Jlall

you have no tricks?

4 D

Doubling is a very common error on this type of hand when people can't decide between 3S and 3N.

Agree with 3, but would never open 4.

Yeah in USA the answer would just be to get a lawyer to send a letter to the BSA threatening a lawsuit. Usually this would get them to back down. I understand that in other not-so-litigous countries this is not a reasonable option.

male

Or MSN, or AIM...

Yes on the first hand you should lose a trick imo. You have too much to do to not state a line, for instance after you ruff a heart how will you get back to your hand? You have a decision to make, the diamond might get ruffed or the club might get overruffed. The fact that you claim without stating a line in this statement seems to indicate to me that you might think your heart is good after you ruff one and you can just draw trumps and claim. On the second hand if you claimed without stating a line I would give it to you.

Not if he knows his safety plays. He should make it as dangerous as possible for declarer to take the safety play. Well a club makes it kind of dangerous also (club, heart ten to some honor, club back heart to the king and you have to cash a D to pitch a club and then you have to not get overruffed in whichever black suit you choose to play). But yeah I think a diamond is definitely better so you are right.

Teach your partner negative Xs

Yeah had you posted the correct hand I would have bid 3D (remember my logic earlier about not having an 8 card fit? Now all of the sudden we do!). You can expect very little wastage in hearts from partner since LHO should have an EXCELLENT suit to bid 2H, and also partner would have doubled if he happened to have a ton of heart values somehow. So the hands should fit pretty well.

QJ9x on our right?? HOW DO WE PICK THAT UP EVER???????

This combination is really cool in a vacuum though, shouldn't we always be playing the HT? IF lho plays the 9 or an honor just win the king and play low to the 8 now. If LHO plays low just play low. This is better than just playing the king since it picks up QJxx on your left and doesn't lose to any holding that playing the king wins against.

West turned out to have QJxx; I could have run the T and squashed East's 9 to make the contract. At the time, down 1 seemed normal, but this diamond continuation has been bothering me. Would most defenders looking at AKQJx of spades and Txx of clubs defend so passively? What about west having 3 diamonds, and trying to get a trump promotion set up. For example, if west has something like: xxx Jx AKx Qxxxx He knows that if you have AQ of hearts it is all over (partner cannot have the AK of clubs given our opening bid). The best chance to defeat this then is partner having the HA. You cannot be sure of getting your heart trick in, declarer might have 7 hearts and drop your jack later. Or partner might have AT doubleton. However if you play your third diamond and declarer plays a heart to the king, you will score your trump via promotion. So playing your diamond is your best technical play in this situation. If that is what the defense is doing, swinging the T of hearts around is going to work out horribly since they WILL get their promotion after all.

wat?

Just pass, they are not in an 8 card fit and you don't have any 8 card fit.

West has an auto double of 4D if given the right explanation, and east has an auto X of 5D, especially if they are good players. Obviously you have to rule MI if they can't prove one way or the other what their agreement was.

3D looks fine to me, you could bid 3C but with diamonds so much better than clubs I would much prefer to play diamonds if partner is 2-3 or so. Certainly if partner had the DT 3D is a standout bid.

Ok Thx. It looked like a 6 carder to me. Yes, with 7 I also bid 3S, though I think Lall would have bid 3 with 6 only based on his posts. LOL

I agree, but remember I was replying to this statement that you made: Surely if partner converts you are happier to have 2 trumps than 1 trump. Surely you rate to get a bigger number. It is not relevant that partner is passing LESS often because your quoted statement was that WHEN partner passes you would be extremely worried. It doesn't make sense that you would not be worried when partner passes if you have a stiff club, but extremely worried if partner passes and you have a doubleton club. As far as lefty likely having a very good hand/the nuts for a r/w 3C bid, again that makes it BETTER for us to double, not worse. Remember the biggest downside of doubling is if they were going down and we go down. If LHO is always going to have, say, 7 very good clubs and something else then they are very likely to make! And we are much more likely to have a 9 card fit in that case as well, and we are much less likely to have club wastage, etc. If I knew LHO to be very sound and always have a good 7 bagger plus something else I would be happier to double, expecting a double partscore swing quite often, and expecting to turn a plus on defense into a minus quite rarely. It is the times when LHO has SIX clubs AND partner cannot pass our double that I become worried. Now it's more likely both partials go down. But I am ok with that because now there is more chance partner can pass and we get a number (our big upside).

Nope. This hand is average in every way, what's up with the fascination with it?

FWIW obv it is nonsense to say partner MUST BE VOID in spades. Partner's bidding would be perfectly normal with J xx AQJxxx AKJx and other similar hands (for an example with stiff A of spades try A xx AKxxxx KQxx). All partner has shown is 6-4 shape in the minors with less than 2 spades and extra values but not enough to jump shift to begin with (16-17 roughly). The reason that partner bids 3D even if he has A SPADE is that 2S might be bid on pretty much any 6 card suit because partner might be 6412 or so and can't preference back to diamonds or pass clubs. Bidding 3D describes your hand and leaves open the possibility of playing diamonds, spades, or no trump. There is pretty much no merit to raising with a stiff spade when you have a perfectly natural 3D bid available. You might not play your best fit (partner can have 6 spades and 2 diamonds pretty often), and you mislead partner who might have a good hand if you have 2 card spade support, but not if you have one spade. As a side note, even if partner has a spade void you'd much rather be in 3S than 3D when you have a suit like this with nothing else. Your hand is completely useless for diamonds, especially when they figure out to shift to a trump or lead a trump. Your hand is very good for spades where you can take your spade tricks plus partners high honors. Oh and did I mention that this 2S bid is sometimes bid on a FIVE card suit? That's right KQJ9x xxxxx x xx doesn't really have any bid over 2C besides 2S.

He can't have that. o rly?

huh? Who's gonna double you off "lots" the passed hand who heard his partner preempt, or the preemptor? Two of the biggest reasons to bid are that you will never get doubled, and partner will not start overbidding (given that RHO and you are passed hands). Like if you weren't a passed hand obv you would pass since if you can make 3x partner will bid 4. That isn't the case here. Or if RHO was not a passed hand he could have a strong hand with short clubs and you could get doubled. That isn't the case here. Also why on earth would you be extremely worried if partner chose to convert? That is the biggest upside in doubling, you might get a nice number if partner passes. You have 2 trumps which is huge. Partner is not expecting MORE defense than this, surely everyone would double with Txxx KQJx QJxx x. That is obviously a worse defensive hand. Again given your passed hand status partner is not playing you for the world and if he converts you are going to kill this. The big downside of doubling is if you were going plus against 3C and now go minus in 3x. Boo hoo, I think the times when you go plus in 3x vs minus in 3C balance that out, not to mention the times partner passes and you get a number.

snap pass that ish bro