rogerclee

uhhh 3nt

I like 4♠ the most, a slam try with no spade waste. 3♥ seems like the only other serious alternative, but I think this might obscure later bidding, so I would rather just say what I have to say immediately. I will move to slam over anything but 5♦ by partner.

Matchpoints, Third Seat, All Red ♠T ♥AJ9x ♦AQJx ♣AQxx 1♣ - 1♥ 3♥ - 3♠ 3NT - ? 3♠ = artificial, asking 3NT = 18-19 balanced If you bid 4♣, partner will bid 4♦. If/when you bid blackwood, you will find out partner has two keycards but no ♥Q.

3s, I dislike every other option. I want to emphasize that on shapely weak hands like this, bidding 4♦/4♠ is a bad idea even when it is right on values (it's close here) because partner is not going to pass 3♠ anyway. When the opponents stay out of the auction like this, it is illogical to worry about missing game opposite a perfecto 6-count, in practice this hand will occur very infrequently. Given that you will basically never miss game by bidding 3♠ (and if you do, it is far from clear that this is bad), you just want to make the bid that puts your side in the best position in case partner wants to try for slam. 4♦ will just get you to way too many bad slams, since partner will expect something like your hand plus an extra working king.

yes

lol at passing the previous round, now i would bid 3c originally wrote 3h, but on second thought, that is just taking way too much of a position with a reasonably likely 5-1 heart break

I didn't mean to say that my two examples were obvious FNJs, they are not without discussion. I meant to say that I play FNJs wherever they are really obvious, like pass 1♥ 1♠ 3♥ 4♣ We are just going to have to disagree on what is a logical (or practical) set of rules for determining whether a call is a FNJ, but it seems very obvious to me why it can make sense to play a FNJ over a 1-level overcall but not a 2-level overcall. The second, on average, shows a much much better hand for me, as I am sure it does for most players. Similarly, my third seat openers are light enough for me to play the 2♠ bid is a FNJ, I would always open 1♠ or 2♠ with any 6421 hand that is strong enough to bid over my given auction. Mostly I just think that having an extra way to raise is not a big deal (if you make this bid a lot, it begins to lose its effectiveness, and if you only make this bid on classical FNJ-looking hands, then it is not frequent enough), but the natural 3♣ bid has no convenient substitute.

1) Because I am a maximum 3325, and both pass and double are unacceptable. 2) Let's say I have clubs and spades (though as above, I don't see why I can't be 3325), it is clearly better to show values here at the 3-level than to wait for partner to double and either punt 3N or go all the way to the 4-level.

Where do you play FNJ? pass 1♥ 1♠ 2♥ 3♣ pass pass pass 1♥ 2♣ 2♥ 2♠ and the various other obvious places.

Fitted is silly, would never play this agreement, it is clearly worse than natural, would certainly not assume this is fitted without discussion in a million years, even though I play fit non jumps in other situations.

LOL

You are right, this is a very difficult problem! It is difficult because we know that partner has three diamonds, but which 3 diamonds he has are very important, and he will like Qxx a lot, when in reality, that is a terrible holding. It is difficult because partner has no idea about our heart shortness or the degree of our spade support, so all of his bidding is pretty meaningless, and we are out of room to show these features about our hand. All in all, a very hard problem! Hopefully it is obvious now why 2♦ was a bad bid.

We're kicking off the new year with a bang.

uhhh 2♦

uhhh pass

I actually play it as a spade splinter with heart support, but I wouldn't do this without talking about it, and I don't claim this is best.

Abstain, 2♦ was a terrible call, 4♥ is also a terrible call unless I have weak/strong splinters available.

That is way less funny than only bidding 3♣ if you are.

The same as if RHO had passed. Maybe this is not best, but it is just so easy for your opponents to be light (or psyching). There was a similar MSC problem in the last year or two that dealt with a situation like this, I believe most people who mentioned the cuebid said that they played it this way.

LOL

LOL at not bidding 4s the previous round LOLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL at not bidding it now

Pass, didn't think this was very close. Would bid if it was hearts, since we can just be on for 4♥ opposite a good fit, but there is much less incentive to get in with diamonds, especially since 1) the probability that LHO has a penalty pass goes up a lot when we have 4 cards in RHO's suit, and with this vulnerability, LHO will pass on a lot of hands that are routine 2N/3N bids at other colors 2) it is unlikely that we have a good save against 4♠, and even if we do, it is unlikely we will find it

LOL

lol at bidding over 2c, lol at bidding again now