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This isn't so much a stupid play just playing small in tempo without thinking. QJxx xx AQx AQxx AKxxx QJxx Kx K9 I've ended up in one of the not so good 6♠ contracts and I get club 10 lead which ran to my K. My "legimate" chace would be to lead low towards ♥Q to get a squeeze in rounded suits, but I knew my lefty, a good player that would never play diamond after getting in with the heart so I had to try something little less legimate. So I played spade to the queen and a small club. RHO plays small in tempo and 9 scores a trick and I claim :D

If partner tends to prefer supporting diamonds here with 3 instead of clubs and rebid a good 6 card spade suit, it points to the direction that 4H is indeed the ace. 5125 is pretty much the only shape where it's singleton. But it's indeed hard slam to bid cause no RKC takes you there. Except maybe if responder bids 6 keycard rkc over 4D and gets 5NT response (3 and void), although still it isn't certain it's that spade void... With any relay precision I'd have zero trouble with this though.

1S - 3S - 4C - 4D - 4H - 4NT... 6S

I think 6H is quite automatic. If I didn't have exclusion here, I might even jump to 6H right after 1H. Now if partner doesn't raise with AK in hearts... well I might be looking for new partner.

1. I also like 2 clubs but I'm not quite sure which one is better. For couple of times I have won the contract with 2C, some times I come back balancing with 2S later and we are where we are supposed to be and sometimes partner competes to 3C and we miss our spade fit we could have played a level lower. I guess 2C for IMPs cause you have better chance of buying the contract and 1S for MP cause you want to play major even in 4-3 fit. 2. 1D for me, would love to psyche 1S but I'm too strong for that ;) 3. Easy 1S

The simplest system of all: Phantom Club. You always bid as if your RHO opened with 1♣. (1♣ as a double) You only have to teach overcalls and take out doubles what you need to do anyways. ;)

The point in opening 1♣ is this: After 1♠ - 2 red, you lack a good rebid, you just have to bid your spades again even though you have 5 card side suit. 1♣ - 1 red - 1♠, now you have showed at least 9 of your cards. But in 2/1 GF, the first auction is hardly a problem since partner likely bids 2NT waiting and you get to show your clubs. Also some competitive auctions could give 1♣ opening value, if our hearts were diamonds, you could hear 1♣ (1♥) pass (4♥) or alike, and now you can bid 4♠ to give partner a choice between black suits. If you had opened 1♠, you can't get the clubs in to the picture.

lol, what did they do then? I don't really see any reasonable alternatives. Discarded a diamond on the club king or something?

Kovacs, you still have a heart in dummy so you won't be getting any sluffs out of heart return. Everything in the hand points to elimination but I can't see how to execute it so I'll just take my 75% chance with two finesses. (♦T and ♥K) ♠K, ♠A, Clubs, ♠Q, ♣K throwing ♥, then small heart towards the Q. I'm also making with heart king doubleton behind. Damn plaur, beat me to it ;)

One nice deal was at the local club here where opps where bidding in all peace until I had the opportunity to double 5♠ RKC answer with something like KQxx x xxx Qxxxx, quick 7♥ followed by 7♠s by partner who starts laughing... not often is your first bid seven spades. It was an excellent result for us as 7♥s was laydown. Couple of weeks later with same partner there is a similar auction, but this time I double 5♦ with a void. Now comes 6♥s followed by 7♦s from partner. Doubled -11 vulnerable...3200... 6♥s was making all around but is down with the ♦ lead. :rolleyes: There was also one funny accident playing precision with other partner. After 1C opening and plenty of relays and some relay break too we have no longer any idea what is happening and we land in 5♠ in 4-2 fit. Funniest thing was that it made even though trumps were 5-2 and no one had bid any slam. (which makes in any of the other three suits or NT)

I also don't see a reason why opener couldn't have 3433. Again the squeeze works but we must read the situation correctly. But opener must have DK, so if it's still up in the three card ending, you know to drop the queen.

1. I have to go with fitjump here even though minisplinter would be more descriptive. Can't have it all. 2. Really annoying one, maybe I'd show this as a singleton splinter? :) Or just bid 3D fitjump again. 4S also an option. 3. I show void splinter via 3NT, bit strong but not enough to expect to be able to control the auction.

