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I have a question: 1NT - 2♠ (10-13 / MSS) 3♣ - 4♦ (Better ♣ / RKC) 4♠ - 5♦ (1 / All keys, grand try) 5♠ - 5NT (♠K / still looking for something) 6♣ - 6♦ (I don't think I have it / ?) First, would you bid 6♦ there, knowing partner has ♠K, ♣A and another 3 points without ♥K? Second, how would you interpret 6♦? Is it still looking for ♦K or is 3rd round control enough? I guess partner should bid 6♦ over 5NT with ♦K. If vul: P - 2♣ 2♦ - 3♣ (Waiting / nat) 4♦ - 4♠ (RKC / 4) 4NT - 5♦ (Q ask / Y and ♦K) 5NT - 6♥ (Anything extra, looking for 7NT at this point / ♥Q) 7♣ (That won't cut it...)

This was actually a sort of mistake on my part. I didn't declare the hand but was dummy and after the hand there's a lot of talk about 4! card ending while it should be 5 card ending, which lead me to misanalyze the hand without knowing it fully. I didn't go through the effort of looking at the hand when I posted it. Basically now it's indeed just about guessing the distribution. (Which is actually easy as NT bid was made with a singleton spade, which I could have added if this was meant as intermediate play problem) I'll see if I can come up with a hand to actually reflect the interesting ending I though there was where ♣9 would have represented the last trick. (You actually get it if you make west start with 12 cards :P, E holds the ♣Q)

I don't bid 4 card spade suit with heart support, these always show 5(+)-3 for me. I doubt the first one has some universal meaning. Usually even though I'm slammish, I'd rather bid 2♦ GF and support after since it leaves room for partner to bid 3 card spades which enables double agreement.

[hv=pc=n&s=skt64hj7daj742cj4&n=saq752ha53d85ca96&d=s&v=b&b=7&a=1d1nd2cppdp2dp3nppdppp]266|200[/hv] Sure, we missed the laydown 4♠ but at least we got more interesting board this way. Defense starts with 3 rounds of hearts, what's your plan?

Depends how far off from standard 2/1 you want to wander. I'm playing 2/1 with some tweakings: 1♣ = Nat or 14+ bal 1♦ = Nat, unbal, may have longer clubs 1♥/♠ = nat 1NT = (10)11-13 2♣ = GF Even though the openings are nowhere special, the continuations have some quite interesting nuances I can expand on. You could easily go including GF hands in 1♣ and open 2♣ with min club hands if you'd prefer that kind of approach but I don't find natural 2♣ opening that big a winner on its own. Obviously you gave pretty inaccurate specs, if you want to limit your major openings, you must play strong or 2/3-way club.

So RHO was silent with 11 black cards?

Partner must have great diamond suit and at most one heart. Also enough slam interest to remove discouraging 3NT. The main problem is that is 4♠ a cue in support of D or discouraging and suggesting to play. I'm really not sure so I'd cue the safe 5♣.

True, but I wouldn't be too strict for passed hand bidding, the point is to let partner in on your shape and possible source of tricks while in competition the point is more about showing where your values are so you can judge whether to defend or bid more. That said, I don't find this hand good enough for 4♣, those QJ of D seem so totally useless. And indeed, there's zero blame to go around for this hand. Totally normal result.

Am I getting easy Mini-KO win in my great records? :lol:

Me and teemuhy are available for play if someone wants to team with us.

That's pretty neat. I will definitely see how that could be used. Though it does seem extremely hard to make some rules for that situation since after 4♦ there might be multiple routes, not just two, to 5♦ where after some you might want to play 5♥ and after others not.

I don't have way to show 4th trump after 2/1 so I don't use it unless I know the fourth trump is close to meaningless. Here the fourth trump is really relevant so I must let partner know about it. I'm lucky playing fitjumps so I'd go with 3♣. I think I'd prefer appropriate strength splinter before J2NT with this hand.

Support and SOS redoubles aside, I mainly like redoubling slams. It only needs to succeed one out of four times to profit at imps. Best redoubles I tend to get from stupid doubles of 3NT contract where opps double on general strength and I have undisclosed running minor. (Or even major sometimes) And it sounds you double too little. (At least if you play match points at all)

I really dislike 2♣ openings. That said, I'd open the first one with it. I like to hold about 5 defensive tricks when opening 2♣ with shapely hands and this one has it. Also I basically just need two queens and fit for slam to be excellent so it would get hard after one level opening. Hand number two I'd open 1♣, but I can understand 2♣ if you don't have any good ways to show GF single suiter with clubs. (With natural system you likely don't)

I had a similar hand recently although one of the clubs was a diamonds and the majors were reversed. Probably for the first time I hid the major. But we do always raise with three and playing 4-3 with that suit quality didn't look promising. Funnily the opponents interfered and we played in our 4-4 spade fit afterwards.