[ArcLight]

IMPS all hands
======================
0. Favorable - opps silent

What do you open?
♠ K
♥ K Q T 9
♦ A K Q x
♣ K Q x x


======================

1.
all Red
Please bid this:


p -p -p -?

♠ A K x x
♥ A K
♦ K J T x x x
♣ x

(opps silent)
pard holds
♠ Q J x
♥ T 8 x x x
♦ A x
♣ A x x


Plese bid this
===============================
2. Favorable - opss silent

Please bid this:

♠ A J 8 x
♥ A 9 x
♦ A K J x x
♣ Q

responder holds:

♠ x x x x
♥ Q 9 x x
♦ 9 8
♣ A K x

===============================
3 Unfavorable - opps silent

Please bid this:

♠ A x
♥ T x
♦ x x
♣ A K Q T 9 x x

responder bids 1♥, your 2nd bid?

Responders hand below

Spoiler

♠ x x x
♥ K Q x x x
♦ A K x
♣ x x

[foo]

0.
♠K ♥KQT9 ♦AKQx ♣KQxx
I open 1D.
Much as I hate it, I reverse into 2H if 1D-1S.

1.
p -p -p -?
♠AKxx ♥AK ♦KJTxx ♣x
a= 1D. WTP?

(opps silent)
pard holds
♠QJx ♥T8xxx ♦Ax ♣Axx
Please bid these.

b= OK. 1D-1H;2S-3C!;
3D (since opener does not have 3card ♥ support nor ♣ stopped)
3S (which must show 3 ♠'s);
4H (which must show 2 ♥'s)
and now responder has some thinking and choices to make.


2. Favorable - opps silent. Please bid these:
♠AJ8x ♥A9x ♦AKJxx ♣Q

responder holds:
♠xxxx ♥Q9xx ♦98 ♣AKx

1D-1H;1S-2S; and off to the races you go.
Note that here Opener's hand is not good enough for a jump shift to 2S.


3. Unfavorable - opps silent. Please bid this:
♠Ax ♥Tx ♦xx ♣AKQT9xx
a= I open 1C like any human.

responder bids 1♥, your 2nd bid?
b= Long strong minor of moderate HCP strength with at least 1 of the two unbid suits stopped and about 7-8 expected tricks. 3N rebid as many textbooks would advocate.

Responders hand below
♠xxx ♥KQxxx ♦AKx ♣xx
c= OK. 3N+2 looks likely. 6C is not fun if They lead ♠'s as They are likely to.

[jdonn]

0. 2♣ then 2NT. Given that I have decided to treat this as balanced to simplify the auction, I am going to count the king of spades at full value.

1. North's missing 13th card is too important. I am not good enough to have an auction without it

2. 1♦ 1♥, 1♠ 2♠, 3♥ 3NT. The bids all seem obvious to that point, and surely north should pass since his partner offered 3NT opposite known short clubs, and that shortness is an honor.

3. 1♣ 1♥, 3♣ 3♦, 3NT. I don't actually mind a 3NT rebid either, it's simply a case of sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. But I certainly can't see south passing that. Probably he would just raise it to 4NT, then north would pass anyway so no harm done.

[EricK]

0 - 2NT
1 - missing a card
2 - 1♦ 1♥ 2♠ 2NT 3♥ 3NT
3 - 1♣ 1♥ 3♣ 3♦ 3NT

[whereagles]

♠ K
♥ K Q T 9
♦ A K Q x
♣ K Q x x

Open 2♣, rebid 2NT
-------------------------

♠ A K x x
♥ A K
♦ K J T x x
♣ x

♠ Q J x
♥ T 8 x x x
♦ A x
♣ A x x

Card missing. Assume it's a club. Then:

1♦ 1♥
2♠ 3♣
3♦ 3NT
pass
--------------------------

♠ A J 8 x
♥ A 9 x
♦ A K J x x
♣ Q

♠ x x x x
♥ Q 9 x x
♦ 9 8
♣ A K x

1♦ 1♥
2♠ 3♠
4NT 5♦
5♥ 5♠
pass
-----------------------

♠ A x
♥ T x
♦ x x
♣ A K Q T 9 x x
responder bids 1♥, your 2nd bid?

1♣ 1♥
3NT

[foo]

=1444 is often a bidding problem. Strong 4441s are enough of a bidding problem that the Mexican 2D was invented to handle them.

Without that gadget, IMHO one needs all the bidding space one can get for a careful exporatory auction.

Opening 2C with ♠K ♥KQT9 ♦AKQx ♣KQxx robs Us of a whole level of bidding space we might desperately need.

I certainly agree that at some level of strength you are going to be more or less forced to open 2C with =1444, but IMHO this one is below that floor since we should be straining to not open 2C with =1444.

[ArtK78]

foo, on Dec 22 2007, 08:46 AM, said:

=1444 is often a bidding problem.  Strong 4441s are enough of a bidding problem that the Mexican 2D was invented to handle them.

Roman 2♦, not the Mexican 2♦. As originally used, the Mexican 2♦, which is part of the Romex System invented by George Rosenkranz in the mid-1970s, is for balanced hands not strong enough for a 2NT opening (which, in Romex, is stronger than most Standard 2NT opening bids). Typically, a Mexican 2♦ opening is 19-21 HCP balanced.

I see that the current version of the Mexican 2♦ opening covers a great deal more than it was originally invented to cover. According to a summary that I found online, the current version of the Mexican 2♦ opening shows:

(1) Balanced 21-22 HCP
(2) Balanced 27-28 HCP
(3) One or Two Suited hands with 2 losers (stronger than a typical 2♣ opening) and including diamonds as one of the suits.
(4) Game forcing 3 loser 4441 hands.

I played Romex as it was originally written, including the original version of the Mexican 2♦ opening. I have never played this newer version which includes the strong 4441 hands.

Roman 2♦ (not Mini-Roman) was invented MANY years ago (1960's? 1950's?). It shows a hand with 17-24 HCP and 4441 distribution (exceptionally, 4450 distribution with a 5 card minor suit) with any short suit. The hands are actually broken down into two divisions - 17-20 HCP and 21-24 HCP. Minimum and Maximum along with shortness and 5 card suit, if any, are shown in response to an artificial 2NT response.

[pclayton]

0. I'll go the 2♣ route and pretend this is a balanced 22 count. If I open a one bid, I doubt I can get all my suits in, and a jump shift looks like I have 5 in my 1st bid suit.

1. 12 cards in North. I never quite know how to bid those tricky 4=2=5=1's.

2. 1♦ - 1♥ - 1 only ♠ - 2♠ - 4♠.

3. 3♣. I don't have enough for 3N but its close.

[ArcLight]

Sorry about the missing card in #1, it was a ♦ and I fixed the problem.
(cutting and pasting lost a card, next time I'll use the forum hand software to prevent that)

For #3 opener jumped to 3NT (wheras many here bid 3♣).
Is there not a real danger that 3♣ will be passed out?
It takes little from pard to make 9 tricks?