Jlall

I like inv +, but as your friend said it is definitely worse when 4th hand bids. Dunno, seems like you understand the pros and cons and should just make a decision. People don't bid enough over the 2N raise though.

2C is god awful, you need nothing for game and are you really scared of going down at the 3 level or that partner will bid too much if you bid 3C? I am sure 2S is a cue, there are times where I'd like it to be nat NF but that is true of a lot of auctions, I'm sure that I would like a cuebid to be available or else it will be really hard to bid with a majority of my trap passes that have good hands.

There are still people who jump shift in another suit holding 4 spades? What is this, 1957? Bid around the shortness to show a hand too strong to splinter! /1957 master solvers impression

North's bidding is aggressive but fine, he can make game opp nothing and has a great hand for slam and might get passed out in 2C. 4N is not keycard.

Sorry, BIF, I'll hide my answer even though it's silly

yeah 6C..what else can you do really

Clee and I both bid 4H with LHOs hand (KJ9xx KQxx Kx xx), crazy? Both of our LHOs bid 5C. PC - nice result to make 5, they went down vs me which seemed normal though obv they can make if they guess the play well.

Yeah pass, partner's pass of 3H was retarded. BTW if you see me in SD and recognize me say hi!

Obv the shorter you lead from the more likely you are to hit partner. But when you hit partner you are more likely to do something productive when you lead from your longer one.

longer one

umm...pass?

happy bday dude

3N

Yeah that's true, 4H is a better bid so that you can show 4 keycards and then show the HK obv. Well done. If you aren't going to play 7 ever after the 4S signoff (I agree) then why ask for the queen though?

Heh, it's all a matter of perspective... Coming from 17th and 2.5 boards out I am very happy with 2nd, but I guarantee you we were winning by more than a board after like 7 or 8 rounds. We were just having a huge game with probably no board below average. Then we had a round with 2 zeroes and it was the most frustrating thing ever. So basically mentally it felt like we blew it when we had a clear lead even though we started at 17th, that's why it's extremely disappointing.

Over 5H I would bid 6D showing the DK and the SQ. I think 6S should deny the DK and show that your 4D bid was on a stiff or perhaps a last train type bid (depending on if your partnership would bid 4H or 4D with the last train type hand). Over 6D west can bid 6H confirming all the keycards and the other hand can just sign off in 6S with nothing extra. However, if you think 6D should show the KQ since you've cuebid diamonds, then you still have 2 options to show the SQ and no kings: 5N and 6S. Generally 6S is played as SQ, not kings, and nothing extra, and 5N is SQ, no kings, and some extras (extra trumps or queens or whatever).

If he can make game opposite this don't you think he would have bid it?

You don't list 4S on your poll? Definitely like that better than either 2S or 3S.

If he is AQJxxxx, AKx, x, Ax a diamond return doesn't lose as after the heart ruff there is no way to pull trump and cash the diamond Q. Likewise if the hand is AQJxxx, AKxx, x, Ax or AQJxxx, Ax, x AKxx Or am I missing something here? Declarer had AQJ9xxx AJx x AK. On a diamond back he sets up the long diamond and gets 2 pitches. I could definitely have led a heart, thought it was a good problem.

Excellent analysis, and I think this is findable at the table. Unfortunately my partner returned a diamond really quickly. I think if this was a paper problem he would have figured it out, and should have figured it out if he thought about it more. FWIW I had gnasher's hand, 8xx Kxxx T xxxxx. I thought for a long time and led a diamond, not sure how good/bad this lead is, but felt EXTREMELY close to me. I think in day 2 (the finals) I would try a heart.

If it matters your partner tanked for a long time before leading his stiff diamond :)

What is a maximum 2S bid in your opinion? I guess I just have a ridiculous idea of what a maximum 2S bid is, because I would also bid 2S with KQJxxx x AJx Axx. I definitely would bid 2S with this hand. Unfortunately I would bid 2S with much weaker, and think it is normal to balance with 2S with 6 spades and 1 heart. From the forums it has seemed like you're an aggressive balancer so I'm surprised you're so adamant that it's right to look for game.

Heh, no offense but this is funny because of all the people I know on the forums this is most applicable to you. You are one of the nicest guys I know irl so your online persona is funny to me. Wish the same was true of me! BTW hope you take none of our online fights personally, I still consider you a good friend even though it gets really heated on here sometimes!

I don't think any good player would pass this. Whether or not it is a logical alternative depends on the level of the player in question probably which is why you poll peoples peers obviously.

My take on this: If RHO has 5 spades and Kxx of diamonds, his 3S bid is very bad. If partner has stiff spade king and whatever in diamonds, playing the TWO of clubs when he has so many of them is very bad. So the question is, who has done something very bad? I would have to know who my partner is and who the opps are. It is ok to protect partner if you know one of his faults is, for instance, being lazy about signalling in this type of situation. It is ok to take advantage of the opps bad bidding if you know they're bad, most people don't know how to bid in jump shift auctions at all. Anyways, those are your options, figure out which one is more likely.