ahydra, on 2011-April-29, 05:01, said:
North was actually a "she", and no matter how hard I tried I couldn't convince her that 2NT is the right bid on the first hand. That'd solve all the problems as it makes easily. 2S should really have 5, but my guess was that West had a weak 2 in hearts...
Yes, 2NT would be the right bid by North, but South should try a double or a pass, since nobody knows what the weak-2 is, you can't presume partner will have spades, since their double won't be takeout (no suit to takeout of).
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On the 2nd one I guess I should have bid 2H looking at it now. We hadn't agreed that that shows a shortage though. 4H (over 4C) would be a good bid, though we hadn't agreed void-showing responses to the inevitable 4NT that would follow it, but it should still get us to the slam. Indeed my fault on this one - and not like me to underbid a hand like that!
If your agreements are inverted raises are still on in competition, then 2
♣ is fine (not that that's a very good agreement!) For most people, 2
♣ would be a weak raise, 6-10, and a good raise would bid 2
♥. 2
♥ does not show a shortage, it just shows a hand too good to bid 2
♣, and you don't have a suit to bid of your own.
However, when your partner bids 4
♣, you know you want to play in at least 5
♣. When your partner hears that you have a singleton heart, he MAY want to play in 6
♣. So you may as well tell him about that before bidding 5
♣, just in case.
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3rd hand: yea, we had no agreement on transfer-then-4NT sequences. I guess the traditional way to play these is as invitational in NT, since you can cue otherwise, so that would have worked. The problem was more likely to be North somehow interpreting the bid as "20-21"... And it does show 23-24 HCP, I don't think you can play Kokish after 2D since there isn't enough room. Traditionally in Acol with 25-26 HCP you would rebid 3NT, though there are also some variations of Benji where 2C-2D-3NT shows 25-26 freeing up 2D-2H-3NT for those ever-so-common 27-28 balanced hands.
What would I have taken 5C over 4S as... probably showing a cue in clubs and a hand with a void (hence unsuitable for RKCB).
No one did anything wrong here since you didn't discuss this situation. Obviously it's better to have discussed these things, but you can't discuss everything, so taking the practical approach of ending in a sensible contract and getting a sensible plus score is the best you can do when you get a set of hands like this. Chances are the rest of the field are not seasoned partnerships and will end in the same contract as you anyway. And if there are some non-sensible people without seasoned partnerships, well they might end up in a stupid contract and you get a (shared) top anyway!
The only time being sensible will get you a bad board is when everybody else is a seasoned partnership and finds the slam, AND there is actually a slam on. Being sensible will get you above average most of the time.
BTW "being sensible" means that when you start getting into uncharted territory, just bid a contract you know will make and don't stress your partner out with undiscussed bids or he might bid something stupid and you'll end up in a stupid contract.