What are you going to bid if he rebids, say, 3NT? Or 4C?

I think a negative double is a fatal misdescription of the hand. A negative double carries the message "I am strong enough to bid but have no bid to make, also usually four hearts". It's not for use when you have a crushing hand, a six-card major, and a void in the opponent's suit.

3nt means there's a lot of spade values in his hand and to consider that anything past 4h might be a mistake, could be plenty of club losers +Ah., whereas 4c and 4d give us a ton of distribution information.

If you're going to lose club tricks in NT, you're going to lose them in hearts too. At IMPs, I think hearts is probably the best place.

3NT is really icky, especially if you're missing the A. You need to show your monster major, or your void here. I don't know which takes precedence though.

I think you're misunderstand, if he bids 3nt I'm concerned that the points aren't working and we have too many club losers to play 6h, so I bid 4h. I didn't explicitly say that I guess.

Anyone else bidding 5S exclusion here? I'm more worried about missing a grand than I am about going down in 6H. If partner shows 3 keycards, I'll just bid the grand (in hearts, obviously). There's so many possibilities for this thing it's unbelievable. If partner shows 2, 6H is super-likely to be right, and if he shows 1, well, 6H is still probably right unless partner opened some aceless wonder over there.

been awhile but what 13 cards can you put in your partners hand that fits this auction that cant make a slam. methinks just about impossile to do but given the way people plat bridge 2day i guess i will never know

Just in case that was a serious question bobo... how about AJx Ax Qxx QTxxx, or any of a bunch of other similar hands? How about any hand where LHO has the club ace and preemptor has a singleton?

I'm fine with choosing to blast 6H here. But I am highly skeptical of the claim that this hand makes 7 more often than it can be beaten in 6.

I don't have exclusion agreements with this p

yes it was a serious ? and if my partner held that hand you give him he would pass and write down +500 on his card for the same top he would get following my double.

A club game with my dad. We're playing 2/1, r/r MPs

A 8 7
A Q J 5 2
K Q J
A 4 2

Dad deals and passes to me. I open 1, dad says 2NT, which shows 10-11 balanced.

What now? I was thinking 4. If he has the ace, I think I actually want to not be in slam (since one of my diamonds are duplicated, and 40% of his points are taken up by it. If he denies the A, I know he has 10 or 11 out of 15 points, so that works out to at least two kings and then some, so there's 11 tricks.

I just don't know the plan of action from here.

My plan would be to raise him to six, assuming its a small black card that I'm not supposed to have. (I also probably would have opened 2NT, but that's a style thing and there are votes both ways on it.) I'm much happier going to six with 21 and a 5-card suit than a 4333 22.

4NT quantitative -- you have a five-card suit, but are otherwise square. He should value the heart king strongly, along with any side five-carder (which he probably has, as he should have exactly two hearts a lot of the time).

Or just blast 6.

Also, I don't think there's a very good argument for opening 1H: 2NT is clear.

He can't open 2NT as that promises a hand with 13 cards and this one has 14.

h wow, whoops. I totally confused two hands together.

The spade suit should be A 6 instead.

I can't open 2N because my dad didn't want to play (read: learn) puppet stayman. That removes me opening with a 5 card major right?

Well, I have no good ideas for my 1k post, so I'll give you guys this little gem:

T9x / Jxxx / Qxxx / Kx

Kx / T / AKTxxx / Axxx

Contract is 5D, and RHO bid spades along the way. LHO leads the SJ to the SA. A spade is returned, and LHO follows. Plan the play.

I think I know what you're going to do at T1, and this is what's going on:

Meh, it's a MP game. I open 1N with a 5-3-3-2 15-17 count and a 5cm, and we don't use puppet stayman over 1N.

I would definitely open this 2N.

I think you mean T3.

If you open the 13-card version of Myrmidon's hand 1H, you are none too thrilled when partner passes with xxx K xxxx xxxxx.

There are quite a few of us who open both 1NT and 2NT with 5-card majors but don't use Puppet. (Yes, I've tried it - and feel puppet gives away a lot more than it gains, by giving the opps a chance to double every suit for a lead or possible sacrifice. Missing the 5-3 fits is a much smaller bogeyman under the bed than people think.)

@atakdog: you won't like it -- but, on the bright side, you will make 1H, possibly with an overtrick, but are guaranteed to go down in 2NT on a spade lead.

Not necessarily. Spades could be 4-4, particularly if you can diagnose this on the opening lead. They could block, or already be blocked. You could hold up the ace the right number of times and then find the diamond ace in the hand with short spades. And that's if they do start off with spades.

I would guess that when partner has a hand that will raise 2NT to three, but would pass 1H, you'll make 3NT more often than not. Throw in the times partner has long spades and no points, and there's even more reason to show your stuff immediately.

(This is actually a pretty poor 21-count for it, considering that it really doesn't want to be led up to, but that's usually not going to be the case.)

Ooh, just for fun, picture partner with x x xxxx KQxxxxx. If you open 2NT, you could find the good club slam.

Yes, I realize it's unlikely. Just fooling around.

w/w IMPs

My hand
K9752
5
Q9843
K8

Bidding goes

Myr RHO Me LHO
2d* P 2h** p
2nt*** p ??


* multi
** pass/correct
*** 22-23 balanced

How do I proceed from here?

Are systems on? If so I'd just transfer to spades and bid 3N. I don't really want to go off chasing a slam with an aceless hand and an uncertain fit.

If he converts to 4S I might be tempted to bid 5D and see how he reacts to that, but I think pass is fine too.

Jacoby transfers apply, so bid 3 to show you have 5+ spades. Since
you have interest in slam, bid 4 in response to show your shape (if
thats what it means ) and you should simply place the contract in some
small slam unless the bidding indicates your partner has a "very good" hand
or a "very bad" hand if you play something like step responses. (The hand
shown is about 6 1/2 losers, so you're a favorite to make some slam, and
there is a tiny chance of a grand slam in diamonds or spades. One bad
feature is the lack of honors and good intermediates in the long suits even
though there is almost a certainty of at least an eight-card fit. )

This method of showing balanced 22-23 hands makes some sense because
balanced 24+ hands can still use the machinery of Stayman, Jacoby, etc. if
playing something like 2/1.

r/w imps first to act, do we bother opening:

s: KJ9876
h: 98654
d: 72
c: