analysismi

I'd suggest How to Play a Bridge Hand by William S. Root. Lots of examples of the basic techniques and the beginning/intermediate ones (end plays etc).

Q: Do you know where to play game if your partner has a flat 4 or 5 (or 6 or 7) pointer? A: No. You may or may not have 7 or 8 hearts. You may not have a club stopper. Partner might have a floppy 5 or 6 card suit that gives spades play. You might not have a diamond game. I don't think you can afford to get to the three level before hearing partner's distribution. I'd open this 1D. If you switched the diamonds and a major, I would open 2C. You know you can push to game in your major across from any nonnegative response. Or make the ♥K5 into ♣K5. Then you know you can bid to 3N across from random 4-5 points. What happens after 2C-2D-3D-3S? OTOH its hard to picture things going wrong with a diamond opening reversing into hearts.

This depends on their card really. Lots of teams haven't discussed their weak NT defense (although they should). If all they have marked down is DONT, this auction almost makes sense. No big point bid for big hand, and weak hand has to balance so makes clubs + another bid with 5-4 distro. And the fact that you commented on the hesitation before it even (possibly) disadvantaged you tells me you may be too sensitive to this anyway.

5NT. As long as it is followed by a natural bid it is fine. If your P thinks this is to play bid it anyway so they'll remember scrambling NTs (or 5NT pick a slam) the next time.

3NT is game in a minor, especially if you have stoppers. If you are going to game, go to the right one. Also, unless you have very specific partnership agreements about deciding how solid suits are, you just can't get to the slams with < 30 points. Not with beginner-intermediate standard bidding. South is silly for choosing clubs, but fine for stopping in game.

That's ... I know you're trying to spoon feed beginners, but still, don't you think 90% of good players would bid 4♣ with this hand? And I mean GOOD good players. I would bid 4♣, and I would know that I'm going to X 4♠ before I bid 4♣. I agree. They were going to pass out 2S, their bidding already told you 4S is not making for them. You have a 10 card suit, plop down 4C (competing to a 10 trick contract) and rest your hand on the double card.

I wondered if you would catch that. I couldn't come up with a good reason for a spade lead, so I just tossed out the symbol. LOL You like leads that are raw and wriggling? But seriously, I'd lead ♦ as all the other honor holdings bother me, especially when I have so little information.

If you are going to think about slam as north, you should bid Gerber. Given North's hand, KQJ♠ and QJ♣ are all worthless points. If partner is missing one of the aces slam is almost certainly a no go. No need to rush to 6D here even if you are thinking about it.

I agree, I would rather rebid a 5 card major at the 2 level with a minimum hand. I was quoting SAYC, not best practices. I would play 1M-2m-3m as showing extras, 4 cards in the minor, and forcing to 3NT or 4 of the minor. But undiscussed I believe pass is possible if you haven't agreed that opener can only go up to 2 of his original major with garbage.

Get William S. Root's How to Play a Bridge Hand. He has an equally good book about defending.

Scrambling 2NT is used when you have two (or three) suits of equal length. consider: 1S - P - 2S - X P - ? you have 2344 distribution. (or 2-1-5-5 or 2-2-5-4) You know you have an 8 card fit in one of the minors but how do you know which one? Playing scrambling 2NT you can bid 2NT to ask partner to bid his cheapest 4-card suit at the three level. This ensures that you compete in your best minor, and not a 7 card suit. There are other times scrambling 2NT comes into play, but this is the general idea.

Your partner's 2C shows 10+ points and 4 clubs. Your 3C response shows 13-15 and (usually) 4 clubs, but the bid can be made with 3 card support if 2H and 2NT both seem like worse lies. If your partner has a minimum or is missing stoppers in both unbid suits he is entitled to pass. You may have no 3NT game because opps have a running suit or you just have about 24 points as a team, usually not enough for 3NT. And you already know you have no major fit. This is another place you need partnership agreement. If your p responded to 3C with 3D would that be a stopper ask or a stopper show? I think undiscussed I would play it as showing a diamond stopper and denying a spade stopper. But if you have a regular partner it pays to discuss how you will use the three level after a 1M-2m-3m auction.

Which 8 card fit do you prefer? Why?

If you hit a club fit you'll still run 5 heart tricks.

Well this seems like it should be a 2NT bid, with partnership agreement. Reason: They have shown 23points between them. . do you really a bid that shows 15-17 balanced against that? If you decide no, than you can use 2NT as a bid forcing p to choose between the other two suits. (Incidentally, you should have an agreement for what cuebids of their suits mean. . . you may wish to play them "unusual vs. unusual" style, where cuebidding their top suit shows a strong hand in the highest unbid suit and cuebidding their bottom suit shows a strong hand in their lowest suit. This only works if both opponents bids show 4+ cards. If the opening bid is one of a minor, I would play they have only shown responders suit, as openers suit may be 3 or even 2 cards. IN this situation I play cuebid of responders suit is michael's, bidding openers suit is natural.) But undiscussed, 3H or even double seems reasonable as you'd like to hear which suit P likes, but 3H is more preemptive so I'd go with that. But it is dangerous to play a non-jump 2NT as unusual with a p you do not know, so undiscussed I would probably bid 3H, but double also seems reasonable.

With a known fit, you can add 2 for the singleton, giving you 16 points. A raise to 3 is OK (but marginal. . it really depends on partnership agreement what you do with this kind of hand). In any case bidding to game [edit: by responder] with a flat 6 should never happen. It only works because neither of you have points in diamonds so they have 10 HCP that will get them only one trick. But there is no way to communicate a diamond singleton. You could just as easily have a heart singleton, or a diamond doubleton with a queen and make this bid.

I am sure there is no defined meaning. In fact I told my pickup partner that it probably shouldn't be bid without discussion. But the bid happened and chaos ensued. But in any case, I'd be inclined, with agreement to treat it as something like ♠JX ♥xx ♦AQxxxxx ♣xx possibly one less diamond and one more club. But slam possibilities based on a double fit seems right.

Another reason 2♥ is good. The opener has (almost) denied 5 hearts, and responder has denied 4, while your partner's hearts are unlimited, making it more likely he has 3, and you can find an 8 card fit at the 2 level.

you have 8HCP, which means 4th seat has 12+ and will open (probably). It is much easier to show weak 2-suiters if someone else bids first. I'd "sneaky pass." You have spades, it will be really hard for them to steal this hand.

It's a "LAW" bid. In a competitive auction, it is usually right to compete to the number of tricks that match your number of trump. Since you know your side has 10 Trump (and no slam exploring to do) jump to 4♠ right away. Make it harder for ops to find fit in case they do have slam exploring to do.

No bidding agreement but SAYC. What would 4D mean in 1S 1NT 3S 4D Is it forcing?