[silvr bull]

Playing with a good partner against random BBO opponents, I held the hand below. Partner dealt and opened 1♦. We play 12-14 1NT, so partner likely has a 4+♦ suit and he may well have a balanced hand that the field would have opened with a strong 1NT. We also bid inverted minors, so a 2♦ call with my hand would be a game force.
Chapter 1 - how should I plan to bid this hand if the opponents stay silent?
(BTW, if you don't like this problem, come back to look again later. I will add the chapter two problem tomorrow, and the later chapters get much more interesting )

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[mike777]

1h npp yet

[the hog]

1H for me. What happens?
However, if Your inverted D raise can include a 4 card Major, then 2D seems reasonable as well. (For most it does not though.)

[Codo]

1♥ is easy with normal structures, 2 ♦ if this is a gf and partner can ask/show 4 card majors.

[Hanoi5]

1♥ for starters. I would expect an unbalanced hand from partner more than the strong NT one.

[silvr bull]

I agree that I would have bid 1♥, primarily to allow partner to redefine his hand without the game force of 2♦. I think, however, that an immediate 2♦ has the advantage of a simple auction that quickly moves toward finding the right level of slam.

Chapter two - the opponents are silent, except for a pesky 4♠ call on my right. The hand with an updated auction is below. What action should I take over 4♠?

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[Cyberyeti]

Would have bid 2♦ playing my own methods, now over 4♠ will blackwood.

[the hog]

Double.

[PhilKing]

5♠. Follow ups all planned ...

There is a case for 4NT (take-out) to gauge partner's shape. If he shows a second suit I am very interested grand, but the trouble is I don't get to agree diamonds. I'm never stopping out of 6, obviously, so I should mae my intentions clear. The advantage of 5♠ is that it sets trumps and show interest in grand, but I may have to commit to 6NT to explore effectively.

[silvr bull]

I tried 4NT in hopes partner would interpret it to be Blackwood.

Chapter 3 is short and sweet. Instead of showing aces, he called a natural 6♣. I gave a brief thought to 7NT, but then I took the low road and settled for 7♦. It had a little challenge in the play (the other three BBO pairs who got to 7 were all down one), but is not worth another cycle for comments here.

That ends my book, but I will include an epilogue. Suppose you got to 7NT, perhaps on the auction shown below, and had an opening lead of the ♥Q (with north playing the ♥8). Plan the play.

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Can someone tell me how to insert a spoiler message? Until I can do that, the most help I will offer for now is that north is void in ♦.

[rhm]

 silvr bull, on 2012-December-23, 22:11, said:

I tried 4NT in hopes partner would interpret it to be Blackwood.

Chapter 3 is short and sweet. Instead of showing aces, he called a natural 6♣. I gave a brief thought to 7NT, but then I took the low road and settled for 7♦. It had a little challenge in the play (the other three BBO pairs who got to 7 were all down one), but is not worth another cycle for comments here.

That ends my book, but I will include an epilogue. Suppose you got to 7NT, perhaps on the auction shown below, and had an opening lead of the ♥Q (with north playing the ♥8). Plan the play.

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Can someone tell me how to insert a spoiler message? Until I can do that, the most help I will offer for now is that north is void in ♦.

There is no need for any spoiler.
On the assumption that North will hold at least seven spades including the king the contract makes always on a compound squeeze.
Just run the diamonds and watch North discards.
You of course discard a heart on the fifth diamond.
In the seven card ending North must hold on to 3 spades and can not hold 4 clubs and 2 hearts as well.
Take the spade finesse and cash the black suit winners in the East hand to reduce to a 4 card ending, then decide whether North has given up hearts or clubs.
Even against world class defenders you are huge favorite to get this decision right because North had to discard another card after the squeeze operated.
Next cash the suit North has given up to execute a double squeeze.

Rainer Herrmann

[Cyberyeti]

To add a spoiler, go to the box that says "other styles", click the down arrow and select spoiler.

I'd have done what you did I think as it seems unlikely that partner has given some sort of void club blackwood response.

In 7N,it would appear with N in sole control of the spades, that if you cash 3 rounds of clubs early (if they break you have 13), then take the spade finesse (unless N has 4 clubs with the spades in which case you cash the K♥ then the diamonds and squeeze him in the blacks), then cash the diamonds, you leave an end position of

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It doesn't matter what N and S's other cards are, N has to discard something other than K♠ on the final diamond, dummy discards his spade and S has to discard something other than a club so the hearts will drop.

[silvr bull]

Thanks for the info on how to insert a spoiler. I will put the full hand in one below.

Spoiler

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The play here is much easier when you know which opponent has the ♣ guard. Cash the three top ♣, and claim if they split.

If north has 4 or more ♣, cash the top ♥ and then the five ♦ ending in dummy with a ♠ and two ♣. North will be forced to discard the ♣J or one of his three ♠.

If south has 4 or more ♣, take the ♠ finesse and cash the top ♠, pitching a ♣ from dummy. Then running the five ♦ will execute the double squeeze so either a black card will be promoted, or the last two ♥ in east will win the final tricks.

Edited after Cyberyeti's post below.

Happy holidays to all!

[Cyberyeti]

My line in fact works, but I perhaps didn't explain it well. Cash 3 clubs at tricks 2/3/4, you discover N has 4, assume he has at least 7 spades to the K, so simply cashing the K♥ and 4 diamonds now leaves:

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Now leading the 4♦ squeezes N and you either score 3 spades or a spade and 2 clubs.