Jlall

2N, whats the problem? If partner has a stiff club he's not gonna bid 3N. If we are already too high you can blame your 2C bid.

I would open 2C, it's a little light but you have no rebids if you open 1S so I think it's practical.

If you have "stronger slam interest" and wanted to move past game opposite a super accept what have you lost by bidding 4D showing a slam try in hearts? If partner had a super accept of hearts he will move himself. Yes you lose if you let them come in easily over 2N p 3D. In my experience people don't bid very often on that auction, so it doesn't matter much. Obviously none of this matters very much at all since everything is "a narrow range of hands."

Also I haven't analyzed it closely but are you ever getting to 7H opposite something like Qx KQxx KJxx Axx or xxx KQxx AQxx Axx instead of 7S? If so I would consider that a near disaster that my auction will not have.

Hey Ken, yeah that hand is possible obv, but it requires partner to have 2 spades, no SQ, and 4+ hearts and the HQ. All of that seems less likely to me than the various combos of hands where partner has no HQ but we have 13 (Axx of clubs and the DA). Also your example hand is not the greatest 7H ever, not saying you wouldn't want to be there but it's still not a crime to miss it when compared to missing some 100 % 7S contracts. Of course you could add in the HJ or a fifth heart to make it extremely bad to miss 7H but just sayin.

Also this hand reminds me very much of one I posted once on this forum. edit: http://forums.bridgebase.com/index.php?sho...c=32883&hl=wold

Top spade. A lot of this comes down to a levelling war (what level is your LHO on and what level does he think you're on etc). However there is one technical consideration if you don't want to use psychology. RHO opened a weak 2 in hearts and probably is very unlikely to have 4 spades. So if LHO has a spade void, partner has 5 or 6 spades. With 5 or 6 spades partner might well have just saved on this auction all vul. So by leading a club we're playing for specifically LHO to have a void, partner to have 5+ spades and not to have saved. By leading a spade we are just playing for LHO to have a club void, anything could be happening in clubs since no one has bid them and we couldn't have saved in 8 clubs anyways. If you want to get into psychology it is my opinion that bridge players rarely go to level 3+, and they are far more likely to jump to 7 with a club void than a spade void since they expect you to not lead a spade on this auction. Of course they COULD go to a higher level than that and jump to 7 with a club void again, but imo it is much more likely that they jump to 7 with a club void. All roads point to a spade lead.

Then raise probably? I don't know your style and I don't play this convention so I purposely didn't comment on 3D/3H/4H since my judgment might be bad, but personally 3D looks right to me. Anything but X though.

Focusing on hearts sucks imo, you don't need the HQ most of the time since you'll have 2 pitches. The SQ is a much more important card. 1N 4H 4S 5D 5S 5N 6D 6H 7S or something I think partner is supposed to show the queen if he has 3 trumps in this auction since we should not be 6304 without solid trumps to bid this way ever, so he can infer we have 7 trumps.

I like to play XX= good hand with support, bidding = min with support, passing = no support.

Never in this auction when they could simply bid 3S as a stopper ask. Sometimes in other auctions, but it's still rare.

Normally the ten, in the case of partner bidding the suit and you not having raised you might choose to lead small.

Really? I think most people get confused because after 1N transferring and bidding 4M is a mild slam try and they don't realize that they have no other slam try below 4M after 2N. Transferring and bidding a new suit is a pretty terrible option with a legit slam try since that's natural. Keycarding is not much of a "try".

I think you're wrong about that. Consider these two methods: A 3D/H = transfer (including slam tries); 4D/H = transfer, signoff B 3D/H = transfer; 4D/H = transfer, slam try Playing B: - If you have a slam try only opposite a super-accept, you transfer at the three level and see what he does. - If you have a slam try opposite a non super-accept, you transfer at the four level. So the advantage you mention doesn't exist. I honestly have no idea what you're talking about lol. What advantage did you think I mentioned existing that didn't exist? You re-stated exactly what I said. The advantage is, as you say: You cannot do this in method A because 3D-3H-4H is a slam try and partner might move, where you only wanted him to move if he had a super accept. Uhh pretty sure I was discussing meckwells system and he was not discussing option C at all in that regard since he said: I made no comment on option C, obviously SA transfers being a slam try are the best. However he specifically said that meckwell play texas transfers as slam inv+ and gerber, and I was commenting on why that was better than playing texas transfers as the sign off.

pass

which hand is dealer

Btw I wonder why it's the case. As well as opening 2NT with 19-20 instead of 20-21. As their 1NT range is 14-16 it seems that their system could easily handle "intermediate" zone of 17-19. For example: 1♣ - 1♦ 1NT would be 17-19 and: 1♣ - 1♥/♠ 1NT would be 17-19 or say 22+ Maybe there is some problems with range that wide after their quite common 1NT/2♣ responses to strong club or maybe they just think opening 2NT is profitable contrary to common belief and they want to do that as often as possible. Thoughts ? 19 becomes an awkward range to handle in competitive auctions with strong club.

The reason it is theoretically better to play texas as slam invitational + and transfer and raise as to play is because there are some hands where you don't have a slam try unless partner can make a super accept. So over 3D-super accept you can make a slam try while not showing a slam try if partner doesn't superaccept. This is a very uncommon way of playing though in USA, 99 % of people play the opposite way.

if I couldn't ask with 4C I'd just bid 5N i guess

yes

For almost everyone at least in USA 4H now is a slam try. If you wanted to play 4H you should have bid texas on the round before. Anyways to answer your question I would offer 3N.

Win and drive out the diamond and the figure out what to do

no and yes

don't double!

Strongly disagree with this post. Against normal opps I don't think there are any hands that will pass 3D that would bid over 4H with. However there are some hands that will pass 4H that can bid over 3D surely. Bidding 3D gives them a chance to stop in 3S while jumping to 4H doesn't. However, I see no reason to think that of the hands they choose to stop in 3S with, more than half the time they'll make 4. We have some defense, and they know what their hands are, I think they will judge better than that. There are some very weak players who will be shut out by our 3D bid since it shows "strength" whereas they'll bid over 4H, but surely they are few and far between.