Jlall

X shows 4 hearts, 3N shows a 3N bid with a stopper and without hearts. Penalty does not exist. Also I like to play negative doubles so with 4 hearts and a stopper I'd always start wtih X, and with 4 hearts and short spades I would start with a cue. If you played this I guess you could play X = some pen hand and 3N = 3N bid with stopper, but honestly the first hand type doesn't seem that useful. Maybe at MP if you had a goodish 3 of a minor signoff.

Heh weird that's exactly what Patty and I called it back in the dayyy. Bergen is fine for just a general system, but you can do better. At least the bids are defined. I would rather play bergen than strong jump shifts. That said I would never play bergen in a serious partnership, for starters it's just grossly inefficient and can be compressed easily to make more room. Secondly as others have said I think weak raise is not really an important hand type, nor is the swiss. I really like the good 1-4 a lot in a standard system though.

I have a confession, I pretty much never sit for 1N XX from either side of the table in a spot like this. We both have like half the deck, and we have a nice 6 card suit where we can almost definitely make a partial. What is the point of gambling on the right layout/lead for a monster swing? I'm happy with my +110.

I suppose you are relying heavily on the diamond finesse to provide the last trick? We can't even try to ruff out the ♠K before trying the diamond finesse. We are not told how predictable and/or bad our opponents are. But doubling a 4♦ splinter here with a naked king in a situation where NS are otherwise out of space below 4♥ - that's horrendous. I'm wary of trusting east to have the ♦K. I see, I thought that you and Phil were saying you didn't want to be in a grand on a 2-1 split since the opps might be in game. I understand your point that doubling with the DK is a bad idea, but surely if that is your opinion then doubling without the ace or the queen of diamonds is always a bad idea to you? IMO lots of people do things like double 4D with pretty good diamonds and a hand that can stand no other lead. No one that I've ever met makes psychic lead directing Xs when their partner is going to be on lead. It could just be such a disaster to get partner off to the wrong lead. I mean even in the dream case of the opps bidding slam hoping the D hook is on, I would expect my partner to lead the DK 100 % of the time. I guess not if they bid 7 heh. So I think whatever level RHO is I would assume they have the DK. Perhaps naive, and I will definitely change my view if that ever turns out to be false in this kind of situation. It is not convincing enough to me to say it would be bad to X 4D with the DK ever, so we should assume they don't have it, because imo it's also bad to X 4D w/o the DK, and the former is a much much more common form of bad.

You're a towel!

Using some rough math if the opps play slam more than 22% of the time we need to bid 7 in terms of expected imp value, ignoring all other considerations. It's hard to estimate what % of the time we make 7, I used the number 80 % (slightly better than what a 2-1 break is normally given that they didn't bid over 1H or 3S). Even if the opps were complete novices I would expect 1H p 4H p 6H or something similar to be not that uncommon. If north makes a splinter or a limit raise south will drive, even 2H should work, or our counterparts play strong club... the only auction I see that will not get you there is 1H-4H-p. So not bidding 7 knowing the 2 hands seems absurdly conservative unless you are using match considerations like we are a much better team who will almost always win so that bidding 7 and going down is a huge disaster.

Yeah I would pass both of their hands

Id def pass

lol...sup opps?

yep

I mean, it's close to me in the sense that with a little bit less I'd pass heh. 6 is about a min for a free 2H imo with only 4 hearts.

Takeout, just give up on penalty doubles in a spot like this, if you have one partner would probably have made a takeout double, and the opps usually have a better spot. I pass 1/1 with 3 trumps and a min usually, occasionally some other hand types.

3S does not seem like an unreasonable bid, but I'd just bid 2S

If you bid 3H then 4D that will be a cuebid (for hearts over 3N, for spades over 3S).

spade values

8.

2S seems like a non problem

I think south is an easy 3S bid, but I'd probably miss slam heh

It is super obvious from our hand that partner has a takeout X of spades and penalty X of hearts so your 4H bid is good. In unfamiliar territory don't just bid what you think the bids should mean, try and figure out what's actually going on.

pass, and I like 2S forcing

I'm not gonna lie when I read this my bid was 2S but now I see why that's wrong. edit: And I didn't even understand why 655321 chose 6H until I read the results haha.

double post

Definitely pass to begin with, there's no bid to describe this and most of the time you have a bid to show the reds later. After 1S please don't make a negative double lol. It's 2 of either red suit. Usually I'd bid 2H hoping to get both suits in but my diamonds are soo much better I'd just go with 2D.

Vul at imps seems like a no brainer 2N. We are even a passed hand.

To me a mixed raise is a hand between a limit raise and a preemptive raise. This hand seems pretty perfect for that, obv too good for a preemptive raise, and not good enough for a limit raise (9 with a stiff but junky honors etc). I would also add that it should usually have shape, with 4432 I would usually just raise to 2 and possibly compete to 3. With Phil's example of a completely concentrated 8 I would give a mixed raise though.