[Mbodell]

Apologies that mobile client doesn't have hand/bidding widget (if anyone could edit it that would be great). I also couldn't do a poll from my mobile client. Anyways, here are the hands: All red at matchpoints in a 2 session A/X regional pairs at nationals, rotated south deals.

South: KQJ432 Q AQ5 873
West: A95 K963 J976 A6
North: 876 2 K82 KQ9542
East: T AJT8754 T43 JT

1♠ P 1NT (semi-forcing) 3♥
3♠ 4♥ 4♠ P
P 5♥ P P
P

Lead ♤K, down 2 for 200.
On North's first bid 3♧ and 3♡ would both be natural, invitational 6+ in the suit bid and no spade fit. 3♤ would have promised 4 cards. 2♧ would have been game forcing, so 1nt is the system bid. But it was then hard to sort out x them or compete to 5♠.

[WesleyC]

The North hand looks like an automatic 2S bid to me...

[Mbodell]

Wow, I thought it was closer to 2♣ 2/1 gf than 2♠. Out of curiosity, holding the shape 3=1=3=6 and the majors the same, what is the minimum in the minors you'd make a 3 card limit raise, and what's the minimum you'd 2/1 f2f?

[rmnka447]

Yeah, you have 8 HCP and 3 ♠. However, you also have 1 1/2 QTs and a potential ruffing value to go along with them. The only "flaw" is not a low honor in ♠. Additionally, after the 3 ♥ bid on your left, your HCP got a bit more valuable as the preempting hand is less likely to hold the As behind your Ks.

I don't think the responding hand is worth a GF bid initially. I would rate the hand about on the cusp between a simple 2 ♠ raise and the 2 1/2 ♠ 3 card limit raise started by bidding a forcing/semi-forcing 1 NT. At the table, I'm sure I'd start with a forcing 1 NT response and jump to 3 ♠ on the second round in an uncontested auction.

After 3 ♠ is passed around to this hand, 4 ♠ seems right. Partner ought to have at least 6 ♠ for the 3 ♠ free bid. How much else is in the opening hand? You can't really tell. Opener doesn't necessarily have to have extras other than ♠ length.

When RHO bids 5 ♥, I'm not sure you have enough to bid 5 ♠ although you have some ♥ distribution. I'd be more inclined to bid 5 if one of the Ks were any A instead. Then it would be less likely that you'd have 3 quick losers. So I'm passing.

After 5 ♥ is passed back to opener, I think opener's in a forcing pass situation. With ♣s wide open, 5 ♠ also is tough to bid even with a ♥ stiff. But with the opponents pushing in ♥, it seems likely most of partner's points are in the minors. If so, then 4 ♠ seems like a pretty good bet to make with partner's limited hand, but 5 ♠ doesn't. So I think you've got to double and hope you beat 5 ♥.

[WesleyC]

Mbodell, on 2015-December-01, 13:35, said:

Wow, I thought it was closer to 2♣ 2/1 gf than 2♠. Out of curiosity, holding the shape 3=1=3=6 and the majors the same, what is the minimum in the minors you'd make a 3 card limit raise, and what's the minimum you'd 2/1 f2f?

My style when playing a semi-forcing 1NT (and especially NV) is to bid 1NT on very weak hands with 3c support (4-6 HCP) which makes the 2S bid a little more constructive (7-10). Vulnerable, I'll pass more flat 4-5 counts, but still try and pinch it with 1NT sometimes.

One principle that I use when dealing with big shapely hands like this (as opposed to a flat 11 count) is to narrow my invitation range, especially if inviting gets you to the 3 level. The logic is that, based on how well partner's hand meshes with ours, the number of tricks we can will vary more than usual. This increased variance means stopping at the 3 level is less valuable than usual, and it's better to either go conservative with 2S or aggressive and force to game.

For example, I would happily force to game holding: [xxx x KJx AQxxxx]