calm01

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Thankyou Barmar. What you describe fits GIB's behaviour very well both in choice of initial lead and follow-up. I also agree about implied loss of tempo. Since the tempo of the opening lead is the main advantage of the defence over a NT declarer who can see the partnership resources, giving up this tempo advantage seems a losing strategy for the defence in the long run.

I have asked four partners and they all said, albeit in very different words, that they would consider any of the their partners who did not pass 3H in a blink would be having a very poor day. The sequence: 1H 1S 3H asks the following questions: a) if you have 2 or more hearts (or a high honour and 10 or more mostly Ace/King based points) bid on to game or better in hearts or NT, b) if you have 1 poor heart, 10 or more points (to compensate for communication issues) and a partial stop or better in both minors try 3NT, c) if you are strong enough bid 3S to show 6 good spades & tolerance for hearts - here this means 1 card or show me a second suit at the four level, d) if you have a complete misfit (no hearts) then devalue your hand by at least 4 points. On this basis a holding of: AQ7432 - 10952 Q92 is devalued to 4 points and so qualifies only for pass. All my partners polled were unanimous is passing 3H without any qualms even when I suggested that one opponent had bid on. Why would you even consider 3N with a misfit and no real playing strength in spades and no guarantee of a stop in a minor? Why would you rebid such ragged spades without a safe home in 4H? Where are 8, let alone 9 tricks coming from in NT? Can you stand 4H?

I have asked three partners and they all said, in different words, that they would consider any of the their partners who did not pass 3H in a blink would be having a very poor day. he sequence: 1H 1S 3H asks the following question:

Lots of Laughs. In the 1960's we had the rise of the Sputnik or negative double. One beginner at Harrow Bridge club in London in the early 1970's was heard asking her (equally beginner) partner "What's so negative about the negative double?" Now we have the constructive double - so called as it helps construct a big winning score for the opponents!

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http://tinyurl.com/7vbjg8o Learning to pass on weak misfit hands comes to beginners, often slowly, after several expensive doubled losses and encouragement from patient partners. I suspect GIB has no equivalent learning skills and human encouragement over time so just needs to be reprogrammed to recognise such hands and be instructed to just pass.

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My experience is that GIB cannot usually effectively cope with partner offering 2 suits to select from. Even at the 2-level GIB can sometimes prefer a known 5+/1 major fit to a 3+/5 card minor fit. In this example your 4H bid is reasonably described as 6+ C and twice rebiddable H. Often GIB appears to ignore such length information in its preference decisions. I get round this common employment of selection blinkers by GIB by bidding any 5 card major first even when minor is a good 6 carder - it seems to cause less damage in the long run. GIB bids reasonably or well in reply to a single suited partner so it usually seems to pay to decide which single suit you will express to GIB and suppress any second suit which just seems to confuse.

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http://tinyurl.com/8x3wek7 At trick 8 (lead of spade towards AK10 in dummy), GIB:West fails to split QJ to give declarer a way of going wrong.

Fred, You wrote: "Unlike you apparently, GIB has some appreciation for the notion of risk/reward. Fred Gitelman Bridge Base Inc. www.bridgebase.com" I am sorry you feel under personal attack - I hope all is well in other areas of your life. To shoot the messenger is a strategy with a long history - a history with few victories and all of them pyrrhic. The best place to look for the source of any anger is often in the mirror. Unconditional love enables one to distinguish between the actor and any perceived sins of the actor. With unconditional love, Ric.