kayin801

What wyman said, but also especially that LHO is weird. Why on earth didn't he cash his spade K when in with the ♦A? Either he's dumb or he's not afraid of getting endplayed? I guess that favors playing for the drop in hearts, since LHO didn't know we have 5 hearts and could have thought before getting the count that his partner had Jxx.

You mean I have TWO good leads on this hand? Can I save one for a hand where I don't have a good lead? Mostly it's just that a club or a trump is really bad here. I would lead a heart honor but I know that can concede a tempo sometimes.

Well now I think S showed a better hand than he had then with 4♦ (extra A over game accept, but xx in partner's first bid suit) and N wasn't crazy to try for slam after a serious bid, though he should still be wary about what partner has to bypass both black suit control bids.

It picks up 4-1 trumps while not letting LHO pitch another spade on our 2nd club ruff. Otherwise agree with Justin, N did fine with their bidding 3♥ but I would bid 4♥ over 4♦, ESPECIALLY if we're cueing 1st and 2nd round controls. It's not as if 4♥ bars partner. Also would be nice to know if there were some sort of serious/frivolous going on here. Even without that N is overboard.

Oh am I allowed to win the 13th trick with the ♦7 in 7♦? Is that one of those exceptions? :P In that case I pretty clearly should have put the 6 up from dummy at trick 1.

I'd win my gift ♦7, cash my side suit AKs ending in hand (pitching a spade on the club) and ruff a heart as low as possible. The worst scenario (aside from being overruffed in hearts) is if LHO is ?24? and pitches and we misguess which black suit to ruff low in hand next. Trying to set up clubs is bad if diamonds are 4-1, right?

Edit: deleted madness

[hv=pc=n&s=skj2haqj2dkqj2c32&n=sat9543hd43c87654]133|200[/hv] 1: Club A cashing with RHO, LHO playing low 2: Low diamond to J and A with LHO 3: Club Q to the K with RHO So is the layout and play something like above, and the auction went (1H)-2S-(P)-4S or something equivalently unrevealing, and so the large hand is dummy? Can you be more specific on the play of the first 3 tricks and who had what honors? I would place LHO with ♠Q, ♥K, ♦A, ♣Q for the opening bid, assuming RHO had ♣AK, if that's how I correctly interpreted your bidding and play so far. So it would make sense to rise with the spade A and hook, otherwise the opening is on a 9 count or something. If I'm misunderstanding your post then I can't know for sure what's going on. If you're asking about this situation in general, I would take it as good opponents who are trying to put you on a trump guess. I would guess that the spade queen isn't dropping in 2 rounds but I don't think there's any other information from the play that guides us as to where the queen is. You can use the bidding though. I would expect LHO to be out of clubs, starting with Qx. Edit: Maybe this is wrong due to me not being able to understand your post (a diagram and the first 3 tricks would be nice, if you'd clarify them) but without the club count (declarer has the 5 clubs?) RHO can't know that he might be giving partner a trump promotion, so the only thing it tells me is that he has either Qxx or x of trumps, so we only know not to play for the drop. Then again there's some opportunity for cross/double-cross there too.

6♣, sometimes when partner is missing a minor suit honor he'll have the ♠A

If you have phil's agreement over 1♦-1♥-4♦ then that's what this is. I guess Qx, AKJx, AQTxxxx, - would be a really bad hand for partner to have, but any hand with both red AKs will probably have play for slam.

3♣ > 2NT

Suppose a hypothetical situation where you needed to earn the best score possible no matter what. The scoring is matchpoints (duh), you play 3/5 leads vs. suit with UDCA. Declarer is an average player. [hv=pc=n&s=s73hqt3dat9ct8532&e=sk64h92dkqj763cj9&d=n&v=n&b=5&a=1d(2+%20diamonds)2d(natural)p2sp3sp4sppp]266|200[/hv] 1. ♥6, 2, Q, A 2. ♠5, 2, K, 3 3. ♠4, 7, J, Q 4. ♠9, 6, ♣ 5, T 5. ♦8, 4, K, ?

Well our 1 + partner's "14 tops" plus the opponent who passed his partner's opening bid's 5 at most leaves opener with 20. With 20 and jump-rebiddable spades most people would have chosen something else to bid. So it's possible partner forgot our agreement, hence his ability to make a X. Anyway I'd pass, maybe partner has KQJT of spades and 2 bullets.

