skjaeran

I voted 2♣, then pass. With my regular partner I'd make a natural 2♣ overcall directly over 1♣. (We use 2M directly to show both majors.)

Count me in on the consensus.

Double, but it's close.

-2X would be quite ok, which just shows, that you have to work on your defence. I am not saying that X is matadory, since partners hand is not surprinsing, t/o instead oft 1H is an valid option, although one would prefer to have 4 spades instead of 4 clubs, but as long as you know that you may face such a hand, the penalty X is ok. With kind regards Marlowe The north hand is an obvious 1♥ overcall. I'd never consider at t/o double. Even if you move a card from the ♣ suit to ♠'s, I'd still overcall 1♥, but then I can understand a t/o double, even if it's not my cup of tea.

Double doesn't say "I can beat 4♠". It means "I've got extra offensive strenght". Now it's up to opener to decide to declare or defend. I'm for declaring with this hand and this extra information from partner, thus i take out with 4NT, desribing my hand for partner who'll decide which strain we'll play. Taking out is wrong if both 4♠ and 5m go down. That's the kind of insurance I'm happy to pay at IMPs. If one or both contracts make, the payoff for bidding is huge.

I'm optimistic, so I'll bid 6NT. The alternative is double.

1♥ - 2♥ 4♣ - 4♦ blabla 6♥

And in Scandinavia, UK and probably the rest of the world too.

I'd prefer a 2♣ overcall followed by double. Anyway, east should take out to 4♣ on both occasions - leaving in 3♠x is NO option.

Huh? If that's your systemical bid with this hand it's no psyche. Of course, you have to alert it and explain it as 3+. Btw, one polish pair had just this sequence on vugraph from Jesolo today, 1♦-1♥, alerted and explained as 3+♥'s.

Playing standard methods, this is a clear 2NT rebid for me. (In real life, the bidding would go 1♣-1♦ with my regular partner, and I'd rebid 2NT showing 18-19 balanced with exactly a doubleton ♥). As Mike, I prefer transfers after the 2NT rebid. Without any agreements (or expected understanding) I'd expect partner to bid exactly as Frances proposed above).

I voted king. But on occasion I might make a 1-level opening with the queen instead.

Obvious pass. Why on earth should I bid anything now? - 4♠ might go down, when we can't make anything higher. - 5m might go down a lot. - Partner is still there. If partner makes a card-showing double, I'll bid 4NT. We've got a good chance of either making or finding a good save. If partner passes, fine. We might still set them.

Pass. Partner rates to have 9+ cards in the majors. When he doesn't act here (double or 2♣, whatever used to show both majors, or bids one of them) he's pretty weak. We most probably don't have a fit at all, and besides, we can often beat 1NT.

Most people play 2♣/♦/♥ as non-forcing in this position, most play it as constructive. To force you start with redouble. Of course it's possible to keep the meaning as without the double, but that's not standard (and not adviceable, mostly because of frequency).

This is a classic! Draw trumps discarding the ♠A (or K) from dummy. Cash dummys ♦'s and the remaining ♠ winner and lead the ♠T towards hand. The ♠J will be your entry to the ♦J.

What Justin said.

With JTx and an ace I'll bid 1NT. It's hard for opps to enter the auction if they have the highest contract, and I won't miss game when partner has a "monster". You can't pass with this in a standard system with wide range openings.

With my regular partner the bidding MIGHT go: 1♠ - 2♥ 2♠ - 3♣ 4♣ - 4♦ 4♠ - 5♣ 6♣ 2♥ is 2-way, either 3-7 hcp with 3c support OR natural 2/1. A pessimistic opener might rebid 2♠, but most probably would invite game vs the weak hand with 3♦ instead. IF opener rebid 2♠, 3♣ is GF with 5+5+.

Agree. The hand isn't good enough to just blast or force to slam. If I can make a slam try which partner can reject, I'll do that. If not, I'll just bid 5♣. With my regular partner I'd bid 4♣ directly, natural onesuited slam try. Partner might accept with a cuebid or reject with 4NT or 5♣.

I "routinely" make 1-level overcalls with only four with a good suit, opening strenght (or close to) and a distribution that makes a take out double impossible. Partner always expects a 5-bagger and bids on that assumption. So at times you end up playing with one trump less than you'd like. Since the trump suit is good and the strenght more than what I consider minimum overcall strenght, this normally leads to us ending in a playable spot.

Good point. When you've no clue whatsoever what partner is up to, find the bid that forces him to place the contract. :lol:

This is a style question. With my regular partner I'd go looking for game (or more). Our style is very constructive when it comes to weak twos - 2♦ promises a 6-bagger and 8-11 hcp! So I'd start slowly with 2♠ and see what happens. I'm not much concerned about a game with opponents, but will try to find our best game (or slam) if any. Else I'm going to compete to 4♦ if needed.

If you're talking about redoubling 5M in case you make slam, that might be a good idea on occasion. I've got a good story from 1981 (I was just 16 then). I had just discovered that 5Mx+1 scored less than bidding the slam. Of course this had to be tried out. On the last hand on the last evening of the club championship our opps (one of the better pairs) were on their way to 6♥. I had nothing, and when RHO replied 5♥ to BW I doubled and all passed. My partner scored a trick early on, np. Then another, ouch! In the end he scored another trick, and we set the contract! When we opened the traveller to enter our score, all the other tables had bid and made slam. The rest of the players were finished and were standing around our table at this moment. They all burst out laughing. Poor declarer had been taken in, and I scored the hoped for top, but in quite another fashion than expected. B)

75% north, the double is just terrible. 100% south, passing 1♠ is bad, 2♥ is outrageous. Oh, it adds up to 175%? Just tells how bad I think the bidding was. B)