Bad_Wolf

Hi Jillybean You are completely correct. "sloppy" players have an advantage over the rest of the field. This is a fact of life as you will NEVER get any justice from a director. The Laws are irrelevant, you simply have to protect yourself. As an example what do you play after Landy 1NT-(2C)- alerted and explained as majors. If you don't play 2M as natural you are mad. Against most average players there is a good chance they will have clubs, so you need to be able to get a major in yourself. Yes the Laws should give you protection but the director won't. The opps will just claim they had a momentary forget and the director will walk away. It doesn't matter that this pair "forgets" every second time it comes up and so the real agreement is "clubs or majors" because the director is not around to see this. My advice, which has served me in good stead not least in minimising angst, is to never call the director. Ever. Just make a mental note and get your revenge against this pair on a later date. Oh and of course failing to alert is MI. But it doesn't matter as no director will help you. Just a hard fact of bridge life. Bridge is war, not a game.

2NT "two places to play" by north

What us a good auction here after a weak 2S opener... [hv=pc=n&s=sk86hk4dk5caqjt65&n=sj7haqjt965daj64c&d=w&v=0&b=8&a=2s]266|200[/hv] Thanks

Pass is terrible. 3H is conservative, and what I might bid with a newish player. With a strong partner bid 4H. It is important that 2H shows, in principle, a six bagger. Same with 1H-1S-2H. Too many hands become unbiddable, or at least very difficult otherwise.

Weak NT can be devastating when not vul. The risk of missing a major is real, but overstated in my experience. Example; yesterday (in an imps tournament)... [hv=pc=n&s=sq763h2d432caqj53&w=sk84haj974daj8c84&n=sj92hk65dk96ck972&e=sat5hqt83dqt75ct6&d=s&v=e&b=3&a=p1nppp]399|300[/hv] We are vul. We have missed our 9 card heart fit. Worst possible advertisement for weak NT right? Wrong. As often happens 1N-1 was a push against 3H-1.

Ah, great! THanks

I came across some old notes for a big club system that mentioned that after opening 1C they played "Archimedes over one level intervention" Does anyone know what this is? It might be of Australian origin? Thanks in advance

I would rebid 3H, could be slightly weaker but avoids game on the crappy 43(42) types with wasted H.

I only very occasionally play relay these days and of course it is a pain if the opps ask about every bid, but there is a flip side. Once playing a relay pair RHO showed balanced no major then 2353 then LHO signed off in 3NT. It was obvious to me, based partly on feel/tempo, that LHO had 5 spades. Sure enough he did and pard lead one. Now everyone says that "well you relay an extra round to hide this" and so on, which is true in theory but not so much in practice, especially if there is any time pressure. Now I would have liked to ask for clarification of each bid of course, but of course I couldn't.

Love this. Do you mind sharing the followups after 1N-2D?

This has been played in NZ in the past. Isn't Moscito Byte similar?

OK, a simple enough sequence... [hv=d=w&v=0&b=8&a=1hp1sp2dp3np]133|100[/hv] I realise that I have never given sufficient thought to what sort of East hands bid 3NT here and when they should bid 3♣-3♦-3NT say. What is a typical holding for East here? (Sorry if this belongs in a beginner's forum, but I believe this is perhaps more difficult than it appears).

what it will do is disconnect the two sides, like an uncoupled system of equations. Another analogy would be two conversations going on at the same time in a crowded noisy bar. It would remove a lot of UI and MI, but I'm not sure it would be as interesting a game.

I am the dealer. My RHO opens 2NT strong out of turn. I don't accept. What, if any, are my legal obligations at this point? I ask because I was the director when this occurred and, as I discovered later, the dealer opened an average 8 count. I had no problem with this but a director I respect thought it was "dodgy". Opinions?

I seem to vaguely recall that there is a published minute or commentary discussing the use of HCP as a default for giving explanations both in a CC and at the table. The issue I have is the pairs who explain, for example "8 losers". Now you and I know what this means (more or less), but many of our club members have no idea, and rather than look foolish they just accept this and continue the auction none the wiser about what is going on. It seems obvious to me that this pair is not upholding their disclosure obligations. Is there anything I can point to to "encourage" these pairs to disclose more helpfully? Thanks