Jlall

No. Since the cuebid is forcing to only 3 of your major, if they bid beyond 3 of your major it is NOT sensible to be in a forcing pass imo. Just because you can make 3H doesn't mean they can't make 4S. Standard disclaimer with me that I think very few passes should be forcing.

I believe her name was Eve obv not Lucy :lol:

why do I suck so badly at reading :lol: Well played

Why did you start pulling trumps?! You have 1 club trick, 1 diamond trick, so just go for 8 trump tricks on a cross ruff.

ar as I can tell if you are just looking for 3N it is arbitrary if they bid hearts and spades whether you play: 3H= spade stop, asks for heart stop OR 3H= heart stop, asks for spade stop and vice versa. I will assume expert standard is how it is because if you are going to try for slam and your stopper ask is actually a cuebid, it is natural to cuebid the one you have control of. Of course you can play 3H= spade stop, asks for heart stop or shows a heart control for slam rather than 3H= heart stop, asks for heart stop or shows a heart control for slam. Heck you can even play 3H= spade stop, asks for heart stop or shows a spade control for slam There is no real reason that bidding hearts has to be more related to what you have in the heart suit than what you have in the spade suit. But it is more "natural" for it to be that way. I would not call it a reversal to have something in the suit you cuebid though rather than something in a different suit. Think about it in terms of what you're showing rather than what you're asking for. If you think about it like this: 3H= shows something in hearts 3S= shows something in spades rather than 3H= asking about something in spades 3S= asking about something in hearts it becomes more clear why most people probably play the "standard" way In general it is way better to think about bridge bids in terms of what they show rather than what they ask imo because there are very few true asking bids.

Blah I wrote a super long post and my browser crashed or something, so tilting. Anyways I'm not writing it again but I would just play ace and a spade, and then try and guess hearts. You will have a lot of information after cashing clubs and seeing how spades have split. If RHO was 2-2 or 1-3 in the blacks, play them for the HJ. Otherwise play LHO for the HJ. If you get to a position where you will play LHO for the HJ, make sure to lead a heart off dummy in case RHO has AJ doubleton. The endplay line requires too much imo.

I hate gambling but it's fine as a default if you wanna play 3N as something. It's better than playing it as a strong balanced hand.

They redoubled and you said we are white on red. That means we get 400 not 200 if we beat them one. You also said it was matchpoints. Why do we need to get more than 400? Do you really think someone is getting 500? Also, why do we both have the HJ? Also how do you feel if you play top spade club and partner's joke hand was Jxxx xxxxx QJx x or something. You are really just so confident about what's going on that you are going to risk letting them make 5D XX at MP when you make nothing in order to try and get the key extra undertrick?

Norths pass is fine since 3N in third seat is to play, not a solid suit with no outside A or K. South is on crack. Play the king. If you play the jack it's like youre trying to limit your damage to down 3 if you're very very lucky.

Definitely don't sign off! I wouldn't drive it to slam so I'd just bid 5S. If I had to bid between 6S or 4S I would def choose 6S though but 5S seems just right showing good trumps and no minor suit control. FWIW if I had worse trumps and no minor suit control I would bid 5H ie Axx xxxx Qx Qxxx.

Please double as you might end up receiving the game bonus, and you will encourage partner to bid a 5 card suit which will get you to "the golden fit."

Diamonds are splitting poorly for them. I lead a trump and await developments.

Easiest pass ever. Would have bid 2D last time.

X is penalty, pass is forcing but generally some minimum. 3m is non forcing but shows extra offense, often in the way of a fifth trump. 2N to me is forcing and should have a solid stopper, and I would assume usually 1.5 stoppers. If they bid at the 3 level a pass is non forcing so a double would just show extra values and often be geared towards getting to 3N or getting some other relevant info from partner, or perhaps having partner pass with the right hand. I would not make this double with a stiff if I could avoid it. 4m would be non forcing but would show significant extra offense.

Wow this thread is amazing.

ahhhhh so many words on semantics.

I'm sure the point of this is to lead a low spade at trick 1. I am just not feeling desperate, I have 2 sure tricks and partner can still have one for his bidding despite their redouble. Just because they redouble doesn't mean I'm desperate. I guess leading the ace rather than the usual king is fine to preserve the chance to shift to a low spade. edit: After seeing dummy I will cash the SK. I will then play a club and hope we have a minor suit trick.

Why is playing 1N with 5-2 and 5-3 spade fits instead of 2S the end of the world? People talk about it like it's some huge disaster to play 1N opposite a range of 1-3 spades rather than 2S opposite a range of 2-3 spades. Worse things have happened! To me a disaster is playing a 3-3 club fit, or a 5-1 diamond fit at the 2 level while missing a 4-4 heart fit. Heck it's a disaster to me to play 2 of a minor cold for 4H opposite a partner who has 5-5 in the majors and only modest values. I don't even particularly like playing a 5-2 diamond fit or a 4-3 club fit at the 2 level when I could play 1N and be at the 1 level, or better yet again find my 4-4 heart fit.

Generally, any old 6-card heart suit is not deemed contextually a one-suiter in hearts. A self-playing heart suit is probably closer to what Justin meant. THAT is less common. Obviously, plus the fact that you need far less to have a slam try in diamonds on this auction. For starters it is a below game slam try whereas 4S as a slam try is an above game slam try. Going past game is always a much stronger statement. Not to mention that it is easier to have less points and more distributional points when you are supporting partner. A stiff spade + 4 diamonds is great opposite a partner who has diamonds. A stiff spade and 6 hearts has less value when hearts are trumps. If you want your simulation numbers to have relevance to my question of frequency you need to also know how often hands with 6+ hearts are worth a 4S "too strong for 4H bid" and how often hands with 4+ diamonds are worth a 4S slam try in diamonds. Obviously the former is far far less frequent which is the whole point, I did not think you were more likely to have 4 diamonds than 6 hearts on this auction.

OK cherdano said my math is off EPIC FAIL. Anyways main point is: 1) KJxxxx is much less likely than KJ7xx 2) They don't always lead a heart from 6 to the KJ, they always lead one from a stiff 3) They don't always lead the 8 from KJ87xx 4) They sometimes lightner double with a heart void All of this means that you have to be massively convinced they would have doubled with KJ7xx to go that route. This brings me to 5) Your edge if your read is right about whether they would X with that or not is very small anyways. Your loss if you are wrong is very large. A long winded way of saying you are making a very very very anti percentage play in a vacuum, more than you think I think, so you better be damn sure you're right. Here I don't think there's any reason to think that. Most RHOs would not X with KJ7xx and out, it could easily get redoubled and make a million.

I ATTEMPTED MATH AND FAILED!

What? Is this matchpoints or something? At imps it seems like we're asking which is more likely, LHO having a stiff heart RHO having a void, obviously LHO having a stiff heart is wayyyyyy more likely.

I think even in england they wouldn't bid 4S :( 3S seems really normal.

If 7 wasn't in play bidding 4D might be reasonable, but it hurts our chances of finding 7 well. I agree with gnasher since we can cuebid our way to 7 pretty easily when it's right and stay out of slam off the AK of diamonds otherwise.

Yep pretty sick