wank

i think it's very difficult to get to 6nt. most roads seem to end in 6d. 3nt by north would be a winner, but i would still double despite the aj of clubs and then south drives slam.

that's not what it shows. hands with 18-19 balanced either pass or double depending on shape. they don't bid 2nt because there's no chance of making 3nt and there is a good chance of getting sawn off. this is not like 1h 2s p p 2nt where responder can have a decent hand. 2nt here should be x6x4, or, if you prefer to keep things natural, and have a penchant for aiming for tiny targets, something semi balanced invitational to 3nt, as in something like a 21/22 count in playing strength.

i respond and having forgotten to respond i jump. opener is right to pass 2h. over 3h i still pass. doubling opposite a hand which is too weak to respond shows a very good hand.

he's basically showing he's got 9 top ones. playing his suit isn't going to dissuade him from cashing them.

obv i know the hand, but a top heart's pretty clear

you're signalling differently to the rest of the world. everyone else signals what they have, not try to tell partner which cards to play to which trick. 9 of D should show the king. the susbsequent play of the diamonds is perforce confusing as one would expect it to be followed up with other high ones. perhaps this should show a club card as well. bit of a stretch, especially as north south are a conservative pair, but declarer could have ajxxx qjxxx j jx.

obviously south needs to bid. you pass if you have a normalish hand for your bidding to date. this hand doesn't fit that.

Is this from a book? It looks like rubber bridge bidding from the 50s.

i can guess where you've pulled those answers from, because it's certainly not the law book.

am i getting confused? i thought you played 1nt as ♦ inc 2533 or strong a.k.a gazilli and 2♣ over that as the gazilli positive with anything else being a descriptive negative.

yes i'd go for the q of d. there's nothing more joyous than dummy coming down with ktxx opposite ax and declarer finesses on the 2nd round and gets cut off from dummy.

combo 1 and 3 ideally

i was mainly wanting to show we don't have the diamond ace, lest partner with something like kq/kj diamonds overvalues them. it's a favourable 2nt overcall so there's plenty of capacity for us to have diamond length and need secondary honours from partner. i do like that 6c will stop partner overbidding a club void, but i was thinking it will frequently go 5h-5s-6c to get both aspects across. oh and you're welcome to pick on me. i frequently talk out of my arse. i've got no problem being pulled up on it.

north is having a laugh. of course he knows xx isn't penalties. bidding over 4d can be right though. he decided to do so and got a bad result. now he's dialled 999 to report a robbery. if i were an officer of the constabulary, i'd be giving him a lecture about wasting police time.

at the 3d point isn't there a good chance on this bidding that partner's 4432 or 4342 and it's all rather sad? surely 4d forces to game and suggests slam which is rather excessive when you think partner has heart length opposite your xxx.

pass could well be right. if partner has enough for anything else not to be a disaster, 3d is probably off. sometimes 3dx= is our cheapest result and 470 isn't a catastrophe. 4c could work. partner often has 5 clubs in which case we're likely to escape being doubled even when it's going well down. 3h and 3nt are drugs imo. i reckon i'd go for pass and lead a spade.

the first one west. east has done pretty well imo. west should be able to picture something like that. the second one unlucky. i don't like double with that shape, but at some point you have to shrug and act. for me 19 HCP is 'some point'.

you have a slam drive so you want to ascertain if 7 is making or not. the way to do that is to draw attention to the hearts by bidding 5♥. this will get partner to value the king. you might still not get to 7 though when it's right.

noone was suggesting he does. methinks you misread the post above yours. anyway, opps are low on hcp. a trump seems pretty clear. btw, why did i lebensohl to 3c with my 3 suited hand?

but give gibbon east a stern bollocking for not leading the 9 which caters for more combinations.

put dummy down. partner has 5+ diamonds there over 3/4 of the time i'd guess. it's still a pretty clear double with 4342 which is a worse shape because you play the wrong part score when p is a weak 44 in the minors. anyway, if you didn't put dummy down, you'd have to do something else, which is obviously stupid.

it always makes me laugh when people use acol as an excuse for bad competitive bidding. the opps opened. you're not playing acol or any other system.

lol 5d 'voidwood' got raised to 6. does it sound like they had any partnership understanding?

5nt. you know partner's going to pass the double 95% of the time when slam's coldm so it's basically a simple question of deciding if slam is making [or they bid again] or not. i think it is.

your partner should still bid 2s, despite this potentially being a 43 fit.