rogerclee

Agree, every one of these bids is totally clear.

Form of scoring? I agree with Han at IMPs but 655321 at MPs.

LOL

I played 2/1 and held an almost identical hand in the open BAM last year, if I remember. I opened 1♥.

yeap

Agree with Noble, just bid game with a very sound invite.

I think the difference between -600 and +500 is quite beneficial.

Agree with the others that this is a strong heart raise and says nothing about clubs. I think partner rates to have spade shortness, and obviously our hand is not so good opposite that, so committing to slam is wrong. Our hand certainly has extras, though, so I would bid 4♦ to give partner a chance.

NF, I pass.

In fact, I think that basically any sub-minimum hand with 3 card heart support and 4 spades should respond a forcing 1N instead of 1♠.

Depending on who I am playing with, this is either keycard or minors (with longer clubs). Opposite most inexperienced players I would interpret this as keycard, and opposite most experienced players I would interpret this as minors, but it depends. Good first question! Also, I would've opened 2♠.

I think he would usually pass. After all, partner knows we are taking a little bit of a shot and counting on him for something. I think partner's lack of a single club honor or first round heart control would almost always cause him to pass this, and he would not hang us for catching such a reasonable dummy.

I agree with Han. Sorry, I also don't think this is hard.

Yes.

IMPs, Red vs White, Fourth Seat ♠Kxx ♥T9x ♦KQx ♣KQT9 (2♥) - Dbl - (P) - ? If you bid 3♥ (how do you play this? for us it was a general force), partner will bid 3♠.

Thought this was a clear 1♥ bid, since bidding clubs risks losing the hearts too easily, and I don't like the idea of introducing my hearts at potentially the 4-level.

This seems like a nice auction to me.

On the actual hand I would pass and hope to bid later. As a side question, if you pass, LHO bids 6♠ and partner passes, will you bid 7♦?

I would too, but I think you will be playing in 3♠. Anyway I would pass, change the ♥J to the ♥Q and I think I have a close decision and would double.

One of the pairs is a pair of Chinese women, and I think there is a third, though I am not sure. Also Fu-Zhong is the top Chinese open pair, and they were playing on Mahaffey's team (as they have been). And yes, it is no surprise to me at least. I looked over a lot of hands they played, they are very strong players and would surely have won the Women's title if one of their pairs had not played quite poorly (no offense to the English team).

The Law supports a pass. Yes, but so does bridge logic, and I didn't even need to make any adjustments. I want to add that it's basically impossible to come up with a hand for partner where we want to be in 3♠ (that is, just from looking at partner's hand, we are probably making 3♠ and they are probably making 3♦). I am also willing to bet that the double dummy total number of tricks is less than 16, but this depends a little on what you think a 2♦ or 3♦ bid is. On top of this, it is practically a puzzle to even construct layouts where both 3♠ and 3♦ are making.

I think it is strange that there are so many people in this thread referring to the Law and so few people just saying that partner is 5323 most likely (basically always?), which is terrible with our shape, so we have an obvious pass. I think it's worrisome that there are two pages in the advanced/expert forum about the merits of the law of total tricks on a hand like this.

I think south is about a queen short of a minimum second round double.

One time I was playing a live IMP game and picked up a good hand, something like ♠QTxxx ♥Axx ♦KQx ♣Kx. Partner opened 1♠, I bid Jacoby 2NT, and at some point partner bid blackwood. Now I bid 5♥, two keycards without the queen! Partner bid 7♠ off a keycard. The trump suit? ♠AJ9xxxx opposite ♠QTxxx. Our teammates were impressed.

I usually open 1NT if I'm in range with 2254, I think it's important to preempt their ability to compete in a major. However if both of my major holdings were weak I would open 1♦. If I have a minimum I will usually rebid 2♣ unless my holding in the other major is very good. Again, this is the same for 2N rebids; I will usually bid 3♣ unless my holding in the other major is very good or I judge the hand to be a little light or think I need to declare, in which case I will bid 2N.