Jlall

OR 4) Splinter Do you think a) Justin forgot to list this meaning, or B) was implying that he think it is a bad agreement? Are we only allowed to suggest things that Justin thinks are a good idea? Sounds good to me! :unsure:

On closer inspection ken is just confusing me with this lead clubs from dummy thing, looks quite safe to play a diamond to my hand and lead a club towards dummy... This takes away RHOs ability to duck from AQx

Just lead a small club off dummy, RHO is not going to duck AQx ever since he wants to get in and shoot a heart through probably. So I will pick up every club holding except AQT on my right.

lol what?

XX was agreed to show a top honour in ♠, so not really an option. This is a terrible agreement imo. Still don't understand the desire to bid 1N when you can just play a natural XX and have no risk involved at all while still showing values so if it's your hand for a partscore or a game partner can bid. When both opponents have bid it is easy to get doubled in 1N, and it's likely partner has a light overcall. You are super exposed if you are forced to bid 1N with this hand. Still, they might be bidding with nothing so you have to be able to show some values. If this is one of those "ZOMG LETS BID 1N BEFORE THEY DO" type things I think it's pretty silly. This is not MP white/white.

This is an obvious double

1N is a stupid bid, just XX. Not sure why people are still bidding 1N on this hand, it's almost 2010 people!

Wow. I mean, I'd balance with 3NT, but "not even close?" Most people get a bit nervouse balancing with 3NT when holding three small hearts. I like it, but wow. Stronger endorsement than I'd expect. It's not even close was an overbid because passing is definitely reasonable esp at MP. I meant it's not even close in terms of 3N vs X to me.

Oo Kimi's birthday! HAPPY BDAY!

Partners pass should not be forcing imo. I'd pass a non forcing pass and crack if it's a forcing pass.

North should balance with 3N and it's not even close. After getting cracked in 3S he should run.

I hate the agreement that pass is forcing. That said, if partner made a forcing pass and I had the east hand I would bid!

Passing with 4 spades is bad because: 1) You might miss game when partner has a shapely maximum! The 4th trump is very important in these situations! Gee that's what happened here! 2) You let them into your auction very easily when you know they have a fit/fits and ample high cards!

You could play 1N then 3H as: 1) Fit showing 2) Invitational with a weak suit 3) Invitational with a doubleton spade

No, if you are a rational person you should be in the best position to evaluate how well you play. Everyone else evaluates how well you play based on either a very small sample size of hands, or an outdated sample size of hands, or based on what they have read/heard/hype, or how big of a game you talk. If you always played against the same opps or with the same partner and those people were as good or better than you, then their evaluation would might be more accurate than yours. But even then there are hands you play right where you know you thought about it wrongly and got lucky or something, and only you know that.

South obviously will not pass out 2H so immediately the hesitation did not do anything. I suppose hesitation pass followed by 3C shows values though, so that combination suggests that south should bid 4H. That said I do not think anything other than 4H is a logical alternative from south. Partner is marked with values from the opps lack of bidding anyways.

North must compete to the 5 level. That said, I think south should also compete to the 5 level. On a scale of 1-10 how obvious it was, I would give north's 5S bid a 13, and souths a 7. Also I assume west fielded partners tank pass over 4S :(

Yep what Adam said.

I'd lead a trump on the 2nd one

Um, thanks. But on the positive side, I see a bright future for you in the Water Cooler! hahahaha

South is way too good to splinter and pass a sign off.

Almost always worse than they think.

Some people have an unrealistic view of how experts/pros play. I certainly play worse than they think I do. I would say that I probably play better than most people think I do though.

I would just open 1D

Hate that I'm wrongsiding it but still gotta do it.