Jlall

2C 2D 2H 2S 3N Shows this hand doesn't it (not playing kokish)?

If you open 1H you can't show a 9 playing trick 1 suiter because you open 2C with that! What is the reason for not opening 2C?

3N is simply lazy, there is no reason not to check for a 4-4 heart fit.

So 3S is always 17 balanced or maybe 4225 16? I think north has a clear game bid opposite that range given that partner is likely to have a doubleton heart.

Can partner have a stiff heart (serious question, how do you play 3H OP?) Can partner have 4225? Can partner have 4234? Unless you catch 4324 or 4315 you have a great hand, and those are unlikely.

Norths pass is ridiculously bad.

@gnasher: I could not feel more strongly that you are wrong. When the opps jump to slam vulnerable against non vulnerable how can you be in a forcing pass just because you have shown 12 HCP. FWIW I do not think you are in a forcing pass if you open 2C and the opps bid slam vul against not. Maybe you think that is crazy, but I think being in a forcing pass because you opened 1N or 1x or Xed a 2 level preempt is the most absurd thing I've ever heard. Everyone knows what's going on. LHO has a big red 2 suiter and a void in a black suit. I thought it was obvious the question is whether or not to figure out what black suit to lead, or take the very cheap insurance available. @phil: Why has your LHO stumbled if you view it as correct to save in 7S? Seems like he made a good bid to me. @655321: Great reasoning imo. I gave it to Hamman and he used the same reasoning (and was so confident in it that he doubled). I have one more reason that I think a spade lead is right. If LHO has no spades and a club or two, he must be worried that 7S is going to make on the wrong minor suit lead. In that case he probably would have bid 7D along the way just to make sure. However if he has a spade or 2 and no club, he knows 7S will go down on either minor suit lead. If that's the case, he would be much more likely to bid 7H. Perhaps this means I should bid 7D regardless of which void I have (giving up on a club lead vs 7S X in order to maximize my chance of the opps taking this inference). Eddie Wold chose to bid 7S at the table, and went for 300 only when we didn't get a club ruff on opening lead.

North can bid 6H over 5C. At the very least north should pass 5C planning to pull a double to 5H showing a slam try in hearts. On this hand south will bid 5H himself in which case north would bid 6.

normal

PASS

AKQx xx Qx AKJxx. White vs Red, partner starts: P 2H X 6H 6S p p 7H p p ? If you double or pass, what's your lead?

Would double without a second thought.

LOL @ all the people saying they would open 1N. Absolutely terrible. LOL @ playing 2S as 8-10 as a passed hand.

Yeah I was barred from playing 10-12 NT for 10 years with my dad for having 9 too often lol. So much for judgement! Now we play 11-13 sometimes.

Wow I would be really opposed to this, guess I'm the only one :)

Does Woolsey post here anonymously? Neilkaz

It's probably right to play: 4C=good heart raise (keycard in hearts starts with this) 4N=quant If you are dealt a huge minor 2 suiter you are screwed and have to bid 5C or 6C, but from frequency point of view this must be better than 4C=natural and then you lose a good 4H raise, and either keycard in hearts or quant 4N. I suppose you could play 4C as even more ambiguous but I'm not sure how to make that playable.

4 of a minor with 52(42) and 18-19 seems normal to me.

Jdonn you should reconsider your responses to 2C 2D 2H 2S imo. min/min/max/max doesn't work well.

Last time Dick got sick Nick played with my dad and they won the Spingold...

This poll makes me miss NY so much...

just 2, scurrrrred

Oleberg, if you noticed by accident you noticed by accident. Nothing you can do about that. Once you notice, it's obvious he has QJ tight. If he plays that way routinely with QJ tight he is trying to trick you into thinking he has stiff Q. Of course a non idiot will take the other inference. Stuff like that is very common. I remember when I was 14 I had QJxx opp AT9xx. I led the Q and LHO, a "WC" player fumbled and played the highest outstanding spot. LOL. I dropped it, I wonder if I would have the balls to do that these days.

If you can raise with 3 spades and don't have any way to show that you did so later, good luck to you.

And lastly, bidding 1S DOES help partner evaluate when he's got a hand like Kxx AKQxx xxx xx which would never bid game over a 3 card limit raise unless partner has bid 1S. Even though that is a cherry picked example, I would say on average bidding 1S will help partner evaluate more than it will hurt him.