I'd agree with 3NT at matchpoints because you could get a
spade lead.

Even at IMPs, it sounds like a misfit and much depends on the
black suit controls. Even if partner has 8 red cards, there's not
much space for him to have the right cover cards/controls in
the black suits with the club suit being critical.

67.7% is usually a great score and to come in second with it is
a "bad beat".

Alright, well does the answer change if my partner bids 2NT like he should of?

That makes it more attractive to bid on, since the misfit doesn't loom over our head so much.
What is 2NT? Seriously. In SAYC, it's forcing, but hardly anyone knows that. I prefer to play it as minimum and balanced (12-14) and non-forcing.

Anyhow, you can now bid a forward going 3 and see if you get anything useful out of partner. I'll still bid 3NT over 3 and pass 3NT, but if he manages 4 or 3, I'm headed to 6.

Wow. I can't believe this fell off the first page...

Anyways, I played in a sectional this weekend, and this was one of the hands. My partner is fairly new and inexperienced, but I want to double check on how to bid it:

K 9 8 7 4
A Q J 8 6

T 6 4

Red/Red, I'm holding the South hand. West deals and passes. P opens 1 NT (15-17). RHO passes.

I bid 3S (although we didn't discuss this, I thought this pretty standardly shows 5/5 majors GF+).

P bids 4S, I bid 5D, P bids 5S, I bid 6D, and P puts us in 6S. Is the 6D bid right? Should I be forcing to a slam?

P held:

I don't understand the purpose of your bids past 4S. If you were intending to bid 6S whatever you partner did, why not just bid it direct? 7S doesn't seem like a realistic possibility opposite a 1NT opener, unless it's specifically AQxx Kxx xxxx AK.

Well, I didn't actually play this hand. I was sitting west. At my table the auction went 1N-2C(?)-2S-4S. I thought the hand was more powerful than that, but I wasn't quite sure.

I was trying to figure out how to bid the hand.

Viewed another way, how do you get to 6S with these hands?

There are people who play 1NT-3S as 5-5 forcing; but it's not a bid to spring on a partner without specifically agreeing it, even if you've agreed on various other common modern toys.

My preferred method - and the other one you'll find in a lot of recent books - is transfer to spades, then rebid 3H. This gives partner a little more room to express his opinion:

1NT-2H, 2S-3H, then ---
3S: I like spades and am willing to explore for a slam
3NT: I don't like either major
4C: I like hearts, and am cuebidding CA
4D: I like hearts, and am cuebidding DA
4H: I like hearts, but can't cuebid (except possibly in spades)

so on your deal, it would begin 1NT-2H, 2S-3H, 3S, after which you can use whatever your usual toys are to discuss controls and trump quality after you've agreed on a suit.

You are right that responder's had has considerable slam potential -- but it also has potential to take only 10 tricks (on a really bad day, 9!) if partner has lots in diamonds and is wide open in clubs, perhaps also losing a trump trick. You need that space between 3S and 4S to determine suitability for a slam. (If you DO agree on 1NT-3S = 5-5, I think opener's rebid is 4C not 4S.)

I don't think I'm getting to 6S with these hands.

I liked the Stayman idea at first, but really have no idea what to do if partner responds 2D. Bid 4H? I don't think anything else is forcing.

The SAYC booklet online has 3S (and 3H) as a 6+ card slam try; although I would have thought that 3S = 5-5+ majors was a more common treatment (maybe it is among experts). Still, after
1NT-3 (5-5+)
4-5-
5-?

I think you have to pass here. Your partner probably assumes you have a heart control, and therefore a wide open suit which should be clubs. He's looked at his hand and determined that he:

a) doesn't have a club control, or
b) has a really bad hand for a heart-spade 2 suiter

So if you're planning to force to slam anyways, this auction would be a lot more fun, and less likely to get a club lead:

1NT-2
2-6
6-P

Seigmund's approach is probably more sensible though.

Don't use Stayman on these 5-5 hands; your partner will
think you are 5-4 or 6-4 if you do. Siegmund's approach
is the best: it's easily the least confusing and leaves
space to find the best contract.

