Chuck and I have a fun 2-parter from a few minutes ago. We're playing the precision that bobman listed. We're at IMPS, r/w.

I'm posting chuck's hand:
A K J
K J 8 3
A Q T 8 5
4

Partner deals and opens 1 (11-15 HCP, 5+hearts)

How do we bid from here?

2NT is obvious for my hand. The question is what I do after

1H 2NT
3D (shortness) 3S
4C (cue)

I tried 4NT getting a 5H response of 2 with no Q...

I don't like the 2nt bid there. it implies a balanced hand. partner may easily sign off 4S there.

I took it as Jacoby 2NT.

jacoby 2nt implies a balanced hand.....

I thought all jacoby 2nt implied was 4 hearts and 100% game forcing.

Why not just splinter in clubbas?

Playing a strong club system, 1M - 2NT should not be Jacoby.

Anyway, splinter in clubs looks fine. 2D, if it's forcing, is fine -- you'll be setting the contract anyway -- but making some heart raise now will make it easier to find the heart queen.

Also, if you play that 2D is game forcing (you probably shouldn't, but whatever), that could work too -- but I think the splinter is better.

That's all it promises. In practice, the failure to splinter implies an inability to do so, but some hands with singletons, for example when the stiff is an honor or where the hand strength is wrong (i.e., a six-loser hand, playing 2/1) are often best handled via 2NT -- a splinter shows, and sometimes you need to ask instead.

Looking over that website bobman linked to, I see you are playing 2NT as Jacoby, but a splinter's still better.

I also notice some other serious weaknesses. For example, they have 1M - 4M as a 0-7 HCP raise. That's terrible-- it should be preemptive or strong but not slammish -- so after a 1H opening, you can raise to 4H with either

xxx Kxxxx x xxxx

or

QJ AKQ xxxx xxxx

With each hand you want to be in 4H, but for different reasons, and notice that now opps cannot safely double you (for takeout or penalty). By failing to raise to game with the big hand, you're missing one of the advantages of the limited opening.

A superficially similar phenomenon is the strong pass. If partner opens 1S and you hold xx Kxxx Kxxx KJx, the odds you can make game are minuscule, while if you pass, opponents may well do something silly (such as bidding); bidding or otherwise getting to notrump looks right, but warns opps of your strength. Depending on the vulnerability, this may be a good opportunity to pass. Similarly, with xxx Kxx Kxxx KJx there is little need to raise, and if opponents are vulnerable any mistake they make could be costly.

Or suppose partner opens 1S and you hold x KQxx KJxx KJxx. If it's w/r, a pass my cause you to miss 4H or 3NT, but also may produce +200 on a partscore deal, or +500 (or even 800) when you you can make 3NT. Meanwhile, it will teach your opponents to stay out of your way, and would be a great risk to take early in a along match. (It's wrong by a lot only when partner holds 4+ hearts and you can bid game and you can make it despite the questionable fit.)

See the problem: you don't know whether the diamond shortness is good for you or not. the question is whether you have enough tricks, which depends on which black suit partner holds his strength in. If he has

xxx Axxxx x AQJx

you are unthrilled, while if he holds the same high cards distributed slightly differently:

QJxx Axxxx x Axx

you are in good shape. How to tell? Describe your hand with the splinter. If you do so, partner should sign off in 4H with the first hand (knowing that you can make another try with a monster) and bid 4D with the second, and you will get to the right place each time.

On the actual auction, it's a straight guess, as you're losing a trick to the trump queen almost 50% of the time (opener does not have a six-card suit, else he'd have showed the queen), and may or may not have another loser. I'd probably guess to bid it, and hope that either I drop the heart queen, or endplay someone with it -- If I lack sure tricks, I should still have tenaces in every suit.

So now, let's say we (ambitiously) got up to 7, doubled by LHO (a random).

A K J
K J 8 3
A Q T 8 5
5


9 2
A T 9 6 4
7
A K T 7 6

Opening lead is 4, what's the best line of play here?

i'd bid a little differently also. I'd bid 4 club instead of 3D. I think your 5 card suit headed by AK10 is more valuable than showing a short diamond there.

Correct. In response to Jacoby 2NT, it is appropriate to show a decent five-card side suit.

For you bridgeaholics, bridge sheep is up and running.

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/59...6/#post7448123

Absent any other info, I will probably play LHO for HQ. If they are 4-0, I'm sunk, so I'll play them to be 3-1 at worst. DA, CA at trick 2, HJ at trick 3. My plan is to ruff 2 clubs for 7 hearts, 2 spades, a diamond, and 2 clubs. If clubs split 4-3, I'm home. Otherwise, I will try to squeeze the person with long clubs and pray he has SQ and DK. I'm guessing you're getting a 4-0 trump split on your left, though. If so, I have to think harder about how to play this.

But I am a terrible declarer anyway. Blah.

Yeah my 7h bid was terrible. I forgot the point range for 1h opening, and was thinking 5h showed a queen, oops...

Any good bridge websites? Blogs or daily columns or something like that. With everything from news to interesting deals, tips, etc?

A friend of mine has an ACBL sponsored blog "Dealing With Develin" at bridgeiscool.com. When updated, it's pretty cool.

Chuck, what was LHO's hand?

Cheers. Will check it out.

I think it was

Qxx
Qxx
Kxx
Jxxx

Nice. Made 7, doubled.

Richard Pavlicek's site is awesome. This is a man who loves the game and knows an enormous amount about it. He also likes weird bridge puzzles, which POG-ers would generally like.
Especially check out his old "Polls & Contests". For several years he ran a high level alternating bidding and play panel. The bidding panel are OK and very good, but the play problems are simply out of this world. They are really hard.

Brag: I won both types of contests once. For the play problems, the one I won was simply the simplest one he ever had, when about 14 people got the max score.

Richard Pavlicek

For blogs, check out Justin Lall, a highly talented young US player:
Justin Lall's Blog

Re chuck's hand, there is a school of thought that he is too strong to splinter, and J2N-3D-3S gets the cuebidding going a level lower than 4C-4H-4S does. I personally play a gimmick that gives me two ways to splinter (an immediate 4C shows the splinter that is just barely game-forcing while 3D-forcing-3H, then 4C shows the monster with a singleton) but absent that, I can't fault the choice of 2NT.

Now, bidding 7 with the queen missing, I could complain about that, but that's already been talked about.


Re blogs and websites, I second the recommendation for Pavlicek's site. I don't seem to have time to read any bridge blogs, so can't say much good or bad about any of those.

The beginner-to-intermediate group may be amused by my
Hand of the Week which I prepare for my local club using hands from our club games.