[Winstonm]

Hand 1:

Scoring: MP

Partner in first seat opens 2D, weak, showing 5-10ish, 6 diamonds, denying a 4-card major but no restrictions on suit quality other than vul and common sense. Over to you.

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Hand 2:

Scoring: MP

Partner in first seat opens 2D, weak, showing 5-10ish, 6 diamonds, denying a 4-card major but no restrictions on suit quality other than vul and common sense. Over to you.

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Hand 3:

Scoring: MP

Partner in first seat opens 2D, weak, showing 5-10ish, 6 diamonds, denying a 4-card major but no restrictions on suit quality other than vul and common sense. Over to you.

---

Hand 4:

Scoring: MP

Partner in first seat opens 2D, weak, showing 5-10ish, 6 diamonds, denying a 4-card major but no restrictions on suit quality other than vul and common sense. Over to you.

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Hand 5:

Scoring: MP

Partner in first seat opens 2D, weak, showing 5-10ish, 6 diamonds, denying a 4-card major but no restrictions on suit quality other than vul and common sense. Over to you.

---

[mike777]

Winstonm, on Jun 24 2006, 05:34 PM, said:

Hand 1:

Scoring: MP

Partner in first seat opens 2D, weak, showing 5-10ish, 6 diamonds, denying a 4-card major but no restrictions on suit quality other than vul and common sense.  Over to you.

---

Hand 2:

Scoring: MP

Partner in first seat opens 2D, weak, showing 5-10ish, 6 diamonds, denying a 4-card major but no restrictions on suit quality other than vul and common sense.  Over to you.

---

Hand 3:

Scoring: MP

Partner in first seat opens 2D, weak, showing 5-10ish, 6 diamonds, denying a 4-card major but no restrictions on suit quality other than vul and common sense.  Over to you.

---

Hand 4:

Scoring: MP

Partner in first seat opens 2D, weak, showing 5-10ish, 6 diamonds, denying a 4-card major but no restrictions on suit quality other than vul and common sense.  Over to you.

---

Hand 5:

<!-- ONEHAND begin --><table border='1'> <tr> <td> <table> <tr> <td> Dealer: </td> <td> North </td> </tr> <tr> <td> Vul: </td> <td> None </td> </tr> <tr> <td> Scoring: </td> <td> MP </td> </tr> </table> </td> <td> <table> <tr> <th> <span class='spades'> ♠ </span> </th> <td> A83 </td> </tr> <tr> <th> <span class='hearts'> ♥ </span> </th> <td> 2 </td> </tr> <tr> <th> <span class='diamonds'> ♦ </span> </th> <td>  </td> </tr> <tr> <th> <span class='clubs'> ♣ </span> </th> <td> KQJ1085432 </td> </tr> </table> </td> <td> Partner opens 1D in first seat and opps pass.  What is your plan?  If you bid 2C, partner will continue with 2H, a reverse showing some extra values although maybe not a great deal extra in a 2/1 auction - still a game force. </td> </tr> </table><!-- ONEHAND end -->

2) Jack of clubs, my longest and strongest suit.
3) Q of D requesting p to drop the Jack.
4) 2s mss or rare other hand. This is why we do not play 4 suit tfr yes?
5) My plan? 2c and then 4clubs.......4d by pard will be rkc and I will not show D void. I will bid the same even if 2h may show random 10 or 11 hcp.

[pclayton]

1) I can see a lot of approaches here. We are vul, so I don't expect a silly weak 2. 3N seems like a better spot than 5♦, but this isn't certain. I think I like a semi-psyche of 2♠. If pard raises, I feel real good about 3N, since I'll probably get a heart lead. If pard doesn't raise, 5♦ looks more likely. Alternate calls are 2N (Ogust I assume) and 3N. 5♦ doesn't look right to me, but it could work well if the opps have both majors.

2) A spade is probably right overall. The hearts are 5323 around the table so we need to be agressive. The J caters to Hx on my left, so I'll try that.

3) Obviously a diamond is wrong otherwise you wouldn't have posted this. The A, Q and 10 are possible, but the 10 caters to K on right and J on left.

4) Can I show this hand via 3♠? Do I have MSS? Systemic problem; I won't just blast 3N with this.

5) I'll start with 2♣ and then try 4♣. Over 4 red, 4♠. I'll respect a 5♣ signoff.

[Winstonm]

Winstonm, on Jun 24 2006, 05:34 PM, said:

Hand 1:

Scoring: MP

Partner in first seat opens 2D, weak, showing 5-10ish, 6 diamonds, denying a 4-card major but no restrictions on suit quality other than vul and common sense.  Over to you.

---

Hand 2:

Scoring: MP

Partner in first seat opens 2D, weak, showing 5-10ish, 6 diamonds, denying a 4-card major but no restrictions on suit quality other than vul and common sense.  Over to you.

---

Hand 3:

Scoring: MP

Partner in first seat opens 2D, weak, showing 5-10ish, 6 diamonds, denying a 4-card major but no restrictions on suit quality other than vul and common sense.  Over to you.

---

Hand 4:

Scoring: MP

Partner in first seat opens 2D, weak, showing 5-10ish, 6 diamonds, denying a 4-card major but no restrictions on suit quality other than vul and common sense.  Over to you.

