rogerclee

Double, and you are in great shape (vulnerable opponents who make retarded preempts after no-fit auctions at matchpoints).

I think if we splinter and partner bids 3N that leaves us in a bad/complicated position.

I would never consider 3S even if it did not promise a very good suit (I play a style where it promises a very good suit). The reason for this is not hard to see; you might belong in clubs! It is hard to get to clubs after you jump to 3S. Going slower is better for keeping both strains in play. The same argument applies against 3C; after you bid 3C partner will never think you have spades this good. In fact if you were going to raise clubs I would recommend 3♦ as a splinter, but again, it is too premature; just keep the level low with 2S and find out more information from partner the slow way. Whether partner raises 2S to 3S or bids 2N over 2S, you are well placed for the rest of the auction.

2S seems like the book/normal bid, only because I don't see why any other clever alternative would be better. In fact if you don't bid 2S now partner will never play you for 6, 2C could be as short as 3, and you can bid clubs naturally later if you don't have a 6-3 spade fit. What alternative did you have in mind?

In general I don't like to jump to the 5 level when I have some defense because it's too often that we go minus for no reason. That said I don't get dealt 9 card suits very often, so while I think I would bid 4D, 5D seems ok to me.

Agree with the people who note that partner has 5-6 hearts and couldn't bid, so double seems way too dangerous.

Pardon? The only difference is that those of us who raised diamonds are going to play 4♥ from the strong hand. This would normally be a good thing except this time partner happens to have 19 HCP with no tenaces. What is your auction after 1D-2D or 1D-3D?

I did know this! I hope they do it, as in the ACBL at the expert level, Woolsey (either with a penalty double or without it) is probably the single most common defense.

Classic ArtK78 post, I love it.

Something that surprises me is how a lot of people will pass a bid like 4S, hear from their partner that they want to defend 4S doubled, and then come alive and pull. It is inconsistent; if you were not willing to bid 5D over the set of all hands by partner, you certainly can't bid 5D over the set of hands by partner that have good defense. Anyway I would have bid 5D the first time.

Was it 3-2 hearts with the DK offside? If so, the 3D (and 2D?) bidders get what they deserve.

Double and bidding the cheapest number of NT shows about 19 to a bad 21. This is a bad 21 so I would do that.

I would just pass, down 2 seems pretty unlikely to me.

Uhh, partner didn't double because we did not promise any values! He would basically pass all hands that are 12-14 balanced! You have to double here because partner did not show an "offensive" hand, he just said he didn't have a great hand and one of his most common handtypes is still 12-14 balanced.

w/r IMPs KQxxx Tx xxxxx x 1N P 2H P 2S P P 3C 3H P ? r/w IMPs J9xx Txx Qxx Axx 1D 2C P P X XX 2S ? You passed initially because RHO tanked for forever over 2C and then passed, so you thought he was trapping with 4.

I'd double and sit for 3N (sort of unhappily). Thanks for giving me two bullets.

Agree with all the bids (IMO north is closer to moving than south).

1♣ 1♥ 1♠ swish, what have I gained? Kathryn I think it is instructive in general when someone at Han's level gives you advice to think about what he says and why it might be better to open 1C instead of 1D on this hand (and why it has some potential downside). He didn't spell it out but there are many benefits to opening 1C with very strong (41)44 hands. Ok, I will spell it out. You still get to clubs if partner has clubs (which you won't over a 1D opener), 1C-1D is now a very good auction for you, and if for some reason the opponents end up declaring some number of hearts doubled you certainly want a club lead, not a diamond lead. On the downside if an auction gets competitive (they bid hearts) and you double, partner will often be endplayed into hoping you have 5 clubs (after all, you opened 1C). There are even auctions where he would be scared to mention his 5 card diamond suit and instead would take a preference to his three card club suit. This is especially true if in competitive auctions you don't play 2N is some kind of scramble for the best strain. Also it is a general theme that opening a type of hand (4-4 minors in this case) with two different bids depending on your judgment is not good, because it makes both of those auctions harder. In general it is good advice to any aspiring bridge player to not only follow expert advice (like open 1D with 4-4 minors in general) but think about that advice (like whether or not you should open 1D with 4-4 minors on this particular hand). You will find your game progresses much faster this way.

I'll just throw it out there, I think 2S is fine.

IMO it pays to balance in this position even with something like 3514 shape as long as the suits are good. 5-5 1525 is really a no brainer.

you are a joke

Not only would I respond 1H but if partner jump-raises to 3H I would bid game.

Results: 1) I thought about a lot of things but in the end I bid 2N at the table and went down 3, teammates were in 3N making (it's cold) from the other direction for win 3. If you bid 3C LHO has to decide what to do (he has KQx void AQJTxxx Qxx), probably pass, leading to a quiet -100 or -200. If you pass, it probably goes float and 2H is off 1. 2) Slam was cold and partner is more than happy to cooperate, he has AKT Ax AKQ Kxxxx. I bid 3N. 3) If you double partner should leave it in and you will lead a club presumably, -950. If partner decides to bid 5S (he has Jxxxxx T9x T9 Jx) it's down 4. Shorter summary, mark is the nuts.

3H, support with support.

6D is the worst bid since it is just not bridge, you have a hand which is not good at all for saving (bad trumps, doubleton heart, etc) and might have already won a lot by making your completely marginal preempt. Not doubling 5D is pretty terrible, I would call that second worst 5D was pretty aggressive but not crazy. Bidding 4H instead of 4D was bad but understandable if he didn't want to make a 1-under cuebid when partner on average has 1-2 diamonds (and so his AK is not pulling its weight).