PhantomSac

1S then hearts, I don't see why this is a problem. It is asking a lot for partner to have 2 of the 3 keycards we are missing once he passes over 2D, even though it's possible.

As 1N shows 18-19 balanced, 2N shows this hand type almost exactly so I'd bid 2N. If partner has nothing we can play 3D or 2N, if partner has something he will bid 3N. I don't want to play 3N opposite nothing or almost nothing. They will lead their best black suit after a 3N balance obviously.

He has posted on here for like 12 years and has always gone back and forth between roth/stone style and opening on "junk." Anyways 5H looks pretty normal here.

How do you plan to double and bid 1N after they open 1S?

I play pass not forcing ever and Xs are t/o

Just change the resposnes to stayman, I have seen people play 2 range and 3 range (2 level with min, 2N with max is 2 levels, 2 level with min 2N with medium 3 level with max is 3 ranges). You can add a lot more depending on if they open a minor or a major, for instance if they open 1H then I think you should play 2D and 2S are min, 2H is medium with 4 spades (so you can still stop in 2S after garbage stayman if partner has 4S and 5D less than invite for instance), 2N with max. Over the majors, this messes up your garbage stayman somewhat but that hand type is not that common anyways and playing 3D or 3S might not be a disaster. Over the minors I don't play 3 range because I don't play 11-16 (for instance I think over a 1C opener and a balancing 1N, 11-14 is a totally fine range because you will often be able to get to X and bid 1N with 15-17 or w/e, obviously over 1S if you X you commit your side to 2N hence the very wide range for the balancing 1N over majors).

Where's the fun in that? :P

You assume correctly :)

Yeah I agree with mikeh, doubling is definitely better than bidding 4S. The likelihood we bid a good slam after doubling that we would have missed by bidding 4S is greater than getting 300 vs our game (although losing 3 or 4 for 500 is not insignificant and adds up I suppose). I think partner will pass the double with 51(43) rather than bid to the 5 level (which PK seems to agree with), so it's possible that bidding 5H is better than doubling since I do think we will have a decent shot at slam opposite that hand type, and partner might bid it over a 5H bid. But 5S might go down with bad breaks (which becomes more likely after a 4H bid obv), and going minus on this hand in 5S is a disaster compared to defending 4H X. So I think the only reasonable options are X and 5H. I think driving to slam is insane, I do find it interesting that everyone who has mentioned bidding 4N believes it to be keycard, is it standard to play 4N as keycard here? (I don't). At MP this is a different problem of course as Xing leading to +500 instead of +620/650 will be very common and now everything is different. This problem might also depend on the style of the w/r 4H bidder.

Nige1, I'm not sure what you're talking about. 1) they opened diamonds not clubs. 2) the "popular choice of X then 3N" does not appear to be the popular choice. A plurality of Xers indicated they would bid 4C after X (me, gszes, lycier, wbartley). The next group indicated they would double and raise 3M to 4M (billw, the badger). As far as I can tell only 1 person (jodepp) said they would X then bid 3N, so it is not the "popular choice" as you say. 3) The partner of the preemptor is going to be on lead, so you're not going to bluff a "broken suit" out of leading a diamond. It will be pretty easy for the partner of the 3D opener to lead a diamond if he has 2+ diamonds. 4) Of course no one would correct 3N to 4S after 3D X p 3H p 3N with 45xx. You don't need "sophisticated methods" to bid 4D rather than 4S with that. Partner will know to bid 4H with 3-3 in the majors, and 4S with 4-2. You constructed an example hand where 3N is perfectly fine and probably a better contract than 4H, but yes the main reason to X first (even if your plan is to next bid 3N) as opposed to bidding 3N directly is to play 4M opposite 5/4 in the majors rather than 3N.

lol, not at all true. If clubs are 3-3 with the queen on you can give up a heart if you play clubs early. You do not need diamonds to break. If you duck a diamond first, you will have 8 tricks when diamonds do not split (5 clubs, 2 spades, 1 diamond).

This is the nige system. "It could work" is not a reasonable standard to me. I mean does a 6C overcall get a 1? It could work!

Clearly percentage :P

spade

Auto splinter in spades?

14

I would probably just bid 4C but of course 3N could be the winner. I may just be saying that to emphasize what I think of bidding a direct 3N though lol.

Agreed, and that hand is a very debatable double to say the least. I think if posted on here most people would not X with that hand. I fully expect 5H to make, this X often has a spade void in which case they will probably bid 5S.

X=10 others=0

I would start with 4D, I think it is hard to have a plan beyond that other than "hope to guess well." I think 4D is better than starting with something else though, it is straightforward and lets partner know about our second suit.

Oh sorry I always forget to read the polls. I would do #3, even if my agreement is it shows 5 I don't see what will go wrong. Partner will bid with a max, and appreciate that having 3 hearts is better than 2 heh. I would probably just never bid #2 tbh. If I am dropped in an invite I'd much prefer to be at the 2 level.

Why is this surprising? Just because it's imps doesn't mean we have to randomly fire a lead away from a king. I don't know what constraints you set on the 4S bidder but I'm guessing that irl passive does even better than those constraints because a lot of people esp at imps just blast game in this auction rather than make a game try, even if game might be bad giving away that info on a close game hand rather than making them lead and defend blind is often bad. I don't even understand the point of a club. Let's blow a trick a large portion of the time for some obscure gain, that seems like a sweet start to the defense. And let's be surprised that it blows half an imp a board! A diamond instead of a heart seems totally reasonable, personally I would just lead a heart though.

A spade lead is not really killing, assuming they go spade spade spade you will backdoor into the make even with a club misguess since the HA is on your left and diamonds come in. RHO has no entry to the long spade. Conversely if you judge (or see) that LHO has the long spade, you might make if RHO has the long club and the HA and you misguess. Of course LHO can always shift to a heart but then you have not lost anything, you just need to pick up the clubs. Make them find that play first. You don't really need to see all of this to duck the spade, it should just be a matter of technique. A lot of well played hands arise from just doing technical things to begin with without having a concrete reason other than that it won't cost. This is similar to the idea in chess that tactics arise from already good positions. Against my partner they led a heart, in practice that was killing since now you have to guess clubs to make and there is no reason to do so. The hand roughly for anyone who cares: JT xx ATx A98xxx Axxx Kx KQ9x KJx 1N-3N SK lead, RHO encouraging.

I don't see those options? I usually play 2 way NMF so I would bid 2C then 2H.

King of clubs seems super normal