wyman

This, if you expect partner to come to the same conclusion at the table without prompting. Otherwise, 4C if you have an agreement to play fit jumps in competition. Otherwise, 4S.

Changing your notification settings is hard?

Over all RKC/ERKC responses, we play 1st step is Q-ask and 2nd step is spec K's. ["step" means non-trump suit step] This way like if hearts are trump: 4N - 5C; 5D = Q-ask 5S = confirms all KC, spec K, so p can show the SK with 5N. 5N/6C/6D asks for 3rd rd ctrl in S/C/D

That should be a :D for seeing the light

Also west shouldn't play north to hold 4 spades on this auction if the bids are natural.

I agree north shouldn't rip it at IMPs, but south already bid 2C-3S. Is east really going to play trumps wrong when EW have only 6 diamonds between them?

♠

Also, he rates to not have a heart void when he leads the ♥3.

This doesn't seem that hard when posed as a problem, but it's certainly nice to get right at the table. WTG markleon.

My only guess (obviously I'm not sure) is that pairs are playing 4N=minors.

Certainly more neutral than what OP said. I still feel this suggests "...damaged -- by someone's use of the UI." But I don't have a suggestion for an improvement, so...

I agree with this. However, "call me back if you feel damaged" is the most common instruction I've heard given in these situations (ACBL).

well, for one, 0/4 pairs reached 6C with QJ Jxx AJxxxx xx opp x AKQ x AKQxxxxx 5C, 5C, 7C, and 4N edit: the 18-count was in 1st seat, no opps interfered iirc

Pass (following the "invite heavy, accept light" mantra).

and especially after RHO has advertised shortness in clubs.

I'll let others fill in the gory details, but basically the idea is: You and partner decide which signal is your primary and which is your secondary. For most people, attitude is primary and count is secondary. This makes suit preference (SP) your tertiary signal. Most beginners, novices, and intermediates do not give suit preference at all, in fact. In this context, if partner leads an ace, I signal high to encourage, low to discourage (since my primary signal is attitude). This is to help partner figure out where your high cards are (and, by implication, where declarer's are). On subsequent rounds of the suit, when I don't need to play high to win the trick or to cover the card played on my right, and when I am not the one leading the suit, and when I have enough otherwise useless cards to do so, I can give count (high means an even number, low means an odd number). This is to help partner figure out the distribution. Similarly, if declarer leads the suit, it is unlikely that I'm going to encourage partner to lead it as well! So our primary signal in that situation would be count. When discarding (to answer one of your questions), the primary signal is (usually agreed to be) attitude. So if you don't have any ♥ and a ♥ is led and you aren't ruffing, the ♦10 is encouraging in diamonds, and the ♦2 is discouraging in ♦. When count and attitude don't apply, you can give suit preference. [Again, caution!! If partner doesn't understand what you're doing, you're probably only helping declarer!] But let's say you're defending 3N and you have ♦8765 and you really want partner to shift to a club. Declarer wins partner's heart lead with the ace in dummy (you discourage, of course) and starts running ♦AKQJ from dummy (so all are visible). Partner has no real need to know your diamond count (he'll see it eventually), and certainly you're not going to give attitude in diamonds! So you can play 5, 6, 7, 8 of diamonds as a strong signal for clubs (lowest at each opportunity). A similar situation where suit preference is often employed is: Partner leads the ace of hearts (presumably from AK) on opening lead vs a suit contract. Dummy has a singleton. With agreement, your card can be suit preference, as it's the most likely piece of info that partner needs. [Here, I'm dodging the fact that other, situation-specific agreements are possible.] Of course there are a ton of other cases. Common mistakes include giving the same signal over and over again (for example, continually giving count in a suit, card after card -- you may think that my 5,6,7,8 above is an example of this, but one can make the distinction between "CLUBS!!!", "I kinda like clubs", "I kinda like spades", and "SPADES!!", whereas you can't describe your holding as "moderately an even number" instead of "emphatically an even number" [although I suppose one may describe his holding as "moderately odd" :)] ). Hope this is good fodder for starters.

link?

I'd bid 3C-3N. Even with no spots, I have J10, J10987x, and 109xx; something has to be useful. And if partner has 4+ spades, I want to be in game in spades. I don't have a way to play 4C, but I'm willing to bump 2N to 3 in hopes of finding 4S. If this is a 2N-or-5C hand, I'm afraid I'm getting it wrong.

I am used to playing Lebensohl, so maybe this is the problem. Like Phil, I'm used to correcting to 3D over 3C in this auction with anything better than min. But if partner drops me in clubs, I'll just hope for the best with a min with 2 clubs. This actually came up when we had the auction (2S) 3D, and I made the point that partner has a decent inference that I don't have 4 hearts (or if I do, I have a pretty minimum hand). This sparked a lot of discussion about ELC and the like. The more I think about this, the more I agree maybe I need to have quite a bit to X+3D without Lebensohl. But at the 4 level, I don't think the same principle applies. So it's not clear it has to apply here (i.e., we could agree ELC in these auctions to make rules about auctions over preempts consistent). But perhaps the best solution is to just play Lebensohl :P

I thought with a massive ♦ single suiter, I'd start with 3♠. Maybe I have more to learn than I thought...

The pair is not playing ELC as a general agreement. If this auction were a level lower, this would show a big hand.

Same, as long as I don't have defense to 2H, I am happy competing to 2S.

4-only for me. The colors, my shape, and the SK are all reasons for me to not bid 5H.

West, for not just leading the ♦K. Why is he saving after the opps have a stupid auction?

(2S) X (P) 3C (P) 3D Assume Leaping Michaels and no Lebensohl (but I think that Leb is a non-issue). 1) What shapes are acceptable for doubler? 2) What's a minimum hand for doubler? (vs overcalling with the shapes you've mentioned in (1))