gszes

What i like most about this hand is it stresses the importance of showing count during the play to help with the defense. While count can sometimes help declarer your p will normally be the one that benefits from the information because defense is a lot harder than declarer play and requires more imagination. Don't just count HCP make sure you picture declarers (and p) hand as much as possible.

Never a favorite for singleton honors anyway and p not bidding 1s increases the probability the spade Q is not carrying its full value. Forced to use this system i would much rather bid 2h than 3h. The secretary bird would agree with me and as usual would find p with AKx of spades with the 2 spade pitches being the only thing that allows us to make 7:))))))))))))))))))))))

This is not your everyday 11 hcp hand. Having all of your values located your 2 long suits dramatically increases the offensive potential of this hand. With most 11 counts one would never even consider looking for game. This hand evaluates to much closer to 14 if a trump fit is found and game is definitely a possibility. However,,, Since we are NVUL there is no strong reason to look for the elusive "perfect 10" (or 11) p needs to make game a decent idea. Under these conditions I bid like I'm playing MP and try for positive score 2h transfer to 2s and pass and hope some brave opp decides to balance. If I were Vul I admit to feeling compelled to search for game and my favorite method is 1n 2c after 2d 2s 5sp 4he invitational nf after 2h 2s 54 in majors invitational NF (p may have to bid 3h to sign off) after 2s 3h 54 in majors invitational p will always return to 3s if they cant accept. this method increases p risk when opener does not wish to accept game invitation but it does allow opener to evaluate how well their hand works with 9 cards in responders hand. Note that I would not be searching for game if my two suits were anything but the majors which i can moslty describe at the 2 level. This hand is not good enough to invite game in nt only suit contracts.

We almost won that last one JEC stormed to finish line with 19 imps over the last 4 boards to win by 9. They were so impressed we have another shot next saturday. Short notice again but who wants to step up and play:))))))))))))))))))))) Its fun and as I watched the last few boards it seemed a huge amount of the kibitzers were cheering for the forum :)))))))

Lets take a critical look at our hand form a defensive standpoint----we managed a heart trick and we wont get another. Our side needs at least 2 more tricks and we can only offer partial help for one of those with the spade K. Our 4h bid was based on distribution and p might easily have expected more from us when they x. Lets quit being so optimistic and concentrate on actually trying to set this contract rather than making a play that might allow the opps to make. Do not play a spade that is quite easily the only play that could allow this contract to make. If i had a trump i would switch to it but as it is I will continue with the heart A. WHY? well if declarer has the spade A 6 dia trick club J they have 11 tricks and it makes no difference what i do. If p has a trump trick they are down to 10 tricks and leading a spade lets declarer ride it around to their Q for their 11th trick. will our spade tricks go anywhere if we continue hearts?? NOT likely declarer has 2h and say 6dia they have 6 black cards of which only 4 can disappear clubs so if we are due 2 or even 3 spade tricks we wil get them in due time. Sit back relax try for down 1 and take down 3 if it happens to present itself. Not knowing openers count in hearts also hampers our assesment. If we strongly suspect opener has 63 in the with only 4 black cards 3 would go on clubs for sure so that would leave only 1 winner. That means we need to make a spade switch immediately or forever give up more than 1 spade trick. Even this assumption could be wrong if declarer only has 5d and a spade switch is the only way for declarer to avoid a spade loser. Defense is hard good luck.

difficult to imagine p with a hand worse than say Kxxx x AKxx KQxx for their direct x of 4h at unfavorable. We give p a lot of latitude when they do things in the po seat but in direct chair they still have a p to back them up. For ex after 4h p p this hand can bid 4n on its own in po seat and p has to realize your 4n was under great duress since the bidding would end if you passed. The same level of pressure does not exist in the direct seat and it is generally much more dangerous in direct seat with a still unlimited opponent to your left. In the PO seat the bidding will generally let you know if p has some values or not. Anyway in this case 5n and let p pick the best minor. Preempts work keep doing them.

p wishes to accept game try but feels it is possible that four spades (43 fit) may be superior to 3n. IMO this opinion is much more likely to be correct if responder has a partial dia fit and no club stopper and a max. Something like KQx Kxxxx Qx xxx If the 1d 1h 1s auction did not promise an unbalanced hand then responder might even have a hand like KQx Kxxxx Qxx xx where they could not bid 2d and had to choose 1n. 3d (over 2n) would have sounded like a sign off and a fear of nt and weak so that bid was unavailable. The lack of a club stopper makes responder (rightly) fear 3n so responder is offering opener a variety of places to play 3s 3n 4d 4h 4s 5d might all be reasonable choices for opener (though passing 3s would be more of a unilateral decision with a very low % probability of being right). It has been suggested that being short in diamonds should be a requirement but the shortness should instill caution rather making a bid from which there is no return to safety. A hand similar to KQx Kxxxx x xxxx should be more than happy to pass 2n rather than bidding 3s. If clubs are a problem the 4 card spade suit will have to do the ruffing and there is a really good chance we will need a 33 spade split to bring 4s home (Ive seen worse). With a hand like KQx KQxxx x xxxx being at tippy top for the bidding one could forgive a slightly overly aggressive 3s bid since we have a ton of power for game just not sure if anything is right:)))))) IF the 1d 1h 1s auction promised an unbalanced hand this is even more crucial since responder could have easily chosen to bid 2/3d vs 1n with a dia fit a hand like KQx Kxxxx Qxx xx

