Jinksy

I agree it shows both of those things. I don't agree that I have either of them.

It would - clarified OP.

I don’t understand bidding 2S. What’s it supposed to achieve? I don’t want to compete to 4S over 4H I don’t want to compete to 5S over 5D My CJx doesn’t guarantee 3 level safety if they start doubling If they play in Ds or Hs I’ll be on lead If it’s the killer lead for 3N, I’d hope P will find it anyway – but if they bid to 3N I’ll very likely X it for a H lead anyway

[hv=pc=n&s=skt8haj85da42ckj3&d=w&v=b&b=4&a=1cp1sp2cpp]133|200[/hv] IMP scoring. Do you agree with S's first pass (1N would have been natural)? If so, what's your call now?

AT93 862 9843 A6 Favourable, 4th in at teams, LHO deals, and the opps have the following uninterrupted sequence (auction A): P 1N* 2D 2H 2N 3N P 14-16 What’s your lead? What about if it were after (auction B): P 1N* 2D 2H 3N P 15-17

FWIW, I agree with much of what the non-doublers have said. I didn’t think the auction looked illogical, just tentative, and I don’t think I was ‘unlucky’ to find so many Ds in dummy, given that they were what he based his raise on. That said, just because they’re good opps doesn’t mean every time they bid game it will be making. If anything, it means they’ll probably be pushier in game hunting than weaker players. The odds favour bidding it when vul when it’s about 35%, so if they’re a minimum, which both my partner’s overcall and their sequence suggests they are, the a priori odds before I even look at my hand are that it’s not making. Then I look at my hand, and find, as HighLow pointed out, multiple key honours apparently poorly placed for them. I also have a choice of two reasonable leads (I’m still not sure which of the minors I prefer, but it looked very likely almost all their tricks would have to come from cross-ruffing, so cutting out even one round of it might be key). As HighLow said, doubling a making game doesn’t cost *that* much (on the hand, our teammates didn’t even bid game, so it cost maybe 3 IMPS), whereas taking it two off could pick up a major swing. I can definitely be persuaded that Xing is wrong here (else I wouldn’t have posted it), but ‘good opps bid making games’ isn’t a sufficient argument for it. The X telling them how to play it seems like a stronger reason, but I felt like I had enough in E’s primary suit to restrict his options.

Do you agree about the X, or just the play?

K AK9 Q94 AQJ876 Second in, favourable, teams. Do you open 1C, 2N or other? How strongly do you feel?

I led the D. That was that.

1H P 1N P / 2H P P X Is the X clearly penalties, clearly takeout, partnership agreement, or something else?

[hv=pc=n&s=saqjhaqt82dk973c3&w=sk9832hkj963d8cj8&n=s76h75dajt654ct95&e=st54h4dq2cakq7642&d=s&v=b&b=7&a=1hp1n(Forcing)2c2dp3dp3sp4dp5ddppp]399|300[/hv] IMP teams knock-out match. You're moderately behind, and in the penultimate 8-board set. I'll just admit I was W, since I don't think E has a lot of blame here - I would have bid 3 or 4Cs, but 2 doesn't seem like a crime. So was my final double poor judgement, or bad luck? I'd hoped with the major suit honours lying badly after what seemed a fairly unconvincing auction, we'd be safely taking them off, and was hoping for a decent few hundreds. So much for that idea...

Gerben's version of Fantunes 1D with modified keycard approach: 1♦* 1♠ 1N** 2♣*** 2♥ 3♦ 3♠ 4♣ 4♥**** 4♠ 4N***** 5♦ ****** 5♥ 5♠ 6♣******* 7N * F1, unbalanced (5+♦ unless 4441 or 1444) ** Pretty much any 19+ *** Pretty much any GF **** normal cue, but also showing 1 or 3 KCs ***** partner could conceivably have 1 ****** Shows QT ******* Denies a 6th ♦, otherwise normal cue

Sometimes he does it because he's Brian Senior ;)

But as far as I can see eg Bs 4 and 5 have identical N/S cards. Why does the solution differ?

Is there any commentary? On some of these the NS hands look identical, so I'm not really sure why I'm supposed to follow different lines between one and the next.

I'm getting frequent (though not reliable) error messages when I try and load a new hand.

I hadn't thought of this (I play Frivolous for the reasons you're replying to). Typically though, if I have eg AQJxx in Cs in this situation and I want the K for either grand or small, I might bypass a C cue. If P signs off and I was hunting for small, I'll respect it. If he signs off and I was looking for grand, I might still investigate (or more likely just punt) small, and P should realise something like this is going on. Most of the time this seems to work - the biggest risk seems like it would be that when he has the K, he punts 6 himself and I'm on a guess whether we have all the KCs. I've never had this happen though. Another problem with this approach would be that P has cued the suit two below the one I want to suggest and now bypassing the cue is harder to distinguish from a signoff. Usually you'll be safe at the five level if that's the case though. Maybe then the biggest issue is after a 4D cue, having to bypass 4N to seek a H control so that you lose the chance to ask for KC count. Am I missing any major considerations?

LHO seems to have led dummy's card. How much that restricts your choice probably depends on the bridge laws in your country.

Assuming opener sometimes rebids as above with 3-card support, I often get frustrated with natural bidding here. You want an enquiry as to whether P has 3 or 4 cards and as to whether he has a max or min, and to be able to stop in 2N, and to be able to make a forcing bid, and to have good definition on your side-suit based game tries. Obviously something has to give. What continuations do people use here? I’m looking for something relatively simple, with common principles regardless of which major you’ve been bidding, and ideally regardless of what length the in the suit the first bid showed.

Pass. Wouldn't be surprised if a H lead works better than a S though.

I'd rather play 4S by W vul, at least when the alternative is 4H by them. I reckon it's close to or better than a 35% game - assuming no D ruff, S either has to have no D honour, Hxx or the KC. With a bit of shape, no obviously wasted values, an easy suit to invite in and decent intermediates, I think W is worth a game try vs an amber 2S bid from P, assuming P isn’t a particularly aggressive competer.

Oh. Well never mind if so. I'd have just taken it as analogous to an XX over an opening bid, which I play there as 10+, no fit, typically seeking penalties.

I'd prob redouble opposite an opener with E's hand, but opposite a fav 1 level overcall it feels too much to me.

If 1S gets passed around to P and he can't reopen, we're not missing game. Meanwhile, a double from me is likely to induce partner to heavily overcompete. Passing also gives me the option to make a penalty pass - or even penalty double - at a higher level. I'll don't mind the occasional Moyesian fit in what might be the best strain anyway. After 1C 1S P 2S / X P I have a decision, but I'll worry about that when it happens.

Helene_t has the hands dead on: [hv=pc=n&s=sahqj7dj73ca87632&w=sq9642hat5dkt82c4&n=sjt875hk642dq94ck&e=sk3h983da65cqjt95&d=s&v=n&b=15&a=1c1sp2sppdp3cppp]399|300[/hv] This makes no sense to me. As it happened E had flipped, but on the diagram above, are you telling me you wouldn't bid 1S on W's hand? Then give E two of my Ss for the KS and a small D for eg, and N's (my) pass looks conservative but sane (if you disagree with can adjust a bit further to subtract a soft side-suit point or two from me), her 2S looks automatic, and my subsequent X still looks marked. Quite aside from that, as someone pointed out, nothing that's happened other than you happening to have an extra trump honour is inconsistent with trumps being 5530 around the table, (or 5431 with P having the SA instead of you), so what's so abnormal about having a penalty double to prepare for that?