brianshark

If partner was looking to give you a ruff, he might have led the K asking for count. Leading the ace suggests to me he is particularly interested if you have an honour in the suit, either because he led a lone ace, or because he wants to get to your hand for you to lead through declarer. I think this is a situation where you should tell him what you have, not how to defend.

Assuming this is an ace for attitude situation I discourage because I have neither ♣ honour, nor doubleton nor strong reason for him to continue this suit. (And would also discourage if dummy had the Q.) BTW, partner will already suspsect you don't have a heart card because you didn't smack 3♥. So once you tell him you don't fancy a club continuation he can probably put the ♦K in your hand anyway. Let him figure out the defense.

H_Karluk, it seems to be a common theme in your recent threads that you post an auction without enough information on the methods of the players involved.

I would consider this a splinter, not having the aforementioned agreement. Ignoring the whole natural/splinter thing, I don't like the 4♥ bid. You shouldn't skip the ♦ cue, and probably should be bidding 4♣ regardless of whether you think 3♠ was natural or not.

I hate opening 2♣, but even I will open this hand 2♣.

Pass and 3♥. On the first, your suit is just not good enough. In 2nd seat vulnerable you need to have your bid. On the 2nd, it's a fairly clear 3♥ bid. It gives you a chance to find game in hearts if you have a fit there, which seems very likely. Partner will probably treat it as 5 card suit and choice of games, but even if he passes for some reason, I'm not necessarily unhapppy with only a 14 count. Edited because I said favourable instead of vulnerable.

2♣ and Pass.

I'm only theorizing that the reason pard didn't make a black suit splinter and yet jumped to 5 was because he has the shape but is embarrased by his high card strength.

Invite via whatever your checkback bid is, unless partner denied a 4 card spade suti.

Playing a limited-opening system, I would definitely pass this. The main downside of passing is it going 1s p p p, so I do acknowledge that bidding 1N gives us a chance to improve the contract. However, I think there is significant chance of disproving the contract by getting too high as well. And to be honest, I don't buy the argument of bidding to rob the opponents out of a game or part-score. It looks to me like I want to give the opponents a chance to start bidding because it looks like a misfit deal and it would be better if we were defending something. If the opponents did bid their way to 3NT, I'd be very tempted to double. But if the pros of today are bidding with these hands, there must be something I'm missing.

Agree with pass. You probably have a bigger ♦ fit than you do ♥ fit, so since you're playing on the 5 level regardless, you might as well play in your biggest fit. I have a sneaky suspicion pard has 5♥s and 6♦s and might have opened light because of his shape. If pard has ♠- ♥KJxxx ♦KQxxxx ♣Qx then you're +1. If pard has ♠Qx ♥KJxxx ♦KQxxxx ♣- then your -1 if they cash their spades right away. 5♦ looks like a reasonable punt at the final contract.

1. A hand that expects to make 9 tricks in NT opposite a normal 10 count with 4+ hearts. 2. Artificial, forcing and interested in slam. 4♥ would be lots of hearts. I guess it would be a single-suited slam try. 4♦ would be lots of diamonds (as well as probably 4 hearts). Initially I would take this as forcing and scrambling for the best game rather than a slam try. 4NT is a quantitative invite to slam (~15 count). 3. Abstain. (Theorizing conventions is not my thing.)

1. Over 3♠, I double. If partner bids 4♣, I bid 4♥. If partner bids 4♦ or 4♥ I bid 4♠. I'm confident partner will take me for the monster that I have in the latter 2 cases. I am worried about underbidding on the first case, but what can you do. 2. I tend to open 1x on many hands I probably should open 2♣ on. But it looks like 1♥ and then 3♦ is by far the easiest way to bid your hand. Especially if you don't bid 2♦ on negative hands.

6♣ definitely. If we can't make 6 ♣, they must be pretty close to making 5 or 6 ♠s.

It can have 2. Sorry, by short I mean not 3+ card support. Bad choice of words. :P

2♦ obviously NF in standard. I just assumed that they play inverted minors (or some sort of forcing raise) on over interference.

♠KQJx ♥Kxx ♦xxxx ♣Qx and ♠KQJx ♥Jxx ♦xxxx ♣Ax are about the worst sub-minimums I can think of. Where do we want to be?

Agree with 5♥ fishing for a fit. Partner probably has a 15/16 count, there will be some wastage in hearts, but slam should still have play. It might be worth making a grand slam try, because if partner has little wasted in hearts, for example ♠Axx ♥Kxx ♦KQx ♣Kxxx, which is a lousy hand in context, grand is reasonable. (But I won't make a grand slam try because I won't chance grand on a 3-2 break when someone has pre-empted at the 3-level.)

I would probably start laughing at them. Incidentally, I think there are laws against destructive methods. But not destructive bids. But we're talking about even worse than typical HUMs... for example: "partnership forced to open 1NT on every single hand without exception". (On the given hand, the situation is perfect for pre-emption. 2♠ is a good bid. Some would consider 3♠.)

Pass then 2NT shows a ~14 count with short spades and stoppers.

Who would sponser a bridge team anonymously? I'm just wondering what they get out of it. They don't get to play on the team, and they don't have their name associated with a top team, and they don't get anything advertised on their behalf. I'm just curious what the motivation behind anonymous sponsorship tends to be.

I would have chosen a ♥ also.

In my opinion: 3♦ is GF and I think this is not quite worth GF and invite (but most others think you should GF so this is no big deal) 3♦ tends to show a ♦ stop and asks about a ♣ stop. You're ♦ stop is a tad flimsy, if pard has a small doubleton or singleton in ♦s, he will not worry about the suit. And maybe those tricks that they can cash and you can't ruff are tricks 4 and 5 for the defence. 3♦ tends to show a 5-4 hand, so with a good doubleton in your suit, pard is still unlikely to play you for 6 and will rarely raise to 4♠, especially if he holds a ♣ stop. And 4♠ is often the correct spot. I think 3♠ solves all the above, it shows 6 good spades, can be passed, leaves 3N, 4♥ and 4♠ open and brings pard attention that there may be a weakness in both minors.

The reason 1N has a broad range playing 2/1 when you open 1M or 1♦ is because pard may have up to 11 pts and a suit they can only bid at the 2-level. So they have to lump those hands into the 1NT response. But over a 1♣ opening, there is no such problem. Partner can bid all suits on the 1-level without showing more strength than he has. Therefore less hands are lumped into 1NT, therefore the 1NT bid is more specific. The thing to bear in mind is that 1NT is always the catch-all bid. If no other bid is correct, then bid 1NT. It can be deduced that you virtually always have 4♣s for a 1NT bid since with another 4 card suit, you could have bid it and you have to have a 4-card suit somewhere. And since we play inverted minors where 2♣ shows 10+ and 3♣ shows 0-6/7 or so, then we have a ~7-10 ♣ raise to fit somewhere. 1NT works perfectly for this.

"Oops, I dropped one of my cards. It's there in my quitted stack. Was it exposed? Did anyone see it? No? Good." Pick it up and play on.