kayin801

Would not have Xed 5♣ since I will be on lead and thanks to partner's thoughtful 4♣ bid he made our lead easy. now I pass and lead ♣A and hope to win 2 tricks.

I vote that daveharty has free reign to name all threads as he sees fit. Codo has it right. I would pass without that agreement but would at least consider 2♣.

See what Andy and Josh said about 3♠, we need a way to attempt 3NT. If we made our ♣9 the ♠9 I'd try 3♠ here. 4♣ would show some extra interest in going forward, certainly better than a direct 5♣. You can play 5♣ instead of p over the X of 4♠ as forward going while pass is neutral, but you're leaving partner less room to take a call, which makes pass more forward going than a direct 5♣ IMO (or at least it should be). As others say, 4NT here should be a 2nd round spade control so 5♣ is just "STFU p" and pass says "think about going forward with a spade control.

Agree with pretty much everyone that West screwed up early by not bidding 2NT and then declined to show an A and Q worth of his/her points. I would take West's bidding to show 4-5 at least so maybe E should have bid 4♣ over 3♥ but then things might get really messed up.

The 4♣ and pass calls are both pretty forward going (could have bid 3♠ and 5♣ instead) as Justin and Andy said. Furthermore partner knows that we don't have a spade control but we have still made two forward going moves. This could be a situation where either solid hearts or the diamond K will make the hand for him. If we had both we'd probably be making a grand move, but surely we've indicated one at this point. It's not like he's forced to pass over 5♣ so I'd just bid that and let him raise to 6 if he can since he has the info he needs now. FWIW since we still have a wide range to our hand I would consider it mandatory for partner to XX with the spade A and would consider other moves forward going but denying a 1st round control. Though maybe since we haven't been able to take control of the auction after partner's revealing sequence that should indicate that we are more towards the minimum of our range. I always get fuzzy on those sort of inferences.

On the actual hand the overcaller had AKJxx, J9xx, x, Qxx. I tried a diamond towards dummy at trick 3, intending to play the A and immediately finesse in clubs. LHO split his diamond honors though, so I won, tried 2 rounds of trump, then hooked the club. Think I eventually lost a diamond and a trump but the contract came in. Wonder if aiming for 11 tricks is optimistic. On my line I guess I make 10 if I play both round suits correctly, but I was aiming to play RHO for the diamond K and club Q and could afford to do so if trumps were 3-2.

X, hoping to catch partner with a penalty pass or a 5 card major they couldn't bid (ideal), or to squeak out +110 or -50 against their +90 in a 4-3 (less ideal)

[hv=pc=n&s=sk64hak2dqt74ck53&d=s&v=0&b=11&a=1d2cpp]133|200[/hv] Matchpoints, you are playing 10-12 NT. 1♦ showed 2 or more ♦s. Really late edit: in case you didn't pick it up from the 1♦ description, you're limited to 15 HCP.

Looks like S took 3♥ as 5-6 and tried to cue in clubs with hearts confirmed, then N tried to cue twice in hearts with diamonds confirmed, but S took 3 and 4♥ as a natural bid and a signoff. I actually don't think this sequence is so bad as some others have said if that was the miscommunication. North is trying to find a way to discover club controls with partner and can't effectively find a bid to do it since 3♥, 3♠, and 3NT all have naturalish meanings. But 4♦ should be forward going and probably show no club control (and its unlikely there's no spade control on this bid) so S can show his control and I think we end up with lalldonn's auction.

Are these BBO expert/WC or actual? Only thing I have so far is that N underbid and W has nothing interesting to do. So W is whoever we have left at the end while N I would guess is intermediate or advanced. Don't think E's unblock is necessary since he can overruff dummy's spot, but the line of play certainly seems to indicate S doesn't have the ♣J so it looks pretty safe and might muddle declarer's view of the hand. South's line is weird at MP, don't really understand the lack of a club finesse with plenty of dummy entries. His line seems to make only 10 tricks unless the club Q is with E so a hook is just as good? Guesses: S advanced N intermediate E expert W WC

Process of elimination leaves a systemic low club? I don't think a heart is that bad since partner could still have the Q or we could just be setting up a slow trick in the suit when partner has the J but obviously partner's failure to X 4♥ leaves less appeal there. I would rather claim +1 for them than lead a diamond.

[hv=pc=n&s=sqhakt65dq94ckj53&n=st97hq87dat52ca97&d=s&v=b&b=7&a=1hp1n2s3c3s4hppp]266|200[/hv] Thought this hand was an interesting play problem, took a while for me to decide on a line. LHO leads the ♠4 (2/4) to the K and A. You ruff, LHO playing the ♠ 5. The format was MP, but I'd solicit IMPs opinions too. If you try to draw trumps starting in hand: then if you continue: If you try the club finesse at some point:

I would expect the Xer to have heart values or a trump stack but I don't think the X calls demands a heart lead. It just says we're getting a good score cause I think this is going down.

