appropriately in light of the response. It's true you'll sometimes end up in 3N without enough strength to make, but I think that's a relatively rare occurrence. If we play all our 24 point 3N's, that's not too bad and we only play a few 23 point 3N's (which you'd like to avoid ideally). Finding the light games (and slams) seems a worthwhile tradeoff to me, but I leave that to for each to judge for themselves.

My custom and favorite major raise structure. It's a combination of Bergen, Jacoby, strong and fitted jump shifts, as well as the usual splinters and preemptive raises. A little complicated, but with enough relays you can fit it all in :D.

Prior discussion - 2/1 theory in a limited bid system, GF, Std, NF, or what? In brief, Standard (Forcing 1 round, not GF) probably wins on the frequency front, especially so if you have wide ranging one bids 8-15 vs 11-15). Most people like 2/1 GF out of familiarity, and it seems to work pretty well (this is what I play, opening 9.5-15). I looked into 2/1 Non-forcing methods too, but those are pretty rare and it's hard to tell if they are more common/effective than 2/1 GF hands to justify learning a new system with a bunch of special continuations.

Double!

Pass. Looks like we've got 2 tricks against 5♣ and down 2 in 5♥. Wrong colors...

What do the geniuses/experts think 3♥ (stopper ask) followed by 3N over the almost certain 3♠ bid would mean? Is this a reasonable or attractive alternative to blasting 3N?

FWIW, I went for 3N here as I don't have any agreements on 3♠ promising/denying heart support and figured it was a practical bid (esp at MPs where 5m scores poorly). Partner can always bid 4♥ with a good 6-7 card suit over this, so the real problem is only when he doesn't have a stopper. Sometimes preempters get psyched into not leading their AQJxxx suit to their partner's Kx(x) since they don't want to give away the setting trick too :).

If you're bidding lebensohl with this hand, you're following it up with 3♥. I think the difference between the direct cue bid and the one via 2N is that the 2N route promises a stopper. Since that's what I have and since partner might not have 4 spades, I want to give him a chance to show them. I suppose there's merit too of 3♠ (game forcing) if that only shows 4+ since you probably want to declare the spade contract too.

All bids game forcing. Double as takeout, others natural 5+.

Aren't they different in this case? I'm confused.

I like how you can use the same structures over 1♥-2♠ as you can over 1♠-2N. Personally I use both of these for various strong hands, but use the same principle in playing Jacoby 2N over hearts but "Jacoby 3♣" over spades.

What do you think about swapping 1♥ and 2♥ as openings? I suppose you might argue that with 5+♥ and short spades you want to preempt more (hence 2♥) but I guess the more constructive bidder in me wants to use the space over 1♥ to find good minor fits opposite 5/4+ ♥+m openers. Natural weak bids are allowed under GCC, there is no rule that opening 2m naturally must have 10 points. If you are "weak" (not specifically defined), you need to promise at least 5 cards in your suit and a range of 7 or fewer HCPs in order to use conventions. His 2m bids clearly meet this standard, so there should be no problem. Edit: I didn't notice at first that the 2m bids promise hearts as well. This makes my above comments less clearly applicable.

Standard 2/1 methods aren't that good at making slam tries in the 4th suit.