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gwnn noticed the conditions, he may be the only one!

Agree with those who say that 2♦ is wrong rather than being a matter of style. But sure, if we are ranking the bids, 3♣ (instead of double) is much worse than the 2♦ overcall, in fact it is so bad I can only guess that North has a policy of not allowing partner to play any hands. Having said all this, I can't say I would get to 4♥ either, particularly if they raise to 3♠ immediately.

3NT of course, when I saw this 'problem' in the expert forum I assumed it was an rduran post!

Pass is truly horrible. You have one (1) card in the majors, a preemptive type hand, and not many values. You are dealer, and have the chance to make a high level bid before the opponents exchange any information. A strategy of passing, waiting for the opponents to bid to a contract, and unilaterally saving after they have exchanged a lot of information is an excellent way to go for a number. Also, you have misapplied the phrase 'the 5 level belongs to the opponents'. It means when the opponents have bid to the 5 level, we don't want to bid over them. It does not mean we never bid 5minor.

Hog, haven't you read the thread? PhilKing provided you with a link with some evidence, but my opinion (yes, just an opinion!) is based on a combination of what I think works for me, what the top players actually do, and the logic of the thing (playing a strong club allows you to open light without partner becoming over excited, so deliberately passing a fair chunk of openable hands makes no sense). Saying it is silly to claim that passing these hands is wrong is, well, silly, and your having read a 30-odd year old analysis claiming that passing these hands is the way to win imps doesn't influence me at all, sorry!

Agree that playing a strong club and passing 11-12 balanced hands is very poor.

Not sure where to post this, but is anyone else sick of seeing Lurpoa claiming a 20th birthday in the birthday list every few days, can't something be done?

Search for posts made by pclayton around May 26/27, 2008 (the date of Jdonn's post).

1♣ intending to rebid 2♣. I don't much like a 1♥ opening, but having accidentally opened 1♥ I really don't like pulling 3NT to 4♣ - it seems that most of the time partner will give preference to his doubleton heart and you will be in an ugly 5-2 fit, in danger of bad breaks after the preempt, or of just being tapped off. Maybe you could pull 3NT to 5♣, or after 4♣ bid a possibly ambiguous 5♣ over partner's 4♥ preference, but all of these problems are avoided by the normal 1♣ opening.

Oceanss, how you should evaluate the hand is that it is a balanced 9 count with 4 card support. I wouldn't worry too much about the heart suit being bid over you, in fact with such solid pips sometimes partner will make a couple of tricks there. As to what to bid, after an overcall a bid of the opponents suit is a cue raise, usually played as a good raise to at least the level of the cue. Here, 3♥ is the cue raise, and that is what I would bid, showing a hand worth (at least) a raise to 3♠. If partner only rebids 3♠ we can pass. 3♠, more of a courtesy raise perhaps, can be saved for weaker hands - for example a similar hand with only 3 trumps.

You are right, barmar's explanation makes no sense. Even so, this is a good way to play 2minor rebids over 1NT. If partner bids a suit after your takeout double (instead of 1NT), you will never need to remove partner's bid out of fear, i.e. you double showing at least tolerance for the other suits, partner picks one of these suits, end of story. Removing to a new suit therefore shows a good hand (assuming no ELC). However, suppose you have doubled on a 0454/0463/1453 etc 9-10 count or so (depending on vulnerabity etc), why should you be forced to be dummy in 1NT, knowing you probably have less than half the deck and a decent contract elsewhere? Being able to bid a 5 card suit NF seems more logical. If you do have the strong hand, you can bid 3♦, 3NT, etc, so you lose nothing by playing the 2 level bids as weak.

I thought there was already a poll for this, but the one I was thinking of is a bit different: How long have you been playing?

Can't think of doing anything except opening 1♠, what am I missing?

I don't think anyone here would overcall on this. What is the point? I would overcall 1♦ because it gets us into the auction, partner may be able to raise, or bid a new suit, or make a takeout double, lots of good things can happen. Now hog, your level of expertise makes you well qualified to give an opinion on what you personally would bid, I am not so sure that it qualifies you to give an opinion on what anyone else would bid!