hotShot

Your partner will bid 3/2 NT if hes strong enough and that might get you in trouble. So you should be careful. But if you hold 14 HCP and your ♠ suit is worth 4-5 tricks and you stop the minors, you can expect partner to stop ♥. This should be enough to make 7-8 tricks in NT, if opps can't pull to many tricks before you can.

Opening 5M332 hands 1M is standard. I fail to see where your problem is, your opening bid promises 4 cards in that suit, so with weak hands (12-14) you can rebid 2M showing your 5th card. Note that your partner will respond 1NT with weak 6-9(10) hands that you should pass. If your partner responds 2m he is stronger and will find a bid over your 2M rebid. If you open 1♥ and your partner responds 1♠, you can opt to rebid 1NT.

No you should read that as:

Around here a minor suit call is considered natural if showing 3+ cards.

Jacoby 2NT wastes a lot of bidding space, so if you have a good side suit and a single, you should discuss priorities with partner. I would prefer to save bidding space. 1♠ - 2NT 3♣ (single, saves bidding space, North knows about his 3 wasted ♣ points and could sign off with 4♠ now) - 3♥ (cue) 4♦ (cue) - 4♠ (nothing more to say, not strong enough for more) all pass

I think a workable definition is: A system is non-natural if it's dominating/characteristic bid is non-natural. In precision the 1♣ is not natural and it limits all other bids, that makes it the dominant bid of the system. In SAYC there is no similar restrictive bid and (1-level) openings promise the named suit, so it's natural.

To me something seems wrong.

Those who open should take a close look at this traveler, opps make 3♥. Fortunately they can only make 2♠ It seems to be from a BBO tourney where very aggressive bidding is common.

Imagine a 5332 hand opposite a 4432 shaped hand. You will have a hard time to ruff something at all, because you have similar length in both hands. So the hand plays about the same in NT or in 4M. Playing around with HCP and honors you can construct a hand where only 9 tricks are possible.

Seems that we agree up to here, that 3♦ may make. Thank you for the percentage, it's about what I expected. I than stated that opps are likely to bid and make 2-3M, given the defensive tricks available in the combined hands. Since you did not write % behind that number it means that the average score is "non vul down 1 by opps", and that scoring more than 50 is required to get an above average score. Your simulation indicates that the defensive power of the hands is about one trick bigger than I expected and that opps usually can't make 3M. So this hand seems to work well, if opened weak.

North failed to show his shape and strength, so he has to take 100% of the blame. North showed 4♠'s and denied 3♥'s, so he must have 6-7 card in the minors, so South can assume there is a ♦ fit and balance in 3♦.

I miss the "Yes, because it's smart" option. You know a lot about the hands that passed. They share 30 HCP and nobody has more than 11, which means nobody has less than 8 HCP. So your partnerships combined strength is 18 to 21 HCP. Usually passing will be good with 18 and 19 combined HCP and usually it won't be bad to pass with 20. Nobody had a weak 2 opening so they might be semibalanced. Of the missing 13 honor cards only 6(7) cards are probably useful to you ( ♠AK, ♣AK, ♦AQ(J) ) on average your partner will hold 2 of them. Combine that with your 6 loser and you may be able to make 3♦. Unfortunately you only have 2 defense tricks and your partner has about the same. This means that your opps are likely to be able to make a 2 or 3 level contract as well. If you pass now, you score 0. If you go down or allow opps to find their fit (they might not open with 10 and a 5-card major, but they will surely overcall) and make, you'll get a negative (bad) score. Only if you make or opps go down, you can improve the 0 score by getting a + score. The chance for that is clearly less than 50%. So your 6 loser, 2 defense trick, weak 7 card minor hand with 10 HCP won't get you a plus score most of the time, so take the 0 and move to the next board.

Because it's the only system that works equally well/badly against 10-12 NT and 15-17NT, IMHO. Less confusion = fewer bad boards. I think DONT in particular is unplayable against a 10-12 NT. Just my opinion. It's not the only system Lionel is playable against any strength NT. It's just less known.

NO problem to reach the site from here.

Thanks! It seems logical. Leading from Qxxx has a much better chance that the trick goes to A or K, who would get the trick anyway. playing from Kxxx the Q could win the trick.

I was considering to bid 3NT, but I expect hands that make a cue-bid and than dbl to be a little stronger.

Just to understand, the gnome rule says lead from the Q or lead ♠? What I find interesting is, that leading ♦ seems unsuccessful.

Would West bid differently holding: [hv=s=sqj72haqj76d765ck]133|100|[/hv] [hv=s=sqj72haqj76d765ck]133|100|[/hv] And we all have seen 11HCP openings [hv=s=sqj72haqj76d765ck]133|100|[/hv] [hv=s=sqj72haqj76d765ck]133|100|[/hv] East asked for help in ♦ and West denied to have support there. After the discouraging 4♥ bid, moving on just because the 5 level seems to be save, seems pointless.

What would 3♥ or 3NT have been? If 4♥ was the only weak bid available, it's the system that is flawed. East is just a little to weak to move on alone if opener is minimum. Slam is working because of the ♦ fit, and west will only discover that if he bids 3♥ or 3NT so that east can show the 2nd ♦ control.

If you want to open 1♦ fine, it's just not my first choice. It allows opps to determine how many tricks they might make and to what level a sacrifice makes sense. Opening 5♦ is forcing opps act on the 5 level and it might keep them from making the best choice. You want to give partner information and make good use of the available bidding space, which is perfectly fine. But the trade off is that you give opps extra information and bidding space too, which they can use the best they can. I think suit layout (they have the ♠) favor opps over partner, so that I "pay" more than I "get".

Partner won't know that I don't care about his black aces or kings. Opps are white and have an easy sacrifice(or probably they can even make game/slam) in a black suit, if they find it. So there is not much interesting information to gain from partner and a high risk that opps find what they can do. So consuming bidding space is definitely not silly. Playing Walsh-style openings i would open 1♥ followed by 2-6(7)♦, otherwise 5♦ seems a good choice.

1056 is only 12 cards, i guess it's 1066?

I'm not a Mac user, but if Safari has this cache issue, perhaps there is a local proxy server advanced user could install on their system to prevent that behavior.

Edit: This was holding the ♥AKQx I prefer to dbl. Partner will have some values in the minors (I can see that he won't have then in the majors) that are wasted in offense because of my shortness, but will make tricks in defense. It will be easier to make 5 tricks (4 down in red) in defense than 12 tricks playing 6H. Edit: Without the ♥K Now partner can have 5 HCP in the majors, so it's not so sure he has tricks in the minors. So dbl is no longer attractive. And bidding 6♥ is also less attractive. I still don't think that 6♣ makes. Now it's a "they can't(or can they?), but can we" situation. But I stick with dbl.

I'll win with the K and play a small ♠, i don't want them to ruff my side suit winner.