skjaeran

The auction clearly tells us to lead a club here - unless we have some other standout lead in our hand. There's nothing in our hand telling us to lead any other suit, so ♣9 it has to be.

Ever?? x Axx AKJx 23456 That's a 1♣ for me. With a couple of my regulars that's systemic. With anyone else I just open 1♣.

I'm a day late, just home from vacation at Tenerife with my kids. Hope you hade a nice day yesterday Mike. I really like your posts here - keep up the good work! :)

Agree.

Playing ELC I double, else I overcall 1♠.

I'll duck in dummy all day. I don't think it's unreasonable to expect the field to lead ♥J from KJTxxx, and RHO didn't raise. LHO is a BIG favourite to hold the ♥K.

I know people playing 1♥-1♠-3NT as 3-6(7). The 4♥ rebid is purely natural to me.

Huh? Over 3♠ 3NT serious. 4♥ - 4NT 5♣ - 5NT 6♣ - 6♦ 7♠ 4♥ is a cue, denies minor suit cue. 6♣=♣Q 6♦ ask for 3rd round control, 7♠ show doubleton ♦. EDIT: Didn't read further before posting, Han and I are in agreement I see.

Easy pass. Where are the doublers? 25% doubled but the posters are unanimous passers.

I don't know about that, but I'd never downgrade this.

Pass is stronger than 4♠ to me here. So wtp? B)

Agree with 3♣ by north. I pass that with the souht hand.

Agree.

I guess you mean take out double, not negative double. A negative double is a double my responder after an overcall. Sure, it's semantics, but one should really not use misnomers. I'd prefer double as penalty here, but can also see the merits of using it as t/o. For me it's between pass and 2♠ here. 2♠ is overbidding slightly, but I can live with that. B)

Very few (if any) Norwegians are followers of this "book" referred to in the OP. Around here both 1♣..1NT and 1♣..2♣ is common with 2245. I normally open 1♣ and rebid 1NT. 1♦..2♣ is not for me, ever.

I make the 2♦ overcall here, but it's very close between 2♦ and double for me. The tie breaker is that we open light, making it less probable that we can have a game on. To make a compromise between competing for the (best) partscore and get partner on to what probably will be the best lead on defence I chose to bid my suit.

I prefer 1430. That's because the response that's generally the one I'd like to have space to explore more is when partner's got 1 KC, not when he's got 0. 1 or 0 is so much more frequent than 3 or 4 that the max alternatives aren't relevant when deciding this. I agree with Frances that this isn't a big issue in a system.

I'd rebid 4♦, showing the void. Over 4♠ I'll continue with 5♥, forcing partner to bid slam with the ♣K.

Me too.

This is a close to max limit raise for me. We don't need much of an excuse to accept a limit raise though.

Disagree. 2♠ would be a huge overbid. 1♠ caters for all hands not strong enough to GF. I play 1♠ as a forcing (allowed to pass without normal strength for 1/1), but it's absolutely OK to rebid 1♠ NF on this hand.

I win the ♣A and finesse the ♠J. If this loses to the king, I've got the count for a squeeze. I need to read the ending correctly, to decide what squeeze to play for - there's several possible squeezes here - the straightforward double squeeze or ♠♥/♠♦/♥♦ depending on the distribution. If the ♠J wins the trick I test hearts. 3-3 and 4-2 sees me home directly. 5-1/6-0 I'll duck the 3rd round to again go for a squeeze.

If that's your agreement I agree. However, if your agreements are different, I really cannot understand leading the 9. :D

What heart you lead is simple - follow your agreements with your partner. With my regular partner I lead the 8; 2nd from a bad holding. He'll know I've got a suit like T8xx/J8xx/T8xxx/98xxx, but not J9xxx or better. With other partners I lead 6 if leading 4th, ♥2 if leading 3rd/5th.

I'll take the low road for now and bid 6♥. If opps save in 6♠ I'll try 7♥.