wyman

Indeed. As I understood it, this forum is about illustrating places where GIB's judgment has gone awry, so that we aren't stuck with it forever :)

I get it. But not being able to play in a suit we've agreed is just bad. GIB should not bid 4H in the first place with this hand, which drove the rest of the problem. Appreciate it. However, dissecting my bids is missing the point of this forum entirely.

1) Description of GIB hand doesn't match GIB hand 2) The double is ill-advised anyway. Presumably 2 is because GIB assumes i have a monster over here, but even then, his hand is a king in a suit where he has concealed length and we have a fit, which is bad for D. http://bit.ly/2g9p9tX

http://bit.ly/2w8nWXJ Two main beefs here: 1) When GIB bids 4H, he promises 3 but only has 2. I get that you have to fudge sometimes but we have suit agreement already in diamonds. 2) Seems terrible that we can't play diamonds after 4N, but this mostly goes back to the idea that GIB decided to fabricate a double fit and eschew the fit we've established.

In real time, the explanation showed 2 lines, not the truncated explanation shown in the viewer. Specifically noted 29-30 points. I do forget if it specified HCP or total points. I assume that the programmers can recreate.

5D probably shouldnt show 29-30 points. http://bit.ly/2vgzu9Y

What I'm seeing in this thread is that I should be expecting p to remove this X with poor hands way less frequently than I thought when I dbled. Jdonn: I would have expected partner to pull for example with qxxxxxx and out, so while yes that's obviously a hand type he can hold, I didn't fail to dbl based on it. Same, honestly with Mike's example 5053 4/5-count, on the theory that holding that hand, only I really know about my lack of defense and double fit, where partner has only partial info and should be expecting fewer spades and something more defensive (than zero defense) on average. Based on partner not bidding 4D to help out the cause, I'd be expecting a shape more like 5035, and Qxxxx / void / Kxx / Axxxx makes more sense for a 4S bid than a random 4-count with that shape. What this fails to do is thinking hard about hands the opps can hold, but I think some are consistent enough, e.g., x / KQJxx / x / KQJxxx and xxx/Axxx/QJxxx/x Maybe both are a little more balanced since rho dbled instead of 2n but you get the idea.(and these seem like pretty much the nuts, I think they can hold worse cards/shape)

You've way more experience than I in these spots Mike, but won't partner bid 5 spades with Qxxxx void Kxxxx xxx? I'm just now returning after a bit of a hiatus, but can't partner just have a good invite here? I don't think he's forced to bid 4-other with a hand without SI, right?

I'll rip it. I've been wrong before. I've got more than I've shown and 4 trumps. Obviously I'd like to switch my major suits, but I'm not going to let this float.

[hv=pc=n&s=saq52hkj9754da54c&n=shaqt632dkj72caq6&d=e&v=n&b=2&a=p1hp3s(4%2B!h%2C%200-1!s)5c6cp6hppp]266|200[/hv]

It is correct. I almost altered the bidding so that the given hand was dealer, but I thought I'd accurately report the hand as bid. This is an erratic home rubber-bridge game. Partner is not strong, so the nuances of the bidding from here on out will be lost on him, but I thought it was an interesting spot. I reached out to a couple of my regular partners who bid 5D and 6C, so I brought the problem to the masses :)

rubber, no legs :) [hv=pc=n&s=saq52hkj9754da54c&d=e&v=n&b=2&a=p1hp3s(4%2B!H%2C%200-1!s)5c]133|200[/hv] The discussion I've had so far is on the relative merits of 5♦ vs 6♣, but all comments are welcome.

I'd bid 4N. 6N is just too much imo, and I think 4C is really overstating the club situation. Agree with 3C -- how else will you ever find 6C?

4S. I'm never bidding 2S, and the 7-4 + w/r IMP bumps this to a 4S for me.

Just got to LV. I am playing with a very good partner, and we're looking for good teammates (and teammates who are good) for Thu-Fri KOs (if you respond quickly!) or Fri-Sat KOs or the Swiss. LMK.

