nick_s

One more thing... After drawing trumps, I know E had 5 clubs and 2 hearts, and W had 2 clubs and 2 hearts. So the odds are 9 to 6 in favor of W having the K♦.

How did the bidding go? I'm guessing N opened a strong NT. Does E have a natural 2♣ overcall available? Based on having seen AK♣ from E, I'm playing W for the K♦.

You've told us how good the opponents are, but not how good you are (apart from that you're playing in the B flight). This is the sort of hand where I'd expect the experts to take the normal action - 1♣. There's no need for them to do anything outlandish. They expect to win by force. I, OTOH, am looking for opportunities to go off-road. Accordingly, I'll try 3♣.

I think whereagles is quoting Robson/Seagal again. I don't think "aggressive" is an adequate description of their jump overcall style in third position at green. For them it's more like 3 to 6 playing tricks than 5 to 6. With such a wide range, 3NT to invite a save makes more sense than here. Anyway, 4♣ is my choice FWIW.

Consensus seems very clear. Thanks for putting me straight.

1C (1S) X (4S) 4N Our opponents had a bidding disagreement about this sequence. One thought it was RKCB agreeing hearts, the other thought it was 4-6 or so in the minors. Partner and I would have had exactly the same disagreement had the board been rotated. Anyone care to offer any guidance?

[hv=d=s&v=b&n=skj5hj1082d9843c106&w=sa9864h943dqck852&e=sq32hdakj65cqj973&s=s107hakq765d1072ca4]399|300|Scoring: MP 1♥ (1♠) 3♥ (4♥) 5♥ P P (X) P P P[/hv] 3♥ was weak, 4 card support. Both of us claimed we messed up. What do you think?

2♦ Who says it's not our hand? I have to show that I have some defensive strength. I haven't ruled out 3NT yet.

I must be missing something. I don't get this at all. 2NT looks like a good landing spot to me. 4♥ requires AK♦ to be onside and no diamond ruff. 3NT requires a non-club lead. (or several cards to all be well placed) I don't mind missing either of these.

I haven't discussed this with pard, but I would assume that the two sequences were the same as for Lebensohl over intervention over 1NT. i.e. Staymanesque with a diamond stop vs Staymanesque without a diamond stop. Nick

I think I'd try Blackwood. Why mess around?

Hi Pirate, The replies have provided a few ideas about managing the NT ladder that I hadn't come across before. That has been helpful, although I was really asking about recommendations for responses to a wide range 1NT rebid. If you want to investigate escape mechanisms when a 10-12 1NT gets doubled, why don't you start another thread? I don't think the subject has much to do with this one. The people on this forum seem very helpful so long as you show a little forum etiquette. Nick

Is there any inference available that pard did not make a fit jump? If there's no source of tricks then 6♠ will probably be enough.

I've already voted for 2♥. ...but I find myself wondering what 2♦ means. At the table I would take this as a general force without really knowing how far it was forcing. I just dived into Robson/Seagal (again) and see that they recommend it as showing 3 card support and a fair hand. Something else to discuss with partner ;). Thanks for the thread.

Actually you should have asked: (1♥)-? It's normal here to put opponents' bids in ()'s

Good question. In my current partnership 4♦ agrees spades because the X shows spades. In a previous partnership, that wasn't the case. We played negative free bids, so you had to double with many hand that wanted to force. In that partnership 4♦ would agree hearts.

Looks like N has an immediate 4♥ raise to me

Ok, I'll bite. Why? With 65 you can often start with the 6 then bid the 5. With 56 you can't do that so you always have to show the suits immediately. Thus partner is more likely to have 6 of the lower ranking suit. Also, if the auction gets competitive or it's a slam hand it's nice for partner to be able to take inference from you bidding one of them (in this case the higher one), that you have more of that suit than the lower suit. If you might be equal to bid the higher suit he can never really take inferences from that. Also, if the 2 suited hand is strong with 65 they will be able to bid the higher suit when you bid the lower suit (ie 1S 2N p 3C p 3D) and be at a lower level. There are 2 general principles which this also follows. 1) Make the cheapest bid whenever possible. 2) Don't have 2 bids to show the same hand. Awesome. Thanks. ...All this stuff that had never occurred to me before

Ok, I'll bite. Why?

removed nonsense 1♠

No no no 4C is clearly G****r

I think it depends on your goals for the match and how well you think you're doing so far. Pass will definitely lead to an abnormal result - which might be what you want if you badly need a top. It's definitely a bit of a view though. I expect my partner's preempts to be sound in 2nd position at red, so I think the 'normal' action is 2H. This wrong-sides the contract of course, so you may be beating the field just from doing this. Of course partner could always have a strong hand...

Wow! I'm glad I asked. Thanks for the great suggestions. It had never occurred to me to use different ranges based on the minor opened. That opens up a lot of possibilities.

Hi, I really like 10-12 NTs not vulnerable. The gains from pre-empting the opponents seem to more than make up for the losses due to getting doubled on a part score hand, and occasionally getting too high because of having to use a wide range 1NT rebid. I'm looking for suggestions to improve the wide range 1NT rebid problem in a standard system. I'm still using the methods I used 25 years ago ... no doubt bidding theory has moved on since then. Here's the NT bidding ranges NV: 10-12 - 1NT 13-16 - rebid 1NT, 2C Crowhurst is a range and shape enquiry 17-18 - jump rebid in NT 19-20 - open 2NT Any thoughts or suggestions are welcome. Nick

Passing is ok first in hand. You know you'll get another chance. I don't much like opening 2♠, you'll miss 4♠ too often. I'd rather open 4♠ than 2♠ because of the great spade intermediates. Presumably with a pickup pard you're not playing lebensohl after the TO double. 4♠ seems very reasonable - there's no obvious way to investigate a slam. Once pard blackwoods, I think you have to accept pard's decision to stop. Pard should be wondering why you failed to open 2♠ though. With a pickup pard, it's more important to build trust, so forget about missing difficult to bid slams. I do find myself idly wondering what a 4♥ response would show though...