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I think gwnn was saying that of the (2) tens East holds, 50% of them are Spade tens (just as, of the 12HCP East holds, 58.3% are Spade HCPs)

Erm, 6-9 with 4+ hearts?

Add me to the 5♥ club. We have a great hand without another clear bid.

This is completely different from your original question. We have the T98 of spades not just x's, and we now have a whole hand. Assuming LHO led the ♦AK and RHO signalled a doubleton, we can say that West has 2 Hearts and 4 Diamonds for 6 red cards, East has 6 Hearts and 2 Diamonds for 8 red cards. The ♠J won't make any difference to anyone's bidding, so all you have to go on is that LHO has more room in his hand for any card including the ♠J. So I would ruff the 3rd diamond with the ten. On the actual hand this loses so we only make 8 tricks instead of 9. If you wanted to look deeper you could say that if LHO has Jxxx you still lose a trick by ruffing low (if the low spade ruff wins I would just play the ♠A next planning to draw trumps), but if RHO has the Jack you would never lose a trick after ruffing high and running the ♠T. So you would compare the odds of LHO having J, Jx, Jxx with the odds of RHO having J, Jx, Jxx, Jxxx. If you assume that RHO would never open 2♥ with Jxxx of spades this still means playing LHO for the Jack is percentage. Anyway, I am not doing the math.

Ruffing with the Ace guarantees at least one trump loser on any distribution, including when someone has Jx.

Wot? Not commenting on any exact methods, obviously there are many valid agreements after a XX, but this statement seems backwards. When I have opened the bidding and partner has raised, if LHO has doubled (making it more likely he has shortage in my suit) then the first thing I want to know is whether partner has 4 trumps or only 3 (when a 4-1 trump break might be a concern). i.e. the double makes it more important, not less important, to distinguish between 3 and 4 card support.

Um, South raised his partner's suit to the 4 level with a balanced 8 count (well done), North has the world plus a void in the opponent's suit and his partner supported him at the 4 level, yet he stopped in game. 100% to North obviously, what comments do you want to hear?

With the agreements I usually have, 4NT is RKCB in spades. Slam invitational hands can normally do something else, such as 4NT over 3♣.

I would open, having passed I would pass out 2♥.

Probably both, but it would be nice to be told what 3♥ meant. The North hand looks like a GF, I think showing it as a limit raise is a clear error. I like to splinter with this sort of hand. And South making the decision to bypass 4♦ just because his partner cued clubs also seems excessively pessimistic. Bluecalm, your examples don't look like limit raises to me either.

Obvious 2♥ for me.

Well I would always lead a diamond from the West hand. If I had to make a (reasonably distant) second choice it would be the ♣T, I think all the other leads (Spade, Heart, ♣7, ♣A) are bad. How this translates into logical alternatives and adjustments I couldn't say.

1) No 2) No

Agree. Disagree.

You only have 12 cards, but partner has a strong hand with 4 spades, and has keycarded in spades so I answer.

Unless you rebid 3♥ of course!

Aquaman, what are you doing? You stated your opinion once (fine), then followed up with a stream of sarcastic posts when people dared to offer contrary opinions. You do realise your original post is still there for people to read, and agree with you if they wish? Opposite Jxxxxx Qxx xx Qx I notice that you will force to slam, well done, no doubt you will also stay out of slam opposite Jxxxxx Qx Qx xxx. Unless you have specifically agreed to play the methods you describe then yes, it is the very definition of masterminding to make a non-descriptive bid in order to hear partner's response and make a decision based on that response. But sure, if these are your partnership's agreed methods then the masterminding tag that seems to offend you doesn't apply. Recently in a different thread you made a post boasting that you often redoubled with 4 cards when opponents doubled a transfer/Stayman, yet your wife never did this. I venture to guess that you would indeed (at least whenever East has 6 spades!) bid the way you suggest on this hand, but that your wife would be content to splinter and let you make the decision. Maybe I have misinterpreted your posts, but the impression I am left with is that you are the decision-maker in your partnership. I don't think anyone is bidding again as West if East just bids 4♠. Arrrgh! Why is it so very common that when somebody's pet method is criticised, this is always their comeback? Not to pick on aquaman, it is not just him, and I have no idea if aquaman is regularly representing the US in international competition, or if he regards getting better than 45% in the local duplicate as a triumph, but it doesn't actually matter, even for posters who would be pleased with 45%, it is always 'these methods work very well for me!' Oh well.

Agree East 100%, I would have started with RKCB, but if you don't want to do that with 2 losers in hearts and clubs, I still don't understand bypassing 5♦. I dislike the suggestion that aquaman has made (twice four times) that West should suppress his spade support and conduct a masterminding auction instead.

It can be, obviously you and your friends can agree to play that way. But of course your having that agreement would not make your meaning the standard one. As can be seen in the answers in this thread, 5♠ telling partner that your only problem is controls in the opponents suit is completely normal, standard, and surely better. Partner can pass 5♠, or make a bid to show which holding (singleton, void, Ace or King) he has. This meaning for the jump to the 5 level is useful in many different auctions when the opponents have bid a suit.

Congratulations on your very much improved English H_Karluk, really well done. B) Incidentally, in the USA the usual spelling of the word 'honour' is 'honor', but perhaps your teacher is British. And are you sure you meant to say 'at home', I think if you go back and check you will find you meant to say just 'home'.

I have bid 3♥ before with very good 4315 hands. Was that wrong of me?

After the direct double I would bid 3♥ with pretty much any 3424 8 count. Maybe after the 4th seat double it should be a tiny bit stronger, but in practice I would still bid 3♥ with most if not all 8 counts.

He might not, but it doesn't matter he is well and truly (Morton's) forked.

Um, don't quite understand your auction except that it sounds like the final contract will be spades not clubs.