PhantomSac

I have seen this one multiple times, sometimes you know its more likely dummy has the queen and sometimes its combined with they might have AQ. IIRC kranyak did it once on 1D p 1S p 2H p 2N p 3N with KJ98 of hearts for example with dummy having bid a slow 2H. They had Qxx and declarer had Txx but they might also have had AQx where you don't want to lead the 8 and have them run it to the ten.

My personal favorite lead: AQ KJxxx Kxx Axx Auction starting on your right is: 1S 1N X XX* P 2C P 2D p P X** P 2H P 3D P 3N AP XX showed a one suiter, X of 2D was takeout (as would X of 2C had been). I was watching on Vugraph and the opening leader (kevin bathurst) took 15 minutes and came up with... Dummy had Jxx Ax xx KQJTxx so this took out the entry in dummy. I believe declarer could have still made it but didn't. I liked this lead a lot because I think the opening leader with so many high cards knew that the dummy must have had a long good suit which is obviously clubs (passed 2C but then kept bidding strongly) and an ace, so the HK is quite a solid shot and not just lucky.

heh I went for 1400 on this auction once in the trials, luckily my counterpart was the only other person to overcall 2H. I generally think it's a good auction to overcall somewhat aggressively since the opps don't usually have solid agreements. I agree that most people are usually pretty sound there though, but even after a solid overcall they could just be going for a number. Agree that openers X is obviously takeout though, usually it's not good to play one persons X as penalty and one as takeout (and I'm not saying it necessarily is here), but I don't think it's illogical when they overcall in the only suit you've bid.

I would bid 3H because I think double is penalty and I don't want to do that. It is an overbid in the sense that it can easily get us too high but I don't feel like I have any other option. I'm sure having some system like an artificial 2S bid here or something would be great but I have no such system and this auction is not high on my priority list to make obscure meanings since it doesn't come up that frequently. Obviously a lot depends on how light you open NV etc, but I am not going to make a penalty X or a weak bid or pass so 3H is all I'm left with!

Count me in the wank camp, I hate bidding on hand 3 :/ It would be more tempting if they had a fit auction (like they had bid and raised), but I think our best chance of going plus on this hand is defending when they do not have a fit. Even if we catch a 4-3 spade fit or a 4-4 club fit we haven't gone plus yet. I thought hand 1 was very interesting. Hand 4, are the people who are not bidding 6S trying to get to 7, or trying to get to hearts, or trying to stop in 5 (?). There are lots of fancy things you can do but it's going to be tough to diagnose when grand is good and you need a lot with no trump honors and only 1 ace, and not even a solid heart suit, so just bidding 6S seems practical to me.

I think they did something like that a long time ago and the robot was like 56 %. Ofc the field for this will probably be stronger, but the robots have also gotten better, so I wouldn't be surprised if it was somewhere around there if they tried it. Everyone likes to complain about the bots but they are much better than most humans.

Congrats Helene, Adam, and Elianna! @Phil pretty crazy you're in Frisco and work in Plano, I'm sure if I move back to Texas at some point I will be in one of those 2 places. PM me if you need a bridge scouting report of the locals :P

Prepare for your mind to be blown

Yeah 2N min 3C max I have played. It's not my preferred treatment but it allows you to play 1N 2S as clubs instead of range ask (so partner can say whether he likes clubs or not), and also helps an auction like 1N 2C 2H 3D in natural methods (you can't have spades so 3S is not necessary to show spades which is very useful). You force to the 3 level opposite garbage stayman (which as you point out is less likely when you have 4-4 majors) and leak some info though, IMO not worth it.

You guys can talk trash but I'll bet on sieong winning this :P

It's not terrible, but I think it is wrong personally.

That's...bold

Your opp shifted to a trump at trick 2 I guess? It is definitely possible that other tables played the king but the opps didn't find the trump shift IMO (bad players will usually try to cross to get more ruffs).

Hemant Lall rule of MP: Always try to make the max amount of tricks. Haha, doubt that is wise advice but always stuck with me on hands like this because who knows what to do. +1 to Timo's line. Edit: Also if something weird happens on the first diamond like they play the 9 or something maybe we can reconsider.

Haha funny since now there are 2 more young Rimstedts making quite a splash today! FWIW I asked the brothers and they said Cecilia is the best player in their family (which is what I would have guessed). Madala was the obv response I was thinking of when I read the title of this thread. He was incredible at a very young age (and has certainly lived up to the hype he had!).

I generally will open 1N with 6m(322) unless I am comfortable with both suit and hand quality to open 1m and rebid 3m. Other people have different theories (right siding, whether you have a 3 card major etc), but I think generally the advantages of opening 1N and of rightsiding are offset and I just want to get my hand strength across. I don't like 1m followed by 2m with hands worth 1N in general because it puts a lot of pressure on partner (this is especially true if you might open on the lighter side with a 6 card suit).

Imps is so random compared to MP, surprised its such a popular choice

idk tbh, I'd probably pass but might depend on my opps. Vs little old ladies I would bet that it's right to bid. Vs crazy juniors I'd be happy to pass :)

It is totally normal after a jump that doubles are takeout. If they bid 3s do you still think X would be penalty? Think about it and you will realize that would be unplayable (and in general when you are not in a force [redouble does not and cannot create a force to all leves] you cannot afford to play pen Xs).

I think north missed a good bid after 1C X XX 2S p p. Given that after a jump X's are takeout, if north bid 3S I think it would show a hand like this, arguably exactly 0454 (not willing to defend 2S X if partner wants to, hence no X, not a 6 card red suit or 5 clubs to start with XX, and probably not 0544 either to start with XX). If north XXed with the intention to cue next I think that would be pretty reasonable, you might get screwed if they bid to 3S but they're r/w so it's a decent gamble. Honestly I would have started with 1H though and seen what happened.

You shouldn't have posted the west hand IMO, it will bias the responses. Most often the opponents do not have 8 trumps and 10 HCP to bid to 4C. If you had posted the west hand as KQxx QJxxx Axxx -- I'm sure you'd get different responses. That is certainly a much more common hand type than a balanced 19 count on this auction when we have the east hand.

9-12 or 8+-12 whatever, I agree with jogs that it depends on the vul/form of scoring/exact hand though. I don't agree with apollo that it shows a stopper, what else are you going to do with no stopper and enough to bid? It is the same as 1C (1S) X p 1N or 1C (2S) X p 2N imo, I'd like to have a stopper but what else am I going to do with a balanced hand and no stopper?

I think the HQ is a better shot than them winning the SQ with AQ doubleton + a random upgrade (probably depends on 2N bidder). This is largely due to me thinking that they will misguess hearts a large amount of the time when I do hit the heart holding I want, esp if I don't tank forever before playing the HQ since it is very natural to try it with QJ9x(x) of hearts, and with our actual hand we might well play spades (especially if we didn't have the CJ).

3 seems like enough