The first is board 1 from Wednesday the 14th:
Allan commented:
Board 1. Assume bidding starts 1D 2C . How does south express his holding? Be aware that direct 2S is strong and forcing 1R. Negative X and intending 2S seems suitable; if (west passes and) opener rebids 2D, then what? If west raises to 3C and south becomes balancer, then what? [Note – negative free bids allows initial 2S by south.]
My comment: South has 10+ points in context of the auction so far. Why shouldn’t South respond 2S? South’s hand looks strong enough to me.(I don’t usually don’t play negative free bids.) Maybe I need a stronger hand to make a 2 over 1 response when my suit is higher ranking than the one partner opened? Any thoughts from the thousands of awesome bridge players reading this?
The second is board 8 from Wednesday the 14th:
Allan asks:
Assume P 1C X P / 1H . North’s next call is either P or 2C. How vigorously does E raise hearts?
What do you think? I would bid 3H in response to East’s take out double. With 5 hearts to the J 10 8, ace of spades, and singleton club it looks like 9 support points.
I held the East hand and chose to bid 2H rather then double at my first opportunity. NT looks out of the question because of East’s awful holding in clubs. I thought the smallest lie was 2H with the top three honors (so good it looked like a 5-card suit to me). We did not have any trouble reaching 4 hearts once my partner raised me.