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Nicely done, I doubt that is what awm thought as a solution cause it's far from easy :rolleyes:

On first one I stayman (P bid 2S with both majors), invite over 2♠ (NV and P in third...). Over 2♦ I bid 2♠ NF minor suit stayman and if p bids 3♣ I'll go to game. I'm not so sure after 2♥, probably pass.

I warn thee of our scary brown sticker convention! We use 2NT as a bad pre-empt in either minor, thus 3m promises always 2/3 tops. I have no idea what is a good defence, so if you come up with one, I'd like to hear it too :P We have only one BSC for whole team, kinda lame <_<

I'll play for "pseudo" compound squeeze. (Always works if south holds H9 in clubs because I get a guard squeeze) Run the hearts throwing diamond and spades and then try to read something to the distribution. It should be rather easy to see if spades or clubs are abandoned so I likely assume that one holds spades, other diamonds and both hold clubs and play for the double squeeze. The only problem I'm having with this is that I think I can't always test three rounds of spades, so if I read something very wrong, I'm losing to the simplest way to make :lol:

The thing I had in mind was that I would never assume exclusion in partner's suit without specific agreement. (Similarly we don't splinter in partner's suit) Thus bidding 6♣ denies the ability to bid exclusion in hearts -> Should be a spade void. I can see that here 5♠ should be exclusion, but I wouldn't assume it without precise agreement about this kind of sequence. And one thing I didn't mention (cause it isn't really important) was that opps were playing strong club so 1♠ was limited to something like 16.

First 2 ones are easy 2♣ openers. Third one I open 1♠, I don't consider to have even close enough defense for 2♣ opening and I'm not afraid of it being passed out. 4th is hard one, cause I'm lacking good bids after opening 1♣ but I think I'd have the same problems after 2♣. I hope partner responds 1♥ so I can give fairly good picture of my hand with 3NT.

Easy X+NT. If you made my club a spade I'd have a real problem.

Note that you also win the slim chance of singleton king behind.

I don't think it's at all the same as 3♦ and two passes to me. Here partner knows I have values and strains to bid with shortness. Because he passed, he either lacks the values (like here) or has diamonds. I'm still not blaming anyone for missing 20HCP games in contested auction.

[hv=pc=n&s=sqjt74hak7d6ckt52&n=shtdakj732caqj874]133|200[/hv] Can you find a way to bid the GS reliably. Our opps had the auction 1♠ - 2♦ - 2NT - 6♣ AP. I consider south to have easy raise, but are there more accurate methods?

1♦ - 2♣ 2♥ - 2♠ 3♠ - 4♥ 4♠ - 4NT 5♥ - ... 3+D, unbal 10-14 - Inv+ relay bal or clubs or diamonds invite 4 hearts - relay 2461 shape - rkc in D 1/4 - Q ask DQ and HQ - And now I ran out of room, could find out either SK or CQ but not both.

This would be the same problem if 1♣ was 15+. My solution is that there is no solution, neither has enough to move. You can't expect to find 20HCP games when you don't show suits and are pre-empted, just have to give up something. You might actually win here if people playing natural bid 1S (3D) 3S - 4S to failing game. East doubling isn't GF, but it fetches 3NT from partner a good part of the time, so it's out of question. West doesn't have enough to double here, but assuming he had, say Q more, after 4♣ it's not really worthwhile to be able to show 54 either way. Partner almost certainly has no 4 card major, so you are essentially just giving partner choice between 5-2 and 4-3 fits. Just bid the 5 carder and hope for the best. 4♦ is then for the real monster hands with club support. (Could be a kickback if you play that)

Hahah, that should be named Hamman Coup. Though I guess Hamman was as surprised winning the trick as others.

I'm all for showing shape but this is too strong to not open 2C. 2C is game forcing for all other sequences than 2C - 2D(or 2H neg) - 2NT. This isn't one of those sequences, so it's GF. The last one depends a bit on agreements. Most likely it's 2NT bid, get your shape across. However after 2C - 2D - 2S you might have some cheaper minor as second negative to show actually 0-3.

One thing to note is that if partner happens to hold heart Q and club K, leading club will also work cause declarer can't pitch dummys heart to anything. Not that it really matters, I'm playing a small heart anyways.

Club might hit the jackpot in exhausting declarer's trumps, however I'll go with trump which seems to be safer and should collect ok penalty too.

Usually the GF hand with hearts knows in which strains he could play, usually being 3NT/4H and sometimes side suit. However that hand rarely wants to play in responders suit. So keeping that in mind, responder should be able to place the contract quite well. Of course we are losing in these auctions, but the cost isn't really that big. I'd say only problems come with the spades.

1♣ and 1NT. I downgrade, partner has lot's of bids at his disposal after that start which might lead to good result. No problem with 1NT though and if I had another J, I guess I'd have to bid it.

I've thought about other continuations here many times, but the problem is that those sequences are incredibly rare and you just don't want to memorize artificial bids that don't relate to anything else in the system and come up once in a blue moon. However, if you really want to do something like this, I'd suggest it to handle hand types you can't show over 2NT. This means most likely putting some 64 minor hands there which couldn't bid a positive response. Some weak 5M/5m hands are also little awkward cause you might want to play 3NT. When partner holds hearts, he likely has pretty clear idea where he wants to play, but with flat hand he might need that information earlier.

Average strength hand means Axxx Kxx Qxx Jxx, I'd say almost all 5521 8 counts are better than that. However this isn't all there is, because: (Explanation: Where all the weak meanings show at least four cards in one known suit, and the strong meanings show a hand with a king or more above average strength, it is not a Brown Sticker Convention.) Even though I wouldn't consider those hands weak, they aren't strong but end up pretty much average.

1♦, planning to double 3C or bid hearts if opps bid spades. 2♦, but this is a close one (having 2S NF) If I have T9 in spades it's a 2♠ bid.

1. First double was negative, second should show flattish hand, values and defense cause partner is passing it fairly often. Here he has undisclosed 4 card support so partner can hardly make good decision. Should just bid 4♣. Of course I understand that he was trying to reach 3NT, so I don't blame him too much. 2. This seems just something that has to be agreed, what bid is GF, when can we stop in 4C and so on. Although I put mostly the blame on north here, he could just jump to 5♣ over 3NT. Of course if S has void in spades, there is still a slam. Depends a bit on handling those 55s overall. Does this sequence show bad spades and with good ones you'd open 1♠?

I'm not sure I'm with Ken here, but I pretty much prefer 2NT here. Bidding 2S yells to the opps that I have weakness in diamonds and are certain to attack it if we end up in 3NT. It's true that if I bid 2S and partner chooses 3NT I know I'm in a good contract but following Hamman's rule, I want to find the way to 3NT and preferably not to tell opps what to lead. This all is of course based on having that singleton Q which often helps in NT. As has been said, partner's 3NT bid was totally nuts and even suggesting you to bid 3C is even more nuts.

I prefer multi over 1♦. 1♦ - 2♦ WJS in either major, NF. For that multi over 1♠ I'd also add some strong options.

I give 50% to south, 10% to north and rest to bad luck. South has three options, P, X and 1♠, although I find the two other bids more sensible, I have no strong objection with 1♠ and if the suit also had J, I'd give it real consideration. For the norths side, I strongly prefer defending 1NT when opps are vul and I don't have shortness. With 4 trumps and working doubleton it might be bit overdoing in here passing, but I'd probably try that. However there is nothing wrong in bidding 2♠, sometimes it's just good to look for the plus from defending than declaring. The real cost now of course came from that 5-0 trump break and that opps don't even have game. Such is bridge.