If P opens 1 of a major and you are weak with 3 of his suit raise it rather than bidding 1NT. You might bid 1NT if your shape is 4333 with poor cards in the major. Partner is strongly likely to have a 5 card suit as you only open 1 of a major with 4 cards if you are planning to rebid NTs so he will have 15+points in this case.
Opps open 1 spade and your P overcalls 2 hearts. You are void in hearts with long clubs (8!!) but poor points, do you bid? No, just pass and hope that opps reopen the bidding. You can then bid your clubs - P will know you are weak by your pass so will accept clubs as the suit to be played in. If you are void in partner's suit this is a big disadvantage as many of your partner's points will be in his long suit which is wasted if you are void. If you change the suit after P overcalls it is forcing and it is possible that P will have to rebid his hearts at the 3 level.
If your 1NT is doubled and partner bids a suit it is a weak takeout and you should never raise it even with 4 cards. The standard is that artificial bids such as Stayman and transfers are now off so that any bid suit is to play. However, with partnership agreement (you must discuss and agree this with P) you can play 'exit transfers'. In this case redouble from P is a transfer to clubs. A suit bid is a transfer to the suit above. Be careful - if you or P forget it can be catastrophic.
Avoid raising P's second suit with 3 cards. It is likely to be a 4 card suit so he will be playing in a 4-3 fit - tricky. With 2 of his first suit go back to that one as it will be a 5 card suit and a 5-2 fit is safer.
Don't be afraid of playing in notrumps with a singleton or even a void if P has bid the suit as long as you have the points.
If it is the right thing to do, draw trumps - even if you are missing the A and K. When is it right? When you have plenty of trumps and/or winners outside the trump suit. If you need to trump a loser in the short trump hand - usually dummy, you might delay drawing trumps.
If your partner leads an honour and you have an honour doubleton in the suit eg P leads the Queen and you have Kx or Ax play your high card. P has led from a sequence (QJ10) and if you don't play your honour card the suit may be blocked. It won't cost. If it's against a trump contract and P leads the Queen and you have the Ace it is vital that you play it as declarer may have the singleton King.
If you take a winning finesse such as leading towards the AQJ playing the J and it wins you can repeat the finesse, playing the Queen and it will win again. I have seen players play the Ace second time around - why?
If your partner opens 1 diamond (or 1 club) and you are quite weak with 4 diamonds/clubs, only bid 2 diamonds/clubs if you don't have a 4 card major, if you do you should bid it first - you can always go back to diamonds if P doesn't raise your major. If you open 1 of a minor and P raises it to 2 you should know he hasn't got a 4 card major.
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