quiddity

Interesting, I would have assigned blame to North. Isn't he supposed to place partner with a balanced 7-count? Given the vulnerable diamond preempt it seems like most balanced 7-counts will give some play for game.

This is is the style I learned, there are others. It will depend on the auction: 1M 2m With a minimum hand opener either bids a new 4+ card suit at the 2-level without reversing, or bids no-trump on a balanced hand with stoppers, or makes the default rebid of 2M. A raise requires at least mild extras because it suggests the possibility of game/slam in the minor. 1S 2H Different from the previous auction because 2H promises 5+ cards and because a 4H game does not require extras. Opener almost always raises immediately on 3 card support regardless of strength. Bidding a new suit at the three level requires some extras, so with a minimum hand without 3 hearts opener will tend to either bid no-trump with a suitable hand or make the default 2S rebid. 1D 2C Opener's first priority is to clarify the length of the diamond suit - with 5+ he rebids 2D. Otherwise he bids a 4-card major or 2N with a minimum hand. Raising clubs tends to show extras.

I think partner led the ♦K because that's the normal lead from Kx. The second diamond should be count (I assume standard present). The duck caters for declarer's singleton club but in that case she could always have made her contract by ducking the first diamond.

It makes sense for 2H to be natural; we have another cheaper cuebid available.

You can also make the contract if RHO is 4441. The line is pretty - see if you can work it out.

So, what was declarer's hand? I'm still voting for a club - it seems better to pick the line which is required and guaranteed to work on certain reasonable layouts. For a diamond to work, partner has to have a trump honor AND declarer has to misguess. It's not like declarer will always guess wrong here since we preempted to the 5-level. Besides, declarer might not have bid slam with AJ-empty trumps.

I guess a trivial example would be A: 13-card solid suit B: 20-point balanced hand

What do you discard from dummy on the 4th round of trumps?

What if trumps split 4-1, RHO having 4?

ok, it looks like I overbid this one. I guessed as much based on the 4-digit negative result.

I don't understand trying to double them in 3♥, partner's a passed hand and we have at most 2 likely defensive tricks. They can easily have a 9 card heart fit and partner can easily have 5 or even 6 clubs.

With the balance of the points (around 10+) I would usually double first to let partner know. The opponents will often scramble to some 2-level contract and you have to have agreements about whether subsequent doubles by your side are takeout or penalty, and whether passes are forcing and through what level. In the specific auction 1m (1N) it might be useful to play that 2 of the other minor shows both majors.

[hv=d=w&v=b&s=sxhtxxdxxcaqt8xxx]133|100|Scoring: IMP P 1♥ 1♠ 2♣ 2♠ P P 3♥ P P 3♠ ?[/hv] Do you agree with the bidding so far (and if not, how would you bid it)? Do you bid again? Does either answer differ with vul/scoring?

Declarer might have to draw trumps before cashing a second club trick, and a club now would take out that late entry. This is the case if declarer has AKQx AQJxxx Jx x. A diamond lead taps dummy, which might be important if declarer can establish clubs and draw trumps ending in dummy - something like AQJ AQJxxxx Jx x. A diamond lead can also damage declarer's ability to finesse against a trump honor in partner's hand, though Vuroth's example of QJx would always provide a trick. Partner would have to have something like Qxxx, requiring declarer to finesse twice, and declarer would have to have 12 tricks without the ruff. Something like AKQJx AJ9xxx Jx -. On South's bidding I think the first hand is most likely.

If 2H promises 6+ hearts, what is opener supposed to rebid with a boring minimum 2533?

I think a lot of this stuff is way too confusing for "beginners". Probably the less you tell them about signaling the better; they should be trying to count out the unseen hands and place missing honors based on the bidding and play. Teach them how to identify safe and unsafe leads by looking at their hands and dummy. In my experience as an intermediate, when you do decide to cover signaling, a small set of rules is best. In America the set might be "attitude on partner's lead, count on declarer's lead, attitude on first discard". Then drill down. Even with this small set there will be questions like: - which honors qualify for a positive attitude signal - when to signal positive attitude with a doubleton - what to do with doubleton honor which have to be covered. Then talk about honor signals and suit preference when giving partner a ruff. Qualifiers like "signal count on the opening lead against NT when dummy wins with a queen or lower" come much later. This may not be the optimal signal set, but for beginners IMO it is far more important that the signals be simple, easy to remember, and very specific.

What if RHO has Tx or Txx, or if LHO has Tx?

I'd like to think that I'd pass, but I have a tendency to take a shot on auctions like this and it frequently fails. My experience is that it doesn't pay to guess at slam on a hand where we might be off the AK of clubs, we have no obvious source of tricks, we might have a sure heart loser, etc. Also, I think the argument that we should bid 6 because it's a minor suit at matchpoints doesn't hold here. Partner's bidding suggests an upgrade based on a huge fit and we have a suit-oriented hand. I doubt we have to worry about the majority of the field being in no-trump.

What is the 3♦ bid? I assumed something like a help-suit try. Is it a real side-suit in this auction?

I'd bid 4♠ too, though I doubt LHO is saving.

I blew this one at the table yesterday; 4♠ is cold. One thing I wasn't clear on was that the 3♠ bid showed 5+ spades. How do the hands with only 4 spades invite? The 3-level cuebid sounds game-forcing to me, and I would have thought the doubler would rebid 3♠ over the cuebid whenever he has 4 spades almost regardless of strength.

ugh - maybe 2♥ 4♦ X 5♣ pass..?

[hv=d=e&v=e&s=st9xhxdaqtxcajtxx]133|100|1♥ X 2♥ 3♠ 4♥ ?[/hv]

Yup. While a weak holding in opps suit is certainly worth less than you valued it at when you picked up your hand, it is surprising how often it isn't worthless The ♥Q is not only worthless, it's *negative* value from a competitive standpoint. I'd still bid 2♠ - it's the obvious field bid if nothing else - but that is a really bad card to hold. On top of that our trumps and shape are horrible. I would not be surprised if pass turns out to be a winner on lots of hands where partner would otherwise over-compete or get off to a bad lead.

I'm not sure about "standard" responses to the cuebid - is 3♥ invitational? My partnerships play that a jump is preemptive and 2NT is the invitational/asking bid.