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?

I am not an expert, but 3NT seems obvious here. You bid because you want to make a game. Given the cards, 3NT is very likely to be the only making game while 5C requires a lot of cards from partner (you have soooo many losers to get rid of!). There are too many possibilities that 3NT would make, many of which are very common but you haven't thought of (as Phil said, 3 card spades from partner would block the suit). I expect 4C would go down more often than 3NT. If you are afraid of going down, I would rather pass.

I thought of playing something like what jjbrr plays, 4♠=balanced, either 1) quantitative with bad controls, or 2) strong enough to force to slam, starting a baron-ask; and 4NT as balanced, quantitative with good controls, slightly weaker in terms of hcp (e.g. 10 hcp and 4+ controls in 2NT-4NT). I thought about this because I love to open 2NT with 6 card suits, and sometimes I missed minor slam contracts. Does anyone think its playable?

I voted invitational because in my metarules, a cuebid of my opponent's suit usually sets up a Game Force. Also, it does not seem that opps will compete that often here, unlike 1M-2M-(Pass), while 1M-2M-3M as preemptive seems quite useful. But I'm not an expert nor a creative player, so I actually hope that someone can convince me to change my idea :P

I think 4NT RKC was a bit too much, it is very likely that there would be a Club loser plus a Heart loser. I would bid 4H (last train), and if partner had extras he would bid on.

Yeh I was actually asking about the worst quality of the diamonds that one would pass the double, but I also wonder if different distributions will affect one's decision e.g. holding a 4 card Major. Re dake50: I don't think we have forcing passes agreed on the 2 level, which makes the dbl t/o oriented.

I started playing big club a year ago and have enjoyed it a lot. However, there is a commonly met situation that I always do not know how to handle. Lets say the bidding goes [hv=d=n&v=0&b=1&a=1c2ddp]133|100[/hv], the double showing around 6+ (apart from pass, all other bids are natural GF). Holding what quality of ♦ should opener pass the double? Situation 1) Opener 2-3-4-4 2) Opener 2-2-4-5 3) Opener 2-4-4-3 I did not make a poll because I think there might be a lot of variations. Sorry if that caused you any inconvenience.

I think the values are barely enough for the first double, if you had 3♠ then pass would be obvious. After double of 3♠, it didn't deny 4♥ the way I play it, but I would still start with 4♦, partner can still bid 4♥. After 5♣ we could only pass.

Thx for all the replies. I posted this because I think I had to reassess my balancing requirements. I was North. Before playing this board, I thought it was quite obvious to double w/ both Majors and some strength. After the board, W (a self-rated expert) said, ''dbl w/ 9 hcp? lol'' sth like that. And my pick-up partner (also a self-rated expert) agreed. Re bucky: if it was a team game i would be less surprised I think, the fact that I saw many in the field chose to pass 3♦ put me in deep thought though.

[hv=pc=n&s=s85hj54dak54ckt53&w=sq763hat986d3ca97&n=skjt92hkq72d6c864&e=sa4h3dqjt9872cqj2&d=n&v=e&b=9&a=p3dppdppp]399|300[/hv] 3♦X just made -670 and 10 imps Assess the blame pls.

I think I will double then rebid 3NT if partner bid 3M, since I would have bid 3NT with hands of equivalent playing strength and wrong shape to double.