effervesce

I double on both. If partner has xxx AKxx AKxx xx 4♥ has play on the first hand, and is one you want to be on the second hand.

I pass. It's very unlikely that slam is on (eg Kx Kx AKJxxxx KQ and you're still off two aces). If you bypass 3NT, then you're probably not going to be able to signoff in NT below slam. At MPs, prefer 3NT to 5m.

23-25 would have opened 2♣.

3♥. Aces are undervalued, and you have 4 card support. The hand has an amazing 24 ZAR-2♥ may work out, but is too pessimistic for me.

Hand-dealt hands are often more 'boring' due to the way we shuffle. After a hand, they are collected, often with cards of the same suit grouped. Thus, when dealt 1,2,3,4,1,2,3,4 the hands are thus actually artificially 'boring' compared to real randomly dealt hands. The advent of computer dealing seems to deal more 'freak' hands than hand dealing, but in fact is due to the truly random dealing nature of the computer compared to hand-dealing.

You could always try ruffing out some spades to remove east's spades. If you ruff out east's spades, then after drawing trump, play off the clubs, you could try running the 9 of diamonds if west doesnt cover. [EDIT] didnt see the dummy reversal :( so stupid of me.

1♠, rebidding 2♥ for me - IMO a less of a misdescription than opening 1♥ and rebidding 2♥.

At first glance you consider what likely distributions you can make or can't make. LHO sounds like having 7 clubs and 3 spades. If trumps are 2-2 you can make since diamonds are 3-2. If trumps are 3-1 LHO having 1, then diamonds must be splitting 3-2 again. If trumps are 4-0 unfortunately you cannot make as they can tap dummy and thus can be ignored. If trumps are 3-1 LHO having 3 then RHO must have 5 diamonds and you cannot make either. If LHO has a singleton diamond and therefore 2 trumps you can still ruff the diamonds good on the line: A clubs, A diamonds, diamond ruff high, trump lead. Trump spade lead and continuation, diamond ruff high. Trump to dummy, ruff diamond, trump to dummy, claim. What if LHO has 6 clubs and 3 spades? If trumps are 2-2 then diamonds must be 3-2 and no problem. If trumps are 3-1 with LHO having 1, then diamonds must be 3-2. If trumps are 3-1 with LHO having 3, then diamonds are splitting 4-1, LHO having a singleton diamond. You can't make on this layout as you cannot ruff high enough times.

It takes more than ♥Jxxxx and ♥Ax with declarer for a heart lead to succeed? Given you have 4 hearts vs 3 spades, the chances of partner having Jxxxx of spades is indeed higher than having Jxxxx of hearts (declarer has at least two spades and two hearts- thus there are 8 spades left to be divvied up vs 7 left for hearts between LHO, CHO and RHO)

I'll agree with the others that 3♦ is a wasted bid, as it is standard to play it as a help suit game try. If, however, it was a short suit game try (or long suit game try) it may be worthwhile bidding 3♦ then 4♠ over partner's response to try to persuade the opponents to lead another suit (preferably hearts or clubs)- ie as a tactical bid.

i'm agree with gwnn

3NT at both forms of scoring.

X.

With a random pickup I'd have rebid 2NT. On the auction so far, I'll bid 3♥-the failure to raise partners hearts earlier denies 3 card support.

Bad luck then. Swap your minor holdings (or your partner's minor holdings) and the lead of the A is required. Complaining about leading the A due to it not working on this board is results merchanting.

Ok. I call BS on this statement. I think as far as offensive strength goes, this hand *IS* a 2♣ opener. Maybe responder should force to slam because you and your partner have agreed X or Y, but that is a style question of course. I certainly know plenty of players that have agreed that a strong and artificial 2♣ opener can be this hand. Edit: Not that it will change your mind in any way, but in the K&R evaluator, this hand is 23. The problem is, when partner holds an unsuitable 10+ count, he will not stop short of slam. This sort of hand is exactly what he doesn't expect you to hold for a 2♣ opening. Opening 1♦ then reversing into hearts then rebidding 5♦ describes the hand without distorting the overall high card strength.

Isn't the first X takeout of diamonds? Then the second X could be a responsive double which is probably more useful. Opener has 9+ cards in the minors and responder has at least 7 cards in the minors-therefore have at least an 8 card fit in a minor. I guess you could say the second X shows 4+ clubs though I guess, much as (1x)-X-(1M)-X shows 4+ cards in the major.

5♦. Don't want to allow the opps to be able to bid their suits safely at a low level and find a cheap sac or double-game swing.

I take the low road and pass at MP. Too much in spades, and crappy J's. If partner has a 4153 or 4351 shape hand game could be pretty decent though. 4♠ more likely to be better than 3NT with nothing much outside spades, and in any case will likely score better at MP as suit contracts usually get a trick extra.

The finesse is 2:1 odds on. Of course every decent bridge player will take the finesse (considering the suit in isolation) unless the rest of the hand demands otherwise (safety play, etc)

I'd double, rebidding NT over partner's probable heart bid. I'd prefer overcalling 1♠ to passing. The double doesn't seem as risky as it looks-if partner responds 1♥, you can rebid 1NT. If partner responds 2♥, you can rebid 2NT. It's only when partner bids 3♥ or 4♥ you can get screwed over.

North bisbid. I don't blame south-he just answered north's question about a diamond stopper. For all south knows, north may hold the AK of clubs.

No fit showing jumps? :-) In the absence of FSJ, I bid 4♥.

In essence, they're talking about using hydrogen as fuel, by using electrolysis to convert water into hydrogen gas and oxygen gas. However- water is not a fuel. Hydrogen and oxygen are the fuel. Water is merely the source for producing the hydrogen and oxygen when supplied with electricity. There are many major obstacles with implementation of such a so-called hydrogen economy. First of all-we still need fossil fuels. Most electricity is still produced from coal and oil power plants-if we're using electricity for electrolysis, it means that instead of burning the fossil fuel at your car, you're burning it at the power plant. Admittedly, this is beneficial as burning fossil fuels to produce electricity would be more efficient at a power station than your car. The other main problems- energy density. The problem with hydrogen gas is how to store it-there have been many materials used to adsorb and store hydrogen, but their capacity is so limited that such cars would not be able to travel very far at all. The energy contained in 1L of gasoline (density 0.75g/ml) is about 60 000 kJ. 1L of hydrogen gas (1g fills 11L) is 10kJ per mol. Therefore to store energy in hydrogen as the same density, you'd have to have the hydrogen at a pressure of 600 atmospheres! Difficult enough to pressurise gas that high in a laboratory, but for a car? Too dangerous. The alternative at the moment is to adsorb hydrogen for storage-but currently only a few (~5%) by weight. So a 'hydrogen battery' weighing 1 tonne would store only about 50kg of hydrogen. Another problem - ensuring the gas does not escape. You've played with balloons. Hydrogen is extremely difficult to store, as it is very difficult to make a storage container with absolutely no leaks-and very impractical in any case to do so.

Partner's 4♥ bid was bad. Despite having a void in your suit, he still has a huge hand with a great 5 card sidesuit. The whole point of 2/1 is to save space for slam investigation- why then waste it by bidding 4♥.