cherdanno

Imo, yes. You made a game force. You agreed clubs. You showed diamond shortness. Your hand is still unlimited. What reason does he have to not show the heart control? Depends on how you play splinter bids I guess. For my partner and I the splinter is actually a limiting bid. Which is to say, we wouldn't splinter with a slam drive or near slam drive. That still doesn't make splinter very limited. It is certainly right to make splinters that take up a lot of room very limited. I.e. 1H-4D should be s.th. like 10-12 hcp when having a typical 3415 shape. You have other options when you are stronger. Here, the splinter is taking away only one level, and you still have lots of room between 4D and 5C to sort out strength. With many hands you won't have a good alternative to splinter - if you just make a forcing raise, you will never be able to show your shortness. Hence the splinter is a bit wider in range. Some hands will drive to slam if partner makes just one cooperative cue. Others will never go beyond 5♣ by themselves. Even worse hands will just bid 5♣ over whatever partner bids.

He would very often bid 3♦ with such a hand.

a) 1N, thought this would be uncontroversial! B) Pass, assuming we are playing takeout doubles. Ok, maybe at w/w i would compete to 3♣. c) 3N.

I strongly disagree that LHO is promising four hearts for his second double. His first double didn't show more than a minimum balanced hand with two diamonds. There are many hands with 3 hearts and extras (balanced or unbalanced) that have to double a second time now. Also, I strongly disagree with your point that partner will bid 1♥ with 4405. Hands where you have to escape into the right major fit are much much more frequent than hands where it will be best to pass out 1♦XX (you are looking specifically for a 6-1 fit for that?).

No, just asking. Its thin - but how thin? Surely we'd want to be there vul.? No way!

Yeah, looks like it needs a 4th trump or ♥Q or s.th. else to be good!

"Action double" = please bid with shape, pass when balanced. 4126 = shape => bid It's really that easy IMO. The ace of hearts is a factor in favor of passing, but it cannot overrule 64 shape.

1. Double 2. 3♣ mixed raise - yeah just raising to the 3-level is lame but i have a lot of defense and maybe it's our deal in 3N.

Why do you need to write "a direct NT overcall"? Simple, because an overcall can be direct or balancing. Normal English usage in England, and in North America. Still it's obvious that this is not what the authors of the ACBL regulations meant. It is impossible that they wanted to make 1C P P 1N alertable when it shows s.th. like 11-15 as everyone in the ACBL seems to be playing.

Congratulations to maggieb, it could not have happened to a nicer person!

And because the opps haven't bid you are not concerned that partner may have a weakish hand in ♥'s with no diamond tolerance? 4♣ is a spunky bid, I like it. When I asked my mentor this, he said; Partner should not have a weakish hand in hearts – ‘rescuing’ a weak 2 bid before it is doubled with a weak hand is rarely a good idea. And there should be some diamond tolerance (obviously not as strong as in this hand), unless partner is sure the hand will not be played in diamonds, ie sure he will bid 3H if partner rebids 3D. I would say it more simply. 2♥ is forcing with game interest. Diamond tolerance is likely but not promised. With a 23 count and a singleton diamond you can't pass...

QJ9x on our right?? Edit: ooops I really shouldn't post anything today....

Oh, I guess then we just need to point him to http://online.bridgebase.com/vugraph/schedule.php .

I guess you are used to being in the minority, but this time you are part of the big majority. :) This is a "open 1♣, bid hearts, rebid hearts"-hand.

I am worried that partner will play me for a better hand if I bid Michaels then take another free bid. If we are bidding 2N and 4♣, then well, we have a 9-trick hand and are bidding a 10-trick contract, doesn't sound so far off does it? If we have to bid 5♣ over their 4♠, then partner will see the auction too and know that we may be saving.

If you are taking a laptop with you, the vugraph schedule will always be shown in the same time zone (whatever you set as the timezone of your laptop). Just don't change your laptop clock, and the vugraph schedule will be correct with respect to that clock. If you are using someone else's computer, it should display the in your local timezone wherever you are. So, I don't quite understand your problem.

East might make a responsive double of 5♦. West, with bad majors and two aces, would pass that, of course.

Let me clarify, I think Csaba didn't write this clearly enough: we have KQT98-7th of spades. That's two trump losers opposite a void and a 5-0 split. (I hope I don't get censored for shouting the spade suit now, but outside of the laws forum I should be safe I assume.)

5m shows extra length in the minor. 4NT shows equal length, or extra length in the major if that's possible. This is what I had considered, but with all 5-5's I think we double. 6-6 is possible, but I think the best use is to show the extra major card as you state. And I always thought this to be standard undiscussed...

why should partner bid 3♠ over your 3♦ bid? he has already told you 10 of his cards what would be more useful would be to know which suit is the shortest. Because 3D is not forcing to game and he probably has a minimum for his bid.

3♦ of course. Giving up on a grand seems silly. Over the expected 3♠ I bid rkcb, followed by 6H or 7H.

Yeah, but a doubleton spade seems just so much more likely than three of them.

You have a balanced 10 count. A 5-5 fit doesn't add that much playing strength when both hands are balanced. 10hcp+12hcp = 22 hcp. Write down some 5332 hands with 12 hcp for partner and see how often game is cold.

Assuming this player was needing great boards in order to place, I don't see anything outrageous in any of these actions. The 3♣ bid on the first board, for example, is a good bid against many opponents.

2N.