MarkDean

Even after seeing the full hand, I still vote for 5♥.

With all due respect, I know that having 4 pointed suit losers isn't so good, but to me that hand is good enough for an overcall and both round suits are good enough for either overcall. This hand should provide tricks in either suit and also should provide tricks if we end up playing elsewhere. I would overcall R/W at Imps and this is W/W at MPs. Please explain your reasoning for passing. In case this was not clear, I was making a joke with reference to your original last line: "I don't want to play with partners who pass here. .. neilkaz .." while I was saying that I would pass. The main reason that I pass is that I think the alternative are all too flawed. 1H is a card short, and not even my longest suit. 2C is also a card short, and this hand is a long way off from either 5C or 3NT: in addition, the hand may be completely worthless on defense.

Looks like the neilkaz-MarkDean partnership was not meant to be.

I would 1NT. I used to be the designated passer, but really think it is not a good idea on this one.

OK, so I am a moron and did not notice we have four hearts on hand 2. I would bid 1♥, not 1♦, for basically the same reasons I would bid 1♥ without the double.

I know this is probably really bad because strong players always tell me I am nuts when I do it, but I would bid 2♣ on the first one. KQxx seems like the feature of the hand. There are two reasons I think this makes sense when I would have bid 1♠ with no competition: the auction is more likely to be become competitive, and even if we have a 44 spade fit, a 32 break is now less likely (although obviously still quite possible). I would bid 1♦ and 1♠ on the next two. I basically never redouble 1♣: the odds of us getting them on the one level are not that good, and I find that often the later auction is quite muddled in terms of what is forcing etc.

I would bid 4♥ - you need an awful lot from partner for slam to make.

The lead of the 2 playing 3rd/5th inference definitely depends on many factors. For example, if you and pd have a combined 13 clubs, then the fact that LHO has 5 spades, and presumably at most 5 hearts means he must have at least 3 diamonds. The more balanced the combined holdings in both hands, the more the 5 card suit implies less length in other suits. Another thing that must be taken into account is that if LHO is 55 in the majors, he will choose hearts some of the time: it is a different kind of restricted choice situation, so any simulations or calculations have to make approximations for that as well. About once a year I get a hand like this, spend about 15 minutes at the table trying to do the math, invariably guess wrong, and then spend an hour later doing the math in Excel to see if I was right in my odds. Yes, I am that nerdy.

I would just bid 1♠. It is a bit heavy, but not by that much, especially given just a five card suit, and 2♦ really does not appeal to me.

I have been playing "pass or bash" for quite a while, and am reasonably happy with the results. At MPs, I will probably pass 75% of balanced 8s and GF with the others, following the same guidelines others have mentioned.

Back in my young and crazy days, I played 13-16 1NT overcalls NV for a while. It actually worked reasonably well when it came up, but the problem was that you then had to double with 17 balanced.

I guess this shows the difference between what I consider a r/w 2 level overcall and what the modern trend is. If I were West, I would be close to driving slam opposite a 2♣ overcall. Partner does not have a very good suit or many aces, so he must have some shape: just thinking about possible hands there are few which cause slam to have no play or be low percentage. I would have done more, although I admit there are not many great choices over 3♥. I consider the East actions very normal.

I call this the 1-2-3 down 1 convention. I had one partner force it upon me. I am not a fan.

I calculated the probability that partner has a four-five card major before. Obviously it depends on what hands you open, but in general, partner is in the 50-55% range to hold one if I remember correctly. However, taking in that the 44 fit won't always play better, a 4-3 fit may occassionally play better, and that the opponents might change behavior, I really do not have anywhere to go with that percentage. I usually pass: stayman is definitely more likely to be top/bottom.

To wish partner luck as I put down the dummy.

I think that I would have reflexively passed at the table, but that that is wrong, and 5♦ is much more likely to be a winning contract.

Agree with 655321 except that I would not bid 2♦.

Two balances for me. I consider both close, but mp nv/nv is a strange beast.

Agree with nigel_k

Justin - I think what gnasher meant was that we need partner to have 12-15 for him to bid 3NT, if he has 10-11, we will probably be in a partial (and possibly in a 43 fit).

Precision Today recommends this approach. My partner and I used it, and with a pretty small sample size, it was a net positive rule.

7NT for me. Seems likely we have 6 club tricks, 2 aces and 3 spades. Lots of places those two tricks could come: spades come in, partner has heart king, partner has diamond KQ.

[hv=d=e&v=n&s=sj98643hqtdktcat7]133|100|Scoring: IMP[/hv] Home game. Last board of 8 - you have been absolutely drilled the first 7. Opps silent: P-1♥ 1♠-2♦ 2♥-3♦ ?

This is a very difficult question. The part that makes it tough, to me at least, is dealing with the push issue. If MPs/BAM were all 1/0, you could make some assumptions and get a good guess, but when you also have to deal with the fact that pushes are somewhat common, and that how common it is also varies hand to hand, the problem becomes almost impossible. I think the best way to answer it would be to get some (actually a lot of) BAM results, and then MP the results and look at the results. For example, I have downloaded Reisinger results before to MP the results, but unfortunately, the dataset was not large enough to get a good read.

This hand type is a tough one. Even if 3♦ I would not bid it with a topless suit and a fair amount of stuff outside. I would bid 1♠ and hope for the best, which I agree is kind of sick. Over 2♥, I would try 2NT.