You don't have another trump to finesse after ruff if they are 5-0. But then there is a chance of trump coup so the club needs to be cashed indeed. (Need east to be 3532 exactly)

I don't think letting the club run is that good. Better to win club, cash ♠K and ruff spade to dummy and let the ♥Q run. You need spades 5-3 (compared to diamonds 4-3) and hearts 3-2 compared to club finesse winning. If you have (get) some strong reason to think ♥s are 4-1, you can still survive when diamonds are 4-3 and you finesse the ♥9 on second round.

Playing UDCA, I'd play 2 here but I'd play the K to show count from KQxxx, cause it might be relevant information. Although now that I think of it, it might also be good to try to give count in Hs there... Hmm... many possibilities.

Yes to double but over partners 2C I'm going to bid 2NT.

Heh, I didn't bother to think this so much, just went on with my intuition and that was to ruff the diamond with middle trump and play small to the seven. Seems my intuition was right, but might be that without that disturbing 7 in the dummy I wouldn't find the right play ;)

This is one matter that has always slightly confused me in English bridge literature, especially because both are used. In Finnish finesse is same word as cut, so I think it like "cutting out the queen" as in number 2. Or cutting with the queen in number one. Apparently it's exactly other way around really ;) Well, not that big deal... just look at the cards and you know what they are talking about.

So RHO is Kxxx ATxx ?Q?x Axx?x? I'd play for singleton diamond cause 3♣ with 7 card support is so lame. Might depend a bit on the opps though.

2 or 4NT if available. 2♦ followed with 4 or 5♣ if not.

Ok, somewhat same theme. 1♣ 15+ and I have relay structure I want to use. So far I have played 1♦ as 0-8, game forcing all total 24 counts. I'd sort of like however to have semipositives possible. Now I think two realistic possibilities is to put 1♦ as GF+ (Actually 10 or 11+) or double negative (0-5 or so) or include all balanced hands in 1♦ GF and have double negative right away. Good thing about putting double negative and GF in one is that I get the hand type across asap on most hands. Bad side is that some of relay breaks won't work like in GF sequence. Good thing about GF+bal is that I make better use of relay reversals over 1♦ response (weak balanced hand can get to be the relayer and sign off) Any new ideas? ;)

I think this is funny hand in that every bid you use will get you there. You are always going to the 5 lvl with this hand so only if you are pre empted to 5S before your second bid, Michael's would have been much better. (It might be clear to take a bid at the 6 lvl too, but I'm not going to that) By bidding differently here on your first bid, you achieve different goals. If you go with somewhat lame 2H, you are likely played for bit more in high cards and not nearly this wild distribution. Against weak players who count high cards, trust their opponents and don't bid their hands that well, it's a great choice. It can even fool good players quite easily here. 4H is a simple pre empt in a sense. We also have moderate defence (could have 2 tricks), so if p hits 4S, we mostly have our hand of the chest and can sit. (Tough spot though) It at least applies the most pressure on opps so if it's a slam deal on their part, they are guessing most. 2S gives partner most information right away, but it also tells it to opps. (Even better if you have 3C here for this specific two suiter) Then it all depends on the hand who can make the most use of this information. Here it also makes difference if you have some weak/super strong version of Michael's in use. Then I think this hand is more like direct overcall.

X, ♥K, then ♦.

Like in Dejeuner in which I have much the same openings as Echognome. (Strong pass instead and fert thrown in) 2♣ = 5+m, 4M 2♦ = Wilkosz 5+M, 4+m 2♥ = Multi 2♠ = 55+ minors (8-13) 2NT = 55+ minors, <8 These are of course mainly preferred when NV. Vul I think I prefer them actually showing suits, more like 2♣ = 5+♣, 4M 2♦ = 5+♦, 4M 2M = 5+M, 4+m 2NT = Minors Now I have to open all normal weak twos with fert, which just means I finally have hands in fert I can actually have a bid later.

True, I can rebid diamonds but it still means we can miss our 5-3 spade fit. I guess I should have mentioned that I usually also have methods to show 6+ or longer minors after major openings.