[Swammerdam]

A lot of "interesting" hands have turned up lately. I've written "hand(S)" in case I want to ask about some others.

"Pass" is an underused word in BBO bidding. Overcalling Ten-fifth just because it's your turn is not my style.
On the other hand, if you have a hand with a REASON to bid, bid the H**l out of it. Holding the East hand below and hearing partner overcall One Spade, just jump to Four Spades at once.
No reason to hesitate except for ETHICS: Don't tell everyone how obvious the Four Spade raise is.

---

The West hand is TREMENDOUS. Only 15 pts, but 4 QT and barely 4 losers. If the suit were a major, is opening 2♣ clear-cut?

But opening is not an option. You hear "1♦" -- your best suit -- and a response on your right. What now? Is there a prescription for letting partner know ♦ is MY suit?

1♠ shows five minimum when I bid it (though some BBO'ers do it with Qxxx). But this is a very good 4-bagger and I'm at a loss what else to do.

Against 3♠, play was club ruffed, diamond ruff, spade, diamond ruff, spade with either 11 or 12 tricks cold depending on K♥.

I welcome criticism of my bidding. Should I have been more aggressive? Foresee that 4♠ making Six is likely?

I will comment on the others' bids.
I open most 12's but might pass this mediocre 4-3-3-3. I would certainly PASS over 1♠. Pass -- "I have a minimum" -- is the most descriptive call.

It is the EAST player (self-described "Advanced" SAYC) whose actions are most deplorable. A void is 5 "dummy points" in the ancient textbooks and competition makes a 4♠ bid MORE compellimg, despite the worthless(?) Queens.

[P_Marlowe]

Hi,

it is common to play 2H in your position as natural, 2D is usually still reserved for artificial use.
The standard way to show, that they have bid your suit, is to wait 1 round and make the bid, that was
artificial the round before.

2S from your p is meek, ..., I think 3D as some kind of splinter is min, ..., but depending what "social"
means, it may not be clear, how a given bid is received on the opposite side of the table, i.e. his guess
is as good as mine.
Regardless, your p should have woken up after the firework you created and should have raised 3S to 4S.

You on other hand did a lot, last time I checked 1S showed 5+, 2S showed only 3+, ...
i.e. as far as I see it, you never had the information, that you had a 8+ card fit in spades,
I may have passed 3C.

With kind regards
Marlowe

[mw64ahw]

As East I'm showing my 2-suiter, which without too much imagination can lead West into slam territory.

[akwoo]

It's not clear how good any of the players are, or what agreements they have or assume.

Standard in North America is for North to double at their second turn, showing 3 hearts.

Without good agreements, I think East should bid 4♠ at their second turn. With regular partners, I would bid 3♦, showing a mixed raise.

The 3♣ bid from South is crazy, stepping to the 3 level with a likely misfit and quite possibly less than half the points.

I would take 3♦ to be a generic-ish game try. Good agreements over 3♥ would be for East to bid 3♠ to definitively reject the try, 4♠ to definitively accept, and pass to punt. Punting seems right. But if you don't have that agreement...

Yes, 1♠ is absolutely right. And it's one of the right kinds of hand to play in a 4-3 fit, so as West I wouldn't worry too much about being in 4♠ on a 4-3 fit.

Bridge is hard enough with agreements. When you have none, it's a bit of a crapshoot.

[jillybean]

I like North’s opening bid,East’s first pass, every thing else is suspect.

[bluenikki]

Swammerdam, on 2026-May-22, 10:26, said:

A lot of "interesting" hands have turned up lately. I've written "hand(S)" in case I want to ask about some others.

"Pass" is an underused word in BBO bidding. Overcalling Ten-fifth just because it's your turn is not my style.
On the other hand, if you have a hand with a REASON to bid, bid the H**l out of it. Holding the East hand below and hearing partner overcall One Spade, just jump to Four Spades at once.
No reason to hesitate except for ETHICS: Don't tell everyone how obvious the Four Spade raise is.

---

The West hand is TREMENDOUS. Only 15 pts, but 4 QT and barely 4 losers. If the suit were a major, is opening 2♣ clear-cut?

But opening is not an option. You hear "1♦" -- your best suit -- and a response on your right. What now? Is there a prescription for letting partner know ♦ is MY suit?

1♠ shows five minimum when I bid it (though some BBO'ers do it with Qxxx). But this is a very good 4-bagger and I'm at a loss what else to do.

Against 3♠, play was club ruffed, diamond ruff, spade, diamond ruff, spade with either 11 or 12 tricks cold depending on K♥.

I welcome criticism of my bidding. Should I have been more aggressive? Foresee that 4♠ making Six is likely?

I will comment on the others' bids.
I open most 12's but might pass this mediocre 4-3-3-3. I would certainly PASS over 1♠. Pass -- "I have a minimum" -- is the most descriptive call.

It is the EAST player (self-described "Advanced" SAYC) whose actions are most deplorable. A void is 5 "dummy points" in the ancient textbooks and competition makes a 4♠ bid MORE compellimg, despite the worthless(?) Queens.

2♦ over 1♥ would show diamonds, just as 2♥ would show hearts.

[bluenikki]

Swammerdam, on 2026-May-22, 10:26, said:

---

The West hand is TREMENDOUS. Only 15 pts, but 4 QT and barely 4 losers. If the suit were a major, is opening 2♣ clear-cut?

But opening is not an option. You hear "1♦" -- your best suit -- and a response on your right. What now? Is there a prescription for letting partner know ♦ is MY suit?

2♦ over 1♥ would show diamonds, just as 2♥ would show hearts.