Can't west count 12 tricks without even setting up spades (as long as we don't lose a heart, which would be the case if: hearts are 3-2 or 4-1 and partner has the jack, or ...)? Should be an easy grand to bid.

Thanks to both of you for your responses.

I don't know whether this is helpful to the OP, but: We would probably die out in 2S. I would rebid 2S as N, but I sympathize with the 3S call. I am never getting to 4H on any auction.

I'm more worried that partner with Qxxx / xxx / xx / Kxxx decides to pass, and declarer rings up 5 diamonds and the ace of hearts and maybe the spade king if we lead a spade. [note that we make 4S on the hook]. Even if we lead the heart, which is not totally obvious since presumably we are shooting for +300/+500 here, we only get +100, which is still losing the partscore battle (or maybe at the other table, it goes 2C-2S-2N-3C-4S, and we are bringing back 100 vs 620). I agree that there's a decent chance that we miss a game here, but I think there's a lot of downside to doubling.

Sorry. Maybe I misstated my case. Majors is clear to me in that I am 100% sure it's the action I'd take at the table with this hand, and it wouldn't even occur to me to do anything else. This doesn't mean that there isn't a better action, but my reasoning was: I don't think this hand is good enough to dbl, both because I'm not confident that we're beating 1N, and because we could easily have a game on in either major (though I have serious doubts that we will reach it). And the fact that partner can bid 2D is really great as well. Moreover, presumably if we dbl, partner can run out to either minor, and we may play 2D-1 when we make 2S, or similar. 2S doesn't feel right to me, burying the hearts; I feel like I am bound to catch a 1=3=5=4 from partner if I do that. I don't know. 2C just feels like it gives us the best chance to find a plus score. That said, if your concern (which is valid) is that we're going to miss a red game, I'd still say that it's pretty unlikely, and the most likely game we'd get to is when partner has 4+ spades. I think we're worth 2N over 2C-2S, so this isn't a big deal to me. edit: and pass seems bad because we end up defending 1N a lot of the time @50 per, when we have a good chance of making 2M. And if they run out to 3m, we have to dbl back in with a 2-card om, which also feels wrong (partner will assume in all likelihood that we dont have 4+/4+ in the majors since we didn't bid 2C, so we might even play in a particularly silly 4m in a 4-2 fit).

majors seems clear to me

Good idea, let's take a thread in the novice/beginner forum that already digressed massively from a question about "should I stayman" into a discussion about bidding systems and pedagogy, and let's turn it into a flame war. Awesome.

PS - agree with giving a positive (2-of-3) in hearts over 2C if you have one available.

Ok so we bid 4S: 4N: partner has RKC'd, so we're good. 5C: 5D if we play LTTC. 5H otherwise, showing doubt about diamonds. [You made a slam try, and partner made his most positive response, and you signed off. You must be expressing doubt about diamonds.] 5D: 6H. 5H: Here you can flip a coin. I'd probably still bid 6H and pray. Partner's hand isn't that good in context, and it's especially bad for hearts. You can probably make a state of the match/event/opps decision here. I find it hard to believe that partner's doing this with ♥AQ(x) though. You're probably about a flip to make 6, but partner's never doing this with 3 keycards -- I'll tell you that. I think it's poor for partner to bid 6H straight away, and I won't get into what we think his other bids over 5H mean, but the above would be my approach.

Your partner still has the opportunity to KC after you cue 4S, though, if that makes the most sense with his hand. And I think you're worried about the wrong thing: the HQ is hardly what you should concern you when you have a 7-bagger. If partner cooperates over 4S but doesn't KC, just assume you've got either the Q or 10+ cards. Partner's going to be in the best position, I think, to make a 7-level decision once you get your hand off your chest. You don't have much to say other than "a bunch of hearts, ace of spades, enough values to be in the slam zone." 4S says all of that.