Gerben47

1♥ seems obvious. What happens?

Fantoni was commentating Vugraph yesterday and there were some questions about his system. He said that first they started to play the Lauria - Versace system but they thought it was too complicated, and that what they play now is more fun to play. They do use a lot of the same conventions as L - V. Having tested the system in a real F2F tournament I was surprised how well it works. The slam bidding was more accurate than in most system. The 2-bids give the opponents many problems and opener's partner is very well placed to use the red card. And in fact the 2-bids are more frequent than the classical weak twos. There are some situations where we had a tough judgement decision after the 2-bids, but those were for very close games which no one would argue about if you would miss them (except Walddk perhaps who likes them thin).

Same as Free. Your question is lead directing as it suggests the ♦K is singleton somewhere. The Ace is still not the right card.

Pass. They are not going to find their ♥ fit now!

This double should not happen. Ever. This is not a partnership agreement. THIS IS CRIMINAL. Really. AARGH. Unless you are strong enough to rebid NT (showing 19+) you NEVER EVER double with only two cards in an unbid major. This hand shows you why.

As people do not tend to change their profile every day a way to save bandwidth is to give users the option to save all profiles offline. Profiles that are changed get a time flag so the software will know to download them. I know this will cost people a couple of MB on their hard disk but now we can help BBO run faster! To secure privacy the saved profiles can be encrypted or something.

I play 1♣ as 2+ cards. We only met one pair that played something special against it, the two Italian brothers you already mentioned. Our defence to that system was: 'If you can find something else to open, do so. Otherwise treat as natural'. The reaction of Furio & Stelio does not surprise me. I think it's a mixed blessing playing the system they play. It seems to have been put in from higher up (the trainer tells them what system to play). I will keep my semi-natural 1♣ opening thank you very much :D Meanwhile I play NF Suction against that. (1♣) 2♣ is either natural or both reds, etc.

Now that I'm thinking about it, maybe I can try converting a .lin file into a Jack tourney file...

If you succeed in doing that, why not let Jack's creators know and share it with them? Perhaps a second connection to BBO would be allowed for Jack users, so 2 Jack users can play together in BBO against 2 Jacks. Now that would be extremely cool :D

Don't splinter with AQTxxx side suit even if it is inside your range. 2♥

Topic says 7♥ and auction says 7♦. I rather like to be in 7♥ where I need neither squeeze nor finesse as I can ruff a ♣ in dummy (except when ♥ were 4-0, in that case see below). In 7♦ or in 7♥ with trumps 4-0: Play for the finesse because if you want to combine chances with tripleton ♠K you need to cash ♠A and both threats are in the same hand, which means that you cannot win if RHO has both Kings and a finesse would work as well against LHO.

In a recent tournament I played that system and it is not completely trivial to fill in the blanks. For example: How do you continue after 1♣ - weak response? What do you do with the 18-20 balanced hand? (1♣ - 1x - 1NT = 15 - 17 balanced)

Pclayton, I'd take 1:3 with Italy alone if you would like to throw in a second country, fine with me :D Justin, now don't get into this 'The USA is the best country in the world' stuff.' No one believes that anyway. I guess only in the USA people realized it was between them and the Italians. This might have been true had their strongest lineup played. But as you know they were unwilling to play in Istanbul which is a very safe place unless you are an English soccer fan. As it was the players on the team were among the best of the world, but guess what: so were some other teams! Had the USA beaten the Italians I think my list of favorites would be a close tie between 3 teams: * China (It's not just in economy they will overtake everyone, it seems in bridge as well) * Netherlands (they beat Italy in the Round Robin, perhaps they can keep Italy from taking a 7th European Title in a row?) * USA (Even without Meckwell and co. they are a great team)

I can't resist either: The USA could have sent a great team to the Olympiad but they didn't send their best team (their unwillingness to go to Istanbul is a big chunk in the minus column for me). If you don't send the best team, although still stronger almost all of the other teams, it is not very surprising that other top nations that DO send their best team do better. I think it is good that others get a chance as well (albeit for the wrong reasons) but then don't come and say they are the best team in the world as they are not the best team in the USA.

