PhantomSac

1) Absolutely balance with 6 hearts and a decent hand. 2) Unread the book ;) A heart is so automatic here, your best chance to beat 1N is to start setting up your 5 card suits. I am sure a simulation would agree. It is with bad holdings in 4 card suits that you should look to lead elsewhere/passively, that has always been true. Of course on this hand you don't even have a good alternative lead. 3) I don't see how you could double. Whether or not to make a neg X is w/e, I'm sure passing is fine (I actually chose to make a neg X, could not resist the perfect shape, but I wouldn't be surprised if partner overbid after that.) 5) X=10, everything else = negative infinity.

Sounds good

Yeah I mean you're only off two keycards, it is probably Kx of spades onside. You even have the added chance of Kxx of spades onside with 3+ clubs in that hand and no diamond lead!

In an ideal world you could invite in diamonds somehow, if parnter rejected I doubt 3N would be very good. If your methods do not allow that then just bidding 3N is definitely better than signing off in 3D.

You need to pitch the AK of diamonds from the south hand, one discard will come on the ace of spades so the other needs to come on a trump. That means you need to shorten your hand which requires you to ruff 2 spades in your hand. Therefore you have to pitch a diamond at trick one (keeping the spades), play a heart to the ace, ruff a spade, heart to the king, ruff a spade, play your last heart and pull trumps pitching the ace of diamonds from your hand, then cash the ace of spades pitching the king of diamonds from your hand, and your diamonds in dummy are good. Generally the best way to solve these problems is to work backwards, figure out what you need to do (pitch the AK of diamonds), then figure out how to make that possible.

It does not

No, because if the discard really shows the ace or the queen, then declarer might hold the ace and would know that the discard shows the queen. This is not encrypted, signalling honestly always to show the queen or the ace has risk. No, if over the queen ask your acceptance shows the queen or extra length, an opponent may hold the queen and thus know you have extra length. This is not encrypted. However, if you lead the Ace and King of the suit, and the declarer ruffs, you both know who holds the 9. If you signal upside down if you have the 9 or standard if you don't, then you both know something declarer does not 100 %. That is encrypted. Or if you agree whoever has the most odd numbered cards in the suit (and if you're equal, whoever has the lowest outstanding odd card plays ud, the other plays standard), that is encrypted.

No I was not, I don't play ACOL, and unfortunately don't read signatures. In that case, the system is ridiculous. So 3D does not even promise diamonds, and south might have 3 spades and a slam try (Axx Qx KQx KQJTx)? I don't know how to play this way, what is north supposed to do? A system where you cannot make natural bids since nothing is forcing is a large problem for not being able to find slams.

You say that like changing a spade to a heart is a small difference heh

South bidding 3D would be a well judged(?) bid after 1S 2C 2S 2N 3C. He might well bid 3S since he has the AJ of spades and 4S might be the best contract. Over that north has a nice hand but bad spades, they might choose to just bid 4S which south will pass (for 6S to be good south needs 2 spade honors to begin with, plus the rest of the stuff we need). If south bid 3S and north made a move that would obviously get them to 6C, or if south bid 3D focusing on a club slam that should get them to slam, but it does feel natural to bid 3S over 3C. That's why I think the 3D bid should have helped them get to slam, over that north will be thinking clubs all the way and he has a fantastic hand for clubs obviously.

I doubt anyone is going to not play 3N whatever the auction (unless the opps bids hearts), but it still strikes me as a bad bid. I don't think the alternative is to overcall 2C, our hand is way too strong for that, it is to double and bid clubs (or NT) showing a hand too strong to overcall directly.

As far as the auction I think 3D is a ridiculous bid, 2N is totally normal, and importantly leaves more room. For instance 1S 2C 2S 2N 3C is a great start for the south hand, and norths bids have more integrity and are thus more descriptive over 2N since he is not short of room. Over 3D he will have to guess what to do or punt with 3H which is far less defined. There should not be any 2245 hands that bid 3D so 3D is also misdescriptive, I understand people who freak out with 2 small hearts and bid 3D but here you have Qx so 2N is really just a stand out bid. The reason you missed 6C is not because of the 3D bid though, that should have made it easier. North's 3N bid over 3D is just out to lunch, north has a massive hand for clubs and he should make 1 of 2 bids: 4C, direct and to the point "I have a big hand for clubs and have no interest in playing 3N, I want to investigate 6C." Or a more murky advanced cue of 3H, with the plan of never playing 3N and next bidding 4C. Sometimes your intentions get blown out if partner bids 4C or 4D but in that case north can almost drive so maybe 3H is better, but you can't go wrong bidding 4C. North hand the wrong idea when he bid 3N, he did not appreciate what a huge hand for clubs he had, he focused only on his heart stoppers.

