Hanoi5

Is it a convention where you're killed making Texas? Mejor en español, es una convención en la que te conviertes en muerto después de Texas.

Doubling sounds nice but then we might have to show our two suits at a very high level. 1♠ for me.

Pass, double and 1NT all have their merits. Double gets the Majors into the picture right away but the dreaded 2♣ from partner makes it less appealing. 1NT is apparently right on the values but we have a singleton and since we don't have a proper stopper in their suit we should be maximum (14HCP's). Pass will have us defend instead of competing which doesn't sound very 'law-abiding' or just aggressive enough. I'd take my chances at doubling.

I play it as a heart raise but that may be wrong. You have 3♥ and 4♥ as raises so you could play 3♠ as asking for a stopper (you could even play it as both...)

I'll choose 7♠ but I'm more worried about the level than about the denomination.

Hm, a small spade? I expect partner to have K865. If I held the Ace I'd play it first and then another spade. If partner held the ♥K he should have played a higher spade on the first trick I suppose.

I think 4♣ would show the Majors and a fairly good hand. I think we have both, especially because of the distribution. Partner should have at least a 3-card Major. The lead will also go up to him. I'd bid it.

Really? I have almost the same horses actually. After playing ♣AK and ♠KQ I'll know if spades are breaking and then I can play diamonds and win against Qxx or better. If trumps don't break I'll ruff the club loser, play the ♥Q which could be covered (!) or hesitated upon. And if nothing like that happens I win in dummy run trumps and get to the ending mentioned above.

Pass is my choice, too. Even if 2NT is natural (which I suppose it is) it is too much for our hand.

I'm no expert but I think both doubles are OK. The problem here is probably whether to believe in the opponents or not. Is 4♣ going down? Hopefully not so I guess I'd try 3♠.

I'd prefer to be South and get a heart lead than North and get a diamond lead. South is declarer. Anyway, with a club lead I thought I'd try trumps, if they're 2-2 diamonds can be established unless Qxxx or worse. If trumps are 3-1 you can get to this ending: ♠x ♥xx ♦x ♣--- ♠--- ♥J ♦AKJ ♣--- and lead the last spade tossing the ♥J unless it's good and then... well diamonds depending on the discards and whatever. I guess you'd also get to this ending if a heart was led. But the dude's line sounds nice, I just thought I wanted to keep diamonds untouched before knowing about trumps though.

There is a web-page with that program. Anyway the advice from Kelsey was to count distribution instead of sheep. This is good, there are only 39 of these numbers.

[hv=pc=n&s=sa62hqj5dakj62cak&n=skqjt94ha64d4c942]133|200[/hv] You get to 7 spades, what's the best line?

I'd recommend using a Howell movement instead of an arrow switch.

I don't have any agreement about this sequence but I always play that when they intervene our NT (or we bid NT over their opening bid) the level of 4 remains the same: 4♣ choose a Major, 4♦ heart xfer, 4♥ spade xfer, 4♠ asks for the number of aces, 4NT quantitative. But in this case I don't have any agreement I guess in the case of diamonds (when they opened hearts) it sounds better as natural to play and in the second case I like Ken's option (asking for how good the stopper is).

Care to elaborate? How shall the system be changed in order to make west bid?

[hv=pc=n&w=s4h986dat76cq9743&e=sk872h3dkq5cajt85&d=n&v=b&b=13&a=p1d(2+%2C%2011-15)1hp2hd4hppp]266|200[/hv]

Exactly my thoughts. Well, not exactly, I thought 'Wow, they fired H&Z!'. Some I've talked to say it's because Zia is more like a 'solo' artist and apparently that's not well regarded in sponsored teams. Some just said they were blamed for not reaching the BB. It'd be nice to know the opinion of people in the know... of people close to Hamman... ;)

Double should be TO here. That's what I'd do.

2♥. And possibly diamonds later. 2♠ is Michael's only if we had already agreed upon it and we have AK tight in a side suit. Double seems like masterminding.

What Helene said.

[hv=pc=n&w=saq43ha732d542ck5&e=sjt852hqjt96d3ca2&d=e&v=e&b=6&a=p3c(Diamond%27s%20preempt)p3dppp]266|200[/hv] Who did worse? How is 4♦ by East on the 2nd round? Even if E/W don't have an agreement, is it better to double 3♣ (or bid 3♦ for take-out) or double 3♦ the second time?

Teams, white vs red: Pa-1NT(15-17)-Pa-??? ♠KQx ♥AT8xxx ♦xx ♣xx

Teams, you're red, they're white: ♠863 ♥AQ82 ♦J9872 ♣5 2♦*-2♥**-3♥***-??? *Multi **Natural ***Pass or correct What's your bid? For a continuation:

1♣-Pa-1♥-1♠ ??? Now what?