bluecalm

The problem with not creating force is that we won't be able to double them from opener side as responder will be worried to pass with good hands. I think this double should create force to 2NT but if it doesn't then we need some better agreements than penalty doubles. I think that when playing negative doubles there is not that much need for forcing passes here.

2♥ should be reverse and extras. This hand should bid 2NT = 12-14 without 5 diamonds. If you bid 2♥ with this and with 11-22hcp and 5D-4H and with every 6-4 etc. then there is no way you ever get reasonable bidding. Partner needs to know something about shape to assess his values, frivolous/serious 3nt won't help you here.

The target is a bit wider. They could bid 3S which is a win for us if 2S made but 3S doesn't regardless if 3H would make. I am not rejecting possibility that pass might be best, I just want to point out that quoted text is not honest presentation of the problem.

I think those half diagrams are fun and it's not much effort to learn to read them :)

He has to guess where 9♥ is as that line of play will lead to quick down 1 vs A9 on the right. That's the solution btw. Allegedly one of the Blue Team members played that way and declarer didn't guess. The book is "Bridge with Blue Team" and it has many beautiful hands. I wonder if they really played that well or if there is some fiction added to make them look like heroes ;)

NS were very good players and while the hand is old and bidding might be strange by today standards it's not reckless. You can assume that 8 is singleton 100% of the time. As otherwise partner would have either 3-0-7-3 which is unlikely given the bidding or 8card diamond suit which is even more unlikely.

You should try reading chess commentary sometimes ;)

If I play t/o double here (which I hope I do) I double because partner might have heart stack and very strong hand. Regardless, I think his pass is forcing and i need to bid something. This something will be probably 2N. I don't get it. Partner made penalty double so we should try to get them. The way to get them is mainly to double them with trump stack behind their trump length. If we are to achieve that partner should always pass with balanced hand without having trump stack hoping we do have it. As he will do that with any strength (the stronger hand the better !) we shouldn't pass ever.

Me neither but probably the reason is that people use judgement here when opening 15-17 hands with 5M-3-3-2 hands and opposite hands which chose to open 1NT (comparing to being forced to by the system) puppet is not that useful. I noticed that American pairs, who usually systematically open 1NT with every 5M-3-3-2 feel the need to have puppet available and I wouldn't second guess their judgement without any experience playing this style.

[hv=pc=n&n=sk63h852dat7ca432&e=s4haqjt76dqjcjt97&d=e&v=b&b=10&a=2hdp3hp4np5hp6sppp]266|200[/hv] 8♣, 2♣, 9♣, K♣ Now declarer runs 3 round of spades ending in dummy, partner following 3 times, plan your defense ! I really like it. Title of the book and solution later.

i would bid 2h but you need some good system later to show shape and strangth which might be difficult to achieve as 2D is not yet GF.

According to "law of 13" which says that every player is dealt only 13 cards N can't have penalty double after bidding 2C in 2nd round.

Duck it. Almost nobody plays their best game knowing they just blew 11 imps on misunderstanding, surely not the people who are arguing about it.

a)You need agreements as to opener bids after rdbl; standard is that you pass with extras and direct bids are weak and distributional hands which you don't have here b)passing 3♠ is candidate for the worst bid of 2012. I mean, partner showed 9 and probably 10 cards in minors, how can you pass with xxx in their suit and guaranteed 9+card fit in diamonds ?

Why would 16count bid like that in standard though ? I mean, we have double available so we use it with nice 15/ 16+ count or if we don't want to dbl we just bid 4H. I mean, if you bid 3H with 16 partner passes with 8 which is a disaster as you have 24count and 6-2 hearts.

Yeah, ok 1H - 1N is somehow manageable but what about 1H - 1S, if they bid or not doesn't change our pitiful situation, for example: 1H - p - 1S - 2X ? :(

1) 3H I think it got passed around too often on hands where we belong to 3H 2)I have no experience nor any thoughts about playing kickback so I leave it to people who do :)

I mean I am serious :) Support is terrible in standard. First of all I need a bid with say: xx x AKxxx AJTxx and that bid should be 3C. Good/bad 2NT could solve this problem but not really as 2N is also needed as natural. So if I play support and I get dealt: xx xx AKQxx AKxx or Ax x AKQxxx KJx or Ax AJx AQxx Kxx or x AQ AKJTxx Kxxx I guess i am just eating my cards if I play support double here at least with 3 of those hands (which ones depends if I employ good/bad 2NT)

What about invite to 3NT ? I think putting it into stayman is terrible. Too many bids that could be doubled along the way and describing opener shape when it's not necessary. I think you should either play that 2N is natural or that 2S is range ask/clubs. Stuff like GF with 5-5 is low priority as it's very rare hand comparing to run of the mill invite to 3N.

Easy 2C in "standard". I mean, if I open 1H and partner bids 1S/1N what's my next bid ? I sure hope it's not 4H which closes all the chances of getting to slam. If I am playing some decent system I would open 1H but in decent system there is a way to show very strong hands at reasonably low level. I hope you didn't miss the follow up: "what do you bid after the most likely 1S/1N response from partner" ? :)

I like 16+ any hand without 4 spades, still... :)

Strange stuff. If I were to design system restrictions I would be quicker to ban 2way bids than very simple stuff like PASS 16+any or w/e.

Playing "vanilla" 2/1 w/e that might be it looks like easy 2NT call. I mean, I think systems where you can't say to partner: "hey, I have strong hand without 5-5 and 4card support to your suit, what do you think?" sucks big time but if I am somehow forced to play this I choose a bid which best describes my hand, so... : a)if I bid 2D partner visualizes 12-17 and 5-4+, with average hand being about nice 13hcp b)if I bid 2N partner visualizes 18-19 balanced with 5 hearts c)if I bid 3D partner visualizes 5-5 and 18+hcp hand. I think it's obvious b) is the best description of what I have. Now, make the hand: AQx AQxxx AKxx x and it's time to eat your cards hoping TD assigns average...

It works great for me.

I have 0 experience playing vs weak 2 in diamonds. Is 3C forcing and showing strong hand or it might be fooling around ?