I could play too, either the Magic Diamond or my own 2-way pass system.

I use good bad in the classical meaning: either a bad hand (almost always) or a very strong hand. With the bad hand you're content to let the opps play, with the very good hand you can afford them to bid again (or perhaps even want them to?). In my experience the good-bad 2NT is almost always bad as it applies when there is much bidding from the other players.

In a standard 2/1 system you can of course play that after 1M, 2♣ is GF relay. Some people play this, and then something like: Step 1: Minimum Step 2: Maximum (forcing until 4M or 4NT) Step 3 and up: Middle range, zoom on distribution and so on...

Agree with 4NT at favorable. 5♥ should be a grand slam try asking partner for a major suit void. It should NOT be natural as partner has both minors and you have to pick one and the level on which to play it. I don't know what it was but it somehow worked :P I would not have bid 6♦. Partner knows what I have and should bid it himself. Have a look at Round 18 Board 17 of Juniors European 2004: [hv=d=n&v=n&w=sqj8632hadak4ck54&e=sh43dqj652caqt762]266|100|Scoring: IMP[/hv] We only bid 6♦ which did not get bid on many tables and was enough to win 14 IMPs but with full trust that partner has his bid AND remembers the convention we could have reached the grand: 4NT - 5♥ (Major suit void?) 5NT (♠ void) - 7♦ As it was I just bid 6♦ over 4NT and perhaps for the better because if we go down in the grand because of a bad break and opps are in game...

It is a nice convention but let me add a word of warning. Be sure to discuss all the relevant sequences when you decide to play this, especially after interference. Here are some important ones: 2♦ (Dbl) Pass = I have 5+♦ , how about playing here Rdbl = I am strong, have something in ♦ and think I can double them Other = As before 2♦ (2 in major) Dbl = Pass if you have this major, otherwise bid your major. This is very nice if you have 3 cards in ♥ and they overcall 2♠. Partner can ALSO have have the ♠ so bidding 3♥ is very dangerous but you can bid dbl instead. If they bid higher a double is a penalty double (but can be based on assurance that partner has a 6-card trump suit against them).

Read the story and you will see the answer is yes :)

Well about the first idea, let me explain. Assume you are table host and have 'ask permission to join' on. Someone wants to join the open seat but it is not for your partner but for opponent who has just entered. Now you are stuck in the decision window with a decision I probably don't want to make for my opponent. So my idea: I want to be able to use the main window during this lockup to ask opinion of others present. And similar: My opponent should be the one to choose his partner not the table host. Possibly in a way so that enemies of the table host are not allowed. Helium this idea is completely different from yours.

Opps don't know hearts are blocked, so you ask if 3NT shows or denies a stopper. If he says 'denies a stopper' you double. They will probably play 4♦ (-150) or 5♦ (-600) which is a top. If he says 'shows a stopper' you bid 4♥. You will have been misinformed though, dunno what the consequence will be but can not be worse for us than the actual score.

Open 2NT, 3♣ is a strong unbalanced hand with 4+♣.

Suction is the defence where a bid in ♣ shows ♦ or the majors, a bid in ♦ shows ♥ or the blacks, and so on. This is not allowed as a defence against 1NT in the USA as it lacks an anchor suit. I like to play this more aggressive: 2♣ shows either ♣ or the reds and so on :angry: Can I ask a question of my own? What exactly is a 'random' bid and what isn't. If I play 1♠ as 'any distribution 0 - 7 HCP' is that a random bid? I think not, what I think they want to ban is a bid where both Pass and 1♠ can be bid with 0 - 7 HCP but you choose either one when you feel like it. Is this correct?

Short club can also be played in with a Polish like structure: 1♣ (2+ cards, including ALL 17-19 NT) -? 1♦: 0 - 6 or natural 1M: 7+ 4+card 1NT: 7 - 10 After 1♣ - 1♦ rebid 1♥ with any 12-14 balanced or unbal. with 4♥. Rebid 1NT with any 17-19 balanced. After a different bid you know partner has a real hand (7+!) and you will not get too high. Using 1♦ as an artificial negative IS legal in the GCC.