IF they lead a trump, you are almost cold if the DA is on. IF they lead a trump and IF the DA is off, you need a spade hook. So on the best lead you need ~1 of 2 hooks, sounds pretty good to me? If they don't lead a trump you need nothing other than non horrible splits basically.

I'm sure I'd bid how both east and west bid. Being 1-1 is often bad, from wests point of view if east is 4216 5S could easily be making. It's a pretty big burn to go down 2 and it's also a burn that you have a diamond trick between you. I think it's just unlucky.

3/5th does not apply to interior sequences in USA fwiw.

Here is a better example of this theme since I think billw's line is better even though I got the "solution." [hv=pc=n&s=sakqh732daj2caj42&w=shdc&n=s832hakqdk63ck953&e=shdc]399|300[/hv] You get to 6N and they lead a heart. How do you play?

Heh, that's funny I was just thinking this is a good hand to NOT Play journalist leads if you duck (because if you duck your main hope is partner having a club entry and playing back the ten of diamonds and getting a normal misguess...if the jack denied a higher honor that's not possible). Unless the 3N bidder is insane it's a pretty safe bet he has the DK, more important is for him to not know I have the diamond ace.

Do people believe bridge would be a better game with encrypted signalling? IMO a lot of the fun in bridge is trying to figure out what they have and their signalling is a big part of that(and on defense, figuring out whether or not I should falsecard in order to mislead declarer even though it might mislead partner). As declarer you have to weigh whether or not they can/would falsecard in some situations and which signals to believe etc. With encrypted signalling you cannot read their signals and they don't have to falsecard at all since partner will be able to read their signals and declarer won't. It would make it a different game, imo a worse one. I'd be surprised if people would prefer that game, so I genuinely wonder if people think it would be an improvement. It goes against the spirit of the game as is to be able to make a bid or a play that gives your partner information but does not tell the opponents anything. I think all bids and plays should give partner and the opps the same info, and of course you can bluff any of those whenever you want at the risk of fooling partner in order to fool the opps. I think that is the spirit of "full disclosure."

Yeah billw's line must be right, I forgot spades might be 3-3 lol. That has to be more likely than Qx of diamonds offside obviously. It also preserves lots of squeeze/endplay chances if they mess up.

Probably not what your teacher wants but I would always duck the first spade irl.

I highly doubt computer simulations are what stopped good players from leading from kings into 1N openers on invitational auctions.

I believe Mikeh was talking about 4C 4D 4S possibly being A xx KQJxx AKJxx and not being natural. He did end up bidding 4S natural after all. I disagree with this, just because we have the values for 4N or 5C does not mean 4S cannot be our best spot, I personally don't love the idea of playing in 4N if I don't have to and can play 4S. More importantly I think 4H shows the same thing as 4S but is stronger so we don't need 4S to be forcing.

Cite? I have never heard of bid-bid-bid-bid being forcing in any circumstances unless one of the first 2 bids was a preempt. Seems pretty silly even after a 2 level overcall, but lol after a 1 level overcall.

Pretty incredible decision to defend 6H with xx --- KJTxxxx xxxx after partner overcalls 5C over 1H.

It has happened before! Are people really suggesting they do not play the 9 almost 100 % of the time with K9x? Sure if it's some hand where your only chance to beat it is running 5 tricks as you know they have 9 tops at imps you would play the K, and if it's some hand where they are going to make a lot so your goal is to set up 1 trick (or cash out 2 tricks), you might play the K at MP, but other than that I have never played the K from K9x and have never seen anyone good ever play the king. It is just the percentage play to play the 9 from K9x on a normal hand like this. I am not going to play my partner to have made some bizarre play randomly.