wank

well yes but you coul always do that, e.g. hesitate with a yarborough to stop partner bidding. in reality people don't do that even if they're of a cheating mind, because they don't trust their partner to be ethical - most players would be more inclined to bid 'knowing' the hesitator had values..

2d. i hate it but i hate 1nt more.

no, if it's decided that a pseudo-double indicated a spade lead over a club (a strong case imo), then you can't lead a spade at all in the weightings.

good players are more likely to lead from jxxx+ than axxx+

of course you play the 10, despite all the waffly non-responses. many people play that they lead a higher card without an honour in which case you're guaranteed 2 stops if you play the 10.

i agree that the choice is between pass and 3nt. pass is the pessimstic choice - correct when we can't make anything - but i see no reason to be pessimistic. we have a maxish pass. if we don't have play for game with our hand partner probably shouldn't have doubled.

Jumping to 3nt is modest extras, think 10/11 hcp. Bid 2nd and advance is a very serious move towards slam, say 12ish+

4 spades. we've got a great hand for slam. if it turns out they only have 8 spades, oops.

Btw it would have been helpful if you'd put in the op that was 4c was gerber.

For 6nt you traditionally need 33. For slam in suits and with big fits, yeah, you need far less.

passing 1c would be pathetic imo

i don't speak acbl, but 10-15 is a 5 point range in any normal parlance.

1) this is a problem (but probably not particularly relevant here. see 2). there is no such thing as fast arrival in no-trumps in any auction. jumps always show extras. it's unplayable to play your way. tbf this seems to be a common understanding gap. there are 2 reasons. firstly, weak hands can't afford to jump in no trumps because being low on HCP is closely connected with being low in stops. you're pre-empting yourself from potentially finding a safer game. if you play the normal way, whereby a jump shows extras, then even if you miss a good fit in a suit, it's not a crisis, because you have the extra values to compensate. secondly, by jumping to show extras you actually end up with 3 discrete ranges (can jump, can bid 2N and respect partner, can bid 2N and bid on) which is easier to handle than 1 small weak range and 1 wide encouraging to strong range as you have. 2) anyway, north is minimum HCP (ok, nice controls) and with no extra shape. why do you not think 3nt encapsulates that? anyway, ok let's assume that due to the prime honours and 10 of clubs, you think you're too good for 3NT, then bid 4NT, and show your shape, so partner doesn't place you with all these club tricks you don't have. he should still realise something like ax of spades is a golden holding for ruffing purposes.

by referring to west as being damaged i was trying to be subtle with regards to the gullibility you demonstrated when you took east's comment about doubling at face value. i suppose you glaze over though when it comes to genuine bridge problems, in much the same way as i glaze over when it comes to pedantry.

east claims he would have doubled 3c for takeout. well lol at that. of course east bids 3NT anyway. if anyone was damaged it's west, who would be more inclined to make a quantitative raise if he didn't think RHO had an opening bid. personally i wouldn't rate their chances of getting to slam too highly. i'd give them maybe 30% weighting but i suppose you can poll it.

better that they quoted the law. x isn't wild and gambling (lol it's not even in the same timezone) or a serious error. without wanting to hear a lecture on the brilliance of norwegian regulations pertaining to high level auctions, north's tempo sounds perfectly normal for this type of auction, so no UI and no issue.

i saw your list in the other thread roman keycard gerber - everyone plays roman keycard blackwood, but only experts have expanded the principle to include gerber. i can honestly say that i can't remember the last time i played standard 4 ace gerber with any of my partners. RKCG is often superior to RKCB because you have space to ask for kings without committing to slam and check for aces without passing game. for example, let's say partner opens 1 spade and you have [hv=pc=n&s=saj4hqj32dqj54ckq&d=n&v=0&b=1&a=1sp]133|200[/hv] omg. you have 16 points opposite an opening bid. slam is very likely but you don't want to bid blackwood. you could be forcing to the 5 level missing 3 aces. better to bid 4 clubs, RKCG, and then check for kings if you have the requisite aces.

quite right. he might have psyched or pulled the wrong bidding card.

eh? 6d is huge opposite that hand with the qc or qh. you just need a 42 trump break or better. no i wouldn't gf on axxx kqxxxx opposite a 14+ opening bid.

As a beginner you don't want to devote too much time to conventions. Concentrate on bidding judgment.

this is from someone who didn't know the doctors were at it despite being german. everyone else knew.

4 spades would show far more

still, pretty clueless to open the south hand

which part of north's hand did he feel was unshown after 2s? he has an ideal hand for 3nt. 4c shows rather more clubs and rather more playing strength. South could have a 5 or 6 count.

why isn't 3h just boring old 4th suit forcing? anyway south needs an abacus. 22 + 10+ = slam north shouldn't want to play Nts with a 7 card suit and extra shape.