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there is plenty of room over 2cx to allow advancer the opportunity to express their power so it seems unnecessary to adopt the relay there. Over 3c we are very crowded and giving up a nebulous 3d seems ok as long as we use it to show WEAK hands that want to almost always try and sign off in 3h/s or 4d. This allows advancer to show positive responses with greater clarity of strain in what little space we have left to explore.

A shows a hand around 9hcp with decent hearts (xx QJTxxxx Kx Kx B shows a 12+ HCP hand but with 6+ iffy hearts Ax Axxxxx xxx KQ When we make the original x we cannot anticipate a 2s raise. The x might merely be a way of introducing hearts by limiting power and correcting openers response if lho passes. That means the 3h bid is competitive only. This is not the same situation as 1s x 2s p p 3h where the x followed by strain (hearts) shows a very strong hand. After p opens the x acts as a power LIMITER when we introduce a new suit. When we bid 2h directly we start with showing power and further clarify our overall holding with the 3h bid in order to allow opener to help us with a final strain choice.

5d If p opted to show clubs vs make a neg x with 4 spades then it's back to the drawing board. IMHO there is too much risk in letting the opps play almost any number of spades since everything points to the hand playing very well for them I think it is time to take charge and take advantage of favorable and bid 5d. I do not see any strong way to win this board unless 5d makes and, while I do not expect 5d to make, I have a strong hope there will be no x with my really good diamonds and the opps having zero clue as to the nature of my hand. 5d is a insurance bid (ie I don't want to lose the match on this board) and I don't mind going -50 an undertrick.

wellllll after 4h supermax might be a tad optimistic but overall this is a very decent hand opposite a singleton/void in hearts. You are not strong enough to take over the bidding (which you would do with a supermax OUTSIDE hearts ie make the !HAK the !DAK). 5c You need to make a positive noise and by far the best way to proceed seems to be 5c. P will undoubtedly cue 5d and now you can safely bid 5h so p now has a pretty darn accurate idea of what your hand looks like (though sometimes the heart K will be a pleasant surprise). Hopefully your partnership radically discounts jacks not in long (4+) suits) in slam auctions so any bidding made by partner after 5h should be pretty darn accurate (unless they are convinced you have long clubs (ouch).

Even if we are SURE the opps are not making 5c it is a cruddy idea to x with this hand since p might think we actually have stuff. The real question seems to be do we have enough to try and MAKE 5s. Maybe but probably not and so it seems best to just take our small probable plus and hope we get luckier next hand. P had a chance to bid over 5c and failed to try anything so the odds seem stacked against us making 5+ spades.

This was not some careless LOP chosen by declarer (Note the Dia T to the King). Declarer (imho) was going to finesse lho for Hxx on the second round of diamonds if H dropped from rho on first round of diamonds. Another diamond merely means declarer was going to try and run the suit since the ONLY POSSIBLE way to make any more dia tricks was to play the other top honor. It is utter (pun intended) nonsense to assume any dia but the K could possibly be the intended LOP. The purpose of the LAWS is not to promote a career as a lawyer amongst our membership but to try and make sure the outcome is fair. There is ZERO fairness in forcing declarer to make the INSANE play of a small dia when the intent is so obvious.

red vs white and unlimited (at worst invitational) lho and p failed to x 3c (an easy way to show some support even if weak). These warning signs are posted for a reason and if you should decide to test the waters anyway I sincerely hope you are not shocked when you get devoured by piranha (and dragging your poor innocent partner in with you). Please pass and try to not lose the match on what possibly could be a part score hand.

there seemed to be over 1400 entrants in day 3 yet as I looked at my scores I see that they were compared not against the entire field but against a random number of opps. The norm seemed to be around 23 but I saw some 19 and some a bit higher. SOOOOOOOOOOOOO in this day and age of lightning fast computers, Why were not all of the boards totaled up at the end of the day and compared to all other results?? I did not check day one and day 2 results so there may be a similar "problem" there. If this is the wrong place anyone that knows better feel free to move it or tell me where to put it:)))))))))))))))))))))))

I am constantly amazed at the lack of interest in playing (and learning from the experience) against some of the top players in the WORLD. In what other sport can one try to hone one's skills against future hall of fame players?? Even if you get slaughtered 3 good things will come from the experience. 1. You will begin to get rid of some of the butterflies that inevitably happen when playing in high level competition (some days in front of 1000+ kibitzers). 2. JEC graciously provides all the medical help you need to help heal those JEC MACK TRUCK TIRE WOUNDS:))))))) 3. No guarantee on this one but you might actually LEARN something if you study the results.

