andy_h

System is bad. Having said that, North should make some sort of move. 2 aces, fifth trump, 5422, gotta make a bit of noise at the risk of playing at the 5-level which is usually fine.

I like a style where I can choose between opening 1M or 1NT (although you'd generally need some system follow-ups after 1M-1NT or 1H-1S). If I can choose, I would almost always choose to open 1M with a small doubleton, so 1H is what I would open here.

6D, I'm feeling lucky. But I'm afraid if 6C might be the better contract.

Click here My partner (unintentionally) got to this 11 card ending - not sure if it counts since she had to lose the final trick (though it would have made it so much better if somehow South had the ♦K for a double whammy but unfortunately the contract would have failed at that point). Thanks to this thread I was able to see and appreciate these kind of endings and mentioned it to the table, however nobody else seemed to be as fond of the ending as I was.

Something similar: http://www.bridgebase.com/forums/topic/49237-double-q/

If we hit partner with a major, haven't we rightsided? Don't we prefer to have the lead going into partner's hand?

On number 2, maybe I'm being a perfectionist, but I would prefer it to have a spade stopper. I understand that in other types of auctions such as 1m-(1S)-Dbl-(Pass); 1NT or 1m-(2S)-Dbl-(Pass); 2NT where the NT bid may not have a stopper (which is OK since 4th seat didn't support), but here on this auction the opponents have bid and raised spades - I'm not sure why we must wrongside the NT's now. I guess the only time where the hands that contain no spade stoppers will be ones that are exactly 3=3=4=3 shape since with a doubleton spade you would have another 4 card suit (or 5 diamonds) to bid with. So I guess what I'm saying is with a 3=3=4=3 shape I prefer a 3C (or 3D?) lie than a stopperless 2NT. This way we can still get to 3NT from the right side (or 4H on a 4-3 if need be), and partner won't (shouldn't?) be quick to get excited to play in 5m when I could have some balanced hand such as 3=2=4=4.

I open 1m (whichever is systemic). These aces are too good especially when they're coupled with a nice honour combination in both majors. The stray jack of clubs is a negative feature, but not enough to persuade me not to upgrade. I guess on average partner will have 7 highs and he will never be stayman-ing my 1NT opening (sometimes with 8 highs too). I guess it's not about wanting to "upgrade this to an 18-19NT" but rather hoping for the auction 1m-1M-3M-4M when partner will be passing a 1NT opening. Yes I may get to bad 4M game, but sometimes it gets us to a good game, or a bad one that makes, and I'm willing to risk it rather than to play in 1NT. As a side note, last two times I opened 1m with these type of hands, one it got us to a cold game when partner had the exact hand type I described (balanced 4234 with 7 highs) when the rest of the field played in 1NT+3, and second time partner had a complete yarborough and opponents bid to an aggressive 3NT doubled for one off - take it for what you will.

3D is an invitational jump shift and I'm looking at ♦AKTx and a void in clubs? Nice, I will bid 5D over RHO's double - I'm expecting to make this, and I wouldn't be surprised if it makes an overtrick!

Don't really know what 4C is but looking at this auction and vul I'm afraid one (or both) of the opponents are jokering.

No blame. It's truly unlucky that East has the worst possible junk and N/S don't have game on. When I open 1M with a 7 card suit and get raised by partner, I quite like just bidding game and it has worked out well for me - I don't see this hand as an exception. So many things can go right such as pushing the the opponents too high to defend at the 5-level, or we go one off when 4m/5m was making etc. What I don't want to do is to mingle around at the 3-level giving the opponents free reign to exchange some information to know whether they should be bidding 5m to make or to save because I'm sure if we don't bid 4H now we will be doing that on the next round of the auction. Give them the last guess.

Yes I bid 2NT and I don't find it that scary, I want to fight for the partscore looking at my singleton heart. If RHO does have clubs, then there's a good chance that either partner will have a diamond fit for us, or LHO will compete further in hearts.

Was this teams? If so, did your teamies play in 1DX making two?

(2). If partner responds 2H I will raise to game, if partner responds 2S I will invite with 3S. I hope we are playing something along the lines of 1NT-2C; 2D-2H; 2NT as a maximum with no fit (passing with min) just in case we have an invite based on distribution rather than HCP.

Double, not close.

You hold ♠ --- ♥ T9876xx ♦ Jx ♣ KJxx Nil vul, partner deals and opens 1♠. It's matchpoints. RHO overcalls 2♦, you make a negative double (sorry, you're not playing NFB's), LHO raises to 3♦, partner doubles and over to you. Is this obvious? Does the level of your opponents matter?

First instinct was to cue 4S because I think we have a good hand. SA, 4th trump (with the Q) and the doubleton club, which might just be enough for what partner's looking for (maybe he has Qx x AKxxxx AKxx with the opening leader having the SK). Our 3D bid is just competitive and it can be made with a wide variety of hands, including some hands with just 3 card diamond support. However, I'm not sure why partner bid 4D instead of 4C over our 3NT. If partner truly doesn't have a club control (KQ -- AKJxxxx QJxx?) then I better just bid 5D now instead of 4S.

Agree with steve2005. With all of the bidding space in the world, I don't really understand how a hand wants to quant now when you haven't even tried to search for a fit. Last I checked, opener could be 3154 or 0454 or 55/64/74/65 in the minors! Not to mention the people who open 1♦ and rebid 2♣ with 45 (a style that I hate) then opener can have many more possibilities.

I don't know much about acol but I do know that opening unnecessary 1NT with a singleton is losing bridge. Here your stiff is the Ace of clubs (therefore length in the majors) so the last thing you want to be doing is to open 1NT and have it go 1NT-all pass and miss your major suit fit when you can potentially have a game on. Sure the last thing we want to be hearing is partner responding 2♣ but who says partner will do that? Maybe partner will respond 1M or 1NT or raise diamonds, or maybe it's the opponents who interferes with clubs and partner can bid a major suit or make a negative double etc etc.

North should set spades. You can bet that the ♠K is a huge filler, and when the spades are not solid you would most likely prefer to be in 4♠ too in case opener has nothing in diamonds. I also 100% agree about opening North's hand. You don't really know the value of the ♠K as it could be very good or very bad, but all in all it's a 12 count. What makes it even worse is the vulnerability! You certainly don't want to give the 3rd hand favourable opponent a free chance of chucking in an onion.

A: Raise to 2H The rest: Pass

Small, but I play 3/5th as well. If I were playing 2/4 leads then I would prefer the middle.

Yes I think I would accept. No spade honours is a downside but I think my two (good) four card suits are just enough to compensate that especially with the club ten playing a huge role. Am I to assume partner has a 16 count (or pretty good 15) given that we would "accept game" with most 16's opposite an assumed 6S 7+-8 count? Well, here's to hoping partner has enough quacks for some juicy fillers! What are my methods over 4NT here? Maybe I should just bid 5NT to repass the buck to partner - but how is partner meant to know which quacks are good? HAJx DJ CAJx would be an awful combination but HA DQJ CJ would be a great one. On the other hand, I certainly don't want to be in slam in the (unlikely) event that we're off 2 aces if partner has the dreaded AKQJx J10x QJx J9 or something like that.

1H and 2D is clear. I hate 1NT because it could bury our major fit which is v bad when I have a 5422.

+1. Who cares about keycards when you just want to first find out if partner has 4+clubs