655321

I am in the pass then 4♥ camp, with spade length and no clear bid I am happy to pass. It doesn't seem to me that missing out on 3♥ is a big problem. When partner bids on his own, we are happy to raise to game. So the hands you are worried about are either (1) hands where partner can bid 3♥ after we pass, yet doesn't want to be in game, or (2) hands where partner can't bid 3♥ on his own, yet we need to get to 3♥. I think hands of type (1) almost don't exist - obviously I am not saying that game is always cold or even always good, just that almost always when partner bids 3♥ opposite a passing partner, our hand makes game a reasonable shot. Hands of type (2) seem more possible perhaps, but if 2♠ is passed around to us we can try 3♦ if we want to compete for the partscore.

Too funny. Look, the BBO forums are a great resource, there are a number of very good players who post here. But while this sort of thing goes on - everyone tells you something and you keep posting back to say you are right and everyone else is wrong - you won't be treated with much respect. In another post you said you have only been playing for 18 months. That is good, nothing wrong with that, but in that case why not use the forums to learn, instead of using them to tell everyone how right you are? There is no shame in admitting you still have a lot to learn at this stage of your bridge career.

On the contrary, I would expect more passers in a weak field than in a strong field.

Obviously I don't double for a heart lead, I have AQ32 of hearts. Suppose I double? Do you mean I did make the bad lead-directing double, or I made a completely insane double of 4♠? Anyway, I didn't double at any stage so I abstain, thanks.

Can't even begin to imagine why you think that is relevant when you have a completely obvious bid (or even if you didn't have an obvious bid).

Not really a bug (at least if it is a bug it is an extremely unimportant one), but in the Windows version, if I look at the list of kibitzers, everyone marked as a friend appears first, always. In the web version, this happens too, except that occasionally someone marked as a friend appears in their alphabetical order amongst the neutral users. Then, if I click them to see their profile, they are moved to the top of the list amongst all the other friends. (Also - but I assume deliberately - in the web version my own username appears in alphabetical order amongst the neutral users instead of at the top of the list.)

I like the 4NT followed by 6♦ path, although I might just bid a crude 6♦ at the table. Aren't the simple odds (forgetting about spade length, passed hands, etc) that partner has neither card 2/3 * 2/3 - i.e. he is a favorite to have one of the cards, then as mentioned the chances of a singleton heart with diamond length, etc, improve the odds even further? A while ago I had a run where I had several similar 2 suited freaks in a short period of time, bashed 6 on every one, and went down on every one... still, I will try again.

2. Yes. 3. With a singleton in their suit partner will pretty much never pass even with a minimum opening, and he will usually double instead of bidding.

Good thought, but partner is a passed hand. Perhaps partner has a weak hand with 6-6 in the majors and 2♦X is cold - after all even this thread has a couple of people who wanted to double instead of bidding their suits, and doubling with both majors is much more plausible than doubling in that thread. Anyway, agree with the obvious pass of course.

The new forum software has filtered out your bad language so I don't know what word you used to describe the North hand. But I probably wouldn't agree with you even if I knew what the word was - I do agree that the North hand is not quite worth opening, nevertheless a nice 5431 with both majors is a decent hand to hold. In answer to your question, yes, having opened you most definitely should cooperate with partner. In any case the hand has got better with the known 4 card support. Denying a singleton would be a (much) worse error than opening in the first place. But even if the auction did not improve the hand I still think it is usually wrong to backpedal by telling more lies, for example by showing fewer Aces than you hold in response to Blackwood.

Don't understand passing at all. Hear Hear!!! A much neglected bid in some circles. :) And yet there are other circles where it is much overused...

No connection problems at all in general. I just played another robot event where the robots played like speed demons! The earlier slow event was just one of those things I guess. (Both times I was using the web version)

I just had an infuriating robot event (Best Hand $1 Event #3299) where the robot stopped for more than a minute on several occasions, once deciding whether or not to follow suit with its only remaining trump, another time after I had drawn trumps and also played another round so the robots could see each other show out, and was cashing winners from dummy (dummy only had winners). Are there server issues at the moment that could cause this?

Would like to know the vulnerability. NV I would bid 1NT, it gets the values across, and pays proper respect to the Qx in their suit. Vulnerable this is a bit more risky, after all KJ of spades (and the Qx of diamonds!) might not be pulling their full weight. 1NT is possible anyway, but I would probably overcall 2♣. Dislike double the most, also I don't like 1♥, and (while I don't love 2♣ with this suit) I prefer overcalling 2♣ to passing.

