Quantumcat

When you don't know where your fit is, you need to know whether you are aiming for slam or only game by the time you get to the three-level. If you are still changing suits at the 3-level, that should be a clear indication that you are interested in slam, and you don't mind too much if it takes a while to figure out what strain you want to play in.

I would bid 2♥ first then spades at whatever level we're at, to show a 16+ HCP hand with 3-card support. It is worth this and more with its aces, its shape (considering partner's suit), and its solid diamond suit, and tens. If you swapped the hearts and diamonds, I would rebid 2♦ then over partner's expected 2♥ preference, bid 2♠ to show the same 16+ with 3-card support. If you swapped the spades and clubs, I wouldn't even reverse, I'd rebid 2♦. For the second part, I would bid 4♣ over a natural and forcing 2♠ (are we playing blackout?).

Yup that's right. With a 3-3-4-3 11-14 count you'd have to choose between rebidding diamonds or bidding 2NT. Responder should remember not to double with a weak hand with both majors and long clubs and short diamonds (but opener will likely have a reopening double if responder has long clubs so he doesn't need to worry about it getting passed out when he has such a hand).

If partner has a good enough hand to be asking what other suits you have, he probably doesn't care if you are a level higher than necessary. He's hardly going to pass on his third turn if he starts with 1♣-x-p-1♠ p-2♣-p-2♥ Since you are never going to play in 2♥ anyway, you don't really need to bid your suits in an order which allows you to play there. You may as well bid them naturally.

If you are likely to get upset when a random passes your obviously forcing bid, why bother playing with randoms at all? Much better to spend a few dollars on some robots and save the frustration. Or else call up a friend and have a game with someone you know. I would rather poke my eyes out with a blunt pencil than sit through ten minutes with a random BBOer.

You've passed already so surely you don't want to be playing 2♠ redoubled. If you did, you should have opened 1♠ or 2♠+. I would say Redouble = unless your suit is very good, let's try and play in a red suit. And Pass = Don't really want to play in 3♣, but one of my red suits isn't acceptable, so if you don't want to bid 3♣ then let's try and stick it out in 2♠. E.g. hands Redouble ♠J6 ♥K764 ♦Q8762 ♣54 Pass ♠KJ762 ♥Q4 ♦9652 ♣4

Starts off as showing both majors, but as long as you have a meaningful rebid anything is possible - almost any invite-plus hand without a long suit of their own can double. Since you are all talking about transfers, I'll share what I play. From overcalls of 1♠ to 2♥, total Switch: X = first unbid suit first unbid suit = second unbid suit second unbid suit = non-forcing takeout first unbid suit at a higher level = forcing takeout second unbid suit at a higher level = first unbid suit but super offensive (don't want X getting passed out) Notrumps = natural Our suit = natural Their suit = Cue-raise The advantage of the double showing a suit is that you get to penalise the opponent's overcalls more often. Instead of it having to be one person with a shortage and the other with a trump stack (unlikely once they've opened a different suit!), it can just be the opponents having a seven card fit with 4-2 trump split, and opener is short in responder's suit. That's it. From 2♠ upwards, semi-Switch: X = Takeout First unbid suit = second unbid suit Second unbid suit = first unbid suit Notrumps = natural Our suit = natural their suit = Cue-raise For interferences of double, 1NT, 1♦ or 1♥ we have various things depending on the opening.

My original point was only to think about your rebid before you decided upon a particular action. Just like if you hold a balanced 16 count with a five card heart suit, beginners will quickly open this 1-heart because they remember being told that if you have a five card or longer major you open it, then on the next round they can't figure out what they should rebid. With a 3541, I would still make a takeout double, because with equal length in the majors partner will bid hearts. The only "bad" thing is if partner has four spades and three hearts, in which case he'll bid spades, but that won't be too bad because the singleton is in the 3-trump hand, and it's still a fit after all. A 5341 is trickier, because with equal hearts and spades he will bid hearts. In that case I would probably overcall 1♠ and let the chips fall where they may. On the upside, I have announced the boss suit, giving us a lovely advantage in any competitive auction when pard decides to support us.

