Apollo81

I would expect seven to make most of the time, but I don't know what trumps should be. It pretty much depends on partner's heart holding. I like 5NT here, followed by 6♥. Partner should understand that this is correctable. I would expect him to bid 6♠ if he is not passing, at which point I will retreat to 7 of his suit. There's something to be said for bidding a direct 6♠. This may stampede the opps into a save. -Noble

I cannot think of any reason not to cuebid my ♠A. (4♠)

I disagree. At MPs, all red you want your opps to declare. All white, you want to declare. There's something to be said for passing at all red. If you pass, LHO might bid 1NT, 2♣, or even 2♥. All of these auctions are reasonably good news for you. If they play 1NT, 7 tricks gets you 100 instead of 90, and your side is on lead. If they bid 2♣, you can balance back in with a double if it comes around to you, or RHO might rebid his hearts which can only be good. If LHO raises and pard doubles, you know your KJ of hearts is not fully working and you can get out in 2♠ when you might have gotten to 3 otherwise. Even if LHO passes, I don't see any continuation that would be that bad. You also have a chance to win even if they go +90...the field might be -100 in some contract. All this being said, I would still double most of the time on the given hand.

"Sandwich" 1NT for takeout is frequently described as "the worst convention in bridge." If you don't have a strong 1NT avaialable, those hands are going to be very difficult to show. Now days people respond and open lighter than ever, so you will frequently hold a strong balanced hand in "sandwich" position. If you pass such hands and then bid later, pard will never know your real strength. Additionally, coming into the auction, especially over 1♠, is not that great an idea with just 4-4 or 4-5 and no opening hand. You will frequently risk a number of letting your opponents know how to declare the hand when they might be guessing otherwise. I suggest using a cuebid of opener's suit as takeout for those hands where double and 2NT are inappropriate. You might miss a natural 2♣ call (over opener's 1♣) once in a while, but you do get the ability to show 5-5 hands at the 2-level. If you're bent on using the methods you outlined, I would at least suggest removing the PH requirement for 2♣. Sometimes you just have some clubs and need to get that lead director in.... -Noble

So pass is just crazy then, right? Like, it's not even remotely close? I bid 4♥ without thinking about it at the table... Put this one under "sanity check" lol

♠xxx ♥Q109xxx ♦Q9x ♣x All vul, IMPs (1♠)-Dbl-(pass)-2♥ (pass)-3♥-(pass)-? What would you bid opposite a good partner? bad partner?

I don't see anything wrong with 3♥. This doesn't deny spade values and gives partner a convenience bid (3♠) if he needs it. With AKJx J109xx xx xx or AKJx J109xx x xxx I would bid 3NT. With AKJx J109xx xxx x I would bid 3♦.

A good psych is one that is likely to damage the opponents' bidding or play and unlikely to damage your side. Different kinds of psyches are effective against different skill level players. Some examples: (3) Partner opens 1♦, RHO doubles, and you hold xx xxx xxxxx xxx (4) Partner opens 3♣, RHO doubles, and you hold: xxxx Ax xxx Jxxx (5) You hold AKJ10x Ax KJ97 Qx and the auction has proceeded 1♠-(p)-2♠-(p) (6) You hold Qxx Qxx AKJxxx x as opening bidder. Psyching on (3) and (4) would be most effective against weaker players. The best psych on (3) is probably 1♥ rather than 1♠, since if partner hangs you (bids 3♥ or 4♥) you will at least be in a 4-3 fit. This psych is easily revealed by a penalty double from LHO (and thus ineffective against good players), but many newer players do not know what this double means or fail to double when they should. The same goes for (4). If (4) had one more club and one fewer diamond, then I'd try a 4♥ psyche; it is less clear I am psyching when I do this, less clear what LHO's double means, and safer to run to 5♣ if needed. I would psych on (4) as it is given against weaker players. (5) is a good hand for psyching against an expert LHO. A fake short-suit game try in diamonds followed by a jump to game by partner is likely to induce a diamond lead from pretty much whatever holding LHO has if he is a good player. Weaker players don't understand that it is safe/effective to lead from holdings like dAQx against this auction, so a psych wouldn't be effective against them. This is also a good psych since there is virtually NO risk of partner doing something bad because of the psych. You of course will bid game no matter what partner does. (6) is a decent opportunity to psych against anyone. I like a 1NT opening with these cards. You may be able to play in 2M after a transfer when you'd normally play in 2♦, or your strong NT may scare the opponents off from finding their game, or the opponents may get the play or defense wrong since you have a singleton club and fewer HCP than advertised. The only thing partner can do to hurt you is insist on clubs. I would not psych 1♥ on your example #2. Partner can easily hang you by overcompeting in hearts, and it is not clear that they deserve a plus score anyway.

