cherdanno

Looks like we should have 4+0+10+8+2+5+6+7+10+0+10+2+5+4+7+8 = 88 to me. Sound about right - 150 for clee, 25 for me, average = 88.

Stop!!!

Your comments aren't any less patronizing. They are saying "peachy cannot judge whether gnasher is right or I am right". The difference (aside from not having any bridge-related content, which peachy's post has, and the fact that peachy wsa right) is that you add some insults along the way.

Back to the bridge issue - as I said I am with Roger and Andy. Some of the arguments in favor of 4♠ seem to assume that opponents will always find a club lead when that is right (including of course Phil's simulation). Basically I think that when partner has 3 clubs, we will hardly ever be better off in 4S than in 3N, and when he has a doubleton they still have to find the club lead. (Even when he has ♣xx the odds of defenders taking the first 5 club tricks is less than 50%.)

If you post a bad decision that you made, and don't appear to listen to the opinions of stronger players on this forum, then you shouldn't be surprised about about a patronizing comment. FWIW, I thought this thread was a lot more tolerant to your 4♠ than I expected, and compared to what I think it deserved.

I don't think partner is barred from pulling with a sub-minimum, a singleton diamond, and a bad club holding - say if he has your Qxx xxxx x xxxxx example hand. However, more importantly I just think 2-4 hcps for partner are so rare in general that we shouldn't cater to them too much. Just because I might raise with the hand above doesn't mean I consider my range to be 2-10 and that I have to double 2N with every good 7 count - I would still expect a good 8-count or better for a double. Also, RHO is a passed hand and LHO didn't bid over 1♠ - another reason to expect partner to have some values. Finally, the ♣65432-example hands are starting to irritate me - if partner has 5 clubs, the chances are pretty good that his best club will beat the 5th-best club of LHO. Maybe even the 4th-best club of LHO's 5-card suit! I don't think most LHOs need ♣KQJ here to bid over 2♠.

As an aside, maybe declarer would benefit from learning that a 2NT bid tends to show stoppers in both majors?

Agree, this should unanimous. Oh wait...

Lol what is this pass of 4H by West? So both 4HX and 4NT are down, but if both sides misdefend badly then you have to bid 4NT over 4H. Can we assume a minimum standard of play for posts in the A/E forum?

Clearly 2D - it's open with both majors weak, both majors strong, one major weak, diamonds weak, ...

I think we are MORE likely to get doubled if we pass 2S than if we bid 3C. The odds seem pretty good that LHO has good spades, and extras. With that he should be able to double 2S, over which his partner may help doubling our runouts, whereas he might not be able to act over a directly 3♣.

I believe it is standard that 2N asks for partner's minor and shows game interest, while 3♣ is pass/correct and denies game interest. In particular, bidding 3♣ and 3♥ over 3♦ just shows a hand with longer clubs than hearts than diamonds.

So you think opponents are assuming we are an idiot for passing 2S? From the LHO's point of view, if he thinks he will beat 2S then he should double. The hand is 100% to be a big misfit, and unless his RHO is a huge idiot other contracts will go down, too.

Why will they never double us in 2S?

Andy, I don't think your simulation is useful. We didn't only learn that West has a 5-card suit, we also learned that one of his 5-card suits is spades. Since we don't have the same number of combined total cards in spades as in other suits, there is no symmetry between learning West having 5 hearts and West having 5 spades. I would say the way to think about this is restricted choice. We learnt that spades split 5-4. But we also learned that West does not have a 6-card side suit, and that he is less likely to have a 5-card heart or club side suit (as he might lead the other). But since 55 and 56 hands are so rare, the "also" part isn't actually that important.

I play that pass forces redouble, over which 2♣ by me shows a balanced hand with 4 clubs and 2 diamonds; partner can bid 2♦ to ask for my longer major. Since gwnn didn't say how he plays pass, I assume he is playing it the same way as I do. (What else could pass-then-2♣ be? With an unbalanced 2-suited hand I would bid right away, with a one-suited hand I would of course redouble to force partner to bid 2♣, and with 3 or more diamonds I would pass out 1NT XX.)

Playing upside-down carding I would play the ♠2 here, I see no chance that partner can go wrong.

If 15 is in your range for 1NT then I would bid that. We can always jump to game later when partner bids stayman B)

WHITE AGAINST RED!

I though it was ♠Q = 100, ♣ = 95, anything else -1.

I would have opened 3♥.

I think there is a real danger that partner will think you have 3 clubs when you raise his suit. Seriously, what's your point? I expect my partner to know that making the cheapest possible bid here is suspect at least.

I would rather use 2H to show "nothing further to add" than 3C. In standard, 2D is most of the time based on a game-forcing one-suited hand, but it could also be based on another hand type (GF support for one of the majors, 18-19 balanced without a stopper). So it's important to give opener room to clarify his hand type.

You can still explore stoppers at the 3-level. If you are looking for 3NT, you can start with a forcing bid showing your long clubs or your support. If you don't have either, you should be doubling anyway.

GIB's bidding is better than it's reputation. Just look at who he got stuck with as partner in the bidding contest.