wank

random comment: i don't like mini splinters from opening hands - any random bulgar knows to underlead his diamond ace on auctions like these.

well you've not shown us the hands but it's obviously west who was absurd.

1) in general 4♦ in such auctions would be any 2 suits in a GF. it would be the wrong bid here though, because you want to play in 4♥ even if partner has only 3 hearts, in which case he would bypass hearts himself. 2)pass should be forcing and encouraging further bidding - i.e. showing more offence than indicated by 4♥. with a singleton diamond east could bid on due to the vul. he should be able to envisage a long side suit in the west hand for him to be suggesting bidding on after already jumping to game as a passed hand. it's certainly not clear though - imagine west with 2515 in which case he would bid the same way, but now you need to pick up the clubs to make 5h.

playing 2♣ as a ucb and the ucb as clubs is a method popularised in some circles by robson and zia took it up. it seems like a good idea to me, because you can use it like drury with 2 diamonds meaning you're unsure whether to go past 2M or not. this has nothing to do with the original post btw. just answering zel's question.

really hate 3 diamonds. far too much offence to defence to try so hard to go for a penalty. if lho has 3 spades they'll play in spades. then you only need partner to have the ace of hearts and you'll probably take the first 4 tricks. if lho doesn't have 3 spades diamonds is going to play terribly if they manage to catch you.

you use rkcb to check you're not off 2 aces. you use cue bids and bidding judgment to decide if you have 12 tricks.

the partial elimination isn't that good - you're often losing a trump promotion. for the elimination to operate you need north to have 2+ clubs, 3+ diamonds and 4+ spades (i'm assuming you're keeping 2 top trumps in hand to ruff the 3rd club high or you're going off whenever north has a doubleton club). given he has 2 fewer vacant spaces, i would think the simple line of just hooking clubs twice must be very close in percentage terms. you need the 10 of hearts to make it worthwhile imo.

4 spades - easy to bid

oops

you're playing that 1nt can contain heart support? how strong if so? either way, fast arrival is terrible here. i keep 4♥ for showing 3 card support, range depending on what 1nt could have, and 3♥ is just preference.

yes i would pass to start. over the double i think i've got too much playing strength for 3c - i'd prefer 4c even though it takes us past 3nt. anyway 3nt is unlikely to be good - we'll most likely need to concede a club trick to run the suit and partner's unlikely to have a double spade stop. still it's now worked pretty well, i can bid 4s which shows my hand perfectly imo.

east jxx of spades and x of hearts....partner obviously has a bag of crap if he can't bid when you have those.

when the 4th suit is the strong hand's 3rd call, it should be natural. opener will often have based his 2C bid on very strong suits rather than the full 23 miltons, in which case it will often be playable opposite even a doubleton and it would be sad not to be able to show it. as per some of the auctions above, he can raise partner's 2nd suit in a forcing manner even if it's with 4M. 4th suit at the 3 level e.g. 2c-2s-3c-3d-3h is also unnecessary. without hearts opener can bid 3NT forcing - it's impossible for a 2C opener not to have a heart stop and not be able to support partner or rebid clubs.

was the director a club volunteer? if the answer is yes, seek more volunteers, if the answer is no, fire him.

aside from the obvious problem with your post, the real problem is that when partner holds 4 hearts he normally won't be in a position to pass - he doesn't know we're making a takeout double on axx.

where do i want to play this hand? 2♥ is there a way to get there? er....yes

obviously my viewpoint is divisive especially to americans who tend to have a much more favourable view of israel than europeans. as i said in my first post, sporting sanctions did however ultimately have a serious impact on south african policy. without commenting on whether you feel israel merits such measures or not, do you feel sport, and games such as bridge, should be used as a political tool?

i said 2NT because I rated it as 20 due to the fitting intermediates - jt9 is nice, as is akj10. even the 8 of diamonds is potentially a useful card. but yes 6d is a better contract. fwiw i stuck it in the k+r hand evaluator when my judgment was questioned and it says exactly 20.

2nt-6nt

well, yes i agree that there are other countries that deserve to be banned - most of them don't play bridge though.

my point was that i think it would be entirely reasonable for Israeli teams to be banned from attending bridge tournaments, sporting events, etc, but that i doubt this case has anything to do with orchestration on even a minor scale, and more to do with administrative inertia and misunderstanding.

i would have been much more interested if i thought this was an intentional policy on the part of the indonesians. restricting sporting links was a major factor behind ending south africa's repressive policies. before anyone tells me that no members of the the israeli venice cup team are involved in anything morally dubious, beit it so or not, that's not the point. applying sanctions against the entire populace of a nation is considered a legitimate tactic to encourage citizens to pressure their governments into behaving in a more responsible manner.

opening off-shaped 2NT is something to be avoided if possible. it makes it very difficult to bid slams. this south hand has massive slam potential opposite quite mediocre hands which wouldn't investigate over 2NT. with a singleton spade the prospects of a 1H opener being passed out are very slim. anyway after intervention over 2NT, it's normal to play take-out doubles. Yes, north should make one. It means he loses the 5th heart but you have to some sacrifices when you have no space. over 4S, south should pass. this should be forcing and showing a hand interested in bidding more. forcing because there's no way you would want to defend 4S undoubled after opening 2NT and hearing partner show values (i.e. by doubling 3S). then north with a singleton spade and 1.5 hearts more than he's promised will be tempted to bid on as he'll know south has no soft cards in spades. forcing passes are a very tricky area of bidding. expert players often find it difficult to agree when they apply, so it's not exactly a b/n issue. of course with such a crappy hand in hcp terms, north might decide not to bid on anyway, as 11 tricks are unlikely to be cold.

it's north. once south responds at the 2-level he should drive game. south has no fit for hearts (a doubleton would be fine opposite a jump rebid) and as much high card strength as he's already shown, so he has no reason to bid again.

i'd bid 4♠ and run away to 5♣ if LHO smacks it. yes, it's very dangerous, but so is passing with so much shape - we could be making slam on hands where partner can't protect.