W Kovacs

[hv=d=s&v=n&s=saktxhakqdj6caxxx]133|100|Scoring: IMP[/hv] Playing Precision, the bidding went: 1♣! - (P) - 2♦ - (2♥) 2NT - (3♥) - 3♠ - (4♥) ? 1♣ = 16+ HCP 2♦ = 8+ hcp, 5+ ♦ At this point, you know 4♠ is likely cold, slam is uncertain (and can you explore it safely?), but you're also staring at 6 defensive tricks, and partner might have 2 or 3 more. The questions: 1) What do you bid here? 2) If you double for penalty, what is your opening lead? 3) If you could change a bid, what would you change? I'll post more particulars after I get some responses.

Playing standard or 2/1 I'd bid 1D every time. I wouldn't give it a second thought. Playing with my normal partner, I bid 2D. Of course, his 1C (precision) means something completely different.

Disregard everything I wrote above. Apparently I have no idea how to count anymore. I thought East had 7 clubs, not 6 :lol: The listed auction would have worked if East had something like: Qxx xx K AKQxxxx As the hand actually is, my partner and I reach 6NT, but don't even sniff at the Grand. As an aside, get used to me making silly mistakes. I tend to type before I fully comprehend. Feel free to laugh at me and then move on; I'm used to it.

EDIT: Apparently I can't count to 6! This auction is only valid with a 7 card club suit. Partner and I get there using a Precision auction, but I seriously doubt we get to the grand using standard or 2/1. 1C! - 3S! 4C! - 4H! 4S! - 5C! 5S! - 5NT! 7NT 1C = 16+ HCP 3S = 7 card suit headed by AKQ 4C = outside controls? 4H = 1 control (King) 4S = Control ask in spades 5C = third round 5S = length or strength 5NT = Strength And if the opponents didn't double that 4H bid for a lead, I'd be surprised. Almost disappointed.

Yeah, that 1.3 per board isn't going to stick around forever. We've been lucky to have a mix of: a) some weaker opponents B) runs of good hands that we've made the most of c) opponents that haven't been very willing to compete (that's the one that'll change most as we play better competition. The better players LOVE to interfere in precision auctions.) Still, my partner and I strive to play good defense on all hands, which should keep us competitive with just about any pair.

why? The thing I am interested in is how long (assuming this was in MBC) did North stick around as South's partner <_< ? Not very long at all. He made a comment along the lines of "I can't play this way" and left immediately after the opening lead. At least he was nice about his parting shot. Exactly. It is very rare when partner and I actually use the alpha accept. Usually opener shows his own 5 card suit or bids NT, then supports on the next round. The alpha acceptance is instant slam interest. At least for us.

Thanks, pooltuna. That's a feature of BBO I was unaware of. I'll have to start using it in the near future.

Not to de-rail the current discussion, but something said earlier piqued my interest. How does one go about checking the avg imps/board on a particular opponent, or on myself for that matter? Right now I am transferring all of my boards played into an excel spreadsheet, but that method is clunky (although more permanent, I imagine). And I might have to move my self-rating up a notch. Although it's only based on 70 boards, my partner and I are averaging a healthy 1.3 Imps/board. I think we need slightly stiffer competition. The one day we played against "expert" players, we averaged -0.1 Imps/board, which sounds about right. They probably WERE experts.

[hv=d=e&v=e&n=sa64hq5dt875cj864&w=skjt92htdk32ck732&e=sq753hak983da6cat&s=s8hj7642dqj94cq95]399|300|Scoring: IMP 1C*-(P)-1S-(P) 2S*-(P)-3C*-(P) 3D*-(P)-3NT*-(P) 4S-(P)-P-(5H)! DBL-AP[/hv] There were mistakes made on both sides of the hand. Mine was less eggregious, as no other tables bid the slam. I was sitting East on this deal. My partner and I play Berkowitz and Manley Precision. So 1C was a big hand. 2S set trumps and asked p for trump length and controls. 3C showed 5 spades to one of the top 3 (meaning a trump loser). 3D asked for diamond controls. 3NT should have screamed 2nd round control, but I can't count, apparently, and read it as third round control. So I signed off in the Spade game. The rest of the auction should have gone: 4C*-(P)-4S*-(P) 6S-AP 4C = control in clubs; 4S = 2nd round control I have no idea why South felt it necessary to open his mouth. On a previous hand, he bid hearts three times with a 12 count and only 5 hearts, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised. Partner left the double in, and when it was all over, 5H was down 7 doubled, for a tidy 14 IMPS. More than if we bid slam, but slam still would have been a top. I just thought everyone might like to see this one.

