quiddity

It may not promise the earth, but doesn't the free bid promise at least one control?

What would 3NT show? Solid spades?

Discard a diamond from dummy?

I thought 5H was the "voluntary bid of 5M", asking partner for controls in some key suit (spades in this case)? For the problem, does it still make sense to play partner for a random 7 count here? Slam looks decent opposite that; as long as I'm going there, may as well use exclusion to explore for a grand.

Why does everyone bid 5S or pass on the first hand? Assuming the cuebid sets up a forcing pass at the five level, I thought either of these bids would indicate nothing wasted in the enemy suit. Edited.. Doh, I can't count. Still, with QJ wasted in hearts and a minimum hand is it right to suggest or bid 5S?

How will you get back to dummy to ruff the last minor suit loser? I think it's better to play a diamond to the Q at trick 2.

Hard problem. I think we have to guess immediately whether LHO has 5 diamonds or 6 - if he has 5 he'll almost certainly have the HA so we have to play the DK. If he has 6, we have to duck and hope RHO has the HA. Given the vul overcall and the DA lead, is it more likely he has x Qxxx AQJTxx QJ or xxx AQ AQJTx Qxx? I think RHO is likely to play the D8 even from 8x (since he can see declarer will have to guess whether to put up the K on the second round), so it's not an important clue. Because of the lead, I'd play LHO for the six card suit and duck the second diamond.

I don't understand that line. After the HA and 2 spade ruffs you're down to two trumps. Won't the opponents just draw them and win either 2S, 2H, 1D, and 1C or perhaps 1S, 2H, 1D, 1D-ruff, and 1C? Not that I can suggest a better line. Perhaps the fact that LHO didn't lead trumps on this auction is an indicator that he doesn't have diamond length (though it might just mean he has a trump honor). I think I would just play a couple rounds of trump and later play DA and a diamond to the T hoping to set up a second diamond trick. In the meantime maybe they'll lead a minor suit for us or even let the SQ make.

se12sam's line looks good (unless West has 4 diamonds). How about if East discards on the second heart? y66, I don't think your line will work. For one thing, West can easily exit with a heart or perhaps even the third trump. For another, if East has a decent club holding you may not be able to duck a club to west.

I think it costs an undertrick if partner has precisely the HT and S-Qx, but I suppose partner is more likely to have the SK than the HT.

I'd pass.

Is South expected to bid 2NT with something like Ax xx AKxx KJTxx?

You'll be down if East has the CK and West started with a doubleton diamond.

I understand that partner can't tell whether we have a good hand or a bad hand. My mistake is in underestimating the chance that this information will be useful (and perhaps overestimating the chance that 4S-X will make). My assumption that RHO has a limit raise was probably incorrect, or perhaps the small chance of missing 5H outweighs the more frequent but less costly 4S-X= even if he does usually have a limit raise.

I don't mind the harshness; thanks for the reply!

3NT shows 9 tricks?! I think it's possible to come to 9 tricks in NT with partner's help; hold up in diamonds to kill RHO's hand, then knock out LHO's stoppers. The small H doubleton might be a reason to bid 3S, but if 3NT is right we can hardly expect partner to bid it.

This seems very backwards to me. Why do we want to try to involve partner at this point in the auction after making a unilateral jump to game on the previous round? The whole point of that bid (as I understand it) was to avoid a dialogue with partner in the hope that the opponents might make the wrong decision over 4H. In this case it looks like they got it right, but I don't see why that should force us to make a risky double. If we had made an earlier attempt to involve partner, we likely would have arrived at the same decision: suspecting that 5H goes down, hoping that we can beat 4S one trick. Double is not correct there, so why should it be mandatory here?

Why are we committed to doubling? It could be costly if partner has a bust, and meanwhile it doesn't seem to gain very much even if it's right.

3N. quick tricks, 6-card suit, plus some support for partner's suit.

I don't know. It's often right to play overcaller's partner for trump suit honors, but in this case East bid 4H with very little. If West were 1525 he might have bid Michaels; if he were 1534, then East bid 4H with Kxx Axxx xxx xxx. On the other hand, if West has the guarded SK then East has some shape and a working king for his raise. Maybe: Kxx x KQJxxx Axx Ax Txxx xx Kxxxx

pass.. it sounds like they have an opening bid and a 3-card limit raise, which doesn't leave a lot for partner.

Can partner use 4NT followed by 5H to show a weak hand, or is that likely to be a disaster?

On the other hand, I guess the vast majority of players (and perhaps even bridge-playing robots) would not realize the advantage of playing the J, and would still play either honor at random from this holding. So perhaps this means the finesse is right after all.

I'm not sure, but I don't think it changes. Say LHO wins the T on the first round and RHO drops the J on the next. The possible relevant holdings are QTxx Jx Txx QJx LHO might always win the T on the first round because he didn't realize the two honors were equivalent, while RHO would have a free choice on the second round if he started with QJx. By this reasoning, it would be right to play RHO for the doubleton J. But if you were to alter your play based on this reasoning, then RHO should always play the J from QJ on the second round to make you go wrong; so his choice is also restricted. Sorry if this makes no sense at all; I find the subject very confusing.

[hv=d=n&v=n&n=skq9h983dkt4caqt6&w=sjt4hqj6d83cj5432&e=sahat52da9752c987&s=s876532hk74dqj6ck]399|300|Scoring: IMP[/hv] A diamond return was required to set the contract; declarer guessed trumps correctly (finessing the 9). There are hands where a heart return would be right, though. I'm not sure how to assess the chances for the two plays.