quiddity

Do you play 2H here as completely natural, or could it be a checkback for spades? If it could be artificial, does partner have to do something special over 2N to ask if you have a real stopper?

If the suit were not spades, I'd pass. As it is, I would overcall and take some bidding room away from West. Also, there's a decent chance the opponents have an 8-card red-suit fit and if partner has 3 spades it may be right to compete. I don't want to have to guess after 1C-p-1H-p-2H.

Yes, drury (or any other limit raise) would be fine. The non-forcing 1S bid is terrible - South really doesn't want to be passed out in 1S.

Nice! I particularly like the position: [hv=n=saxhdcaj9&w=sqt9hdkxc&e=sxhdxxcqx&s=shdaqxxcx]399|300|[/hv] South leads a club to the ace. If West throws a spade, he gets thrown in with ace and another spade. If he throws a diamond, East gets thrown in after SA and a club.

The lead looks like a singleton to me. The first line that comes to mind is to try and strip East of diamonds before giving him the club trick: Win the CA, DA, D-ruff, H-finesse, draw trumps, SK, then lead clubs to East and hope he doesn't have any diamonds left.

This looks pretty hopeless. From the first trick I think West has the SK; he probably has 4 clubs to the Q, and he probably has a red honor. If this is the case, then i can count 2 spades, 4 clubs, 1 diamond, 1 spade ruff. I guess the last trick has to come from hearts, so I need to play RHO for the heart AK and I think I need 3-3 hearts. Maybe LHO has something like Kxxx Txx Ax Q9xx. In that layout it looks like we have to start hearts early, before West gets a chance to discard on one of East's diamonds. We could try finessing C8 followed by a heart to the Q. Even then, East can win and get off 3 rounds of diamonds; maybe we can hope for LHO to have ♦H8 or ♦H9...

I read and understood the OP (I think), but I don't understand why you and Fred think such mistakes require special treatment. In one case, a player makes a bad bid by preempting with Q87652; in another he makes a bad bid because he thought transfers were on after a double. In either case the opponents are misled (to different degrees of course) and there is the potential for damage. But so what? It seems like the problem is an artifact of the screen system. If the BBO model were used, such that every player is responsible for alerting his own bids to both opponents, does the problem go away entirely?

Perhaps I'm slow. In any case, if I understand correctly, you propose extra penalties for system forgets because: - they randomize results and reduce your enjoyment of the game. imo, this is true of all mistakes. - they are akin to psyching, reckless random swinging, showing up drunk. imo these are intentional acts, while system forgets are by definition unintentional mistakes. imo, the comparison is completely invalid. - they can damage the opponents by causing them to draw incorrect inferences. imo, true of all mistakes. - they result in director calls which can get the opps into time trouble. Ok... However, if system forgets are treated as simple mistakes, the vast majority would not require director calls - agree? If the opponents have damaged themselves, have gotten to some ridiculous contract as with the majority of forgets, you just take the money and smile. If I understand correctly, director calls are reserved for the minority of cases where the opponents are damaged and/or suspect deliberate misinformation or some other infraction (perhaps I'm wrong about this?) However, under your proposal (or awm's proposal), every system forget is penalizable. That means every forget requires a director call. And the previously mentioned minority of cases will STILL require special attention. I don't see how this improves anything.

Again, why do system forgets "ruin" a hand while other types of mistakes apparently do not?

I don't understand the thrust of the OP at all. If people who "play bridge at the highest level" are so bothered by the randomizing effect of human mistakes, why not switch to a par-contest format or start playing against robots? Are certain types of mistakes more fun to encounter (and profit from) than others?

Yes, I was confused; nice squeeze.

What if RHO wins the first heart and returns a club? Instead of ducking the heart, another option is to win the trump in dummy, ruff a diamond high (just in case LHO had a doubleton), and run the trumps coming down to ♥K83 ♣Ax in hand and the 5 clubs in dummy. LHO has to keep two hearts and has room for only 3 clubs. Then you play CA, CK, and exit a club. LHO must concede the last trick to the HK.

How far would you take this bid? Last night I held T87xxx xx xx Q9x on the same auction and tried 1S. It was not a success (partner had the 18-19 1444 hand). Edited: sorry, 1435. After she jumped to 2nt there wasn't much to be done (except count myself lucky she didn't try 3nt).

