wank

2s weak or strong in clubs/invitational in diamonds/invitational balanced 2n 5 card puppet stayman - opener doesn't reveal his major holdings. Also includes (31)(45) shapes. 3c weak or strong in diamonds The only hand you don't cover is invitations with clubs I play 2nd round transfers after 1nt-2r. This gives me a free bid to show 2 variations of 5M choice of game, allowing opener to play 3nt with 3 card support which among many other issues solves the one nullve is after in 6

anyway i would bid (1nt) x (2s) 3S considering the systemic limitations imposed 3NT. if that happens to go off because they lead to the KS at t1 and cash the spades when i knock out the ace of diamonds i'll consider myself a little unlucky.

it always make me laugh when people use acol to justify crap bidding. the hand above is a bag of shite. just because partner can make a non-gf 2/1 doesn't mean he can assume you were taking the mickey with your opening bid.

i'd go for for nystrom-upmark style whereby 1D promises a major if unbal. with your option 5 you'd end up opening 1C with 15+ balanced which is pretty awkward imo.

This is the only one I think was an error - I led a plebeian heart. I think ace of spades must be right. With kxx clubs under the adverse preempt they're making if we can't cash 5 immediately. If partner has the ace of hearts he'll still have it at T2.

I went for the boring spade - I was ruffing the 3rd round after all. That gave the tempo. You need to establish diamonds before declarer knocks out p's ace of spades.

Rho's forcing pass should be a solid shortish stop, like ax,axx or kx. With a bag of ***** he's supposed to just take the money out of 4s. Lho should have a good minor for 4nt. Considering Rho's subsequent pull to 5d, I put lho with clubs and rho with something like kx XXx aqjxxx ax. Thinking we couldn't reasonably have 2 cashing spades, I took the opportunity to lead through dummy's hoped for king of hearts. In fact rho has been absurd. He's got qj aqxx kqxx qxx. Lho has XX kx ajtxxx kjx. I don't know who rho was but this was the final of 3 day Swiss in Toronto so I naively expected something sensible. With partner's aktxxx spades and an ace I'd just smack 3nt myself. Despite the egg that was all over my face at the end I'm entirely happy with my logic here.

Ah yes that's autocorrect

All vul XX XX Qjxx xxxxx Rho 1h, lho 2h, p 2s, rho 4h

No-one vul XXX Jt9xx XX XXX Rho opens 1nt, lho raises to 3, partner bids 4s, rho passes, lho bids 4nt to play, rho bids 5d.

I got lots of leads wrong today. First:- Ajx Kjxx 9xx Ktx Favourable vul. Lho opens 3c, rho bids 3nt. Your lead.

You can play half Bergen. 3c is natural invitational and 3d is a raise. The logic being that you can often bid 1M-2c-3d with the diamond hands. Personally I play 1M 3M as mixed and 1M 2nt as inv plus. I think a purely preemptive raise is overrated because it rarely comes up. To be of value p has to be dealer and rho has to pass and you have to have been dealt a hand for it. It's all long odds to come up and when it does p normally has 18 19.

Shortish clubs. 2 higher 4 card suits, presumably majors if you don't play unbal diamond.

I don't have a problem with 2c but you have to double 3h. Starting with a tactical underbid on these shapely hands is often a good idea but you have to bare that in mind and be willing to bid strongly thereafter. For those who doubt the wisdom of this, 2c followed by double describes the hand far better than you could ever hope to achieve after starting with 2d or 3c.

i think all weak nts just bid 2NT. yes, this puts all the pressure on responder, but such is life.

i have a little more sympathy for the gentleman involved. considering how high the standard is in turkey with the plethora of experts and world class players, the pressure must be immense.

Btw wrt 3H being pre-emptive by 'expert consensus', I think that's an American thing. In my area it's invitational, stronger then 2 and with a 5th card which 2 might not have (2 being 8-11 with 4 or a bit less with 5 which I gather from a previous discussion you hate). I know that's the case for fluffy too, because it's come up before. When 3rd hand has passed I don't see the need for a pre-empt personally.

If you want to pay Bergen you have to bid 1nt. You seem to imply Bergen is as standard as splinters.

Ah well yes I wouldn't be doubling if it were penalties. As you rightly say it's not an auction people have any agreements about.

True but I'm doubling with the hand given. I expect to bid 3d next.

If partner has heart shortage I expect he'll realise how good a hand he has once I support diamonds. If partner's not short in hearts, game is a long way off, 12 HCP or otherwise.

From the responses so far, methinks people are grossly overbidding on 2. 3 isnt very interesting imo. You need to be marking on the Nigel scale for anything except pass to score points

1) 2c 2) double 3) pass 4) 6s

Stolen bid doubles are really for people who can't be bothered to make better agreements and just want to get back to uncontested bidding for simplicity.

Shortages after minor transfer (whether fit shown or not). With the actual hand transfer to hearts then bid and repeat clubs.