---

Hand 5:

Dealer: North Vul: None Scoring: MP

♠ A83 ♥ 2 ♦   ♣ KQJ1085432

Partner opens 1D in first seat and opps pass.  What is your plan?  If you bid 2C, partner will continue with 2H, a reverse showing some extra values although maybe not a great deal extra in a 2/1 auction - still a game force.

The stories behind the hands:

Hand 1: Opponents are on for 4S or 4H - the winning call turns out to be 5D, taking the immediate save. Pard held: x, xxx, KJ10xxx, K10x. I guessed to bid 5D but it was totally a guess and a lucky one.

Hand 2: The winning lead is a low spade - and a frustrating hand. It is now the second time recently that opponents' eschewed their 8-card major fit to play in nt. The first time there was no way to hold it. This time it takes a spade lead into the AQ in declarer's hand to hold it. Grrrrrr. I found the not-so-killing lead of the 10 of diamonds, finding partner with the king and some length but also setting up 3 diamond tricks for declarer. A spade lead gains a tempo and allows the spade guards to be eliminated while partner still holds the diamond entry - my brilliant play stripped pard of his entry at trick 1.

Hand 3: This is not a trick hand and was posted just to get an idea about aggressive verses passive leads at matchpoints. The aggressive lead is a diamond - I chose the brilliant and passive lead of the 9 of clubs, finding declarer with the AJ10xxx, who immediately put me back in with a club to see if I could make any other blunders - obviously he knew a good thing when he saw it. The diamonds were Kx in declarer's hand and Jxx in dummy. Any diamond but the Q beats 3N.
I'll be teaching a class on avoiding idiotic opening leads......

Hand 4: This is an advertisement for 4-suit transfers and using 3H/3S as 1354 patterns. Partner's hand was 10x, A8x, KJ9x, AQJx.

Hand 5: This is a horror - how do you bid exclusion Blackwood in partner's suit? Is it realistic to play an immediate jump to 5D as exclusion here? Our auction was:
1D-2C-2H-4C which I took as keycard for clubs and responded 4D on:
KQJx, QJxx, AKQxx, void and then bid 4N over partner's 4S???? Partner meant the jump to 4C as setting the suit and inviting cue bidding, hence 4S. However, nothing was alerted as we didn't know what we were doing other than baffling the opponents who ended up leading a diamond against 6C. Oh, well, it's better to be lucky, eh?

Winston

[pclayton]

1) Can't we still try 5♦ over 4M? By the way, a fit jump to 4♣ is a great description of this hand too; if its available. Note that if pard's outside card is in a major, you want 3N here; and its negligible that they are making 4M too. If you have the complete hand, I'm wondering how my 2♠ call would work - it seems pard might try a 3♣ call looking for 3N.

2) Does the J♠ beat it too? See my prior note about going passive with hearts breaking

3) Don't you think the field will lead a diamond too? To me, its just a function of which one.

.

5) Even if Exclusion was available, do you really want to bid it? I would think cuebidding would be a better approach.

[Winstonm]

Quote

2) Does the J♠ beat it too? See my prior note about going passive with hearts breaking 

Actually, the J of spades works fine as it starts the unblock (if needed) - partner held Kxxxx.

[Codo]

Whenever you have to lead from twp suits and you have no toher key, which is right, try the rule of 17.
Count the points in your lowe cards and lead the suit, where the sum is closer to 17. A silly rule, indeed, but it works somehow.... Had worked here too, because you had led a spade.

I had bid 3 NT in the first hand, led a spade and the diamond ten. I had bid whatever tool I have to show my hand. If I have no tool, I blast 3 NT and fail. ***** happens.

There is no Exclusion in pds opening suit. Go and cuebid.

[whereagles]

Hand 1:
♠ J83
♥ K4
♦ A843
♣ AQJ3
Partner in first seat opens 2D, weak, showing 5-10ish, 6 diamonds, denying a 4-card major but no restrictions on suit quality other than vul and common sense. Over to you.

> Invite to game, via relay or whatever.


Hand 2:
♠ J1042
♥ K93
♦ 109
♣ J1063
1N-P-2D(Trsfer)-P
2H-p-3N-P
P-P.
What is your lead?

> ♠2


Hand 3:
♠ 84
♥ 1083
♦ AQ1094
♣ K93
1N(14-17)-P-3N-P
P-P
Your lead?

> ♦A. This works whenever dummy has Hx, which seems more likely than dummy
> with Kxx and opener Jxx.


Hand 4:
♠ 3
♥ KQ4
♦ Q974
♣ K9842
Parter opens 1N in first seat (15-17) and second seat passes. Your turn.

> If you have a bid for this hand (e.g. splinter), use it. Otherwise just bid 3NT.


Hand 5:
♠ A83
♥ 2
♦
♣ KQJ1085432
Partner opens 1D in first seat and opps pass. What is your plan? If you bid 2C, partner will continue with 2H, a reverse showing some extra values although maybe not a great deal extra in a 2/1 auction - still a game force.

> After 1♦-2♣-2♥, I bid 2♠. If pard now bids NT I'll bid 6♣, otherwise 5♣.
> One can also bid 4♣, hoping pard can take control. But I think that's more risky.