Not to hijack but I can't believe that you pick up a hand that fits this criteria less than 1 in 1000 tries.

X doesn't seem terrible (I assume you were planning on bidding 3♠ over 3 of a red suit) though I think 3NT and 4♠ would also have been reasonable bids. If I switched my minors I would like X better. Now I bid 4♠, should show a flexible-ish hand with a good spade suit. I wish I had an extra heart but oh well.

[hv=pc=n&s=skq9875ha6dkt4cq4&d=n&v=0&b=1&a=pp1s2s3sp]133|200[/hv] Matchpoints 5 card majors, 2♠ is Michaels, 3♥ would have been a stronger raise than 3♠. X of 2♠ would probably have shown support as well.

One more try, though admittedly this could go horribly wrong. I'm looking for overtricks anyway, right? And any extra honors partner has should mesh well with my hand. I'd bid 5♦, then pass partner's 5♠. I don't really have a good agreement as to how to reach 6♣ when partner is 4-4 in the blacks :(

3♥. Don't feel strongly about it over pass (not sure X is necessary, any plus could be good). But the opponents don't know that we've messed up so I don't see a reason to panic and if LHO is short in hearts we don't necessarily have a great score defending. LHO's competition might suggest 5 hearts with partner and we're dealing with a 3-3 break in a bad situation hopefully. Outside chance RHO was psyching I guess, but I don't feel like catering to that and really that just suggests 3♥.

Toss-up between 2NT and 3C IMO. 2NT is wimpy but my gut says 3C is the right contract a large percentage of the time (sim maybe?) so why not put it there. The biggest risk to 3C is that partner goes with a max with no fit in clubs and we just don't have tricks. I wouldn't force to game, though I'd consider it at IMPs.

I think anything but 4♠ on #1 is crazy. Wouldn't overthink it. Even at these colors I'd wager it's right more often than not. On #2 if I don't bid 2♥ I guess I bid 4♠, may as well not give away any extra info. Sorta depends on your lower limit, if partner promises at least a good 10 then just blasting is a reasonable gamble, maybe they'll make a bad lead and our heart suit will surprise them. If it can be less then 2♥ seems better to let partner evaluate.

X then 4♠ looks like a penalty X of hearts with game-going values. Which is kinda impossible. Maybe its Hxx in hearts and other defensive values, just in case partner can make a penalty pass.

[hv=pc=n&s=sa84hkt98dk62c987&w=sqt752h73d98cjt64&n=s93hq642dat54ckq3&e=skj6haj5dqj73ca52&d=e&v=0&b=14&a=1np2hp2sppp&p=c9ctcqcasksas2s3c8c4c3c2c7c6ckc5d4dqdkd8]399|300[/hv] N/S started the defense decently enough but couldn't unravel 6 tricks. UDCA agreements for defense. Where do you see chances for either N or S to do better? S doesn't need to play the 3rd club, it seems like, but it's not clear which red suit to switch to and on the actual lie it doesn't hurt. I was south, that's why I played the 3rd club, to let partner decide, though I know it sets up the 13th club. How clear should it be that we needed to attack both red suits, or hearts first?

You don't need a second negative after the balanced 2NT unless 2NT is still GF and is not 22-24 or whatever you play it as. If you have the double negative after partner shows 22-24 you either pass or transfer into a suit to sign off. If you play 2NT as unlimited then you brought this problem upon yourself.

3♥ like everyone else. Doesn't this deck seem like it has 60 points though? Either that or 2♥ can be real weak.

On this auction I would consider bidding 5♠ myself and consider defending 5 or 6♥. 5♠ now or over 5♣ seems better if I didn't want to defend 5♥. I don't see why we need to get partner involved in this decision, how different a hand can he have from the one he held? Once we X 5♣, we've told partner that he is allowed to think for himself, maybe put our ♥K into ♠s to double 5♣ since our hand is now more offensive. We are actually holding a bunch of defense and we know a lot more about partner's hand so we are the ones who need to determine how far to compete. I for one don't think west is all that crazy: "I have a heart void, 4 card support, and diamond length so partner may be short, AND partner wants my opinion?" 6♠ isn't that unreasonable a bid.