West must have the rest of the high cards. I will play two high spades. If I don't see the queen then West has it. If I see the queen I'll draw the last trump with the jack. I will play a low heart towards the jack. If it wins, I'll hope the hearts are 3-3 or that East has a doubleton ten and play Ace then another. They will take two diamonds, two trumps, and one heart on this plan, OR two diamonds, one trump and two hearts, OR two diamonds, one trump and one heart. I'll succeed if either: -Trumps are 3-3 -Hearts are 3-3 -Hearts are 4-2 with doubleton ten -Hearts are 4-2 with doubleton king with West (unlikely) -West mistakenly rises with the king of hearts Probably there is deeper analysis, but that's what I'd do at the table and I'm satisfied with its chances of success.

Advantage of system-off: Partner may have a long club or diamond suit and be very weak. Now you can play in 2-minor. You can still use a cue-bid to be stayman. Advantage of system-on: Partner may have a good hand and you need system-on to get to the right contract. This isn't too usual because he might have overcalled with a 12+ count and a suit that needs to be transferred to. If he does have a good hand, most of the time he will be long in opener's suit (the reason he didn't have a bid the first time) and will just bid 3NT anyway. If opener has a suit that we would rather got led into than through, transfers may gain us a trick or a tempo. Conclusion: Probably system-off is the way to go. BUT if you play system-on over a direct overcall of 1NT, you should probably play system on here as well in case somebody forgets.

You may want to pass it out with a minor-suited hand. It's quite possible partner has 10-14 or so and no bid (through being long in opener's suit) and responder is very weak with a long heart suit that he couldn't bid. If you reopen you may find yourself defending 2♥ making 3 instead of 1♠ making or minus 1. If you are willing to play one of your minors at the three-level, it would be nice for 2NT to still show both minors. Then, instead of the auction: (1♠) Pass (Pass) 2♦ (Pass) Pass (2♥) 3♣ (3♥) Pass (Pass) Pass, You will have the auction: (1♠) Pass (Pass) 2NT (Pass) 3♣ (Pass) Pass (Pass) Of course if you choose to do this, you might have the following auction on a different hand: (1♠) Pass (Pass) X (Pass) 2♣ (Pass) 3NT With your 19-count, and go one off when partner would have passed your 2NT re-open. Then again, you would have had to bid 2NT with your 16-count anyway and that might go one off, so maybe it's a risk worth taking...

It just depends on whether responder wants to find a suit contract or a notrump contract. If notrump, he wants a feature, if suit, he wants a shortage. Whichever you choose makes one type of responder happy and the other unhappy (because he's not getting a useful piece of info). In my opinion, when you open a weak two, you are saying that your hand looks like you should be playing in a trump contract. Most of the time, responder won't have a good reason to disagree* so showing a shortage is better. *To play in a no-trump contract after partner has opened a weak two, you would want either a very strong flat hand without support (which can take 8 or 9 tricks on its own, since without a good fit your partner's suit may not run) or a medium hand with a good fit in partner's suit. The second option is risky, you'd only want to try it in matchpoints, since with a decent fit, you won't have too many trump losers, so you may as well guarantee that their suit will be tricks by making it trump.

I play with a few of my partners that a jump shift over a minor opening is invitational (around 9-12 HCP). This means a jump-rebid is setting trumps and forcing. This agreement makes these hands loads easier. 1♦ 1♠ 2♦* 3♠ 4♣** 4NT 5♥ 6♠ * the spade response makes your hand worse. You're not good enough for a reverse (with a 2♣ response it would be though). ** May as well go along with the slam invite. Hopefully one of your two suits will be a source of tricks in a slam. Plus you have two aces. Just depends on them not leading a club and then setting up the hearts with a ruff with the diamond finesse in reserve, or else the diamond finesse working.

Depends on partner - if I am playing with someone with whom I've agreed to ALWAYS reopen up to an overcall of 2♠ if at all reasonable (proper takeout shape yes, two-suited or single-suited or length in their suit, no), I'll just bid 3♥. If we didn't specifically agree this I'll assume partner has a decent hand and pass if they are vulnerable (decent chance of 200 or more even if we have a heart fit), still just 3♥ if they are not. A small rearrangement of my hand might encourage me to bid 4♥ - say T5432, AT432, J7, 7 instead - this would make easily opposite something like 6, KJ65, KQ965 AQ5, but the original hand would have a bit of trouble (you will be sweating a bit if the opening lead is a club).

