rogerclee

Yes, it seems absolutely clear to make a 3♦ bid here, followed by 3♠ over 3♥. I expect to make game!

Agree with jdonn, over 4C this hand is easily worth a 4N bid.

Unless you are Phil, then it is impossible! I pass.

I thought you were all about talking about the bridge instead of personal attacks :P Not sure if you are being sarcastic or not but obviously my comment was because OP stated: I took that to mean he wanted this poll to be for beginner/int only. Of course technically the poll and the thread are seperate, but adv/exp posters can bias a poll pretty easily especially when they are a national and world champ!

Josh is a beginner/int now?

3D, not good enough for 2S imo.

2D, and fwiw I hate inverted minors by passed hand.

easiest double ever

I like 3N with this hand because we have enough points that it might work (if the opps have split HCP).

I disagree, and I don't even know you.

so whats the story with this one?

I think "expert standard" is that raising, rebidding your suit, and bidding 2N are all non forcing. I know some people (kokish) think that 2N should be forcing which is a reasonable and maybe superior agreement, but I don't think it is standard. Yes this leaves the cuebid a bit overloaded, but you need some way to stop in partscore if 2D just requires 10 or 11 points. He would either cuebid or bid 3N obviously. Are you arguing against a non forcing 2N or something? If so that's fine, but it is not really relevant here unless you think a forcing 2N is standard. I agree that if I cannot pass 2N then 2D becomes significantly worse/unbiddable. So what you're trying to say is 2D overstates our diamonds? Obviously I agree, and we are misdescribing our hand by bidding 2D for that reason. However, it is a nonsensical argument that we should not make a bid if the worst news we can hear is partner raising that bid. It is completely arbitrary to say "We should not make a bid when the worst rebid partner can make is raising it, but we can make a bid if the worst thing he can do is some other bid." and really has no logical basis. A better argument would be that by misdescribing our hand we increase the likelihood of getting to the wrong contract. However this is an instance where we have to misdescribe our hand, and we just have to pick which lie will give us the best chance to get to the right contract. FWIW I prefer double, but I also prefer 2D to passing. Since everyone else was passing and not really mentioning it's downsides, I felt the need to mention why I disliked it in order to stir up some debate! :)

Really sad news, best wishes to her family and friends.

I would pass playing semi forcing NT, and bid 2D playing forcing NT.

A doubleton club would also do the trick.

Agree with everything Han said in this thread except for this. You are supposed to bid 2D with this shape (and the inability to do so is a loss of BART).

I think reopening with all hands with a stiff heart and 3+ in the other suits is a big mistake (didn't we have a thread on this a while ago?) at the 3 level. I also think that 2326 is the nut shape, and with 8 points you can reasonably expect to have play for game opposite short hearts and a minimum opening hand. I also think that if you bid 4C on 2326 8 counts you will put way too much pressure on partner to bid on, and you will miss too many games or get to too many games when you have bad hands (because partner is raising with too wide of a range). This is a problem when you have unreasonably wide ranges (such as any opening hand with a stiff heart) at a high level. So even if you get to some bad games by bidding game with 2326 8 counts it will be the right action in the long run because partner doesn't always have the worst possible hand But more importantly than all of that and I will reiterate; I would expect a 2326 8 count to have play for game opposite a 4153 13/14 count pretty often. Those shapes fit together very well.

I always assumed forcing was standard, as I would assume 2D p 2S is. I think 2D X 2S is different because you can start with a redouble with a strong hand, and because there is now danger of playing in 2D X when it is undesirable.

Umm, what? Partner is allowed to bid 5C when we reopen with a double you know! Agree with kicking it in though, A fifth of clubs and out offers us pretty decent play.

Just want to point out that after 5D we should always be planning on playing in hearts not spades (passing 5H and bidding 6H over 5S). That way we cannot get a club lead through us. I agree with that plan though.

Califdude, every single top player knows and uses restricted choice. 100 %.

If 2S is forcing I don't see any reason not to start with that given that we are w/r and I'm not scared of the opps bidding something. I don't think slam is all that unlikely.

I would open 1D. If I am lucky enough to bid uncontested I will bid hearts then jump in diamonds to try and put emphasis on partners heart holding. More likely the auction will be contested, but I will still bid hearts if possible and correct to diamonds, or bid 5D next (depending on how the auction times out).

penalty

Han, how many do you think 6S will go down? I think it is very likely that it will only go down 3 on their current auction. I also think it is quite likely they will bid 5S over 5H and then sell to 6H after the 4H 5H 6H sequence. Of course it is all opponent dependent. Some opps might even double you in 5 lol :) Some opps will view your 4H, 5H, 6H sequence as exactly what it is and save anyways. But I think a majority of opps are going to save over 6H almost always and might sell to 5 or 6 if you go slower (but make it believable, don't start with 3H or something dumb). Of course it is all a matter of tactics and guesswork when you are r/w. Agree that starting with 2S might be the other good way to get them to let you play 6, and you might also find 7 reasonably starting that way too, I think 6H is clearly inferior to 2S from both constructive and tactical standpoints.