Jlall

would have bid 4H over 4C directly, now I bid 4H

The Wisdom of the Crowd suggests that Peter Gill will win, closely followed by Jlall. Pfft Peter Gill is a fish ;)

What are these supposed rebid problems we have after opening a minor? If partner bids 1H we can just bid 2S. I think 1C p 1H p 2S is a very good start to describing our hand. We are unbalanced and suit oriented, and have bid 2 very strong suits and shown a strong hand. As far as I'm concerned 4144 is a possible shape for this auction, so we haven't even misdescribed. Even more often the opps might bid hearts, and we might get to double, and then later show more strength, showing a 3 suiter short in hearts that is very strong. Seems good to me. Sometimes partner will do something other than bid hearts and we will be well placed to splinter and have a good auction. Sometimes we will play 1 of a minor which is undoubtedly better than playing in 2N. If the goal is to describe our hand and find better contracts I don't understand what the problem is with opening 1m. I think the biggest gains of 2N will be concealing your hand and arriving somewhere quickly without giving away much information (and even giving some misinformation). I think that having a stiff heart and such a prime hand opposite an unlimited partner, this is way too big of a distortion to try to get away with at such an early point in the auction. I'm all for opening 1N with K Kxxx AQxxx KJx when you truly have no palatable rebid as a least of evils call, but opening 2N with this hand in the name of rebid problems makes no sense to me.

FWIW I purposely avoided the 1C vs 1D issue because I thought it would detract from my much bigger point that imo opening 2N is very bad. If you open 1C or 1D I will not fault you either way and it might depend on system. One reason for opening 1D would be if you always do that with 4-4 in the minors and choose to open 1C on this hand and later make a t/o X of hearts, partner will play you for 4135 more often than 4144. This could be a problem if partner is 2443 or 3343 or something sometimes and bids clubs rather than diamonds in response to your X. Anyways I prefer 1C as long as my system allows for a 1C opener with this shape largely because the clubs are much better. Edit: Sorry I just realized I basically reiterated what Fred posted.

I hate a 2N opener with this hand.

I usually play 2NT there as a 6-4 with a minor, so that three of a minor shows 5-5. Using 2NT as an offensive three-suiter would work well here, although it does mean that you miss a penalty if responder has a better five-card spade holding. If we had QJ109x, we wouldn't even be discussing what to do. Our spade holding is QJ765. I don't see how we can really have better spades after 1H X P than we actually have (indeed didn't you say you would have bid 1S already with this hand?). I agree that 2N is 6-4 though.

FYP

Hand 1: Clear pass. Hand 2: Clear 2C. Hand 3: Not clear at all, but I do not like 2C. I prefer pass, hoping to be able to double later, but don't mind 1S at all. Up until pretty recently I overcalled the 4 card major like 80 % with this hand type. Good thread.

Happy Birthday, hope it's awesome!

Ok yeah, need more info! I assumed with diamonds and spades and a good hand he'd start with 1S then bid spades.

Huh? I think we have 9 spades!

Hasn't partner shown significant extras by bidding this way rather than starting with 1H to begin wtih? I assume he now has at least 11+ (correct me if I'm wrong). Anyways, 3N friv seems obvious if thats the case.

Why? It has happened before that they doubled with 3 and bid 2S with 4. Yes there are 2 other possibilities (4-4, and 3-5), but unless you think LHO almost always has 5 (I don't) for this bid I don't see why 3-4 is sooooo unlikely.

it is close if partner is going to pass the hand he held Partner had a routine pass. The fact that when partner has his best hand and you have your best hand 2 passes don't work together doesn't mean either pass is a bad decision.

Disagree with Richard, I think pass is clear. There is not much need to bid when you have 4 spades and marginal values.

obv pass

I'd pass.

Agree with "almost never balance with this shape"

double

4S fo sho

Don't really do this nearly as often as I used to but 2C.

In spite of the above LOL, this was my thought too, but playing on diamonds on diamonds is so all or nothing. I'm not sure I want to throw away my 35% board for a zero trying for 90%. It does depend on the number of pairs in 4♠ and that's anyone's guess. Where did my lol imply that playing for 11 tricks at MP was bad? As far as I know "any form of scoring" includes imps.

Please explain the auction to me. My LHO's 1♥ bid was natural, correct? What does my partner's 2♥ bid mean? The answer to my previous question may answer this one, but what does my 3♥ bid show? lol

I would bid 3N. I think people who are saying 3N requires too much are way underestimating the chances that we can shut LHO out by ducking one round of diamonds, and way underestimating the chance that partner has some kind of stopper with us (Qx, Jxx included). LHO doesn't always have good diamonds and an entry.

Yeah I think people overlook these factors too often.