A diamond isn't too bad, hopefully pard has the king or queen and declarer has the ten, and pard will get in before me and lead through it. However if I had jack-empty, it would be hoping for too much from pard to lead the suit so I would probably try a trump.

Agree - when you have values in the opponent's suit, you think about defending, plus when you have not enough for game and a misfit, you get out of the auction ASAP. Both of these apply here! Plus the fact that with 15-17 and a passed partner, you may not even have enough HCP to be in a partscore safely without a proper fit.

Playing with someone who knows what they are doing, you might double (hoping your side can make a five-level contract, or that they can make 4♠, or that partner wants to pass out a double). Then they might bid 4NT to say "I don't want to pass this out, but then again I don't have a good idea of where we should play" after which you can bid 5♣. However with your cousin, he would probably bid 5♦ or 5♥ with a four-card suit, or he might not recognise when he wants to pass out the double, or he might pass the double out from sheer panic, so passing it out would be better. If 3♠ got passed round to you, double is fine. If you end up playing in 4♥ with a 4-3 fit, at least the shortage is in the short trump hand so you (he) won't get forced off, plus you might not necessarily have a better club fit if you have a 4-3 heart fit, and if you do, the price of finding it is having to play a level higher. Also the lack of 4♠ raise makes the chance partner really wants to pass out a double a little bit more likely.

Let's look at all the possibilities, assuming that partner can have either three hearts, four hearts, four spades, five spades, four diamonds, or five diamonds. Bold ones are the ones unique to that choice. If you overcall on the 4531 11-count, you will get a useful bid from partner when: 1. He has 3 hearts and you have a partscore 2. He has 4 hearts and you have a partscore 3. He has 3 hearts and you have a game 4. He has 4 hearts and you have a game 5. He has five spades and you have a game (unless the responder passes and pard can bid 1S with ~9 HCP) 6. He has five diamonds and you have a game 6 1/2. He has four diamonds and you have a game (not too likely you make 3 extra tricks in diamonds than NT, probably won't matter if you miss the fit) If you double, you will get a useful bid from partner when: 1. He has four hearts and you have a partscore 2. He has four hearts and you have a game 3. He has three hearts and you have a game 4. He has four spades and you have a partscore 5. He has five spades and you have a partscore 6. He has four spades and you have a game 7. He has five spades and you have a game 8. He has four diamonds and you have a partscore 9. He has five diamonds and you have a partscore 10. He has four diamonds and you have a game 11. He has five diamonds and you have a game Summary: Overcalling has one good thing going for it: you will find a 5-3 heart partscore where by doubling you won't. Overcalling has several bad things going for it: you miss all diamond and spade partscores (four altogether) and you will make it difficult to find a 4-4 spade game. In conclusion, making a takeout double with a takeout double shape, when you are not strong enough for two bids, is the best bet. (Upon reflection, this is actually quite similar to opening 1NT with 15-17 with a balanced shape, whether or not you have a five-card major - getting ~11 of your cards across and 15 of your points is better than five of your cards and 11 of your points. Aside from the fact that all of your rebids will be lies) For the rest of what you said gwnn, I guess the overcall first then plan to takeout double if they pre-empt would have an upper ceiling of about 17 or 18, if responder finds a pass, partner would need about 8 or 9 to bid 1♠ or 1NT, so if you had any more than 18 there is a small danger of missing a game. If you have more than this, 18 or 19+, you'd plan to double and bid/invite game if pard bids your five card suit or cuebid otherwise.

