Jlall

I would view it as a huge problem to bid 1N every time you had clubs, seems like you would wrongside very often and after 1D-(1H)-1N(clubs) you will frequently want to be ending up in 3N anyways so that is a big deal. When I play strong club and transfers after 1D X I use both 1N and 2C to show clubs, 1N being "I can play it from my side" and 2C being I can't for this reason also. Maybe I am too worried about this though lol.

I would play 2D as an artificial forcing bid. I would play 3D as 5-5 invitational. I would play 4D as a splinter. Not sure how standard any of this is though.

saw auction wrong lol

How do you show clubs if 2C is limit+ in? If 1N is inv+ in clubs count me out for that! If 1S includes good hands with clubs, count me out for that! I guess you could just play X as 4+ spades and 2H as limit+ in diamonds and 2C as forcing if you wanted, but that could get a little messy.

They have seen our hand, we had a spill...every single round :P

If he has a doubleton or stiff spade why would I want to play in spades, unless he has 2 spades and 1 diamond in which case I think it will be pretty easy to convince him!

You are playing in a strange theoretical world where everyone plays optimally. You have this suit and need 3 tricks: KT83 J652 You lead the jack, and it goes Q K A. The next time you lead the 6 and they follow. What do you play? The next round you magically pick up the same suit. You lead the jack and it goes Q K small. You cross and lead the 6 and LHO follows. What do you play? The next round you magically pick up the same suit. You lead the jack and it goes ace!, RHO follows small. You then lead up to dummy and LHO follows small. What do you play? The next round you magically pick up the same suit. You lead the jack and it goes small small ace. You lead up to dummy again and LHO follows small. What do you play?

oh partner is a passed hand? Was gonna say 4H is fine we could easily have a slam, but if partner is a PH it's less likely. It is probably ok though, partner is extremely likely to have a club void for a PH 4C so we don't need that much. I would bid 6D now, if partner has the SA we might be making it, and if they have the SA they might be making it.

3N, it's a gamble obviously but it's one that you get used to making.

haha that's funny

X is penalty. Gerben, there's no reason to see why we might beat 2H more than 1? What? LHO couldn't even overcall 1H, and has now stuck their neck out to bid 2H so we know they have nothing. We know they have at most 7 hearts and could easily have only 6. We know we have at least have the deck. We know our heart spots are great. We know we have a stiff in partners suit which is good on defense. We know the opps are 12 and 13 which increases the inevitability that LHO has a really stupid hand (12 and 13 year olds like to bid 1H over 1D, they are not passing with anything marginal, meaning their balance is even more marginal). I mean this north hand is very typical. Meanwhile partner only had 3 hearts (unlucky!), had neither black ten (unlucky!), had no aces, the clubs are onside, the diamond is onside, and you still beat it at least 1, and that's if they play it perfectly. It is easy to see how if we changed this layout around slightly we could beat them 3. It is criminal not to be able to double them on this auction.

lol

Pass obviously... Disagree with my X I would have bid 3C.

crack

Meh I think if you don't play strong club you should use 2H and 2S both as spades (2S weak). Otherwise I play this way also. Another advantage is that you get to rightside 3N frequently, and don't have to invent a 2C bid or cuebid or whatever in order to do so. You also get more room to investigate slam rather than just jumping to 3N. As Adam mentioned I think this method is not that good over a standard diamond, I prefer to just play it over 1C. Losing 1D-(1H)-2D natural is just too big of a cost, that is a very preemptive auction compared to 1D-(1H)-1S, and you are frequently able to raise the minor over a standard diamond. Over 1C the preemptive effect of a normal raise is minimal, and you are much less often able to raise comfortably.

And FWIW here is a reference for anyways in the sense of anyway: "Anyways, it could not be found there." --Conrad, Youth, 1902 Presumably you do not think Conrad was uneducated for his use of this word, more than 100 years ago, when it was far LESS popular/common. Going back even further we have Mr. Dickens: “Anyways,” said the damsel, “I am glad punishment followed, and I say so.” --Dickens, Our Mutual Friend, 1865 Admittedly that was in speech, so he could have been dumbing it down to the uneducated damsel's level. Still, it shows that people have been using it in this way for a long time. No doubt you have noticed that all hicks like myself use it now!

Slight OT. http://grammartips.homestead.com/anyway.html No. One of the great things about language is that it evolves. It is only as useful as how people use it. As such many words which did not exist before exist now. Anyways is a good example of this. Right now anyways is accepted in the United States. No doubt it will eventually be recognized in England also. Even if you only accept anyways as a colloquialism, treating the forums like a place where only formal speech should be used is silly. Not all writing is formal anymore, we have e-mail, instant messages, text messages, blogs, and facebooks, and forums these days also where we get together and talk and communicate informally with others. We use acronyms, and emoticons, and slang terms! More importantly, it is really sad that you feel the need to attempt to correct someone when you know exactly what they're saying. Even if you had a legitimate grammar-nazi complaint, where does this urge come from? The point is communication. Just some friendly advice but going out of your way to point out what you perceive to be a grammar error makes you seem pretentious, pettifogging and persnickety, not well educated. But good luck being stuck trying to defend against changes that are inevitable. I'm sure you freak out when you hear someone say pleaded instead of pled also. FWIW you might want to look up descriptivism when it comes to language. It really annoys the prescriptivist curmudgeons though :)

you have more diamonds than spades

Also, am I the only one thinking RHO might have AKQ of spades? If LHO had the ace he could have overtaken and cashed the CA. Sure LHO high lowed but he was probably just giving count or trying to encourage spades to say "don't give me a diamond ruff" If RHO has AKQ of spades and the DK that would be one more thing pointing towards RHO not having the HK (lots of points to pass 3H). AKQxx xxx Kxx Jx with RHO and xxxx K xx ATxxxx with LHO seems possible. But then LHO would probably have led a spade. And RHO wouldn't try to give his partner a ruff if he knew partner had a stiff D. There is also the point that RHO played the H8, assuming he is not a very good player given his defense thus far he probably wouldn't find a falsecard from 8xx. Most likely he just didnt cover or he played the 8 from K8x.

Because it is very weird not to cover with Kx. Anyways I wouldn't go for the drop.

Just to clarify what may be obvious, but you prefer the game in hearts to spades? yes

Passing with the stiff Q of hearts is not a logical alternative imo and I think I could make that case. That being said, call the director because maybe I am wrong and a poll of my peers will demonstrate that it is a logical alternative. It is the director who should decide if it's an LA not me.

The thing about good bridge is it rarely requires anything spectacular, so it's not like you'd just see some hand played and be like WOW HE MUST BE JEFF MECKSTROTH. And in general all expert+ players are capable of making some play on a good day unless it's extremely spectacular, so what seperates them is being really solid and good on the run of the mill decisions. That being said, there are some errors that you just never or almost never make once you reach a certain level, so if you see those happening and if you see frequent errors you can be confident that someone is not as good as a certain level. Basically it's a game of mistakes, and the better the player is the less they will make, so the less you will have to judge them on.

Seems like a good auction. 3S is not invitational but obviously it shows something and south is free to bid with extras. A weak NT type hand is not extras but this hand is so good I would consider it so.

True, if I could find out partners shape I would find that worthwhile since 2-5 is really good for us.