Apollo81

I thought for a while about which red suit to lead, and even joked with my LHO that I should do what she asked. Finally I led a ♥. My teammates (not surprisingly) got to 4♠ (heart led), so my lead was irrelevant.

You can still double with a hand that wants to bid a minor, then convert to the minor. The above structure just stops you from preempting in the minor. I pick up many times more raise hands than 3-minor preempts anyway.

I still don't understand how you can drive to grand, as opener, unless you know that partner has 4 trumps. I raised this issue in response to josh's suggestion that opener keycard at some point, but KQx Kx QJxxx xxx makes grand extremely poor.. and where does your auction distinguish that holding from the actual hand? It's much more likely that partner has 4252 for the 4♠ bid than other shapes, as he might have splintered with a round-suit singleton and might have tried to get to 3NT with only 3-card support. I admit that there's a significant chance that partner won't have that (maybe he has singleton ♥K for instance), but it's too likely to ignore. Also I agree with Josh (I should CTL-C this, feels like ive been saying this in every post today)

Legal or not, it's not a good idea. When you play strong club you should still open your distributional 13 and 14 counts naturally, as the opponents will usually interfere with the strong club (and then you are a step behind the other tables). For instance the purpose of the Precision auction 1M-1NT-3m is to show exactly this sort of hand -- one with the playing strength for 1♣ but a few hcp short

IMO a singleton Q, K, or A is much different than a smaller singleton, and in practice is more like xx. Change the Q to J or lower and I agree that we cannot double with that hand.

Another reason I like double (besides Josh's) is that I am ok with sitting for 4♠ if partner blasts that.

I am shocked to see MULTIPLE votes for 2♥. When I read the problem I thought the decision would be between 3, 4, and splinter. I think I would just bid 3♥, but that still feels like an underbid to me. IMO a 2♥ bid has zero merit here and is just wrong hand evaluation.

1♥ of course? Surely you're not suggesting a PASS. I'd bid 3♣ next as we could still be cold for GRAND in clubs. Surely the suggestion that we should try to play in one of our long suits is not so strange?

I agree with Josh

I would stay fixed. In my experience partner doesn't always pass the double on the hands where you'd expect him to, so I'd just take the plus and hope for a push.

You should IMO play partner for at least 12 cards in the majors since he is at unfavorable. Having said that I would certainly bid over 5♥. I'd probably bid 5NT pick a slam to cater to 7-5 hands.

I edited it a little right after I posted it.

Even if we're 100% sure that partner will take 3♦ as not a preempt, I'm not sure it describes a hand this good. I would double, and bid a natural 5♦ over partner's 4♥ bid (if that happens). If partner bids 4♠, I would bid RKC and then 5/6/7 spades depending on how many top spade honors partner has.

3♣. We're allowed to have a max once in a while. Besides even if partner has extras with a stopper, there's no guarantee we'll make game.

I also don't understand why North leapt to game when he could have saved space with a 3♠ bid. However grand could still be reached. South shouldn't bid RKC not knowing whether partner has an ace in his void. The auction at that point could go 5♣-5♥-5NT*-7♠ (*grand slam force)

As someone who does too, I would be interested in how you play (1♠) - 1NT - (pass) - 2♥ I'm interested to hear this also

i voted for 3♦ "some raise", 4♦ fit, and I'm surprised that I'm the only one

I'll start a sub-poll: which of these would you rather play: 1. 2♠ = 3+ card limit raise, 2NT = 4-card game forcing raise, 3♣ = 4-card limit raise, 3♦ = 4-card mixed raise, 3♥ = weak raise, to make a natural 2NT bid you must start with double 2. above, but 2NT is natural & invitational, and 3♣ is a 4-card limit+ raise

It seems like there are two possible meanings for 3♥: 1. "choice of games" : partner has a weak stopper and is concerned that 9 tricks cannot be taken in notrump before the opponents get in a second time 2. partner has a heart holding such as ATxx and a max (10 or 11) and is letting you know in case you have this hand. I would think (1) is the more likely meaning, and therefore I would bid 3NT at matchpoints as we should have plenty of tricks, but I would bid 4♣ (if natural and forcing) at IMPs because I also think we can make 5 of a minor, and just maybe might make 6.

[hv=d=e&v=n&n=stxxhaxxdajxcxxxx&w=sahkt8dxxxxcaqjxx&e=sxxhj976dkt98ckxx&s=skqjxxxxhqxxdqxct]399|300|Scoring: BAM[/hv] You can see that a heart lead or switch (from W) will let declarer make 4. A diamond or ♣A lead (or switch) will let declarer make 3. If West leads ♣Q or ♣J, East may not think to overtake, and declarer will also make 3. West has to find the magic low club lead, and then East has to switch to hearts.

Partner has ♠Ax ♥T98x ♦Ax ♣Jxxxx. At the table, opener rebid 2♥ and responder passed, missing a good game. It was suggested that responder should have bid 2♠, as there is a significant chance that opener has only three hearts on this auction.

I'd bid with that hand. If partner has ♥K and out we have excellent play for 5♥. The problem is that I expect partner to double with random balanced hands when I make a forcing pass in this auction. Usually my 4♥ bid is based on values and partner will not think "wow I don't have any defense, maybe we're not beating 5♣, I should bid." Here I'd expect that partner doubles almost any time he doesn't have singleton club (which means almost every time I hold a 1561 pattern). This will be the wrong decision most of the time given the actual 5-6 hand. I know it is popular to make forcing passes with a very wide range of hands because we can then blame partner for the final decision if it goes poorly. In fact a while back, I started a thread about what a forcing pass "showed" in various auctions and everyone pretty much refused to answer! But realistically, we have to gauge the odds that partner's action will be correct. Here I think partner will expect something on the order of a strong balanced hand or 1453, and will double on a lot of patterns where 5♥ is cold and 5♣ is making or only one off. You're not worried at all that partner has something like 5-3-3-2 shape and decided to sit 4♥ out? I guess making a forcing pass is a blame transfer like you said, and that this hand should just suck it up, bid 5 over 5 and hope for a decent dummy.

Either double or 3NT will work well; partner has AJT9 ATx Qx AKxx. 3NT was the contract at the other table, where 1NT was overcalled and the OP's hand invited game. Double gets the 800 though.

the local sectionals sometimes have BAMs in flight A/X instead of swisses

ok raise your hand if your partnership has discussed a meaning for a double of the opponents lead directing bid I just took partner's double as penalty (i did consider a diamond lead on this hand)