quiddity

If rho covers the J, play the K and draw the last trump. Then play a diamond to the ace and another back to the T to establish at least 4 diamond tricks (and you have the 5th trump as an entry). 4 diamonds, 5 hearts, 2 spades, and 1 club.

1C P 1M (3m) ? 1C P 1D (3m) ? What are the "expert standard Precision" treatments for pass, double, and 4m cuebid in these sequences? And if opener passes and responder reopens with a double, what does that show? Does anyone know of a good reference? Most of the precision books I've looked at have multiple chapters on asking bids and little or nothing about simple interference.

The example hand in that thread had a small singleton, this is very (very) different from singleton K. It was a singleton ace. I found the thread here: http://forums.bridgebase.com/index.php?showtopic=33906 The current hand is also stronger in terms of hcp, so it may well be true that the risk of missing game with this hand is greater than the risk of being in the wrong strain.

I remember a long thread about this sort of hand - opening 1m is attractive because the hand can make game or slam in a minor opposite hands where 3nt goes down. Kxx xxx Kxxxx xx for example. You might want to open 1C because if partner has a weak hand with diamonds, he can respond light at the one-level. If you open 1D and partner is weak with clubs, he is more likely to pass.

We need to figure out how to play trumps for no losers. If East has all three, we need to cross to dummy and run the J - but this will lose to singleton Q and doubleton QT offside when cashing the AK would have worked. I used Pavlicek's suit break calculator here: http://www.rpbridge.net/xsb2.htm and it looks like a toss-up: missing cards: 3 west spaces: 6 east spaces: 11 specific 2-1 break (QT offside) = 8% specific 1-2 break (Q offside) = 16% 0-3 break (QTx onside) = 24%. Is there a handy way of doing this kind of calculation at the table?

limit, I guess. It's right on the borderline and we do have 4 trumps to the Q.

discard H on diamonds and lead towards SJ. not quite 100%, but a bit better than ducking...

The prebalance worked out very poorly when partner turned up with Axxx xxx xxx Kxx, spades were 3-3 and everything was offside. Of course this was really unlucky, but it made me wonder whether the risk is worth the potential gain on hands where partner is unable to balance.

Fluffy, east has to discard something. If he discards a major, declarer has 9 tricks. If he discards a low club, he can't duck twice later.

oh right.. I hope that would occur to me at the table! :-)

If declarer is 5224 with the HA but without CQ, he has 4 spade tricks, HA, H-ruff, and 2 clubs. Two diamond tricks would give him 10, and he can set them up unless we continue diamonds to let partner ruff the 4th round. However, if declarer is 6223 with the CQ and without the HA, and we continue diamonds, then partner will be unable to ruff the 4th round and declarer can pitch both losing hearts on the diamonds. So in that case we need to lead a heart and cash the ace. Theoretically we could always continue DK and a third diamond and decide what to do when we get in with SA based on partner's diamond plays, but I don't know what high-low versus low-high would mean here. Would high-low signal the HA? I'd probably just continue diamonds on the theory that partner might have bid 5H with a singleton spade and 5 hearts to the ace.

Does advancer make a similar adjustment? Say advancer has a balanced 12-count - he bids 2D and finds an 8-card major suit fit. Does he tend to pass out 2x or invite? And what is the maximum for this Landy bid? Do you tend to double with a 15-count (54)(13)?

Justin, how much (if at all) do you modify your overcalling style based on the 1NT range? I've always heard that it's best not to overcall with this kind of hand against a weak NT because partner will tend to drive to game - and if partner caters to this hand then we will miss other good games when I have a stronger hand.

I would win the king and lead a club to the 9. Assume this loses and the defense returns a heart. Win in hand and lead a diamond to the K. If this loses and the defense returns a third heart, we can win and finesse the SQ, then take the second club finesse. That works if the clubs are no worse than 4-2 with at least one honor onside and either the SK or DA onside. Unfortunately if the C9 wins I will have no idea how to continue.

I'm surprised everyone bids 4C with the south hand. Maybe I've made too many takeout doubles with 4243 11-counts; the doubleton heart and the weakish clubs make me want to pass. I think North has enough to double again.

3NT. You can hope for a decent 5-card suit from parter for his jump, so our club honors might provide 5 fast tricks. Add in the SK, the two top hearts, the heart finesse, and perhaps something from partner in diamonds.

[hv=d=w&v=b&s=sk9xhxxdakjxcxxxx]133|100|Scoring: MP 1♥ P 2♥ ?[/hv] Does your answer change with different vul/scoring?

Wow, that was terrible. Thanks for the correction.

Maybe a better line on the first one is to cash AK of diamonds hoping that either the Q or T will fall. If that fails, cash hearts ending in dummy and try to guess clubs. The chance of this succeeding is something like: P(singleton T/Q) + P(double T/Q) + P(QTx) + P(club guess) 15*(2/6) + 48*(5/9) + 36*(1/4) + 50 5 + 26.6 + 9 + 50 = 90.6

Possibly the first thing in this thread I've agreed with in quite a while. I've never seen so many words used to express so little actual meaning. It's like a(n American) football player running sideline to sideline, handing off the ball to his teammate who also runs sideline to sideline, and after 60 seconds have gone off the clock and 500 yards have been run, the ball has actually advanced backwards 3 yards. That's fine - advancing the ball has never been a priority in water cooler discussions. The point is always to eat up the clock.

edit: removed nonsense.

I don't follow this. Did the 3D bid deny a 5-card spade suit? If not, I would expect opener to bid 3S very often with unexceptional 3-card support here unless his heart holding is completely no-trumpy. He might even have to bid 3S with Hx if he lacks a heart stopper (as with your example hand). If he bids 4C responder might pass when 4S is cold.

What are your agreements for the 1H bid? Does it guarantee 5 clubs?

There are several inferences about the spade honors: 1. West might have chosen SK for his opening lead if he had KQ. 2. East led a low spade. 3. West played the K, not the Q.

The opening lead should tell you that the clubs are not blocked. You can make it even if West started with 9x.