Yep. And they tried to send in beer to those 33 guys trapped in Chile. But then the government stopped it, as it's illegal to distribute alcohol to miners. That hurt. A lot. :P As for the OP question, if there was one in there: 4 suit transfers are the answer he is looking for. Transfer, then you can pass/bid 3NT/splinter/blackwood/cuebid/etc as appropriate. And the scoring for minors has been in place for, what 100 years? I seriously doubt the WBF is going to change it to make minor suit games more attractive than 3NT.

Crap, you guys are right. I still have a ♥ in dummy I conveniently forgot about. At this point I think I need to know who's been pitching on what, to get a count on the opps hands.

All of this became moot (for the most part) this weekend. My f2f partner is joining BBO, so I won't have to worry about a pick-up partner. Except when my regular partner is unavailable, of course. ;) Thanks for all the advice. I'll keep it in my back pocket.

K♠, Q♠, small ♠ to the A, A♣, Q♣, small ♥ to the A, K♣ pitching a ♥ from hand, and lead a small ♥. With a heart return, we get a ruff-sluff, or duck a diamond return to set up a winner in that suit. I doubt there's an overtrick available anywhere.

thanks for the reply. I had no idea partner couldn't see the alert.

I hope this is in the correct forum. If not, will the MODs kindly move it for me? My f2f partner is going to join BBO this week. We play Precision together, which necessitates many alerts of bids. What is the proper etiquette on alerting bids? Should I wiat and have partner alert one of my bids, knowing that the opps might bid before he has a chance to do so? Or would it be proper that I alert the bid, and let partner handle the explanation, and perhaps give partner UI? And prefer the former, but I can see the logic in the latter. We are both well versed in our system, not that that is a good argument for alerting our own bids. Same question for bids where announcements are required. Should I announce our 1NT range, Transfers, etc., or should partner be the one doing this? I ask because I've rarely seen the system used, and I am not sure who is doing the alerting when it does happen. It seems to happen awfully fast for partner to be doing the alert.

It's amazing how talking about these hands brings other memories to the forefront. This was another hand from those 4 friends sessions: [hv=n=sxxhakq10xxxdakxxc&s=sakqjxxxhjxdqjcxx]133|200|The auction was quite contested...between partner and I. The ops stayed silent. Back and forth, partner and I argued over who's major deserved to be played. I bid 6♥ at one point, but partner raised to 6♠. Guessing that that showed the A♠, I raised to 7♥, thinking that ended the auction. Of course it didn't, so I sat fuming as partner started to play what I was certain was a contract that was going down. Turns out that playing in spades, we had 18 winners (dummy got to ruff the club lead) vs a mere 17 winners in hearts. [/hv]

Perhaps I phrased this poorly. I led low spades, and partner ruffed high, while declarer had to discard. I have one more memorable hand, not because of anything my partner or I did, but because the distribution was so wacky. this was neither a club nor tournament game, just 4 friends playing some bridge. Dealer picked up his hand, and thought, and thought and then thought some more. He finally said "I've no idea what to do here" and bid 4♥. Turns out he had and 8 card ♥ suit, 2 through the 9! He only had 2 HCP, but had to do something. Even worse, my partner and I had the five ♥ honors split between our hands, 3-2. I've never seen anything like that before.