I think this should be "especially at IMPS". For 4S to be a winner at imps it has to be 2 tricks better than NT. At MP it only has to be 1 trick better.

My guesses: 1. Raising the 4th suit should show 4 except in some very rare cases. 2. 4C should mean that the spade suit is real (otherwise he'd just bid NT). Not sure if it shows extra distribution or is just a convenient way of agreeing spades before keycard. 3. 4NT is keycard for spades 4. I think 4nt immediately after 3S is natural and quant. 5. He did - with 4C. 6. Maybe 1H-2C; 2D-2S; 3N-6N. where the jump to 3N shows 15-17?

Yes, he can have any of these. If there's a line which caters to all of them, that would be best. I couldn't find it. I think he's more likely to have singleton J, just because he's likely to have a singleton for his bid and he's likely to lead the singleton if he has it. Certainly if I were on lead with a singleton D and JTx[x..] of clubs, I'd lead the diamond.

Yes, good catch. Another option is to cash the top trumps and exit with the fourth diamond, discarding a spade or club if RHO discards a second club. LHO is endplayed into setting up the SK.

I don't completely understand the 4D bid - it sounds like a cuebid. When does such a bid promise a control, as opposed to just a raise with extras?

LHO opened 2S vulnerable in first position, and I expect he probably has a singleton with fewer than 4 hearts. He'd probably lead a singleton diamond if he had one, so I'm going to play him for 6331 or 6241. Win the CK and cash the diamond AK, then lead a third diamond from the table. If RHO follows, ruff low and cash the top two trumps. Then play on clubs. If LHO ruffs in, he'll be endplayed into leading to the SK. If RHO discards a spade or club, ruff low and cash the top two trumps. Then play a diamond to promote another trump trick. If RHO ruffs high, discard a spade. RHO can now return a spade honor (in which case we cover with the K), or a low spade (in which case we play the 9), or give his partner a club ruff - but in any case they get only 2 more tricks.

How does it work? I have had problems dealing with such hands. Agree it's a bit much to distinguish between 5 points and 6, but there must be a wide gap in playing strength between a 7-count with a singleton and a 5-count with no singleton. How do you get to game with the former hand when you have a fit without getting to too many hopeless 3nt contracts?

If you restrict super-accepts to hands which make game opposite a crappy 5-count, don't you have problems when responder has the borderline 7-count with a singleton? (Or if that's always an invite, make it a 6-count - hands which are worth game opposite a fit, but aren't really even invitational without one)

My previous suggestion of a 4th club wasn't correct?

This isn't really true, if he has ♥Ax you can overruff once, and force him to ruff air the second time. It seems you're trying to get a full count on the hand, but I think you've made it much more difficult than necessary. It does fail if RHO has Axxx of hearts, but since he failed to respond over 1C that holding seems unlikely. I would tend to respond with any ace there. Also, the shortness lead from LHO suggests a trump control. And sure, you can make LHO play his ace on air if you KNOW he started with A7 and not AT7. But how can you know that without playing a 4th round of clubs?

Nope, the early SA cash is fatal.. LHO ruffs the DQ and I get endplayed in trump. CA, CK, C-ruff, D-ruff, club. If RHO pitches a spade we can ruff and drop LHO's trump ace. We still have a trump in dummy to handle a force. Have I covered all the possible ways to screw this hand up?

I just realized RHO might win the third club and lead a trump through, and I won't know what to do. Ugh, I'm butchering this problem. :-( One last try: CA, CK discarding a spade, C-ruff, cash SA, D-ruff (assume we have to overruff with the Q, else no problem), lead the last club. If RHO ruffs, LHO must be 4225. Overruff and lead a low heart. If RHO pitches a spade, we can pitch our last spade too. LHO wins and forces with a spade. Ruff in hand and play DQ (it does LHO no good to ruff this), then low heart. If RHO follows, LHO must be 4324. Ruff and lead a high heart. Did this hand really come up at the table? It's quite beautiful. The early SA cash is crucial too, I think, for otherwise RHO can pitch a spade on the fourth club, LHO returns a club and RHO pitches the second spade! Goodbye SA.