rogerclee

I think it is a style thing, and I lean towards 1♥. The opening that you should never ever be considering is 2♥. (Yes, I realize now that this makes me sound like a crotchety old man.)

If the question is "What did we do wrong?" the answer is nothing. If the comment is "Haha, look at how stupid my opponents are!" then I agree.

My instinct is to bid 3♦ here. I think partner probably has a mean support of around 1.8 diamonds.

I feel like the only issue with slowballs is that you can still have a slowball without it being ridiculous. 6 minutes a board seems ample.

Any strong continuation I have sounds like a heart raise. Given that I doubled initially, I feel like the only bid to make now is 3N.

Uncontested 1♠ - 2♣ 3♠ - ? 1) Do you play that 3♠ requests a cue or demands a cue? 2) Do you play 4♣ natural, suggesting another place to play, or a cue?

I prefer to play pass by N to be forcing over 5♦ to deal with problems like this. That said, I think this is nonstandard, if not wildly nonstandard. I think N decided not to gamble and was wrong this time, but that decision is far from clear. It is close for me; I would probably bid 6♥.

Easy pass for me, even w/w MPs. If my agreements were to overcall light over 1♠ at the 2-level, then this is a clear 2♥ bid, but I have tried both light and sound and believe I get more mileage out of having sound overcalls.

1) 1♦. I have no problem rebidding diamonds, and 7-4 shape is bonus. I would rather pass than preempt (by a LOT). 2) Doubleeeeeeeeee. (I am assuming I passed first round, though I would obviously still x even if I did open 1♦.)

I bid 3♣ the first time. I'm not so keen to defend w/w at MPs undoubled, and my hand is completely unsuitable for a double, since I'm not even going to get to lead. I think I'll try 4♣ for better or worse.

8 posts without catching this, including the OP. Adv/Expert :) .

This is my reaction as well.

1♠ is clear, planning on JSing in clubs. Some problems with opening 2♣: 1) You start at a higher level, making it even more difficult to get both suits in. As a consequence, partner will have a tougher time evaluating his hand. 2) Partner will not expect a hand so weak in HCP/defense. 3) There is very little chance that it will go 1♠, All Pass. If you feel so strongly about (practically) forcing to game with 2♣, you can just jump to 4♣ after any balance to suggest something like this.

3NT-6. WTP, indeed. ... :)

On the actual hand, partner (me) had ♠AJTx ♥JTx ♦A8xxx ♣x. The decision made was to bid 2♣, which I did not like (I may have stated in the postmortem that I thought the auction was impossible). I admit I was influenced by the fact that our opponents were absolutely clueless (typical average club players), and I knew that the 1NT bidder had no idea what he had just stepped in. I chose not to bid 2♦ over 2♣; not sure how reasonable that was. 1NT was probably going for 500 but at least 200. 2♣ making 3 was a poor result, since par was 2♦/3♦ in our 5-4 fit.

RKC is my preferred agreement.

Does he? Wouldn't partner routinely bid 1♠?

I thought this was obvious, but there was a little bit of discussion about this at a STaC, where a good player disagreed with what I thought was super-obvious. MPs, White vs Red, 3rd Seat ♠x ♥Ax ♦Q9xx ♣Axxxxx P-(P)-1♣-(Dbl) Rdbl-(1NT)-? 1) Do you agree with your opening bid? 2) What now? 3) Does it matter to you that your opponents are novices?

Oh, right. :unsure:

2♠

6♣. 7♣x is not guaranteed to be good at all. I hope I never get creative enough at this game to psyche or pass.

Seems worse than 50%, as I cannot pick up Kxxx on the left at all. Picking up Kxx on the left is also hard, as I only have one entry to my hand. So no.

Double. Don't think this is super-close. Yes, I suck at making these kinds of decisions.

I expect 3♠ to buy this. 4♠ seems pretty far from making to me.

Hmm. Is this really a B/I problem? :rolleyes: I think this deal is pretty complicated.