Jinksy

We had a slightly interesting scenario last night (which nothing came of - no-one felt they'd been harmed in the end), where a misexplanation of a bid became apparent mid-auction, one of our opps reserved his rights (then took no action), and the other doubled our final contract. It left me wondering what would have happened had the contract gone off and the double been marginal. Is reserving your rights mid-auction potential UI for your partner (and if so, is the process complicated by the fact that your side was potentially harmed first)?

If we play 3N as showing a good preempt in a major, is there an expert standard meaning for X for the following: Opps overcall 4m Opps overcall 4M Opps X 3N In the last case, what about pass and XX? And assuming that allows playing in 3NX(X), what about Xes if they run?

Interestingly against 3N undoubled I would lead a spade, whereas after the double I'd lead a diamond. After reading Bird and Anthias' books, I wonder if a double of 3N should specifically call for a minor suit lead, since you're so unlikely to get one otherwise.

Trump. It seems unlikely declarer has pitches from hand on hearts and enough trump control to ruff them in the short hand without either me getting in in hearts or partner getting in in spades.

Something is weird about the auction, but a psyche doesn't feel like it would explain it. What type of hand would S have psyched on first in? Presumably something very weak (say, < 5 points, and in a serious game I would guess less than that), or it becomes substantially more likely to be his partnership he's cheating out of something. But we're also basically bust, and LHO presumably doesn't have a 16-count - even on many 15 counts, he might have gone slam hunting. On those assumptions, P should have at least 19 points, and we already know he's got an excellent and/or very long spade suit so 3N rates to come crashing down on any lead (if he thinks S psyched) or on a spade lead (if he thinks N bid on a long minor), so why couldn't he double for a short suit lead (which would also be likely to reveal it if South had psyched)? And even if he was wary then, *surely* having shown his suit he can then double 4N (not to mention 5♦)? Also, wouldn't south often pass an undoubled 4N rather than 'reveal' the psyche? So I'm playing N/S for having the closest thing to what they've shown that makes any sense, which presumably means a 2362 or 2272 hand from south and some kind of spade stop and long suit with north. It might still be right to lead the J♥ to hope to retain control, but since S presumably has 2 small spades, but opened 1N, he's surely a favourite to have a heart honour. Put me down for the pedestrian spade lead.

Upvoted eagles' post when I thought RHO was the 2♠ bidder. Sorry Rowland, I'm taking my Like back and leading a spade :P

I don't see us beating this without some luck and a great deal of aggression. I'm leading a spade honour. Probably the A in practice, but playing the J might put declarer's Kxx under more pressure if P can overtake from such as QT9xx.

We have a void in their solid suit. My main concern (which I don't think I can do anything about) is missing slam.

Doubling for penalties seems normal, esp after a second-seat preempt. I wouldn't dream of doing it on this hand. We have no surprises for S (or perhaps a good surprise when the preemptor shows up with the missing honour in his suit), and we have 4 defensive tricks opposite a hand that offered none. South (if competent) is hardly going to have made a vulnerable bid at the three level without either shortage or virtually all the missing (non-heart) points - xx xx AQJxxx KQx looks like a bare minimum, in which he's probably one off, and we're probably making 4♥. So I'll just bid 4♥. If P has a generic xx KQJxxx xx xxx, it's on the spade finesse through the strong hand, and has extra chances if they lead a major (or a top club).

That's about the shape I'd expect for the bid, but it's not obvious that it shouldn't be invitational. It seems less likely, but it could even be GF come to that - in theory you could launch such hands with a 2♦ bid, but you might want to be able to show your hearts now, before the bidding comes back to you at 3♠.

Guys - 'comparable' means 'instructive to compare', not 'basically the same thing with minor variation'. They are comparable in that both are (IMO) relatively close to being a negative double at their respective levels. Anyway, thanks for the responses. I started writing about why I dislike putting P under pressure with an X on hand 1 when he might well have 4 decent-ish spades under North's, but I think a big factor I'd overlooked was that when in doubt he'll often be able to bid 2N. I suspect that won't be a great competitive score most of the time, but it will prevent disaster (and maybe we can bid 3♦ as a signoff after it?)

Personally I play various Turbo-oid sequences, but prefer to stick with RKCB for the majors when the 4N bidder is unlimited. Too often when you're looking for small slam, the QT is a crucial card that you can't easily find out about. As Benoit says, Turbo's biggest drawback (that not even Fantoni-Nunes ever solved - I asked them!) is dealing with voids, especially in the parity-giver's hand.

There are two polls on BW that have comparable hands, but which I'm struggling to understand the different outcomes of. Both IMPs Poll 1 http://bridgewinners.com/article/view/bidding-problem-2-1z1nugrnx7/ x KJxx QJ8xxx xx All vul, P deals, and it goes 1C 2S to you... Poll 2 http://bridgewinners.com/article/view/bidding-problem-2-t7uasksp83/ T8x JT Kxxx A9xx Favourable, you deal, and it goes P P 1H 2D / to you... So on the first hand you have some extra shape, and a fourth card in the unbid major. Against that, you have softer values, a point less, less tolerance for partner's suit, and the possibility of him being endplayed into penalty passing on various unsuitable 4nn4 hands, and you're driving a level higher. So which factor(s) are the ones that made X the clear winner (inc among the players I know to be very strong) on the first poll, and pass the clear winner on the second, and why the factors pushing the other way are less relevant? To me I would they seems closely analogous, with (I would have thought before seeing the polls) the lower level on the second one being the deciding factor that suggested action.

Partner (me) had xx Axxxx KJxx xx, which I decided wasn't quite an overcall. At the table, my P ducked the second spade, hoping to see a useful discard from me - then they cashed their 7 tricks in the minors.

[hv=pc=n&s=sa864hjt986dq7c93&e=skqt92hkdt5ck8642&d=w&v=b&b=4&a=1dp1sp2cp2h(GF)p2np3cp3sp3nppp]266|200[/hv] IMP pairs, opps are good club players. 1: Partner leads the 3♥ (2/4), K, J (UDCA, giving count here), 5 2: C2, 3, A, 5 3: S3, 5, K, 4 4: S2 Win, or duck again? (or would you have won the round before?) Why?

I would pass since I'm not a very good declarer.

He's already confirmed.

I'd be up for playing with my regular P (ndkrempel), assuming it's an IMP format.

I'm not sure how much I buy this. Qx is the sort of holding where we can hope they misplay the suit, but with a short-suit king holding, they're not likely to have much choice about how to play the suit. Sure RHO might upgrade something like a DAQ holding during the bidding, but that seems like a tiny factor - especially if we open at the 4 level, such that if his P has bid they've already reached game.

[hv=pc=n&e=sakthqda8642ckq42&d=e&v=n&b=2&a=1d(Unbalanced)dp1hd2hppdrpp]133|200[/hv] You forgot to discuss this common sequence on the way to the club, so you'll just have to rely on bridge judgement. South is a LOL, so her XX was undiscussed, but presumably expressed some sort of desire to play there. What's partner showing you, and what do you do about it?

[hv=pc=n&e=s4hkt94dqjt94ca83&d=n&v=e&b=9&a=1dppdp]133|200[/hv] IMP pairs. 1♦ promised 4+. If you were barred from your first choice of call, what would your second be? (any time, Nige ;) )

IIRC this is one of the hand types Phil King's investigated in extreme detail, and concluded that to X you should have an upper-end strong NT or better (not a good description of this hand, IMO), or a 4th spade.

I'd be choosing whether to psyche 2♣ or 2♥ on Art's N hand.

As far as I can see it's not online - or at least not public?

This.