Apollo81

or he just has a doubleton diamond

I'd lead ♥K, lacking any other stellar options.

LOL I think I know this hand; is this from the Silver Spring sectional? We opened a 10-12 NT with it and played in 2N after an..uhh..amusing auction.

uhh 3♣? Partner's first pass suggests extreme spade shortness, he obv has a big hand so thats the only reason I can think of that he wouldnt double on round 1

I would pass, expecting no game to make our way and expecting to set if it's our hand.

I knew 1.5 of these: #4, and that #1 was over 100 yrs (though didn't remember exact number)

Actually you only have 9/10 right. Are you sure he doesn't have two? Yes, see the response I sent you.

5♦, we could have cued 4♦ so this is to play

Actually you only have 9/10 right.

Im sure LHO didnt want to "cuebid" diamonds and thats why (s)he bid 2♥.

Maybe at MPs. We might need both spade entries to cash our hearts however. On what hand could a heart possibly set? Declarer obviously has hAK dKJ, so you can never get the hearts setup before he has 9 tricks.

This is a very odd hand to use as an example. Something like this opposite was exactly what persuaded me to bid 3NT, because opposite that 5D is in jeopardy and 3NT has 9 top tricks. I didnt say you want to be in slam, I just said it had play. Youd never get to slam if partner had that, youd get to either 4s or 5d, anyway throw in the sJ instead of a low spade and slam's now nearly cold

Top spade. It would be nice to get a count signal on this so I know whether to continue high or low.

In my experience responder will often stretch to make a negative double or 4♠ bid in this auction without 'true 4-level values' so I would pass. It doesn't look like our hand. Prepared to apologize if partner has a penalty pass.

Double, taking the sure plus. There's no guarantee partner's hand fits well with ours. Bidding hearts seems like a reasonable (read: decent shot to work) swingy action.

If responder has hearts he would have bid 3♥, not 3♠. Thus I think this is a general move towards slam, probably in clubs, possibly in spades, possibly both-ish For instance maybe he has AKQxxxx x xx xxx. I think I would bid 5♥

I can sort of understand this policy for late rounds of NABC+ events that dont have a lot of players left (Vanderbilt round of 8, NAOP final, etc) because it would be relatively easy to set up a phone checkin system for such a small number of people. I can also see why this is OK for the USBF trials since everyone (pretty much) stays in the host hotel. How on earth is this going to work for an event like the 1st day of the LM pairs? People aren't going to leave their phones in their rooms in another hotel, that's for sure.

nevermind

2♣ was silly.

Pass. Maybe I am a fool, but I wouldn't have even considered any other action at the table if I had this hand. My trumps are terrible and partner did not suggest that I should bid on.

I really don't like suppressing a 5-card major. 1♠ for me.

1. 1♥, but I don't have a problem with pass. 2. 3♠ wtp, what does partner bid? I'd bid 4♣ over 3NT

Definitely 3♠, slam has play if all pard has is xxx AQxx AQxxx x

I wouldn't take 4♦ as a cuebid for spades; if your hand/spades were that good then you could bid 3♠ over 2♥. Agree that 4♦ would be a cuebid for hearts on the previous round. I blame the 4♠ bid, should pass 4♥.

3NT, good problem.