After a 4 diamond call, the NT hand should strongly
explore for slam: he has not only both club controls, but
FOUR spades including the ace. The only honors not
pulling much weight are the J and T of diamonds. At
matchpoints, I'd expect most pairs to be in 6 spades
and at IMPs, 6 spades is a favorite to make on these two
hands.

The standard way to bid 5-5 major hands opposite a 1NT opening is:
1NT-2H / 2S-4H (showing 5S and 5H), letting opener choose between the majors.

Here slam is only good because of the 5-4 fit in spades, which partner could bid by super-accepting the transfer:
1NT-2H / 3S (showing 4)-4D (Ad or D void) / 4S-5H (Ah or H void)/ 6S

I wouldn't bid slam without the 5-4 fit.
It is a reasonable slam: it needs spades to play for no loser or Kh onside. Above 70%.

With my regular partnerships, I like to play a variation of the Weissberger convention with this hand type. Note, this is in conjunction with playing 4-suit transfers and Smolen for hands that are 5-4 (or sometimes 6-4) in the majors.

Specifically:

over 1NT-2C (stayman) - 2D:

3D = 5-5 Majors, either invitational to game or slam interest
4D = 5-5 Majors, game values (no slam interest)

So, with this hand I would bid 2C, and would be happy to bid 4D over 2D if partner denied a 4-card major. However, on the actual hand, partner would bid 2S. Now how to proceed over 2S? I like to play 3 of the other Major as an artificial slam try in the major opener just showed. With all of your points in your two suits, I think this hand is worth a try. So I would bid 3H artificial. The continuations over this are up to you. The simplest agreement is to just start cuebidding. So 4C by partner, 4D by me, 4S by partner (no heart control). Now, you have a decision to make. I would probably pass, knowing that partner doesn't have the KH.

New hand: red/red


-
A J 9 4
A Q J
A Q J 7 5 4

I dealt and opened 1. LHO bids 2, and two passes.

What do you bid here?
Then how do you follow it up?

I'm torn between double and 3.
Partner would have found a negative double with 4 hearts and a reasonable hand (8+ HCP). So the only range he can have where game is likely for us is ~ 5-7 HCP with hearts or good club fit.
That's too small a target to shoot for, so I bid a quiet 3.

(Spoiler part: if this hand is good enough to force game, why didn't you open 2? If you made game here, partner's pass was a serious underbid IMO.)

urgh, just missed an easy slam. partner deals (only thing in card is 5cm), opens 1, rho passes, can someone give me an idea on how bid this:

s: AKQT
h: KQ2
d: 82
c: KJ96

Start with 1. Partner will answer:
(1) 1NT or 2, you bid 4
(2) 2, you bid 4
(3) 2 / 2, start with 4th suit forcing, then support hearts. This shows a mild slam attempt in hearts and partner will hopefully explore with fitting hands.

(Spoiler: on the actual hand, I don't want to be in slam, it needs a diamond guess and a spade break so it's worse than 50%.)

I double; I'm not happy if partner passes, but I do have 3 aces, and if partner has 5 good spades, this could be a bloodbath.

If partner responds (assuming 2NT isn't lebensohl here):

2NT: 3NT
3C: Pass
3D: 3S?
3H: 4H
3NT: Pass

I also considered doing that, but then, I felt that I might miss a 4-4 heart fit without going too high, and that my partner would have some wasted spade values. I haven't played with the 2C bid enough to know how to exactly get to the right contract in some spots. Boy, do I miss playing with precision!

P definitely underbid, because he came up with K, Q, T, 3(!) clubs, and a wasted K.

IMO, X is fine. 3 is also fine. I won't say anything to partner in either case. 3 confuses me (as your partner). You're forcing me (with 0?) to the 4 level, but you didn't open 2. X is (almost) forcing if you really want me to take a bid with 0. If I pass, you should be happy; your hand has huge defensive value, and they are red. All partner's spades are behind the spade bidder. He is in a world of hurt. Can we set it 3? Ugh. I sure hope so, but that's up to partner.

Over 2, this could go:
2 - 2 (waiting);
3* - 4; * shows 6.
Then cuebidding 1st and 2nd round controls until you bail at 5, likely.

