maggieb

We had a wonderful time in cold and rainy Boston. Here is a hand from the national swiss that I kibitzed: ♠KQxxxx ♥Qxx ♦Qx ♣Ax RHO opened 1C, strong. You are red against white, would you overcall 1S or 2S? Apparantly the player who held this hand thought two spades was a bit too much at these colors because he bid only one spade. Now LHO passed (showing 0-5 or a penalty pass) partner raised to 2S and RHO bid 3H. Bidding repeated for your convenience: (1C) - 1S - (p) - 2S (3H) - ?? What oh what would you do now?

pass

I want to bid 5♦, and I'm just checking to see if you want to defend.

I like this problem much better if my hearts are ATx. Anyway, I'd recommend reposting this in B/I maybe.

What is the real 2/1? Have I been a phony all these years? I'm dying to know.

diamond

I'm noticing two common themes in all your posts.

lead directing with hearts obviously

5♣, 5♠ over 5♥ and 6♦ over 5♦.

3♦

3n

For a beginner, I would suggest always transferring to a major with 5 cards. In general, I would suggest transferring on maybe 99% of these hands. I can construct hands I clearly would not transfer on, like ♠xxxxx ♥QJx ♦QJx ♣JT. I would always transfer to a 6-card major or minor.

I'd overcall. Lots of ways to gain, I am happy to compete to 3♥ if partner can raise. I am also thrilled if partner can bid game.

Partner bid 4♦ and I have no waste in spades. On top of this I have a very strong side suit that should be very useful. I think cuebidding here was completely obvious. Now like the others I bid 6♦, but I am a little nervous about it.

This is an automatic 1♠ bid. It sounds like your opponents were beginners and your partner got very very lucky, because it was the opponents' hand. When I pick up a reasonable hand which is 5-5 in the majors, it is very likely that this is our hand. Bidding 2♠ is: 1) A misdescription to partner, she will not expect such a great hand and only 5 spades. 2) Makes it almost impossible to play the hand in hearts, and it would not be unusual to play 2♠ when we are cold for 4♥ at all, or play 2♠ when we are cold for 4♠. Opening a weak two on a 5-card suit can be very attractive when you are at favorable vulnerability or you are in third seat. The first is attractive because you have more to gain by preempting the opponents, and they will have a hard time getting a profitable penalty. The second is attractive because it is now quite unlikely that your side has game, and it is very likely you will put a lot of pressure on your LHO. How often you open a weak two on 5 cards is a matter of style. I would say never on 5332 and occasionally on 5422/5431 at favorable or third seat is a very reasonable style, depending on the suit quality and spot cards, QJT9x is much better than QJxxx. For a beginner, if you never open a weak two on a 5-card suit, that is fine.

I have three comments: 1) As Adam notes, low level forcing passes are common when we double their 1NT for penalty or redouble. Please discuss with your partner up to what level they apply to! I play a FP through 2♦ in either of these cases; that is, we cannot sell out to 2♣/2♦ undoubled. 2) Expert consensus these days seems to be to not play forcing passes after we have opened and shown invitational or better values. An example would be something like 1♦ (P) 2♦ (4♠), where 2♦ is an inverted raise, most experts would play pass is NF by either side. It's unclear to me whether or not this is actually a good agreement, but it's what seems to be standard these days. 3) When you adopt forcing passes, don't overuse them. Just because you can construct some kind of hand for your partner where bidding on is right doesn't mean you should make a forcing pass in case partner has this kind of hand, even though your hand is defensively oriented. In general, I have found B/I players to make too many forcing passes, mostly because they pass when they should double.

Who is jlall?

Good example hands, but I don't see why you need 75% to bid this grand. This is not the kind of hand where the other table might be in game or anything weird can happen, you are almost certainly taking at least 12 tricks. You actually only need a very slight advantage to bid the grand on a hand like this, around 56%. 7N seems obvious on the actual hand, even before the queen ask. As Adam showed, this grand is probably about 75% to make, with lots of squeeze chances (potentially in all four suits!).

I have basically never seen anyone actually play this as strong 5-5 at the table even though there is obviously some merit to this. I am very confident in an expert pickup partnership that this would be a splinter, at least in North America.

A better contract like 3♦? 3♥? 3NT?? My partner doesn't usually have ♣AKx on this auction!

Josh, I am in the category of "most others" who would not consider overcalling 3♠ on the first hand you gave. However, opposite a passed hand, I don't think it's close. Do you view having ♦Axx as a bonus? I would think that passing and bidding 4♠ over a balancing double is a much better way of tackling the hand.

Give me the ♠K and I would consider this a minimum 3♠ bid.

Normal? I'm not sure if you're referring to bidding 1NT over 1♥ or passing 1♦ but both of those decisions seem extremely abnormal to me. I'd definitely bid 1♥. Yes, with Jxxx xx x KQJxxx you would obviously respond 1N, planning on bidding clubs next.

I would just pass. The clubs are not good enough to have started with 1N, but that is the normal action with these kinds of hands.

I mean, are you eventually going to reveal what you find curious about this decision? I am eager to see what was so curious about this that evaded all the posters in this thread.