following the first come first served policy the pairs will be artk78/guymath gszeszycki/abcxl 1-14 gszeszycki/glfolgy 15-28 we hope to have a huge cheerleading section:))))))))))))))))

since we do not have any bidding that might give us a clue which opp holds the trump ace the above approach is best under all circumstances

you two are in anyone else or do i have to supply the backup pair????????????????????? BTW i intend to turn in guymath and artk78 as your bbo names if that is not correct let me know and i will also send a message on bbo

At favorable vul there is no reason to assume p can have a long strong suit of their own since they could have easily competed over 1h with a preempt of some kind. Under these conditions it has to be spade support and decent clubs. At unfavorable it is still possible for p to have a hand such as void xxx xxx QJTxxxx so make sure you discuss these auctions with p. The spade support with clubs will come up a lot more often than the suppressed 1 suited hand and that's the reason this treatment is chosen ocer natural. You just have to be willing to bite the bullet and pass when you have the rare 1 suited hand you could not show earlier in the bidding (you can always hope the opps x p in their suit then you can introduce yours (p will be void and hate you of course hehe).

I can bring a team if needed but i hate doing that --- I hope we get some volunteers so far I have gszeszycki abcxl glfolgy agreed to play but all are aware posters have the priority. Lets get some interest going but we have only 3 days left.

IF I have 2h and 1c losers I need the dia finesse to work.If I have 1c and 1h then all I need to do is ruff a couple of clubs and dia finesse is for an overtrick. trick 2 duck club and try to ruff low in dummy if that works cash trick 3 heart A and see if trumps are 40 (ick) assuming trumps are NOT 40 trick 4 ruff a spade trick 5 low club intending to ruff at this point the most I can lose is 1h 1c 1d so even lho ruffs club high and returns a dia rise and pull last trump give up a dia if trumps are 40 (what you thought this would be easy?) and LHO has the 4 trumps since we need lho to hold the dia K rho must have the spade A trick 4 spade K intending ruffing finesse assuming covered ruff trick 5 dia finesse trick 6 spade Q pitch club trick 7 ruff a spade trick 8 dia finesse lets assume the dia K appeared trick 9 ruff a spade this leaves our hands as 6 9 QJ void void KT x K trick 10 club K uppercuts lho and we have to score 2 more hearts If rho has 4 hearts really ughhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh trick 4 spade k for same reasons as before trick 5 dia finesse trick 6 spade Q (intending to pitch a dia*) trick 7 dia A trick 8 lead a spade (intending to overruff if rho splits honors trick 9 club K trick 10 ruff club trick 11 lead a spade and our spade T must score a 10th trick this lop pretty much needs rho to have 2425 distribution but it can be done. *If rho is 1435 and splits honors ruffing the spade Q overruff then trick 7 dia finesse trick 8 dia ace trick 9 club to hand trick 10 ruff a club trick 11 spade and heart T must score a trick IM tired i need a sub

A 5c bid will generally be "weaker" in overall power since it is a unilateral bid in the sense that it disallows the possiblity of 4s x---raising bids of this nature require large amounts of controls favoring aces much more heavily than anything else. I would rarely raise one of these bids without at least 2 aces and something else (hopefully a control in opps suit)

only the most pessimistic amng us bid 2d vs x initially-- a 43 fit is hardly the worst that can happen with ruffs coming from the 3 card suit. As it turns out s will have an easy 3h bid over 2s and easy 4h game is reached. If e bids 3s than it is much tougher but with extra values N can x again though its close and again 4h is reached.

nice simple easy 2c bid if p bids 2d or 2h bid 2n if p bids 2s bid 4s not even that close of a decision vul at imps:))

i have MAYBE 3 defensive tricks will not be happy playing 2CX unless they are down 2 so p needs MAYBE 4 tricks I do not like my odds failure to x now will limit my hand which is good but may far too often result in 2c getting passed out for a poor score. The best course seems to be to bid 2d At least your side has a fair chance of winning the partial war and who knows maybe p will be able to bid 2h or 2s game can still be reached. Enamy bidding is deigned to disrupt smooth communications do not be overy concerned about missing a 44 spade fit at the expense of losing the entire hand.