I would lead a spade to the J and finesse in hearts if I can make an entry to dummy. E couldn't compete despite likely holding 4 diamonds to the KQ (I suppose W could have 7) but has just enough room for the spade Q and no call, and W couldn't make a reopening X, which smells like heart length to me. I suppose alternatively E could have the heart Kx to go with the diamond KQ and opener could just have inappropriate shape to make a reopening X (3262 or something) but give E much more and they have a call.

Codo and Timo have the best of it. I guess we could have 300 in 3♠X but if we do I would be surprised if we can't make game (yes obviously there are constructions where this is the case). I think a more interesting question is what to bid if partner bids 4♦ (presumably natural and to play) over 4♣. Raise or pull or sit?

[hv=pc=n&s=sakqjhaj97432d5ct&d=s&v=0&b=11&a=1hp1np2sp3cp]133|200[/hv] You're playing SAYC. I don't play SAYC often enough but I would like some commentary to confirm or refute how I thought this hand should be bid. 1) Agree with the bidding so far? 2) How forcing/suggestive is 3♣? 3) How forcing/suggestive would 3♥ be? 4) What call do you make now? Late edit: I suppose I'll add that with this partner nothing specific is discussed, you're making stuff up as you go along, so assume no 2NT lebensohl. I would have liked leb here.

I'm sorry I didn't see that I had a balanced 17 count behind my AKQJx of spades. I actually didn't even think of bidding 1NT on this until after I saw people mention it cause I didn't look at the poll. I would open this a balanced NT if my range included the value of this hand. I don't think this is contradictory at all. FWIW I wonder if it's different when we have hearts instead of spades since it's easier for them to get in after a 1♥ overcall.

I play ELC after 1♦ openings by the opps and then over partner's 1NT or 2♣ we bid 2♦ to show the hand with both majors. We play 2♦ over 1♣ to show both majors. We're pretty satisfied with this treatment. Yes there could be problems with a big club raise of partner's 2♣ bid but if such a big hand comes up that 3♣ doesn't describe it we just improvise.

I wouldn't get fancy and just make a game forcing raise. If I can't do that under 4♠, I bid 4♠. I think I play 3NT as this kind of hand.

1C-(2S)-2NT 3S(strong forcing, probably implies shortness)-4C 4D(KC)-4NT (2 no Q) 6C I find it hard to stop short of slam. I've been in worse ones.

Ugh yes that's a neg X, as is fluffy's example hand. Idk then, make it all that much weaker and there's increased likelihood they compete to 3♠ so a passout of 3♣ is less probable. Maybe if we make partner's hand more quacky he won't X.

Maybe you could frequently psyche the pass while vul or just alert it as "pass shows 4+♠ or a hand that doesn't want to bid" ;P

I think bidding more diamonds, while operating to some extent, is a good alternative here. Our suit does rate to play for no loser and any club length/values partner has won't be wasted. That said, I would hope 4♣ is strong and forcing and so I'd bid that. I'm not worried about being outbid since I'll bid to the 5 level on my own. If 4♣ isn't strong and forcing 5♣ seems best. It's not unreasonable for 3♣ to get left in (partner has Kxxx, KJxxxx, x, xx, for example, there may not be any more bids coming)

I'm playing E for the spade K so I'd just draw a round of trumps with the J and lead a low spade to the Q, leaving clubs alone for a sec. Even if we lose we still have whatever squeeze chances arise in the end depending on what they return at trick 4. Explaining why I'm playing E for the spade K is hard :P so now I'm trying to convince myself to play W for it. Not having too impure a hand for a preempt over a possible preempt is what made me not give W too much outside the heart suit initially.

I mean, it seems pretty likely that LHO is void in diamonds if we have any decent diamond holding (which I think we need to X) but I guess the spade holding is pretty important. If the X of 2♦ is takeout then can't we have diamonds and spades on this auction with a couple cards? I had been thinking with something like Qxxx, xx, KTxx, xxx isn't it rather unlikely that they're making 2♠, since their tricks are coming from... where now? Yes I suppose they probably have some sort of fit in an unbid suit but it still seems unlikely that they're scrambling 8 tricks. So if we have a little more than the hand I gave earlier isn't 300/500 available? If we give partner 16, RHO 13 for his rebid over 1NT, and LHO 6, the hand I gave is possible and really none of the 3 of them have to have exactly the points given. My point is not that I think we should be doubling on air but I wonder sometimes with hands like these if we're leaving a MP top or 5-8ish imps on the table by not hitting the contract.