lilboyman

Holding a 2 loser hand with a preempt on your right showing not more than 1 defensive trick, it would seem very probable that partner holds at least 1 cover card. Hence, a direct 6 Spades by East does not seem too unreasonable to me. Partner will have little trouble raising this to a grand slam. Doubling twice doesn’t really do the best job of describing the hand. Even a jump to 6 or 5 Spades after 4 Diamonds will make it easier for West to judge what to do.

I think the 4 Spade bid sounds like a pretty normal cue bid agreeing to Hearts as trump and promiseing first round control of Spades (singlton or void).

Curious as to why 2D as transfer is not preferred.

I think both erred. 2H opposite a 2 level neg double is an underbid by N. S has a 7 loser hand opposite an opening hand and should raise to game over 2 H. If the N rebid does not promise 6 Hearts in your agreements then 3 H by S would be ok and N then should raise to game.

Since they have a fit and partner did not bid unusual NT immediately, I expect 4/4 in the minors looking to push.

A lot of people would bid 3 Hearts with the North hand showing 6-9 and 4 trumps. With the South cards some slam exploration is warranted and my call would be to cue-bid 2 Spades and partner would bid 3 Hearts denying first round control of Clubs or Diamonds. At this point you can cue 3 Spades and partner will bid 4 Clubs to show a second round control. A further 4 Spade cue would allow partner to show a Club Queen but the 5 Heart sign-off may be one trick more than you can make. On the actual auction why should 4 Hearts be a bad contract at IMPs. The Club Ace may be on side but that is not a given as many players would offer a 1 Spade overcall with a good suit without the Club Ace. Diamond are not odds on to break and the Jack will not neccessarily fall. So, I am not sure I would risk a sure game for a marginal slam at IMPs but then I am pretty conservative.

Souths bidding showed a strong hand with a probalbe 6/5 in Clubs/Spades. When South pulled 3NT to 4 Clubs I would take this as a slam invitation since 5 Clubs was available without slam interest. Accordingly, North holding 3 cover cards and holding 4 Clubs ought to accept the invite.

http://homepage.mac.com/bridgeguys/pdf/TurboConvention.pdf

No call in bridge is an absolute sign-off. Usually, 2♠ shows 5+ cards and 5-10 hcp. Opener can compete to 3♠ if he thinks his hand and the situation are appropriate. Since poster indicated 2 Spades was a 100% sign-off, I was interested if poster's partner is allowed to compete over 3 Hearts.

I should add 'if partner holds 3 Spades'

Question: If, after 2S as an absolute sign-of, opponents now compete, can/will partner compete to 3S expecting 6 Spades for the 2S call?

Aceless 9 loser hand, why open it. Maybe if NV v V, where 1S has some competitive value.

Now things get interesting.... I'm the partner. I had: ♠KQT6 ♥J76 ♦9654 ♣82 Spots may be wrong. Can you hit the brakes hard enough? Or is this a guaranteed nightmare? Our actual auction: 1♣ 1♠ 2♥ 3♥ 3♠ 3NT 4♣ P Partner correctly interpreted 3♥ followed by 3NT as denying a diamond stop (with 3 hearts and a diamond stop I bid NT directly over 2♥). I still don't know if 3♠ was forcing (I certainly took it that way). I am just an intermediate player so take this for what its worth. Upon hearing 3 Spades, I am thinking partner is singleton or void in Diamonds and by taking a preference for my Spades pis denying 5 Hearts. With my 6 point 9 loser hand, I don't want to play 3NT with no stopper and would strongly consider a pass of 3 Spades but if I need a game to win I'd bid 4 Spades.

I am curious about the thinking behind this. David

Playing IMPs, the last double doesn't seem in order. Doubling opps into game risks 520 to gain 100 or 300 instead of 50 or 100 by passing.

Looks to me as if East follows to both Spades and dummy ruffed low with the 4, Dummy cashed the Heart Jack and a then a low Club was led toward the closed hand which ruffed low and was over-ruffed by East who led a Diamond for West to ruff. So, ruff the Club high or overtake the Jack of Hearts.

It is very important to discuss this situation with partner before it comes up. I have played with people who prefer to bid with this type of hand and others who would never bid with this hand. Partner must know whether you make lightweight overcalls with 7 loser hands or if you promise a stronger hand so that partner can make intelligent bidding decisions.

I voted for not sacrificing. Partner preempted and I advanced it. If Partner had no defensive tricks, I think he/she would have taken the sacrifice but didn't. So, we may have 2 defensive tricks and I am inclined to pass.

Absent agreement that a double of 4 Ds is for the majors with values, I would guess that S is worried that a X might be taken for penalty and so pass is not so bad. Certainly, the double of 5 D is wrong if partner is showing 6/5 in Clubs & Hearts. Probably, 5 H is S's best call. But after pass by S , with a 4 loser hand in the N after E preempt and W advancing it, I thing N should bid 5 H. His guess is better informed than S.

In "Bridge Odds fot Practical Players", by Kelsey & Glauert, it is written on page 24 that "If two honour cards in a suit are missing,there is a 52% chance that they will be split between the opponents, a 48% chance that the same opponent will have them both." Contining to to page 95 where the authors discuss restricted choice it is written, "When a defender follows suit or wins a trick with one of two equivalent cards, the probability of his having both cards is halved." Hence, it would seem that there is only a 24% chance that LHO has the ten and the finesse should win 76% of the time.

The quality of the spade suit is the most important decision on whether to balance. With a very good suit balancing may be okay over the 1st auction as the opponents will be reluctant to double you to game without some spade tricks. Your RHO could have more than an average number of spades and a max pass in which case expect a double if your suit is poor and a poor result.

We are going to play 4 or more Hearts so I will go slow with 2 Clubs hoping to find out more about partner's hand before committing to the level.

I think that partner's weak jump overcall does not include an outside entry or much else outside Hearts. The best chance we have is for partner to hold 3 Diamonds. Under this scenario I am leading the Diamond King. This could result in an OT for opponents but a low Diamond requires partner to hold the Diamond Jack (they hold the Ace for sure) and a Heart while neutral is too passive for me even at MP. This Diamond King may be the only way to get Diamond trick in against some holdings.

My guess is that you held a 3 suited hand with a Heart void and not enough to double 1 Diamond. My call is 4 Spades.

It would be nice if we could see all four hands along with the results.