Double. Ideally, you'd be playing Lebensohl in this situation so that partner can bid 2nt with crap and something else with constructive values. This hand is just way too powerful AND flexible to bid a simple 3C.

With a pick pd and no forcing heart bid, this hand is going to be impossible to bid scientifically, so I'd start with 1, with the general plan of forcing to a small slam unless partner shows strength, in which case I'll look for 7.

I think this auction should go:

1H 1S
2S 3C
3S 4H

At this point opener should probably settle for 4S. The stiff A isn't a good value opposite partner's side suit and the soft values in diamonds are pretty bad too. If partner can't drive to slam himself, it probably isn't that great a spot. Responder, having bid out his hand pretty accurately, should stay quiet over 4S.

These are both monstrous underbids, especially the latter.

By needs a spade break you mean only 4-1 and 5-0 offside will give you a loser, any break onside can be picked up (in a heart contract). An unfavourable offside break is only 16%. There are other things that can happen too. For instance, on a likely auction to slam, the obvious lead is going to be a diamond. If opener drives to slam in hearts (which he should so that the lead isn't though his diamonds) then a diamond lead might solve the problem for you. Also, a failure to lead diamonds gives a decent inference that the opening leader has Axx or xxx rather than Qxx. I think it's an OK slam at IMPs.

Yeah, I somehow misread poster's hand to have 16 HCP rather than 18.

With a thoughtful partner, you can try 2NT Lebensohl even with no agreement to that effect, as a 2NT bid cannot possibly be natural here (with a stack, you'd float the double; with a short stopper, you'd try 3NT.

A decent meta-agreement is that 2NT is forcing in competitive auctions, or at least in competitive auctions in which the opponents have a fit. (Note that this auction plus something other than pass from partner strongly implies eight spades with opps, even without knowing of your void.)

Because pard should be able to work this out, double is the correct call.

Going to disagree with the majority here.

First, let's agree we are playing in at least six. Second, even if we have all the aces but are missing the diamond king that's still only eleven top tricks, plus great chances for a twelfth; I need more for a grand, and those will come from either a spade fit (giving us extra ruffs somewhere) or clubs. Thus, the key to the hand is spade length (maybe), club length (maybe) and the club queen (definitely). Plan your auction to find out about all those things.

Start with 2C. If pard responds 2S, you can bid a gentle 3S (forcing now -- if you're worried he'll pass, you have to use fourth suit forcing) and pard can show you whether he has anything in clubs. Ask for aces, and bid 6S if you're missing one and 7S if you have them all but partner never showed anything in clubs.

If partner supports your clubs, and you turn out to have all the aces, use your RKC method with clubs agreed and find the queen of clubs explicitly. Then jump to the appropriate level, in hearts or NT.

If partner rebids hearts, just check aces at IMPs. If you have two quick diamond losers, so be it, but it's very unlikely and they still have to find the lead. (Glad you didn't bid spades now?) At matchpoints I'd keep making forcing bids, trying to work out whether we had those quick losers and/or whether partner has the sixth heart that makes 7H odds-on when we turn up with all the aces but no diamond king.

After a diamond rebid, you can go slowly or just use RKC; I'd go slowly at matchpoints.

With partner's actual hand it will go:
1H 2C
2S 3S
4C 4NT
then whatever response is right in your system, followed by 6S with the diamond king protected from the opening lead.

If 3S won't be forcing:
1H 2C
2S 3D
3H 4NT
and so on.

ChrisV pointed out the problems with this analysis; it's a good slam. Plus, the diamond problem is predictable, and avoidable using the auctions I show above. Let partner declare the spades (you are very unlikely to wind up in clubs, so the 2C bid is OK). In spades from pard's side, you can claim on 3-2 spades and anything better than 5-0 hearts; claim on a diamond lead unless spades are 5-0 or Jxxx offside; and have at worst a diamond guess when spades are 4-1 onside and opps don't lead a diamond.

The point is not that it works out this way, but that you should plan for it. The most likely problem suit is diamonds; the problem holding is the Kx or KJ. These are actually partner's most likely holdings.

By the way, even in hearts there are the chances Chris mentions, plus the possibility of either ruffing out the club queen or having a marked ruffing finesse after declarer's LHO shows out early.