Jlall

HK and it's not close.

Yeah in normal 2/1 methods it is a problem that you might have to bid 2N with inadequate stoppers. There are fixes to this but nothing is perfect.

I would invite game (3D in your system).

I think north should bid 2S over 2D. South would then bid game.

Double here just shows extra values and is takeout, typically with 3 hearts but not always (1246, 18-19 bal no stopper, 2245 etc all possible).

X of 1N was takeout of spades. X by you here would be penalty. I would bid 3D with this hand.

I'd bid game.

2D, 4S, 3N. 3N on the last because we really need partner to not have spade wastage in order to make slam.

Yes pass is forcing which is why X is pen

2C

I think they save more often over a 4H bid than a 3N bid also. But... they double 4H more often than they double 3N for sure. Also if you bid 4H and they bid 4S partner may bid 5H incorrectly sometimes (or correctly sometimes). All of this is ignoring X of course which is a reasonable option, but I think there is too much chance of getting ourselves to 5C incorrectly if we double to justify the times that we correctly get to 5D.

Just because even someone who's been playing bridge for 15 minutes realizes that to take all the tricks, playing the J before the A can never be better. Yes, and playing the J is never worse than playing the A if they are equal. Thus they can play either. I guess your point is that people should always get credit for cashing the highest card in a suit first and that doing anything else is illogical. My point is that if both plays are equal, neither is illogical. The fact that you may have forgotten something so you should cash the ace first is not a good enough reason to get credit for playing the highest card first; you are claiming which implies you know the layout without a doubt. FWIW I thought this was a well covered situation and that my view was mainstream. If I am wrong I am eager to learn so.

I agree with this, but that is a totally different scenario. As mrdct said if there was only stiff K of diamonds out and someone claimed dummy was high I would give it to them. That is the analagous situation to what you said. Here it is clear that declarer just forgot the DK was out and thought the ace and jack were high. In that case why would he play the ace rather than the jack?

0 tricks for declarer, if he thinks all the cards in dummy are high he can play any of them equally, so I would force him to play the DJ from dummy.

Whenever partner has 5 hearts the 5 level will be unsafe unless they are AQJxx. Even when partner has AQJxx of hearts give him a typical: xxx AQJxx xx xxx They lead a spade and we...do what? The 5 level is unsafe opposite this hand for sure. 5-3 fits can be deceptive when one hand only has entries in trumps.

I think raising is automatic. Just because we don't have enough POINTS for game doesn't mean partner can't have shape and we are just cold. Partner should understand this as a courtesy raise (with a much better hand bid something else like 3S). Edit: I had this exact hand in a tournament recently playing this system except 1S was 5+.. I raised at MP and my partner game tried and we went down 1 lol.

I prefer 2C, cannot really control the auction if it gets out of hand and I start with X.

Everyone else seemed to understannd this but I don't. or chose to ignore it I took it to mean partner would not open 1D with 4432 shape. What is unclear about it?

Why are we so unlikely to make something?

Wow really disagree that north can bid over 4H. South can just have any hand with 6 hearts or any hand with 4+ points and 5 hearts. It would be like north bidding over a texas transfer except south has a weaker range of hands than that even. Yes partner is less likely to have spade wastage because of the overcall but that doesn't mean a 2N opener can slam try with Kxx of trumps and a 20 count after partner just bids game. Souths 4H bid was bad, he had a slam try (at least) without the overcall and still has one. 5H would be appropriate. Norths 2N opener is poor. You can bid your hand easily enough after opening 1D and rebidding 3C, no need to distort. The hand is very prime aka suit oriented and 2N does not really describe it very well. Imagine how hard minor suit slams will be to bid after a 2N opener.

Would be passing happily if they were red hoping for +200. As it is we could easily be cold for 2M but we can't really get there, 2S bypasses 2H and X risks 3C from partner, and bidding 2H risks missing our spade fit. Meh, I'll gamble with 2S, F it.

4H, good problem. AWM I don't see why 4H is more unilateral than 3N? 3N, 4H, X, and pass could all lead to silly results, obviously the point is to bid the one that gets you to the right contract the most often.

Why is this relevant? As usual I carefully worded my statement that barmar thought this article was harsh towards the PLAYERS not towards just them. I agree with you that if you're gonna go off about one of the bids in this auction it is partners 3S bid though lol.

I think the answer to Q1 is a significantly weaker hand than the answer to Q2. My reasoning is there are many more hands with a heart void that can control the auction if it starts with a double, simply by virtue of having long spades. For instance with AKQJxxx --- KJx Kxx I would be willing to double without fear (how often does partner bid 5H?), but with ---- AKQJxxx KJx Kxx I would not be willing to double (partner might bid 4S at some point). Not sure about exact hands. I think AKQJxx --- KQTx Kxx is a double. AKQxxxx -- KJx Kxx also. Hands with a spade void are tough to even think of.

His point was that they will misguess 100 % of the time if you underlead your ace.