Tramticket

No I was being stupid and playing it in NT

You claimed at trick 1? The defenders can now see all of the cards and are defending double dummy. And they still bungled the discards?

Are the two hands partnering each other? I don't understand the bidding.

I don't understand East showing the hand as two-suited. Either pass/double and get ready to lead a spade or bid 4S.

This hand is 5332 shape - a balanced hand. A good start would be to never open a weak two with a balanced hand! How many tricks do you expect your hand to be worth in a spade contract? Give partners a couple of spades and you can probably make three tricks. But two of those tricks will be certain tricks in defence. You should be prreempting when you have lots of playing strength and little defence.

Several comments suggesting the 3S jump cue-bid. It's a bid that is theoretically part of our system, but I can't remember the bid actually being made and I tend to think of a weaker hand: X QJX AX AKQJ10XX perhaps? Is the opening post hand too strong for this bid?

So the idea is that you need to reduce to the same number of trumps as West. You lose king of diamonds and two trumps?

Only if you get a second bid. These are all two-loser hands. All three are excellent 2D openings if you have the bid available.

Chances of beating this are very low. Leading the ♣2 is horrible, but the other choices are likely to be worse.

This is the key. When the points are evenly split, or nearly so, the winners will be the pair who can set up their suits first. Attacking in your suit will usually put you ahead in the race. For this reason, I want more points for a double in the protective seat, not fewer points as is sometimes suggested.

Very sad

That's a pretty ugly 2♦ over-call? I was expecting that it would most likely be a six-card suit. The lead was the 5 from 105X? Is it possible for West to win the second heart with the ten and attack spades from the west hand?

He's dead, so probably not in any position to object.

Ok, I'll admit it. I like MUD! But I am also aware that if I lead the 3 fro 832 I am asking for trouble. Yes, partner is trained to look at the low spot cards, but why make life difficult? I lead another suit. And if that is impossible, it may be sensible to feign a doubleton and lead the 8. Rules (such as MUD) are there to help, not to hinder.

Paul's suggestion makes sense. I don't think that you need the cue bid to show a three suited hand - you can always pass and do that next time. How do you play a double of 2♦? If a double shows diamonds, then another idea is to start with a double and bid spades at you next turn.

How many points do you think that you have? Five HCPs - but all of my points are in my five-card suit. I don't particularly like the singleton in partner's suit, which is a particular concern if playing a system like Acol where partner's clubs are real. But overall, it is surely worth an upgrade?

What do you do if North plays the 5, which you can read as his lowest card? Do you play north for QX or a singleton and under-lead? Wouldn't north encourage with a doubleton in a suit contract - particularly as North will expect declarer to hold at least three diamonds. So, do you carry on with the king when you see the 5? Or switch? For what it's worth, I would have led the king with your agreements.

Type an exclamation mark, followed by a letter s, h, d or c.

At the table, I lead the king of diamonds. So does everyone else. Because this is a discussion forum, I consider a club. But in real life I lead a diamond with no second choice. If I did look elsewhere, a low club must be as good as the ace. The ace wins if partner has a singleton, but this is very unlikely. Either works if partner has the king and a low club might cause a problem if partner has the Q. But I'm not lwading a club.

A 2C opening is well defined within a narrow range. In these circumstances a preempt seems to be less useful as your opponents will be well placed to judge what to do.

A more normal auction might be: (1♦)-Pass-(1♠)-Dbl-(2♣)-2♥-(3♣)-3♥-All Pass

I want better quality trumps to look for penalties. This trump suit will likely deliver 1 trick. Partner's bid is likely based on a hand with shape. With a more balanced hand, partner might double (what is you NT range?). You might try 3C.

The only reason that you are suggesting a grand slam is that the double dummy software has told you it is possible. You will improve your bridge if you ignore this double dummy analysis and work out how the play will go. It would then be obvious that the grand slam needs the spade finesse and the clubs to split. It is not a sensible to suggest a grand slam.

No idea, (1) no idea which thread to respond to? (2) no idea of your basic system? Your NT range etc. Playing our system, I bid 2NT, natural invitation.

Our auction (playing 4-card majors) might start 1S-1NT-3D, which might give us a chance. But we are more likely to open 2C and I can't see diamonds being mentioned after it starts 2C-2D-2S.