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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.

I haven't tried the software but what I get from your text is that it didn't emphasize enough that (almost) every signal consists of two played cards. Might be that this is clear but I was distracted by the word "correct" spot cards, since every spot card is correct if there is another available spot card remaining. From T98 the T is high and the 8 is low even though 8 usually isn't a low spot. Partner isn't likely to know 8 is low until you have played another round of the suit. Thus it's not the one card you play that is the signal but the combination of the two. If I held that T98 in hearts and have some high cards in spades. Declarer leads hearts so I start with T (Playing udca), next round I follow with 9. Now partner knows I had odd number of cards in the suit, yet I played high one (I assume partner can read me without honor in hearts) so partner can read the 9 as suit preference for spades. However if my suit was T86 I follow with T and 8, now partner still can't be sure I signaled for spades as I could hold T98 so it takes again second round to finish my suit preference signal. Maybe this was clear, at least now it should be. :)

32519 You are missing the point that if he expected to go down only one or more likely make, he didn't expect 5-0 trump break and that kind of thing happens to change the trick expectations quite dramatically. Really bidding here winning 450 against 200 is such a small goal that I really wouldn't aim for that when I can easily force declarer and get 500 or 800. Also one thing to note here is that W didn't bid Michael's or any other two-suited call. This might be due holding such a strong spades but could also be because being three suited.

[hv=pc=n&s=s5haqdkq87432ck74&n=sqj7632h8da9caqj5&d=s&v=0&b=11&a=1dp1s2h]266|200[/hv] How to continue? [hv=pc=n&s=sa74hakt743dkc763&n=s96hqdaqjt542caj8&d=s&v=n&b=15&a=1h1s3d]266|200[/hv] 3♦ was GF with good 6+ suit, can you find your way to 7 or even 6?

I don't understand your points 1. and 3. about losses. I'd think it's rather easy to work transfer walsh into that system. Considering that I usually respond with single ace if holding 4 card major and even less with 5, it makes little difference to lose some on the rest. Also why'd you open 1♦ on any balanced hand? It's much better to keep it unbalanced. I think the trade-off is that you get better 1♦ opening, get some more use out of 2♣ opening and eat your occasional losses when holding a big hand or responder holding nothing. What you do (are allowed) with your 2♣ opening has lots to do with this issue.

Me and teemuhy might be playing. Hard to be certain as we also are flying to Holland at about 6am Sunday and will be driving whole Saturday so we might or might not be too exhausted to play. See you in Dam Wayne ;)

This was one of the matters that annoyed me most when trying to teach. Pupils wanted to bid slams and ask for aces and all that "cool" stuff. I tried to fix hands enough that they'd never have chance to try for anything like that. :P

I don't quite get what I'm missing, but even if clubs are 5-3, I seem to be losing 4 club tricks and ♦A, no? lol, now I actually get it. There's no diamond entry anymore. But in theory club honors could still split.

Only thing that seems "sane" is to bid 3♥ but if partner can pass that, I really don't like that option so only chance is to bid our likeliest game. Of course you have a huge problem if 4♥ gets doubled cause now you have no idea if you should be in 5♣ or even in 5♦.

Or bid 2M now.

[hv=pc=n&s=s9hkj7dakj8543c74&n=sakj73haq6dcakq63]133|200[/hv] Dealer N 2/1, 2♦ is always 5+, opener's 2♠ would be catch all and thus 3♣ shows about 16 count or sound 55+ I'm referring if you open 1S as would be quite standard with us. For 2C auctions I have even less idea.