brianshark

East has a tough bid. He has nice heart support, the spades are of uncertain value. They could be valuable (as above) or totally useless. The small doubleton club holding is a definite negative. Kx in diamonds middling. But it's a 7.5 loser hand. I think I'd lean towards treating it as a limit raise mainly because opps aren't bidding spades making it more liekly partner has some fitting values there. But it's not clearcut at all and I won't put too much blame on anyone who just bids 2♥. So 25% east for the constructive raise and 75% west for the 4♥ signoff.

I get +800. I'm happy.

Are they allowed multiple simultanious (red/black/pass) 'calls'? If that were the case, on the first 'round' then they could arrange for everyone but 1 to pass. And on the second round, everyone but 2 passes. Etc. If instead we are allowed to hesitate before making our call, surely that is passing information to each other about each other's own hat, albeit in a codified way. So I assume the intention of the problem is Matt's scenario where only one mass simultanious round of calls takes place? (But they can discuss beforehand their strategy before any of them are given coloured hats)

I googled but I don't know if this link works. Try it. It's from Cohen's LOTT book (chapter 4): http://books.google.com/books?id=tyZFm-qc5...lc3N_M#PPA60,M1

I've also heard it called BIDS (balancing in direct seat) and it's based on the principle of presumed fit. If responder raises, they have a fit, increasing the likelihood of us having a fit. If they instead respond 1NT, they are less likely to have that 8-card fit so in turn, the 2♠ bid becomes riskier.

30% of the blame for East's decision to bid 4th suit forcing and then bid hearts, overbidding his hand by an ace or so. 40% of blame to West's 4♠ bid which was unnecessarily high and space consuming. 30% of the blame for East's raise to 6♥ missing an outside A, the ♠Q and not knowing about the ♥Q.

If 4♣ was namyats then the opps are screwed. They go down in everything. If 7♦ was lead direct then 7♥ is a sacrafice and they will likely go down. If 6♥ then 7♦ are genuine bids, then where did LHO find his 13th trick from after pard comes in 6♠? The only way I can justify LHO's 7♦ id is if it's a sacrafice because he thinks 6♠ will make. Except we know pard's 6♠ is a sac because we have the ♠AKQ. I don't know what's going on but as I have a ♥ stop and a ♣ stop (albeit flimsy ones), I'm going to double, and keep doubling whatever they bid. Worst case scenario, they have a solid diamond fit, but even then my double might scare LHO into pulling back to his ♥ fit where we have a sure trick.

To be honest, I'm in the 1NT camp. The fact is, I'm not all that bothered about showing my fit here. I dont think we even belong in hearts (at the 2 or 3 level) unless partner has some shape, and with shape he'll bid again. If I bid 1NT and the opps interfere 2♠ or 3[minor], then I'm not so sure I want partner competing to the 3 level, even with a 9 card fit. The LOTT adjustments for this balanced hand with soft values and poor trumps suggest defending rather than competing, unless partner has exceptional shape, in which case he'll be bidding again without our help. If we have a game, I think it's just as likely to be in 3NT as we have no ruffing value whatsoever (again, unless partner has a bit of shape). I'm pretty much going to treat this hand as a 4432 6 count with a doubleton ♥.

My first instinct is small ♥ to the T and then run the ♣J. Not sure though.

I think I'd win the first diamond and then return a ♦. Let the opps do their thing.

Assuming we're south, I'm quite curious as to how the auction went.

While I don't know what modern standards are regarding the 3N jump rebid, but the way I would always play it is showing a solid suit, highly likely to run 9 tricks opposite a small stiff, and at least one stopper in the other suits except nothing in your partner's suit. The reason being that if you have only a semi-solid suit, you need a double stop in every suit to rate to make 3N with no help from partner (except the stop in his own suit). And a semi-solid suit with a double stop in the side suits is a tad strong. I guess my 3N jump rebid is more a more descriptive variety than the more gambling/flexible version foo plays.

Basically opener or responder needs to treat his hand as invite rather than minimum. Responder can at his second bid, or opener can at his third. But either way, it makes no difference what system you are playing, it's all about judging whether your hand is invite or not, and if so, finding an invite bid, of which there are plenty. In my opinion, opener should bid 2NT after whatever responder chooses to rebid (1NT/2♣/2♠).

Just bid 4♣. Cue-bidding will extract the required info from partner without going higher than is safe.

If partner has the ♣J, I can hope for declarer to have 3+ ♣s and a club switch now will set up an eventual trick. If partner has the ♠J, I can either lead a small ♠ now, hope declarer plays low, assume partner will read and duly returns a ♠, draw dummy's trump and cash a ♥. I'm going to err on the side of my partner's signal, however clairvoyant he must be to foresee my problem, giving him ♠J instead of ♣J, so a small spade is my play.

I don't see what we are going to learn that will convince us that slam is good here. We have all controls and what we need is extras from partner. Extras he denied by bidding 4♠ knowing all the controls are present. If I'm going to continue, I'd probably bid 5♠ if I thought p would take that as a general invite looking for extras. But here I'm just going to pass.

Partner has already doubled without us. We just have to leave it in. Hehe.

Seems a clear pass. Your hand is very defense oriented at this stage. We have a ♠ trick, a possible partial ♣ trick and definite ruffing potential. I can see us getting about 2.5 defensive tricks. Which is 2.5 defensive tricks more than we've promised up to this point. The only problem is p misdefending expecting us to have less than we have.

I might raise with an extra ace. Maybe.

I would have passed the double. *shrugs*

1♠, 3♣ and 3NT seem normal. North's final 6♥ bid was pushy and probably ill-judged considering the misfit. South's bidding was what I expect from someone who learned bridge yesterday and forgot about the need to have pts to respond on the 2-level.

This is a good example hand where you must figure out whether you need to show your hand or ask about partners. In this case, you have 1st and 2nd round control of ♣s and ♦s and the AK of trump and the ♥K, none of which partner knows for sure you have. You're far better off making yourself the captain of this auction. Partner has shown you the ♥A and has some semblence of extras/shape. I'm comfortable playing in 7 if partner has the trump Q and 3rd round control in ♣s, both of which we can ask for after keycard. The fact that we don't care about keycards or that we have a void is totally beside the point. 4NT by me. 2nd choice, 7♠.

Got it in about 4 minutes. I might do at the table if I took that long as long as my opps and partner werren't giving me impatient glances, hehe. :)

I open 1♠ and (over most expected responses) rebid 3NT.

It looks like an invite to me. 3♥