dbsboy

Thanks for all the votes and opinions. On the 1st hand I was South and held ♠XX ♥ AJTXX ♦AJ ♣KQXX Game was fairly good, my partner invited and we reached the game smoothly. However I thought I would struggle between 2♥ and 2♠ and might have missed this game had we only bid 1♥-(1♠)-2♥ On the 2nd hand I thought about 1♠, 2♠, 3♠ and opened 1♠ at last, thinking that I might be able to show ♣ later. Retrospectively thinking 3♠ looked a lot better.

I have a few bidding questions and would like to seek your opinion. We play 2/1. First Q: Both Vul. You are N and your partner is the dealer who opened 1♥. What is your choice? [hv=pc=n&n=sk93hq97dt43caj82&d=s&v=b&b=7&a=1h1s]133|200[/hv] 3♥is preemptive and 2♠ is invite+ Second Q: W vs R, Your partner is the dealer and passes. [hv=pc=n&s=skj9763h4dacj6542&d=n&v=e&b=9&a=pp]133|200[/hv] What would you open? Third Q: Assume you opened 1♠ holding the last hand, and the bidding went like this. [hv=d=n&v=e&b=9&a=pp1sdr3h]133|100[/hv] What would you bid?

[hv=pc=n&s=sakj964hk6d5ck843&d=s&v=n&b=15&a=1sp1np2cp3hp]133|200[/hv] Holding this hand, you opened 1♠. The bidding went 1♠-1NT(forcing)-2♣-3♥ (uninterfered). Do you agree with 2♣? And how about now? 3♠ or 4♥?

I think it is reasonable to have rules like "raise whenever you have 3+ card support" so lets assume that 1♠ denies 3+♥. (But I don't play it this way - ♠KQJXX ♥XXX ♦XXX ♣XX is a clear 1♠ to me) However, 2♥ is still a poor choice. Even if you have denied 3 card support, it does not mean that you have to bid 2♥ whenever you have 2 card support. First, as mentioned, there isn't really a need for you to preempt opponents. Opponents are not marked with a fit, you have defense in every minor, at any time you can bid 2♥ over their 2minor. If partner has 6 good hearts he would have bid 2♥ by himself anyway, so you don't really plan to compete to 3 level at this point. Second, your hearts are not that appealing and your hand is balanced. If your hand is like, for example, ♠QXXXX ♥AK ♦ XX ♣XXXX then 2♥ looks much better. At least whatever partner chooses, 2♥ or 2♠, you would be quite comfortable with that. You would also be happy to hear partner competing to 3♥. Third (may be irrelevant here), in 3rd/4th seat I do love opening 1M with 4 card Major. In this case bidding 2M w/ 2 card support would be disastrous. I think one important point is that you do not bid 2♥ whenever you have 2 card support, even though you denied 3 card support in the previous round. For example, holding a hand like ♠XX ♥KX ♦AKXXX ♣KXXX I would bid 3♥ over 1♦-1♥-2♣-2♠-?, but with ♠AQ ♥XX ♦QXXXX ♣AJXX 2NT is obvious, so it is essential to evaluate many other factors instead of number of trump cards before you make a bid. For the same reason, I think it is important to assess the quality of ♠ rather than raising the Major 100% of the time you have 3 card support. Having said all these, I would assume you have 3 card ♥ and 5 good♠ given this auction.

I would dbl (what I would do as well if RHO opened 1♠). I think its most important to bring ♥ into picture when your hand is actually not so NT-ish. I do not consider Ax good enough to be a stopper for 2NT when I have other choices available.

May I raise a question, partner may not even have 4 card hearts in this auction (1C-1S-2H-3D-6C) right?

Playing short club I would bid 1♣ (2♦) 2♥ 4♦ 4♠ (Pass) 5♦ (Pass) 6♣ (Pass) 6♥ (Pass) 6♠ (Pass) Pass (Pass) 5♦ should confirm ♠ support. As a semi-solid suit I think opener should set ♠ as trump (and ignore the hearts), and 6♣ is looking for grand. I am not sure if I would bid 6♥ or 6♠ with N's hand though.

