Jlall

I had a hand once like 13 with 6 clubs and 2 aces and an xx suit at a regional. It went 1N(14-16) p 2C p 2D p 6N p p X and everyone started picking up their bidding cards. I ran to 7C (given that I had 2 aces, no chance we were off 2 aces, so we must be off an AK, and we can probably make 7C if they don't find the lead). RHO did not get his lead right and it made. At the other table it just went 1N p 6N p p X so now my hand couldn't run and have partner play it. Doubling with an AK in these situations is very bad.

5C, I have 8 of them

I'll go ahead and say I think game try in spades is a stupid agreement.

meh I'd probably go 1H as a default but could imagine many circumstances where I'd go 4H.

yeah game force without the HQ and SJ obviously

Double dummy, it's about 77%. I wonder if anyone can run this through a single dummy engine to see how often the slam makes. I do not mean to dispute gnasher's numbers, I simply find it an interesting example of the difference between double dummy and single dummy since it is generally considered that slams run pretty close to double dummy results. You have guesses in both black suits, so obviously on this type of hand double dummy will play much better than single dummy.

3C, it is F1, 3red passable next.

just make a neg X, your hand is not that bad if partner goes crazy in a minor.

2D as a passed hand is probably fine if played as 4sf.

1S

Really 4S? I understand the clubs are bad, but we don't need much for slam. I would consider 4D to be the "right" bid over 3S, as responder has shown nothing extra yet and would bid 4S with Kx AKQx xxx xxxx (add a jack if this is not a GF to you). In my opinion 4red is coming in spades over 3S, and if responder is coming in clubs he bids 4C. This might be more important of a distinction if you would bid 2C with 2443.

3H is really normal, as a general rule don't ever bid 4H with 5332 unless w/r in this auction (and don't do it with all 5332s w/r). You can make exceptions for hands with really good trumps like xx KQJxx xxx xxx sometimes if you want and you're not r/w I guess, but it should be quite rare to bid 4H with 5332 at equal vul.

crack. lol at simulating this

pass ainec

Yeah just play attitude and not count here. Tell partner you don't want a ruff and then let him figure out what to do.

1N ldo

John Hurd at a recent regional had x KQx Axxx Axxxx and it went 4S p p and he didn't double r/w. He also said on a different hand that after p p 1H 4S p p ? he thinks its right to not X with x AKxxx Axxx Kxx. I thought both of these were "crazy" but it goes to show that a great player can strongly disagree with my general philosophy and still be very successful/mor successful player (and I consider Johnny both a great player and undoubtedly more successful than me so far in our bridge careers). Basically just posting this to say that even though I think this X is LOL obv, I am not necessarily right of course, or even a majority view (though I do suspect it is a majority expert view).

I used to think like you, so I'm only saying this as a "I think you should reconsider" type thing..I really think pass is terrible, and it's a bidders game. You could have a game, you have to bid, you rarely go for a number. It's a scary world but 2H is a winning bridge bid in my very strong opinion (now)

It is pretty obvious that it would always be more beneficial to everyone if people posted "I find 4H to be an obviously correct bid, for reasons X Y Z." However, sometimes people don't want to post their reasons because they have time constraints, or because they find the hand to be boring, or for whatever reasons. Is it better then for them to post "I find 4H to be an obviously correct bid" or to not post at all? I think not posting at all is clearly worse, you can at least gain some information from seeing what people would do and how clear they think it is. This information is not as much as if they would have expounded, but that isn't really relevant. Obviously I would be a better poster if I always stated my thought process, outlined the pros and cons of each bid, and demonstrated why I came to a conclusion. I don't think it is reasonable to always expect me or anyone else to do so. I do not think that this means that posts where I don't do that are worthless.

The opps sometimes bid 2S before you can bid 2H you know...

I guess I meant neither heh. I kinda meant with something like a 5422 0 count I would pass, but with a pretty good 5422 I would bid 4N over the double. But I would always pull with lots of shape, like a 5-5 0 count or a 7 card suit 0 count. I also claim to play X as takeout Frances, but I tend to call doubles either takeout or penalty and ignore all of the other terminology (like what is a responsive double, and why is it different than a takeout double?). Fluffy, I don't understand what you're saying, but yes I expect to make very often if partner bids. This doesn't mean I think our hand is better than RHO's, but I do think our trick potential is very high if we have a big fit. If partner passes the double I expect to make 4 tricks pretty often compared to their 9...I don't think this means we have more trick potential than RHO, it is just the nature of how high the bidding is. Even if we go down if partner bids, I expect they were probably cold. It seems rare that partner bids and it's wrong.

truth. In fact I think X is terrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrible

I will also add that "takeout" doesn't make much sense to me, in the sense that partner will pull a lot. Even if we are 3 suited short in spades, partner should be passing this double a ton. 4 tricks are way easier than 11 tricks. In my experience people who say this is takeout, and people who say this is values, seem to pull with the same frequency, and are thus basically playing this double the same way. Again, I don't know much about terminology, but I'm pretty confident that however you play this double, partner should be passing a lot just based on the nature of 5 over 4.

I don't understand the difference between optional/values and takeout maybe, but I'm pretty sure "optional/values" is closer to the expert standard/modern. Actually 655321 is the only expert I know about who actually means takeout as I interpret it when he says takeout. Maybe I am wrong about terminology, so I will try to clarify how I play it. I would only pull this double with a hand that expects to make something at the 5 level, and a hand that has shape (would always pass with a balanced hand pretty much, except maybe 5332 with 3 small spades). Ergo, I end up passing the double a lot. I would only double with a hand that could handle a pull. I could easily have a balanced hand NT, as long as it didn't have much values in spades. For instance, I would always double with xxx AKx AQxx Kxx, and I would never double with KJx AKxx AQxx xx. Luckily I never hold the latter hand. My take on it is that my style is very much expert standard, of course I could be wrong, and my take on 655321's style is that it is very much more takeout oriented than mine, and partner will pull far more often (but maybe that's wrong, I have never specifically discussed it with 655321). How do you resolve that with doubling with this hand? Well in my view we often beat 4S when we have this many prime cards, sometimes beating them 2. They also often make it. It my opinion, this is not a big deal either way. We usually beat them, but we lose slightly more imps the times they are making. I would consider the times partner passes to basically be a wash (but given that I feel I almost always have a cardplay advantage, I certainly don't shy away from this). However, the times that partner BIDS over our double are clearly a huge huge huge gain. It won't happen that often given my spade void, but when it does we are gaining massively, possibly a double game swing. Ergo doubling is super obvious to me, and not inconsistent with my general style.

Obv double