mdgraham

Very difficult. 4♣ as a fit-jump has the obvious disadvantage that it allows a bit at the 4-level. 4♠ is ok but you are likely to have to decide what to do when the opponents bid (looking at your hand, it feels like this will happen). If you want the lead-director, you could bid 5♣. However, pard won't take this as a F-J and it will be up to you to decide what to do next - certainly 5♠ as it is possible that this is making. One theory that has been espoused is that on these big-fit hands you should simply try to end up declaring in your big trump fit. You may lose 5-7 imps if this is the wrong decision, but you avoid the 13-15 out when you should have been bidding but didn't. This means bidding spades, all the way. Not sure about bidding at the seven-level, though.

Outrageous. The director has no right to tell you what you must and must not bid.

Useful hand to have the agreement that North can bid 2♦ after the double to show hearts, and then, assuming S bids 2♥, bid 2♠.

This is the kind of thing that can happen if you play a loose pre-empting style. Nothing wrong with that, but sometimes, as here, it pre-empts partner rather than the opponents. However, you can regard the West hand as way too strong for 3H - you might with (say) Qx of spades, but here the KJ, together with the void diamond, make the hand more like a 1♥ opener. You still have a lot of bidding to do to get to 7♥, though. If they find the ruff, that's just bad luck.

If playing a 12-14 1NT, yes. But I wouldn't be overly sanguine about it. If playing a 15-17 1NT, yes, 1C. Easy rebid over anything pard bids.

I seem to remember North's diamonds being AJ10954 or something like that. My partner bid 3♣ over the Michaels cue of 2♦. This worked well, as South could bid 5C easily over East's 4♠. Now 5♦, and we possibly got fortunate when East tried 5♥. N could now evaluate S as being short in hearts, so she bid 6♦. They didn't save.

Borderline insane.....of course, borderline insane works sometimes.....

I play with two partners fairly regularly, and emailed them the problem. As I expected, one voted penalty and the other one t/o. Just goes to show that you need to come to an agreement about these things. FWIW, the 2♥ bid is almost laughable - you sort of wonder if there was any extraneous table action going on...

The 2♥ bid is so bad as to be laughable - one wonders if there was any extraneous table action that led to such a bid. Overcalling 1NT and then doubling - this is one of those things you discuss with pard over a couple of beers. Preferably not after conceding a couple of 870's.

Pass. You have shown your shape and partner has made a decision based on that, but he does not know the clubs are semi-solid. However, is it right to continue? For a slam in clubs to be right partner needs solid values in the reds (Ak, KQJ, etc) rather than slow values (AQ9, KJ10 etc) so that we can dump our low spades. Also, pard does not know our clubs are (for practical purposes) semi-solid, so will incline to 3NT with, say, 9x in clubs. I would pass reluctantly at the table and would not be surprised to find that 6C is making.

It's only a support double if you have agreed this with partner; no mention is made of this agreement so presumably it doesn't exist. So double just shows cards, hopefully 13 of them and hopefully some with pictures on them. The problem now is that you have no idea of the kind of hand that partner can have. 4S could be playable or just plain silly, and 4D could be close to making or down a couple. Which is one argument for bidding 4S directly - you have made your decision (aka "guess") and the opponents now have to decide what to do. Doubling 5D, if it is bid, looks reasonable. However, that is not now the problem. It would help to know partner's overcalling style here. 4S is entirely reasonable at this point, but if partner is known to make, er, enterprising overcalls, it may well be right to pass. Give partner KJxxx Kxxx xx xx, and on BBO we have all seen players bid 1S on less, 4D could be close.