The point of the discussion was what to do with responder's hand. How do you evaluate for ex is Kx xxxxxx xxx Kx the same as xx Kxxxxx Kxx xx? is one of these two worthy of a texas and the other a simple jacoby and pass. At MP we invite dearly meaning we are a tad on the heavy side asking p to bid game with anything but a minimum. At IMPS where we push to bid game we invite freely which means we ask p to bid game only when they are close to maximum (not strong enough to super accept). How does vulnerability affect your decision? These are the kinds of nuts and bolts decisions that help make strong and enjoyable partnerships. Even if you are slightly on the wrong side as long as both of you are happy with your p decision you will enjoy this great game of ours rather than having to reach for the pepto bismol every time you see a dummy you feel was overbid or underbid (no matter the result). For what it's worth, the three mentees were upset that I didn't create a poll because they were absolutely certain they were right. They were also quite happy to see that an issue they felt strongly about had generated 40+ responses. I warned them before posting that there would likely be nothing like a consensus because we are taught differently and that strongly affects how we think about hands. TYTY all for your input.

a calm quiet and serene 2d bid without the slightest bit of discomfort I have garbage and p deserves to hear where that garbage is.

1h 2c 2d if p cannot bid 2n/3n you can use splinter theory without having to waste the space. Your hand becomes much more valuable if p has no wasted values in spades. Note however that the 2d bid is what allows your p to bid the nt if they can. Once you jump to 3h (your hand is good enough but why waste the space) you create a problem for your partner since they have no clue about your dia stops they may not be able to bid nt. Another problem with 3h is showing a strong hand leaves your p in a postion to have to choose between 3n and 4h so you never have a clue how good your hand is. P also begins slamming about having no clue how strong your hand is and you are now floundering around because you were sort of minimum for your 3h bid and still have no clue if the spade singelton is a good or a poor feature. Try to avoid self preemption when you can. IMO you have done enough but I say that with no great convition that it is the right thing to do.

Theres a reason the 5 level belongs to the opps PASS plenty of time to get minors (note 2 not one) in later if need be.

Our ability to "sever" opps club commumications by ducking the first round of clubs in conjunction with being able to play the hand double dummy should give us a reasonable chance of making 3n. Rho didnt try for game which increases the expected power from p somewhat. If we have no play for 3n there is a very good chance that 3c will make so any loss we take from going down will have minimal impact. The risk vs reward of IMPS seems reasonable. At MP a pass is just as reasonable a way to try for a top as bidding 3N though I admit the 3N flag is waving in front of me and I will probably charge anyway. IMO 3N =10 pass = 8 dbl = 6 nothing is perfect preempts work keep doing them.

With this hand maybe a start of 2d is better than 2n espcially if playing 2/1)

BIG subject but the concept of 7 is around almost everywhere. It is a rare circumstance when we overcall that we actually have 7 tricks we usually need help from p and 7 normal hcp usually makes our overcall worthwhile. we are all too familiar with the bidding going 1h 1s (overcall) p p x pass out (oooops) and the overcall gets slaughtered a ton because overcallers partner did not have the 7 needed to keep this from happening. Lho opens 1d x p generally speaking with 7 hcp (balanced hand) we will make a minimum noise and if we are stronger we avoid the minimum bids because we want p to know we have more than 7. If the bidding goes 1d p 1s and we have xx AKxx xxx AKxx we have a very reasonable tox if the bidding goes 1d p 2n (10/11) now a tox appears to be much less reasonable because we KNOW p cannot have much more a side ace so we do not try to borrow and pass. The tox ovr 1d 1s is very reasonable since we have no strong reason to be sure p cannot have the 7 we need to make our bid work. A tox over 1d 2n however will generally have significantly less chance of success and will end up in a lot more doubled horrors than the first tox will. Note that none of the bidders involved here are in po seat. A PO seat bid is based mostly on expectations of p strength based on the bidding rather than a number like 7. Lets say you hold vul xx Axxxxxx xx xx and lho opens 1n and it goes p p to you. You have an easy 2h bid not because of your hand power alone but because your partner is marked with at least 12 hcp (opps max 24 leaves p with 16 - your 4 for the heart A) and possibly stronger. Will 2h always work? heck no, opener will sometimes have a max and KQJx of hearts behind you (OUCHIES) but this wil not happen often.

The auction pretty much precludes p having the ability to x 3h so I do not think the non x of 3h should b taken into consideration. P either feels he has it set no matter what you lead OR they are trying to get a specific lead and the only way to get a specific lead is to ask for a heart (IMO)