Jlall

Close to what?

AK of spades followed by 3 diamonds pitching a club seems pretty obvious. If that holds play another diamond pitching a heart. I almost always make with diamonds not 5-1 (unless the HA is off and spades are 4-2 with the hand that has 2 diamonds having 4 spades etc). At first I thought this hand was gonna be about making an overtrick and I was gonna say how we got to a really good contract, then I noticed there is no way to make an overtrick. Unless I'm missing something this is our best shot to make 4.

1N seems pretty automatic to me, wouldn't really consider anything else.

Once I was playing chess and I made the same move a grandmaster would have. I explained my reasoning to him and he was like lol. And I was like...but we came to the same conclusion so my thought process must have been good!

The OP was actually a good question, I wasn't around then but from what I have read and from what people who were around then have told me, the declarer play at the top level was not that much different then than now. Of course, there are far more very good players now than then even though the player pool is small, because professional bridge is now very viable which means there are many more people who can dedicate themselves to bridge than before. Bidding now compared to then is pretty lol though, there is no way the blue team would beat even the 50th best team today imo even with their (relatively small, because there are so many good players now) card play advantage, they would lose so often in bidding. The comparisons to other sports and chess are amazingly lol though.

Jxx xxx xxxx KQx (or a little weaker if this is a 1S-2S to you).

I would make a penalty X or a takeout X or an optional X or a cooperative X or a negative X on hand 1. I have like 8 top tricks and they're w/r. Obv they could make sometimes but they rate to just have 7 spades and a weakish hand or whatever. Hand 2 bid 4N. If I somehow had the agreement it showed a 3 suiter I would be tempted to quit bridge, but I guess I'd bid 5C since that's my long suit!

lol

very very bad

So LHO retracts his trump, which becomes a major penalty card (which of course doesn't matter), and substitutes his ♠ spot. RHO may not withdraw his played ♠ spot (Law 47), so declarer, who played ♠Q, wins the trick. Now the ♠A and K, and LHO's trump, get played on the last trick. There is no Law 64 rectification for the revoke. Law 64C does not apply. One trick to declarer, the other to defenders. Yep seems clear

Ari :ph34r: I always figured that would be fixed eventually but it sucks since it's so crucial for robot races heh.

I would have bid 2S, I think it's important to have a way to show the majors over a 1N overcall though. Now I'll lead the ST. Obviously my heart sequence is more promising, but I'm hoping that my 6th spade gives me enough added edge to find partner with 3 of them and the opps 2-2 to outweigh the weaker sequence.

Isn't 10 seconds mandated everywhere? Agree that pass is a LA for south so if he had UI suggesting X will work better usually then he has to pass.

FYP

lol umm EAST

Ditto

Yeah the hand got edited while I was sleeping :blink: 7H still seems down on 5-1 hearts or a diamond ruff so completely cold is an overbid. IIRC 5-1 hearts is like 15 %, and 3-0 diamonds a certain way is like 10 %. Not trying to nitpick, that is very far from cold though!

2N shows neither a balanced hand nor both unbid suits stopped.

Yep 4S, they are very likely to make and if they're down somehow then you are very likely to make.

7D is an excellent contract, you did well to bid it. 7H has no play.

U$C U¢LA You get what you pay for! (Sorry I don't really care but my sister went to USC so I must defend her honor!)

I'm glad you came, you made the vote exactly symmetrical at this point with 5/12/12/28 which is important for my sanity. Voted!

I also don't like the X to create a force but my understanding is that few experts agree with me (and adam) on that one, and that it's common to play X creates a force through 2H. Frances has posted before why even if you play pass as forcing, doubles should be takeout.

I'll say it again, RHO is almost marked with the CQ for his opening bid. There is only one conceivable hand where he doesn't have it and would open. This might even be stronger than the clue that LHO is a lunatic if he has 2812, depending on who LHO is (it's easy to see people going crazy with 8 hearts when their partner raises them freely to game!).

Yep. The general rule over preempts is to assume partner has 7 points and bid accordingly, so in this case you have enough for 3N easily with a good source of tricks, stopper, and lots of HCP.