I think responder has a clear cut 2♥ bid playing constructive raise (or just playing simple raise). To me, a constructive raise shows a gd7 - bad10hcp hand, and this hand is definitely a bad 10. If you make a limit raise, one would pass only with a minimum balanced hand. Anyway, I would bid 3♣ with opener's hand. It seems that I have a good hand and that ♦K is not completely useless. Of course people play different styles of constructive raise and limit raise, but I prefer to have the responder to bid conservatively and the opener to bid more aggressively.

Presumably 3♣ is not forcing, West is forced to bid 3♦. In that case, 3♥ shows a fragment and should not set suit. After East shows 4-3-1-5 and extras, West should try for slam for the good-working high card points and fit. I am not sure if West bid 4♣, taking it as setting ♣ suit as trumps or a cuebid setting ♥ as trumps. I prefer the former style, preserving 3♠ and 4♦ as slam-try in hearts. In the former case, 4♥ is a cuebid and East should proceed with 4♠. In the latter case, 4♥ is a signoff. However, from West's point of view, East should at least have AKXX QX XX AQJXX, or AKXX XXX X AQJXX for his 2♠ bid, so he should make a bid to find out the crucial ♦ control from partner.

For the first hand, I think West should bid 5♦ rather than 4NT. East's hand was much better than I would expect, and there is no reason that West should think of slam at his point, for example, East can easily have singleton (or even doubleton) ♥, and he may only have 2 aces, or poor diamonds (like AXX), etc. On the other hand, if I were East, I would seriously think of raising 5♦ to 6♦. I had all the controls, a good club suit, and partner promised 6♦ usually, and as long as partner had ♦K + a black honour slam would be great. For the second hand, removing 2♣ to 2♠ is pretty bad, but I would have bid 1NT over 1H instead of passing. This is not the kind of hand I would like to make a trap pass.

I think this is a very good discussion point as many players do not have thorough discussions on this. 1)4C is a cuebid. I think 4C being natural has its upsides definitely, but it doesn't come up as often as cuebid, hence less useful. 2)I would rebid 3S a lot of times. However, like AQ9XXX/-/X/AKJXXX, I might bid 6C directly. In the first example probably 3S is sufficient. 3)When I have more length in a suit, I might stretch a bit and bid the suit directly (for example, AJXXXX)...not sure if this is a good agreement... After 2C-2D-2S, I play 2NT = bal (not 2nd neg), or clubs; 3C = 2nd neg; 3D /3H = natural. After 2C-2D-2S-2NT, transfers apply. So 3S means S+C. I also look forward to the forthcoming responses here.

I play both as preemptive. For the second case, 3♠ would be inviting only without any interference. I don't think we end up half the times one level higher when we play 1-2-3 stop, that probably means we are using this too much. Often when I bid 1♠-2♠-3♠, we might make or go set 1 when opponents actually have 4♥.

2♣ for me. I cannot show a hand with such playing strength after opening 1♥.

Thanks for all the responses. I chose gszes's line, cashing 2 top ♦, ♣Q and ♥A and K first. However, ♥K was ruffed by LHO, and unfortunately LHO got 3 trumps so I went down. My partner asked how I went down when trumps were actually 3-2. I wonder if I should cash ♣Q first.

[hv=pc=n&s=sj9hakq32dcakt632&d=s&v=b&b=7&a=1c1s3np]133|200[/hv] Holding this monster 5-6 hand, you opened 1♣. You are playing with a pickup partner. What is your bid? I bid 5♥ since we did not have a lot of agreements. My partner bid 6♣, and all passed. ♠K was led, and dummy's hand was: [hv=pc=n&n=sat54h54dak432cq4]133|100[/hv] How would you play the contract?