Sorry if this has been done elsewhere, but i didn't see a thread like this. And if it belongs in another forum, feel free to move it. Everyone has one or more hands that have stuck with them their entire bridge career. Whether it's the hand where you found the impossible lead to set a cold contract, or you making against all odds. I would like to hear your stories. I actually have three very memorable hands. The first was during a Swiss Teams tournament. I was sitting South, and West was dealer, both N/V. I held an ~18 HCP monster with AKQ10xx♣, but Righty opened 1♣ before I got a chance to speak. After some doubling and competition, they ended up in 3♣, so I doubled, and it got passed out. Partner made an excellent lead, and when the smoke cleared, the opps found themselves down 8, doubled! It certainly was the biggest beatdown I've ever given. The second hand was a club game against a pair of rank Novices. They tried their best, but they never seemed to improve (yet their play at other tables always seemed to push us into avg-, grrr). I was dealer, R vs W, and picked up something that looked like Axxxxx x AQ xxxx, so I bid 2♠. Righty looks to my partner and asks what my bid meant, almost like he couldn't believe it. My partner answered correctly, and RHO doubles for takeout. After a competitive auction, LHO ends up playing 4Hx. I lead a low club, and dummy comes down: KQJ10xxx - Jxx AQx. Declarer had 7 Hearts to the Q, but partner had AKJxx♥, and a few other high cards. so when he led diamonds, I duly gave him spade ruffs. I eventually made my singleton ♥ good as well. A true massacre (but not -8x). The last hand was again at a Swiss tourney. i was dealer, and held 7 spades to the QJ10, and had another monster hand. After opening a Precision 1C and a non-competitive auction, we ended up in 4♠, which got doubled by RHO. I was relieved when dummy came down to see that we had most of the HCP and dummy had the singleton A♠. Until I led that A♠, and LHO discarded a club! A 5-0 trump break, missing the K, offside. So I went about playing as best I could, knowing I needed three finesses to work (at least the ♣ finesse was somewhat marked). In the end all three finesses did work, and with an endplay of rHO, the contract was made. That one hand is probably the best I've ever done declaring, and I hope never to have to do it again.

Yeah, that surprised me too. Here was partner's hand:[hv=s=sxxhajxdajxxxxcjx]133|100|[/hv] Ops helped by leading the Q♦ on opening lead. We took AK♣, a ♣ ruff, A♥, A♦ and the J♦ on trick 13. Thanks for your advice. With the exception of endplays (which I rarely actively think about) I do all of that. Right now I just have to remind myself how to play standard. I've been playing Precision the past two years, and Acol before that. It's hard switching back.

Great. My 1 hour a day is going to make finding friends a bit difficult. I'll learn to take my lumps. We were white, opponents were red. I was more worried about opponents finding a vulnerable spade game (they were short a HCP or three, but had a 10-card fit, though I didn't know it at the time), which is why I trotted out the Michaels in the first place. At even or unfavorable vul, there's no way I compete (well, maybe at even; I've been known to bid aggressively). You know what, I wrote the first post wrong. I'll fix that now.

[hv=d=n&v=n&s=s10hqxxxxd10xcakxxx]133|100|Scoring: IMP P-P-1♠-2♠ AP[/hv] I was dealt this "gem" just a bit ago, and I made what I thought was a reasonable Micheals Cuebid. Imagine my surprise when my partner, listed as an intermediate player, passes. The ops didn't double (mercifully), and despite the 2-1 spade fit I only went down 2. Now, I have played a lot of different conventions, and I don't expect everyone to know everything, but isn't Michaels one of those standardish conventions? Especially for an intermediate player. If Michaels isn't something I can expect someone to know, what conventions CAN I assume a partner knows, preferably broken down by skill level.

He has no CC in his profile.

If I had to wager a guess, I'd say it's one of the low spot cards. "4th best" is something beginners pick up early, and so it should skew the results towards them. Now as to which specific spot or which strain, that really depends on the hand leading. Maybe a 6? Strain should be equally distributed, so that is a much harder call.

Looks like I managed to jump into the forums without giving a proper introduction. My real name is Rob. I live in the greater St Louis area. I started out playing rubber bridge on Yahoo about 6 years ago, and then started playing duplicate (MPs) 4 years ago. Like most Americans, I started out on a standardish system. 2 years ago, one of the opponents I played against in the club started to work at the same place I did, and we became partners. We started out playing Acol (with weak 2s), which I found much better than standard American. We eventually tried out Precision (Berkowitz & Manley), and have been hooked ever since. Then the economy took over. I lost my job, and was out of work for over a year. Due to lack of funds, I have been unable to play bridge much in the past year, so now I'm scraping some rust off. My partner also lost his job, and has since moved to a different city, so I am also left partnerless. Currently I am focusing on improving my defense over all other aspects of the game. My thought process is that you bid on 100% of your hands (and I bid reasonably well), you declare 25% of the time, but you'll defend 50% of the time. Hence good defense is imperitive.

I just checked my recent hands. He is listed as "Private" :) (I list myself as an Intermediate, BTW. I'll leave it like that until someone says "Hey, you're too good to be an Int player." That probably will never happen.) I'll accept some of the blame. I should have known 3♥x was a terrible spot to be in. But I must admit I was a bit flustered by the "interesting" bidding that went on, and lost track of what was right. It's been over a year and a half since I last played any bridge, so my skills have a bit of rust.