Jlall

about 1000x more popular. few people have ever even heard about the non fit version these days.

FWIW my partner and I do not upgrade very much, especially relative to most experts. I would say I pretty much never downgrade though.

1C, I'd bid 1n at MP though.

I think if you start 1D 1S 2H At this point responder has to pass

I wouldn't

flannery

no you're not ;) Pretty sure this is one of those things that lots of people teach that is absolutely terrible advice. The flaw in the thinking is that whether or not to preempt is determined by points, which it is not. So the thought process should be: 1) Is my hand good enough to open at the 1 level? If yes, open. If not... 2) Should I preempt with my hand? If you solve this based on how many points you have, then yes, there is no in between hand. If you play bridge and evaluate based on suit quality, spots, shape (6322 bad), vulnerability, position, how much values you have outside, etc etc, then I think you will judge that this hand is NOT suitable for a preempt so... 3) Pass.

Why does it have to include heart support? I would bid 2C with Kx Kx AQJxxx AJx and not think twice about it.

bleh you guys are sickos

lol, if partner has 4 or 5 hearts and not a trap pass, how many points does he have? Do you think it is our hand?

lol

meh I think if it's 1N 3N Qxxx of a minor just sucks too much to be considered. If I had xxx in the other major I would lead that over Axxx though... otherwise I'd go with Axxx I guess (yuck)

Yeah you have to assume natural. If you wanted to do something though, then you must ask partner what he plays, and you cannot reject it. Asking partner what they play and rejecting it gives you a freeroll and could easily be done unethically. All of this would ensure that you are not picking the best possible defense for your actual hand.

Always Qxxx of the major. Axxx is never a good lead, and should be avoided at all costs. If I had Qxxx of a minor and Axxx of a major, I wold lead from Qxxx of the minor on 1N p p p.

Pass man...

I think I partially did it just so I could say I downgraded by 2 points at some point in my life heh.

I like the hanp auction

3H

I see that I was biased by the hand anyways... starting with X is definitely better imo. Definitely prefer 4S by opener over it though.

Without reading your auction or anyone elses so that I am unbiased: 1S (2H) 3H 4D 4N 5S 7D 7S

I just feel like not having a trump to play through at some point costs the defense so much, and at the 1 level it won't be hard for them to scramble tricks if we are not able to lead trumps. Also there is a pretty decent chance of pushing them to 2S even if partner is trap passing 1S by bidding. There are many hands I would pass over a X but bid 2S over 2C if I was LHO.

KQJ KQJ KQJ xxxx. MP. You play 14-16 NT. Would you?

yes because you cuebid first

gotta pass bro

The argument for 2C is pretty obviously that we don't want to defend 1S X without a trump on a marginal hand. The argument for X is obviously that we do want to defend 1S X... I don't really know what kind of argument you're looking for. Most bridge decisions have obvious plusses and minusses, and stating them may make people on the forums happy but eventually it just comes down to which you think is right.