gszes

Available if needed

I am unsure at best why this seems superior--surely if lho is looking at QTxx spades (and still has the dia A spade continuation is sort of obvious (3s 1h 1d). Playing the heart K and a spade shift seems unilateral. What is lho has only Qxx of spades and Jxx of hearts? that defense gives declarer 2s 1h 5c 1d. A low heart continuation gives the best of both worlds lho can continue with a spade when they hold QTxx or continue hearts with Jxx.

I would use last train to show hands that held the ACE of the splintered suit since those hands will not play anywhere near as well as hands with that powered outside the splintered suit. If the splinter is reasonable then any minimum should be able to safely raise to the 5 level and any max to the 6 level with some super max taking over and bidding 4n (rkc).

bidding goes p p and you look at the following collection KQxx void Jxxxx Kxxx hmmm ugly in almost every way shape or form no lead directional bid no aces ick I pass and suddenly lho pipes up with 4h??? p p and here we are again. Well shoot what to make of that preemptive 4h bid surely p has some reasonable values over there for this bidding to happen. It seems right to back in with x as we have 3 landing spots for a reasonable sacrifice with even the tiny chance we may make something of our own.

count me in

sounds like smerriman and or icycookie want to give coordinating a GO so I withdraw my name from consideration (and wipe the sweat from my worried brow):) Just in time as I was going to start notifications for the next challenge tomorrow:)

I have to admit that I have seen no player that uses neg x BELOW (a max of) 4h in a longgggg time. The rationale for using neg x through 7h is quite strong (though so rare it does bring utility into question vs other far more common uses). Having to bid 4s with this hand should give you good reason to pause and reconsider how high you want to play neg x:)

X I am playing with a partner and we have not discussed what to do over a transfer preempt. I would assume 3s was a michaels bid so that seems like a bad idea here. What would I do with this monster over a "normal" 3s bid? I would x intending to convert any simple bid to hearts and any jumps as grand slam possibility. The hand seems just too strong to bid 4h directly even though bidding 4h hardly shows chump change.

4s seems to stand out. The suit will play well opposite xx K or T and the fact that over half of our power is located in our longest suit greatly diminishes our defensive potential while raising our offensive potential. The negative x virtually guarantees at least some reasonable tolerance for spades when it was so easy for responder to bid a forcing 4d or 4h. Good suits do not happen that much so bidding them when they do happen would seem to be a good idea when there is doubt about what else to do. 4c might have been a magic bullet so kudos if it was a non universal action but suppressing a suit that is this good (especially a major suit) will most likely be a bad idea in the long run (especially at imps).

wonderful job I have enjoyed the couple of events I participated in. I have the time to do the coordination but my skill level means NOTHING will look as good. If no one else volunteers I am willing to give it a go (at least until the restless natives decide to draw and quarter me).

This hand has a HUGE amount of potential and I do not care much for the leap to 4h even though this hand satisfies the requirements for 4h. I would choose to lie with 3s (which I would normally take as michaels but also gives partner the extra chance to chirp 3n with no heart fit and a reasonable spade stop). If partner can make any kind of positive noise it will be tough to keep me out of slam and I would probably go searching for a grand.

I think the point here is that lying about heart length is a "free" lie. If p has a heart fit then there is also a spade fit and opener can belatedly convert ANY level heart bid to spades to clarify things and i doubt KQx will be a disappointment to responder when they play a spade contract with a heart fit.

There is a LOT of potential with this hand and it seems a bit scary to underbid to cater to the small number of misfit hands. IMHO 2h has the best chance of landing us in the right strain/level. 2h will never get us to hearts since we can always convert any heart bid to spades but it accomplishes a LOT when responder has at least 5 spades since we have easy follow up bids. over: 3h bid 4s (edited useless 2h 2s sequence since we are continuing bidding OVER 2h) hand improves significantly when responder is at least 54 majors 2s bid 3s 2n bid 3d 3n pass any jumps in the majors by responder should have us strongly considering slam. The main problem i have with a simple 2d is that there are far too many spade games that will be missed due to responder being near min and having a dia fragment. Axxxx Jx Qx xxx is a great example. That hand also will not move over 3d. 3d takes up too much space and severely limits our ability to explore various contracts. Always look for the fake reverse when you can "safely" correct to a higher strain if partner suddenly goes bananas. I dislike 2s even more than 2d since we might not have a fit and may be giving responder too much false hope.

ok i will arrive around 145pm and in case of emergency break glass

I consider this hand slightly below average for a 13 count. I would bid the systemic 2n

lots and lots of close matches I hope all had fun and maybe even made a bridge friend or two (unofficial spokesperson with lots of hot air) TYTY frank0 for coordination efforts above and beyond:)))))))))))

If your partner is a bot then pass may be your best option since bots have little/no sense of humor when it comes to balancing bids. Humans have learned that their partners sometimes stretch in balancing seat and dont automatically jump to game. 2s is a perfectly reasonable balancing bid and while it will surely backfire sometimes it is far more likely to produce a better result than letting the opps to peacefully play 2h. I do have SEVEN spades right??????

terminology you need to know balanced hand any 4333 4432 5332 semi balanced 5422 three suited any 4441 5440 two suited any two suits with 5+ cards also included are 5431 hands void no cards in a suit (there can be more than 1 void in your hand) !S AKQJT !H AKQJT98 !D void !C void (dont hold your breath waiting for this hand to appear) singleton 1 card in a suit (there can be more than 1 singleton in your hand) you will also see a singleton referred to as "stiff" doubleton 2 cards in a suit (there can be more than 1 doubleton in your hand) bridge hand distribution is normally told by suit length in the order of spades hearts diamonds clubs thus a hand like !S AK7654 !H !D Q !C KQ5432 is described as AKsixth void stiff Q KQsixth

available -- will show up around 145 just in case needed

look again picturing south ruffing 2 clubs in dummy 6s 1c 3d 3h

We have a winner - low heart at trick 2 hoping for lho to have stiff heart honor 6+ spades and 4+ clubs NOW let me see a show of hands=== how many will try for this rather than relying on a 32 club split?

well shoot I guess bridge is leaving me behind at warp speed. Not the worst 12 count in history but 1c has almost nothing going for it. 1. no lead direction 2. no source of tricks 3. average- defensive values 4. 4333 5. This would make for a great drury response if p happens to open 1M. 6. 1c offers essentially zero preemptive value if playing a weak NT at least we get that 7. At least give me 3 tens and nines to make opening this more palatable. (see I'm not that far behind) 8. Swap the dia J for a major small card and now it looks a ton better. (see I'm not that far behind) We do have 4 spades so there is a plus side

This situation is not all that infrequent and it may help to consider the following. X is tox but a more penalty oriented (aces) type hand and 2s is tox but far less defensive values. The range of the 1n replay is HUGE and being able to tell the difference btn a decent balancing hand vs a merely competitive one is important. 2s is the bid I would make with the given hand while I would x with Axx xx Axxx J9x.

2h It is not that we cannot make game or slam etc etc if we have a small heart fit. There are so many other variables it is scary. We have a decent 5 card suit that makes for a great lead director and who knows what disaster we may avoid by taking a pro active position now. How is partner going to react in PO seat with say 0166 if we pass? We have no way to guess what may come but we do know how to evaluate our hand in a heart contract but we have not a clue how to evaluate it anywhere else (though I admit I would not mind the opps playing in spades:)) Another consideration, if we pass and the opps then proceed to a minor suit slam, are we happily letting them play it there because of misfits? I for one would have vastly preferred to have given partner the opportunity to have raised my hearts to some level which would then give me a better chance to decide if a sac looks good or not.