1♥ (1♠) 2♠ (3♠); 4♥ (4♠) ? I would bid 5♥. We have a 5th heart, and 3 small spades. Partner has at most one spade. If we had a spade card double would be more attractive. With spade shortage we might want to pass 4♠ around to partner instead, although this would not be a forcing pass for me.

I don't really like 3NT, with an unbalanced hand I much prefer playing in spades without giving partner the option.

Agree with bluecalm, disagree with doclands. As a general rule I don't Stayman with 4333 hands.

In real life, seeing dummy I would expect there to be 12 top tricks, and think the issue was looking for the 13th. So I would win a top spade, cash the club and cross to hand using the ♦A in order to keep my options open in the heart suit. Now when LHO shows out on the next club, I am in some trouble because of entries. Naturally we assume that LHO is likely to have the heart length and the heart queen, but even if we have 4 heart tricks by playing LHO for Q9xx, we can't cash the hearts then get back to hand to take another finesse. LHO will presumably pitch a spade on the ♣A whether or not he has the queen. I would pitch the spade ten, giving up on spades and take the diamond finesse. If it wins, cash the ♦K, ♠K, and cross back to the ♥A. If LHO does have Qxxx in both red suits, he will have to give us 13 tricks. If RHO has a red queen I expect I won't make the contract. There might some gain to keeping the ♠T and pitching a red card, but I think it is less likely that LHO has the ♠Q so I would rather put all my eggs in the red queens with LHO basket.

Nice, I didn't see that! There are clever remarks to be made here, I am sure. :P In a recent thread on r.g.b, there is a similar problem (with AKQT9x opposite a singleton, instead of your Kxxxx opposite AQT.) Richard Pavlevic says that playing from the top is best even when there are known to be more vacant spaces in front of the suit because you pick up against Jxxx only, and lose to J, Jx, Jxx offside. Your suit combination looks to be similar enough that (without doing the math) maybe the same logic applies. (This r.g.b. post is also relevant to OP andy_h because Pavlevic then goes on to quote andy_h's BBO quote about pizza!)

Seems like a straightforward odds calculation. I make it that finessing the heart (ten or eight?) is 54.9% (the 12/20 or 60% odds you get from vacant spaces for the ten to be onside, less the 5-0 break), and playing from the top is 69.8% (all the 3-2 and 2-3 breaks, and the 4-1 and 1-4 breaks where the ♥T is singleton).

OK, if you are confident that 3♥ would be a stopper ask with no discussion, then I agree with you that this auction is forcing. I am not as confident though, in fact I would not bid an undiscussed 3♥ here lest it be take as Michaels. But I don't think your example hand is likely - I think that partner will often have 2 losing hearts (RHO has a heart honor but did not raise), and he won't have AKx in spades (we already showed 5).

As you say, double then 3♣ shows a strong hand but it is nonforcing. Therefore if partner wanted to be in 3NT opposite nothing but a heart stopper he would have to bid 3♥. Then when opponents double 3♥ to let him know 3NT is not on, partner can bid 5♣ if he wants to be in game opposite nothing, or he can bid a (strong but) passable 4♣. Wanting to be in 3NT opposite a stopper is not the same as forcing to 5 of a minor. It is true that playing this way, a super strong hand might have to bash a contract (5♣, 6♣) eventually whereas if you can bid a forcing 4♣ you (might) get to a more accurate spot, but to me it is consistent with an approach that you can get out in 4m when you don't have a stopper in their suit. So is the bid forcing or only forcing if we have a couple of queens? I just noticed OP said it was an occasional partnership, if it was a regular partnership he might have an agreement to bid an immediate 3♥ to ask for a heart stopper, allowing him to play this auction (double, cue, 4♣) as forcing.

3♥ was forcing, with a heart stopper you would have bid 3NT over it. What was 3♠ about? When RHO doubled 3♥, you were off the hook and could safely pass this around to partner. Pass is not an offer to play a doubled 3 level contract in their suit, it just means you have nothing to say. Partner has a strong hand with clubs. Your only choices now are pass or 5♣. I would try 5♣, we have QTx in support and we are vulnerable at IMPs. However pass is also reasonable, RHO did not raise the weak 2 (likely fewer than 3 hearts) but he doubled to show a heart card - i.e. very likely you are off the first 2 heart tricks and need to make the rest to make 5♣.

Another club planning a double squeeze works West has 4 or more clubs unless West switches to a diamond, nobody can keep 3 diamonds.

Usual is for an inverted minor raise to be invitational or better. When opener is minimum and responder is invitational you can stop in 3m. Otherwise you will normally end in 3NT or five or more of the minor.