MFA

With standard agreements, 2♠ is a huge underbid. It shows roughly 13-16 with 6 spades. 4♠ is clearcut.

For me, 2NT would be scrambling. Which is (of course) fair to discuss the merit of. We have the general agreement that whenever 2NT was lebensohl on the previous round then 2NT is scrambling now. At least it's an agreement.

As mikeh. It's a very rare day where I don't spend time on reading, thinking etc. etc. about bridge.

I would tend to go for the slow death, but table presence could mean something here.

3♣ for me.

3♥ setting trumps then 5♦ voidwood over 3♠/4♣ cue?

No, he doesn't balance lighter than everybody else. But he does like to bid spades, though. :D

Easy pass.

That would be very unusual. As I understood the bidding, the 1NT bid was normal and natural but just happened to be flawed.

I think it's resulting not just to raise NT's with the north hand. This is also why I don't find the 1NT response at all clear-cut.

I feel I would have the obligation to do everything I can to avoid this misunderstanding. If I see an opponent with a wrong convention card, I will warn him. Unless I felt my opponent had been really careless and only had himself to blame for the incident, I would let him change the bid when no harm has been done.

I can't find a good bid that describes the east hand well, so I'll settle for a slightly conservative 5♣ leap.

Ah ok. It's a general rule, not specific for screens. Didn't know about it. As I said, it just doesn't seem sensible to me in any way. Could anybody give me a good reason for having this rule?

I would have bid 4♠ before, but now I pass. Partner's double is penalties, not some weak t/o.

I see. When I initially read the post (and responded) it seemed to me that the question was along the lines of "should we be a nice guy and let the opponent correct his mistake?" Not "might it be beneficial to our side to let him correct his mistake?" Me too. I don't think those change-the-bid regulations are sensible. It becomes a strange poker game where one doesn't know if the opponent is being friendly or actually prefers to have the bid changed himself too. Much better to do as we do in our national tournaments. When a bid is released on the tray it can't be changed.

No sir, your bid stands.

I have never practiced the above cuebidding technique, but that it should be wise to bypass a 4♥ cuebid in this sequence with the ♥K seems pretty surreal to me.

Is that ♦65432? Even the 7 might be valuable! I try 2♦. I have great respect for partner's 2-level overcalls.

For me, 3♣ is completely out. If there is one thing, I'm not about to do, then it's underbiddng my good support. 2NT. With X 2nd, 3♦ 3rd, 3NT 4th choice.

We have to bid. We could easily have game. Or at least a making partscore. Giving up because we don't have a perfect bid is a sure way to get bulldozed in the long run imo.

I would surely pass if partner bid 3♦ over 2♠. It's not necessarily so great if partner bids diamonds, but at least it will be his best suit.

[hv=d=w&v=n&n=skjt7htdk765cj853&w=saq9652hqj8d43ckt&e=s83ha943dqjt98c96&s=s4hk7652da2caq742]399|300|Scoring: IMP[/hv] At the table south tried 2♥, which west calmly passed out. 2♥ went down one after a ♦ lead, although it probably could have been made if declarer guesses to play a trump to the K immediately. I was kibbitzing and thought I would probably have doubled 1NT myself. But 2♥ is also reasonable. I don't like 2♠ at all.

No, pass.

I tried 5♦ which led to a not quite good enough 6♥, down 1. I think a crucial point here is that partner will have a tough time moving towards slam over 4♦. There are no in between bids available and we have all the 5 key cards. But it's close to try again over 4♥.

My 1NT in this sequence is much more NT oriented than for instance 1NT in: 1m-(1♥)-X-(p)-1NT where it just shows a balanced hand. Partner won't have a balanced hand here unless he is strong enough for a slam try. So it's hard to see that we belong in 3NT. But let's see. I'll bid 2♠ now which will usually be a good 3-card suit. If he continues with 3m over this, I'll raise.