rogerclee

I never have any idea how many days are in the month.

Director, I would like to forbid a diamond lead.

5♥.

IMPs, Red against White, Fourth Seat ♠Ax ♥KQ9x ♦AK8x ♣Jxx (2♠) - Dbl - (3♠) - 4♠ (P) - 5♦ - (P) - ? Agree with 4♠? Now what?

IMPs, All White, First Seat ♠xx ♥AQT98xx ♦AKx ♣K Uncontested: 1♥ - 2♦ 2♥ - 2NT 3♦ - 3♥ 4♣ - 4♥ ? 4♦ by partner would have been LTTC. Side Question: Do you think partner can have a small doubleton in hearts?

IMPs, White vs Red, Second Seat ♠A9xx ♥x ♦AQJ876 ♣Jx (1♦) - P - (1NT) - P (P) - ? If you double, LHO bids 2♣. Now what?

lol gnome :P. He had the bids in parentheses, and then asked what we thought of the opponents' bidding (at least this is what I read it as, it was actually just giving details about the opps' system). I thought it was a fair interpretation. Anyway I wouldn't double 3NT.

I think we are reading the problem wrong. These are the opponents, and I doubled 3NT for penalty?

Which one? 3NT gets my vote over pass. Pass is way worse than 3NT, but both are very retarded.

Almost every time I have seen these "double what's in front of your face" hands, either in match reports, tough games, or my own games, double has been right. I think it is easy to overthink problems like this, when in reality, you should double because +500 is not hard to obtain, and LHO will pull less frequently than you might suspect.

Maybe the worst bid hand I have seen in all of 2008 so far.

[hv=d=e&v=n&n=s52hakdat974ckt52&w=st976h986dq6cq986&e=saqj83h4dkj852ca7&s=sk4hqjt7532d3cj43]399|300|Scoring: IMP[/hv] I passed, my LHO chose to pass (!!!), and we got to 4♥ after West chose not to sacrifice. The other table took the good save in 4♠, so we won some IMPs.

Redouble.

Yeah, I do.

IMPs, Red vs White, Second Seat ♠Kx ♥QJT7532 ♦x ♣Jxx (1♠) - ?

I think 5♠ should ask about trumps, but I'm not sure, so I'm just going to bid 6♠.

First of all, SAYC features a NON-forcing 1NT response to 1M. So Adam is completely right. Second of all, I have never in my entire life bid 2♦ on a 2-card suit. 2♣ always! But otherwise I agree with what you said about 2/1.

Are you asking about what responder should do, or what opener has shown?

Easy pass.

I am having a hard time understanding what you are talking about.

[hv=d=s&v=e&n=sakt4hqt93da98cq3&s=s83hkj542dq6543c2]133|200|Scoring: IMP 2♥ - (Dbl) - 4♥ - AP[/hv] Your 2♥ opening was preemptive with hearts and a minor. West leads the ♥A and then continues with the ♣A then the ♣4, and you ruff in hand while E plays the ♣K. Hearts are 2-2. Plan the play.

My thoughts on the issue are to splinter in these situations, because the alternatives are much worse. If you JS to 2♠, partner will play you for showing 3 hearts, until you insist on 4♥, then he will play you for 4450. If you bid 4♥, partner will never move for slam unless he has a very good hand, because he will assume you are balanced. I think splintering with aces is underrated, especially on a hand like this, where partner doesn't have a good pitch from dummy anyway with his hypothetically mis-evaluated ♣K. I also have enough stuff outside clubs anyway for this to not mislead partner about my outside holdings. Anyway the actual hand in the OP is an extremely poor slam (and ~0% on a trump lead).

I would bid 4♠ playing IMPs, cross-IMPs, butler, MPs, BAM, at any colors, in a weak or strong field, against good or bad opponents, in a long or short match, no matter how long either of my opponents thought about their bids, regardless of the weather outside.

4♠, automatic.

What is south worried about? That north has 8 solid hearts, or that he blindly led an A without the K instead of his stiff ♣ in partner's suit? I don't like north's defense either, but south for sure on this one.