Tramticket

South's bidding is pretty weird too. Why not give preference and play in the known 8-card fit? But I think you have to play the 2♦.

With 9 points, opposite a 2♣ opening, you should be thinking about investigating slams. The first thing for west to do is give partner the excellent news that she has diamond support by raising to 4♦ (still forcing to game of course). cue-bidding should now get you there. East will cue-bid the ace of hearts and west should cue-bid in spades. Note: even if you play the style of cue-bidding where you show first round controls before second round controls, the player known to hold the weaker hand opposite a 2♣ opening can legitimately show a second round control in this situation. East cue-bid 5♣ and west cue-bids 5♥. This is the news that east is hoping for and east can probably now bid the grand slam.

I agree. This was the line followed by declarer. The contract had to go one off - east ruffs and has a safe spade exit. [hv=pc=n&s=sh7dtcaq42&w=sat9hqdct9&n=sq64hdcj76&e=sj8hdck853]399|300[/hv] The only way to succeed is to draw the trumps (reaching this position) and play the queen of clubs. If east wins he forced to play away from his club holding or play a spade, setting up the queen. If East ducks, declarer plays the ace of clubs and end-plays west. I thought the ending was pretty neat - but I'm realising just how double-dummy it is. It seemed like a plausible line to me (I held the east cards).

[hv=pc=n&s=sha765dakqt3caq42&n=sq6432hktd542cj76&d=e&v=0&b=14&a=p1d(5%2BDiamonds)1s2dp2s(Forward%20going)p2np3s(Forward%20going)p4dp5dppp]266|200[/hv] Pairs. You ruff the king of spades. All follow to king of hearts, heart to the ace and then a heart ruff. You return to hand with a trump and play two more rounds of trumps (dummy and east discarding spades on the third trump). You next ...

"DNE for ii?" DNE = Does Not Exist. There is no balanced hand worth a 2NT bid opposite a passed hand, that hasn't already opened 2NT. Change the opening to 1D and a 2C overcall and I would expect the call to be based on a long running diamond suit. Less likely though if the opening is a major.

Good spot - yes the responses are of course at the three level. :)

2♥ = at least five hearts, at least 4 (5 vulnerable) in any other suit. Responses: - 2♠ pass or correct - 2NT Enquiry - 2♣ - 2nd suit is clubs - bottom of range - 2♦ - 2nd suit is diamonds - bottom of range - 2♥ - 2nd suit is spades - bottom of range - 2♠ - 2nd suit is spades - top of range - 2NT - 2nd suit is a minor - top of range - 3♣/3♦/3♠ - Natural & forcing 2♠ = at least five spades, at least 4 (5 vulnerable) in any other suit. Responses: - 3♣ pass or correct - 2NT Enquiry - 2♣ - 2nd suit is clubs - bottom of range - 2♦ - 2nd suit is diamonds - bottom of range - 2♥ - 2nd suit is hearts - bottom of range - 2♠ - 2nd suit is hearts - top of range - 2NT - 2nd suit is a minor - top of range - 3♦/3♥ - Natural & forcing With 5-5 in the major we open 2♥.

The 1♥ overcall is pretty marginal. It isn't achieving much in the way of pre-emption and the suit quality is pretty moderate. You might not want a heart lead either. Many will overcall, but I'm not sure you should.

It was reported by the EBU because they brought the case. Like it or not, the European Court will retain jurisdiction until Brexit is finalised ... and very possibly for a long time afterwards, depending on the outcome of negotiations on ongoing trade and other agreements.

We all know and use Lightner doubles of slam contracts. I've come across Lightner doubles of five-level contracts. This is the first time I've seen one at the four level. Very neat. :)

Nice set Kaitlyn. It got me thinking. I agreed with your answers and I'm sure that my regular partner would be on the same wavelength ... but there were a couple of things in the commentary worth checking with her!

I won't take part in the poll - I usually play four-card majors and a weak NT. This shape is awkward, since a two heart response gives me an ugly rebid (playing a strong NT you can presumably rebid 2NT). But I still probably open.

Another interesting set. Thanks. Smerriman makes an interesting point - it is plausible for declarer to hold a diamond void. Partner is unlikely to hold either the ace or king of trumps (declarer didn't use RKCB). Maybe, partner holds QXX in trumps and you want her to switch to clubs? I guess it might work. But declarer is like likely to be short in diamonds on this bidding. If she has a singleton diamond, then her club losers may disappear (2 rounds of trumps then run the diamonds). So perhaps it is a reasonable option to play for declarer to have no entries to dummy?