1. 4♣ the first time, then double if they bid 4♥. Double 4♥ as given. I wonder if the passers are "not doubling for a 1-trick set" since they are NV. This may be the most likely case, but the hand might go down more than one (or make) so you pretty much have to double. 2. Pass. Not close to bidding or doubling.

If 99 out of 100 made a limit raise they are still wrong. (IMO)

Umm, yes it does. North bids 4♠ and South can easily pass. Not that it matters much as to South's decision, but remember North could have made a forcing pass then pull to 4♠ as a slam try in this auction. He cannot do that after a 1NT response. I'd have bid 2♣ too... Except for the fact that Ben's 2♣ and your 2♣ presumably have different meanings. I believe Ben is bidding 2♣ as multi-way (either GF with clubs, GF bal, or 3 card limit raise). This will not create a forcing pass. Your 2♣ natural GF, certainly does create a FP. Not saying it's wrong, just saying these are markedly different auctions. No, I disagree with this too. I play this method in my regular partnership, and it doesn't make sense to passout 4♥ if pard has a spade LR or a GF hand, balanced or otherwise. Maybe if our suit was hearts and theirs spades we could passout 4♠, but thats a different topic.....

2♠ Michaels seems obvious, but since that's not an option.... Given the description of Raptor supplied in the thread, that seems like the best option to me. You can describe your hand with 2 bids (NT♥) instead of 3 (♣♥♥) If partner bids 2♣ (p/c ?) I will bid 2♥ which has to be some sort of game try - if pard bids over this I then bid 3♥. If partner bids 2♥ I raise to 3, and if partner bids 2♦ I raise to 4(♥)

Umm, yes it does. North bids 4♠ and South can easily pass. Not that it matters much as to South's decision, but remember North could have made a forcing pass then pull to 4♠ as a slam try in this auction. He cannot do that after a 1NT response. I'd have bid 2♣ too...

Obviously the bids at fault here are, in order of worst to least bad: 5♦: no reason at all to bid this, 5♠ is forcing if opener has 4 keys 6♦: how can we have a grand? nonetheless an easy mistake to make 1NT: RED IMPS why not GF with this hand? The methods also lose on this hand, as they basically force the 4♠ and 4NT calls.

1h-2d-2s-3d-3s-3n-pass

Looks like cheating to me, at least by South. North could just be an idiot. -Noble

Bid could work, but with no clear lead preference, length in your opps' suit, and only a mediocre hand, pass seems very clear.

On this hand a spade lead was necessary. Partner has ♥xxx, and they will get a discard unless you promote your spades right away. I asked some other ppl and they lead a diamond as well. A spade lead seems clear than this to me as pard is marked with some values here. Whether the lead works or not here does seem sort of random.

I guess I don't feel too bad about my spade lead given the responses. Partner has ♥Kx and ♦10x, so it was necessary here to lead the ♣A and switch to a low heart.

Low from ♥Axx is silly. RHO has the opposing strength. Pard could easily have an opening hand here.

A spade might blow a trick too. Partner could have ♠Qxx, or ♠Kxx and ♣QJx and you lose a tempo. (I meant ♣QJxx/♣QJxxx, oops)

heart, high or low, was best on this hand dummy: ♠A109x ♥QJ9 ♦xx ♣QJxx declarer: ♠Jxx ♥xxx ♦AKJ9xx ♣K

♠432 ♥AJ962 ♦QJ2 ♣A7 1♥-(Dbl)-pass-(2♦) pass-(3♦)-all pass Favorable, MPs

♠K1076 ♥A54 ♦105 ♣5432 (1♦)-pass-(3♦)*-all pass *weak All Red, MPs

1. Transfer then pass (or bid game over a superaccept) 2. I guess 3♠....mainly to make sure we get the right strain. Maybe pass opposite an aggressive pard 3. 3NT 4. 5s