Jinksy

I don't buy this. For Hs to be setuppable with 2, they'd have to be the AK. Then for Ds to be good enough to put me in, he needs AKQx and an outside entry, or A(K/Q)x and two outside entries. I don't see the opps bidding game missing all that.

Agree on both counts. But it gives me some ammo for the dispute with my P, who thought I should lead a ♥, where I thought that was my least favourite lead :P

With a min responsive hand (5-9ish) and any kind of shape he'd more likely just raise you to 2♠. With 3(433), or with a stronger balanced-ish hand he might prefer to X.

One other thing that tips it further towards a minor is P's inability to X for a spade lead. In many cases it's probably because he just doesn't have a good enough hand, but where we are setting the contract by establishing a suit, it suggests that suit won't be spades. Btw Wesley, I really appreciate your regular sims and your scruples to give their parameters.

[hv=pc=n&w=s6hj97632dj85c962&d=s&v=e&b=3&a=1n(14-16)p2hp2sp3nppp]133|200[/hv] What would you lead against this? Also, if your first choice suit were prohibited, what would be your second choice? Butler IMPs.

Ok. So is 3♦ consistent with a minimum hand, or are you upgrading a bit for shape? If the former, how do we show a) enough extras to GF, b) extras but not enough to GF on a hand with similar texture?

I played multi-Landy for a few years and consider it inferior to regular Landy. Most of the time when you show a suit you end up playing in it at the 2 level or defending, having given the opps that bit more info about your hand.

I'm quite surprised by the popular answers to both of these. On the first, why are we bidding 3♦ when in a recent thread there was discussion about how neg Xes are more about the majors than minors, such that people thought (something like) 1♣ (2♠) X P / 3♦ showed extra values? Ok here we've heard about both the majors, so P's X is obviously more minor-oriented than in the other thread, but I would still expect P to have 2Ss or a good hand with no better bid. Similarly(?) if my minors were reversed and it had just gone 1♠ P 2♦, I'd be rebidding spades to show a minimum (and, playing Acol, the unshown fifth spade). So what's so different here? And what would I do on a similar hand but with extras? Rebid 4♦? (and what if the extras still left it sub-GF - eg with the diamond King instead of the Jack - or whatever you think would constitute an intermediate hand.) *** On the second, I don't feel strongly against Xing, but I was expecting more people to think it an auto-opening. Having decided not to open it, it feels like I've done my hand evaluation, and I'd thought a hand that isn't strong enough to open also isn't strong enough to force P to bid at the three level when one opp is unlimited. Maybe I should go for damage limitation and get in now, but the usual principle people go by in these marginal situations seems to be 'once you've made a decision, stick with it', hence my (lone) vote for Xing only if I hadn't had a chance to pass. Why does that principle not apply here?

No. On second thoughts, with the benefit of further reflection, No.

Probably not, but on most sequences I can construct I'd bid it anyway. You have IIRC about a 40% chance of losing a club, which seems to leave you virtually dead in the water. If you pick up clubs for no losers, you still have to find a 12th trick. You have various chances (diamonds 3-3, trumps 2-2, both H honours falling in three rounds, or finding the right honour onside in Ss are the ones I can see), that probably add up to less than the ~83% chance that I make it you'd want to make it odds on.

These came up in the latest EBU mag's 'club bidding' quiz, but the answers the setter (Julian Pottage) gave seemed bizarre to me: In both cases you're assumed to be playing Acol: 4-card majors and a weak NT. Scoring is MP, love all. [hv=pc=n&w=skq754h98dqjt96ca&d=w&v=0&b=8&a=1s(Showing%204%2B)2hdp]133|200[/hv] [hv=pc=n&w=sjhqt963da85ckj87&d=w&v=0&b=8&a=p1s(Showing%204%2B)p2s]133|200[/hv] What's your call now on each, and what do you make of the bidding so far on the latter? Also what would you do if N had dealt and opened 1♠, S had raised to two, so that now it was your first call? (What I really want to say on the second is 'if you'd open, mentally weaken the hand the minimum amount such that you'd have passed it. Now would you X?' but that wouldn't fit the poll. Or to put it another way, is there any hand where you'd consider yourself too weak to open, but good enough to pass 2♠?)

I might make an exception to my 'bid one more than everyone else' rule for an aggressive Bermuda Bowl finalist :P

I'm now thinking that given all the people voting for 3♣, I should probably have said 4♣. I have a reputation to uphold :)

I will bid 3♣, giving up on 4♠, since I can't see any sensible way to get there.

I can corroborate this. I've known phil_20686 in person, and he's a genius sane a superb bridge player winsome and inspiring Irish probably not PhilG :P

I had this hand with an 'advanced' BBO, who became extremely abusive when she didn't like my rebid. I would post it in the intermediate/advanced section, but since we both agreed it was a beginner-level question, I'll put it here: 1♥ P 1♠ P 1N P 4N What's the 4N bid? Playing with an advanced partner, with no prior system discussion, what would you do now with a reasonably good 2533 13-count? (the hand was cancelled, so I don't have the details. Something along the lines of Qx AKQxx xxx QTx)

Not going near 5♥. N's expected number of Hs is close to 4, which could make it very hard to keep control of the hand. Even if they're going a few down and P can't double them, that might be a good score at this vul.

Gerber

3♣ looks like a good spot to me. In any major game you're likely to get forced in diamonds. In 3N they're just going to set the suit up and run a lot of tricks against you.

I play a lot of weak NT too, but I would not voluntarily play a wriggle with a forcing pass. There are more important things than finding all 4-3 fits. Even I were, I'd rather not wait for them to X me before I start wriggling.

Mmm. Yeah :P

Sure. Before I show up late again, can you confirm start time? Google says 2pm new York time is in 45 mins, but 8pm CET is in 105 :P

IIRC gszes has a different username for BBO - what is it again? (mine's the same)

I'm keen to play, if the above posters are as ambivalent as they sound :)

Responder doesn't need to be 4-4 in the majors to want to use Garbage Stayman. (34)51 is also a common shape, (34)42 and 3352 are probably worth doing it on if weak enough that you think 1N is going off. Playing opposite a weak 1N I'll do it on all sorts of hands - if I'm very weak then I'll do it on virtually any sort of hand that can't xfer or retreat decisively after an X. On a good day, they won't be playing a 4th-seat X of Stayman as values, and even if they are (and have discussed continuations), starting off our wriggle before waiting for them to confirm we need it gives them less space to describe their own hands.