Thanks all. I started ok - winning in dummy and playing a small heart towards my queen. West took about 30 seconds before eventually going up with his ace. He returned a diamond and I tried for the spade split - good news, they both followed suit to two rounds. I cashed the king of clubs, discarding a diamond, drew a third round and started on clubs - King, ace and then a ruffing finesse. West of course, took even more than 30 seconds to produce the queen. With hind-sight. I think I should delay drawing trumps - playing on clubs immediately after trying to the first heart.

In my world: - a fourth seat multi is always strong. I generally bid 2 ♥ to allow partner to clarify. - a third seat multi, followed by a pass by RHO is often strong. I am careful about raising the pre-emption. In general, we use a 4♦ response to show 4-4 in the majors. I'm not particularly keen on including the "strong two in a minor" option.

[hv=pc=n&s=skqj2hk976dk75ck9&n=sa943hqda86cajt82]133|200[/hv] Contract: 6♠ by North No opposition Bidding Lead: 2♦ Scoring: IMPs converted to VPs (1) Do you want to be in this slam? (2) What line do you take?

The 3♠ response to puppet Stayman shows five spades. But I assume you are actually asking about the 3♠ response to 2NT? Some use the bid as showing five/four in spades and hearts, others use it as minor suit Stayman on 5-5 minor suit hands. I can't imagine why you would want to sign off in four of a minor over 2NT (what is your 2NT range?). With a long minor I would either try for 5 or take my chances in no-trumps.

Is this the hand to psych a 5D cue bid?

Restricted Choice considerations balance out - it's worth re-reading smerriman's comment. But South's failure to play the king may well be significant. Put yourself in South's seat holding KJ7 with dummy on your right and holding A842. After a small card to the ace and a heart back. The options are: - Partner has the queen - you know that you are making two heart tricks regardless - whether you play king or jack. - Declarer has the queen and partner started with a singleton 9 - you will make one heart trick regardless - whether you play king or jack. - Declarer has the queen and partner started with a doubleton 9X - you will make one heart trick regardless - whether you play king or jack. - Declarer has the queen and partner started with a doubleton T9 - you can put declarer to a guess by playing the jack. It is only in this latter case that there is a reason to play the jack. But there may be a good bridge reason to win the trick and direct the defence. Even a good defender might easily play the king on the second round. Given that declarer might play the king, holding KJX, it must be better for declarer to play for south to have held JTX - duck the second round and hope that north is forced to play the ace.

Timo's point was that a South player will often rise with the king on the second round. Interesting suit combination. I found it counter-intuitive and thought that playing the queen "must" be right until I did the calculation.

I've had an interesting time looking at some of my old books, but haven't found a reference yet: Guide to Better Acol Bridge: I have two copies and they are different!!! 1989 Edition says: "Open one of the 4-card suits, preferably the one below the singleton. (Alternative: With a black singleton, open the middle suit: with a red singleton, open the suit below the singleton.)." The 2007 edition says: "4-4-4-1 pattern: Black Singleton, open the middle suit". The Basic Acol Flipper also says to open the middle suit with a black singleton. Neither of these deals with this in any detail - Guide to Better Acol Bridge only covers it in a one page summary of assumed knowledge "The Basics". And the bridge flipper is ... a flipper. :) I don't have "Acol Bridge made Easy". For what it's worth, I first came across the idea from my regular partner. She had played in a match against David Bahkhshi and reached the usual 4♥ on a 4-3 fit. He had said "why don't you open those hand types 1♦? WE have been doing so ever since (7-8 years). We have never had to play a hand in two diamonds using the method. I have seen it in print several times since - probably in magazine articles.

I would love to see a good quality up-to-date book on Acol - it is desperately needed. But it would be a difficult task to produce one to please everyone. There is no single Acol system. In particular, choosing to open a minor suit when 4-4 in A major/minor leads to a very different system to choosing to open a major. Both are viable systems - but they are different systems.

It guarantees five spades AND it buries the heart suit. This option is easily the worst in my opinion.

This is wrong factually as well as grammatically. Different Acol textbooks suggest different methods for deciding which four-card suit open in various situations. There is no single Acol method for this decision.