mr1303

My rule is I open 1M if I have a small doubleton somewhere, otherwise I open 1NT. Works for me.

Yes, the difficulty here is any bid that you make is fit-showing. Partner will alert as such, and if he bids 4S, after alerting your 3D, you won't legally be able to bid 5C or 4NT afterwards.

OK, bug no. 1. I've just tried saving my work, and moving to a new computer, same network. I can't now reopen the file off of the network hard drive.

Is 3H defined as pre-emptive here? Or invitational. I'll bid 3H if it's pre-emptive, otherwise 2H

I like it a lot. Just goes to show how much there is to a system file. Incidently, can we make the opponents compete?

Actually, the county Bath is in is open to debate. According to the EBU, Bath Bridge Club is a member of the Avon Contract Bridge Association. However, Avon isn't really considered to be a county any longer, since when Bristol decided it wanted to be Bristol rather than part of Avon, there wasn't much left. Mark (who lives in Bristol)

I'll agree with Roland again. 3D for me would suggest a 5-5 hand or more shapely, not wanting to hear a correction to 3S. X here would show spade tolerance, club shortage. So either 3541 or 3631 or something similar.

We were playing Acol, but given that the bidding would probably be the same in SAYC for the most part, I'll stick it in here[hv=n=sjthxxdkqjxcjtxxx&s=sakqxxxhxxdxcakqx]133|200|[/hv] I was S, and the bidding preceded: 1S 1NT 3C 4C 4D 5C All pass After cashing their 3 top tricks at the start, we were off 1. 4S is cold. Opposite the 2 red aces, 7C is cold. Hence I made a slam try in clubs rather than just bid 4S. Partner said that she had no other bid to make, since she had 5 card club support. Were we just unlucky, or should someone have done something differently?

1S 2C 2NT Typically 14-14 balanced with at least 2 card support for clubs. I will have all suits stopped, however. With a suit unstopped (Qxx is a min stopper) rebid 2S. Which answers 2. 1S 2C 2S doesn't promise 6 spades. 1S 2C 2D might have a 19 count. 1S 2C 3D would be a splinter, so with strong 5341 hands, I have no alternative than 2D. 1S 2C 3C shows either a good hand or good support for clubs. Minimum hands with only 3 card support for clubs should rebid 2S. And nothing changes after 1H.

OK, I'm trying to persuade a partner of mine to play MisIry. Does anyone have a simple way of memorising the strong hand continuations? I managed to learn the symmetric relay by writing it all out, since there's a repeating pattern. Any suggestions? Mark

From what I can tell, it plays 3 weak 2s, 2/1 game force and Cappelletti vs 1NT. This I've ascertained from asking for information about its bids.

A radical idea suggested in this book by Mike Lawrence (the uncontested auction) suggests that a strong jump shift followed by any new suit, apart from openers shows a hand like this one. I.e. a strong suit, support for opener's suit and singleton in the new suit. E.g. 1D 2S 2NT 3C Now unless partner bids 3NT, suggesting wastage in clubs, you're off to the races.

I noticed this as well, brand new laptop with broadband connection, usually downloads in about 2 microseconds. It's struggling to reach 5 kB.s^-1. This is at 6.34 BST

Marty Bergen said that a take-out double MUST show at least tolerance for unbid majors, no matter how strong. Doubling with a void spade is asking for trouble. A 1H overcall will virtually never end the auction.

14-16, but I'd open that 1 15-17 NT with all those 10s

Axx Axx KT9 KT9x x xxx Axx Axxxxx Bidding went 1NT (2S) 2NT* (X) 3C all pass 2NT was Lebensohl, no agreement over 3C or the X 3NT was cold. Whose fault was this?

To be fair, I did try to explain my decision to the player concerned, and it wasn't the first comment that regarding my booting of him, it was the 4th/5th, whereby my patience was exhausted. On a similar note, suppose someone bid 7NTXX then did a runner. Presumably it would not be unethical to give an average here?

HI everyone. Bidding on a hand went something like this: 2H X P P P The advancer of the doubler had nothing approaching a penalty pass of 2H, and did a runner as soon as the opening lead was made. After finding a substitute, rather than impose a double game swing on the sub (4S was cold the other way, which most of the field were finding) I assigned average both ways. Needless to say the declarer in 2H wasn't happy, and proceeded to complain, following up with "your tournaments are no fun". So I decided to relieve his misery. Was this reasonable? Mark

When you open 1C on xxx, why shouldn't 4C be a splinter? If 3C here is natural and forcing, 4C doesn't need to be the same. I had an incident with 1D 1H 2H 5D What does this one mean?

well, if your partner makes WJ overcalls on Qxxxx and out then I certainly wouldn't bid 3D, let alone 3NT

I would think twice before opening that a 10-13 NT, so to open that an 11-14 NT is criminal

I want to be in slam here no matter what, unless partner opens real cheese for his 1NT openings. I'll bid stayman, and unless I have a method of finding out a 4-4 minor suit fit (maybe a jump to 5NT asking for a 4 card minor) I'kll then bid 6NT. It'll either make or it'll go off....

Can I say something about west raising his own pre-empt? But apart from that North's 4S bid is ultra criminal. Suppose you don't bid 3S, what else are you going to do?. 3D XX is worse than 3S X.

Nothing from me this time. Half tempted by 2NT, but I think I'll resist temptation this time around.

To get the best Goulashes, I discovered that if everyone puts their hands in in a certain order, e.g. spades on top of hearts on top of diamonds on top of clubs etc, then redealt in a 4 3 3 3 method (4 cards to LHO, then 3 to CHO, 3 to RHO, 3 to dealer) and this repeated 4 times with a different player being dealt 4 cards each time, they were as wild as possible. All doubles became penatly under these systems.