I say 4♠ - for a side-suit to be worthwhile with a really long suit, it has to be a good one. Why? You can be fairly sure partner is short in your really long suit, and even if he is void in your side suit, you won't get to ruff very many. And the more likely thing is you'll need to lose one or two tricks in the side suit before you can start ruffing them, and defenders would have to be pretty dull to not lead a trump or two at this point. In this case the side suit is just a bunch of losers, same as your singletons, and there won't be much difference between you having a 7222 and this 7411. However, if you have a couple of high cards, hopefully partner will also have a high card or two in the suit, and it will be a set-up-able suit rather than a suit full of losers you wish you could ruff. Treating a 7411 like a nice shapely hand and adding some points to it means you are banking on partner having a couple of trumps and a void/singleton in the side suit, or else being very strong in it to take care of making it a set-up-able suit all by himself. Not too likely. Lesson is, unless partner supports you, a 7411/7420 with a bad sidesuit is basically the same thing as a 7222. So with this hand, it isn't as good as it looks and 4♠ will do nicely.

I don't understand. What I said has no relationship to a particular system, it is common sense - if you have two choices about what to bid, and one shows more about your hand, then you generally choose that one.

If 2♣ is forcing to at least 2NT (which it is if it is at least 10 HCP), then 2♠ is forcing, and 3♠ is unilaterally setting spades as trumps, even if responder is void. In that case, responder has no need to show his shape and any suit bid is a cue.

Here are some things to think about. When you know where you want to play, you bid it. If you don't, you describe your hand and see what partner thinks of it. With your hand, opposite a weak-to-medium response, you are happy to just play in game, therefore bid it. If partner is better than weak-to-medium, they will continue on by themselves so you won't miss any slams. Splintering is for when you want to invite slam - you have enough high cards to be in slam when partner has a medium or better hand. You don't have enough for slam opposite a medium partner, so you just bid game and let partner make a move if he wants to. Another thing to think about: Splinters are a way to describe your hand so that partner can evaluate his cards better. Splinters carry the message "If you have no high cards in this suit and your high cards are elsewhere, your hand is better than it looks. If you have queens and kings (or heaven forbid, jacks) in this suit, your hand is worse than it looks." With a singleton ace, you don't want to be telling partner that he may as well throw away his king in the suit! So splintering with singleton aces will usually make your partner mis-evaluate his hand for slam purposes.

Passing shows the same hand as passing with no takeout double - less than 6 HCP. Redouble shows 10+ HCP with a defensive hand. You can still have 10+ HCP and make a suit bid if you are not interested in penalising the opponents (you have an offensive hand or you have good support for partner).

When deciding whether to make a takeout double with a good five card suit or to overcall that suit, think about what you will do on the next round, when there is a pre-emptive raise by opener's partner. -- If you are strong enough to take a second bid, overcall your suit first then make a takeout double on the second round. This will show at least 11 of your cards (five in the suit you bid, between six and eight in the other two). If, instead, you double first, you have to double again on the second round (bidding your suit would convey the impression of a very different hand). Then you've only shown around 10 of your cards, and also less about your shape so partner can't make as informed a decision. --If you are not strong enough to take a second bid, make a takeout double. Now you have shown at least ten of your cards, and if partner can't do anything himself, you can relax knowing there's no game on and pass. If, instead, you make an overcall, you will have to pass on the next round and have shown only five of your cards. This is the auction I mean: (1♣) 1♥ (3♣) pass pass ??? or: (1♣) X (3♣) pass pass ??? Obviously with such a great hand, it is good enough for a suit bid then a double on the next round (it would still be good enough for that minus a king).

You guys haven't heard of Switch yet? The way I play it: Up to an overcall of 2♥, 3-way switch: double is a transfer to the first unbid suit, the first unbid suit is a transfer to the second unbid suit, the second unbid suit is a non-forcing takeout double, notrumps and our suit are natural, their suit is a cue-raise. A jump in the first unbid suit is a forcing takeout double, a jump in the second unbid suit is a forcing bid of the first unbid suit (have super offensive hand, don't want double to be passed out). The main attractant is that you can pass out a double from being short in partner's suit, which is what we like to have to defend. Opener no longer needs a stack in their suit to pass (the takeout double implies definite shortness, but the transfer-double doesn't). 2♠ and above, the two unbid suits are switched, notrumps and our suit are natural, their suit is still a cue-raise, and X is takeout.