QJ754 QJ2 Q KQ32 hmm now let me see what to do what to do OH wait that's not the problem what do I do with a min full of controls???? 4h

4c IMPS is a game or risk vs reward. I think 3c looks totally normal and should work a decent amount of the time. The problem I have with 3c is that it is not clear the opps do not have a heart game they are just itching to bid. 3c makes it entirely too easy for either N OR S to chime back in with 3h. There is a very real concern p has short hearts here and while we might have some decent defense against spades we might have little against hearts. If p is concerned with your overbidding clubs just explain you were willing to up the level by one to eliminate the risk of the opps finding a big heart game. If perchance p has 2 places to play (!D !H) at the very least we will get to play 4h from our side while probably being too high.

sigh when I first started playing bridge I read many comments like this (a long neck eliminates the need to guess many queens). Even when made in jest, newer players can be unduly influenced in many undesirable ways by reading such commentary. It is totally illegal to intentionally bid more slowly to convey the concept of more distribution vs a quick x to show more balanced distribution.

something like KQ Axx QTxxxx KJ where opening 1n seemed better than starting with 1d and trying to figure out how many dia to rebid. does not wish to accept invite and feels 3d safer especially since responder rates t have at least 3 of them.

The 4s bid has a monstrous range. This makes the use of forcing pass impossible. That means it seems that 5hx is a VERY tiny target where 4hx is wrong but 5hx (for penalty) is right. It seems clear to me (fwiw) that the 2nd x shows a hand that is torn between x and 5s. The hesitation suddenly brings out the "law enforcement" in many of us and this attitude robs south of their natural use of judgement in such situations (especially when they get it right).

UMM I have NO CLUE what we are talking about (apparently I live with my head in the sand). Is this some sort of individual with robots? As a first timer (obviously), what requirements must be met and how would I join. Do I need a partner or a team? My apologies in advance for being so clueless ty

4h I will try to dispassionately go over the arguments in favor of 4h while quietly wishing this had been a 1st seat problem vs a 2nd or vul vs not (this last point made because there at many factors that contribute to choosing a bid in bridge not just suit quality). 1. The fact that rho has passed means anything LHO wishes to do and 4h will make anything they wish to do even more strained due to the now average of 6hcp their p now holds. 2. PASS will never accomplish (1) 3. ON AVERAGE our p will have the best HCP hand at the table and they need to be convinced our hand needs to be played in hearts. 4. PASS might never accomplish (3) and hearts may well become impossible to bid later on in many auctions. 5. GAME our way can become almost impossible to bid if we pass when p has just 1 heart and 2 aces, making us monstrous favorites to make 4h. 6. If p has just 1 heart and 2 aces our opps are monstrous favorites to have a game and 4h makes it exceedingly hard to bid (unlike pass). 7. There is a certain amount of risk in all preemptive action but the odds seem to favor boldness here with rho having already limited their hand. 8. ANY time p is considering slam our hand will not disappoint with its otherwise balanced distribution (most of the time p will bid rkc when slamming and sign off in the right spot). Will bidding 4h always work? NO but the odds of the game of bridge dictate 4h will be the superior action in the long run.

GOOD QUESTION and naturally not easy to answer. The bidding has to be taken into consideration and the player short in trumps can x IF and ONLY IF they have enough quick tricks they expect to take. W/O these quick tricks it is far better to leave any penalty x to the partner with the long trumps. Example: noint the opps bidding goes as follows 1n 2c 2h 3h 4h. This is a limited auction where slam is usually far off and you hold Axxx void Axxxx Axxx this is the perfect hand type for a penalty x. You know the opps trump suit is breaking badly (though I have seen some ten card trump fits bid this way) and you expect to take 3 quick tricks hoping for at worst one more trick and/or handling problems for the opps due to bad trump split. If you hold KQxx void KQxx KQxx you can see from your own hand p is likely totally broke so even if they have 5 trumps they will all be little ones. The 1n bidder is behind you and the prospect of taking more than 3 (if that) tricks on defense seems like a tiny target. Pass. There are all kinds of in between situations and it is a matter of partnership stability as to how much gambling with penalty x one does. A corollary to this thinking is x by the hand with the long (strong) trumps. If the bidding seems to make partners honors well placed then go for the throat otherwise it is usually best to avoid the x unless you are so strong as to virtually ensure setting the contract yourself. Ex: same bidding as above and you hold Axx QJT9 xxx xxxx. If the 1n bidder is to my left this is an easy x (that will sometimes backfire) since partners honors are well placed behind the opening 1n bidder. If the 1n bidder is to your right caution should be exercised since p honors are now all under the gun and while a penalty x might work it can also backfire spectacularly. The 2nd example (where the 1n bidder is to your right) is more of a MP x where it is only 1 board if wrong but can steal a close to top when right.

At least now I see why I frequently lose 8 finesses (or more) in a row and spades is far less than a 50% shot.

The heart suit is nothing to write home about. With this particular collection I prefer x. Change the HCP around some Axxx AQJxx x xxx and 1h suddenly looks a ton better since it provides not only a decent landing spot but a good lead director.

I have a math question for all the genius out there and this hand is a good example. In order for 6d to succeed we have 2 plausible LOP heart A and lead to the J OR lead to the J immediately. In order to determine which is best I have a curious question. We NEED SOUTH to hold certain distribution(s) AND since both LOP handle all 22 splits those are irrelevant to choosing which lop to use. Thus SOUTH needs to have started with: (or a bunch of other irrelevant distributions) KQT8 KQT KQ8 KT8 QT8 My question now is does this change the odds dramatically in favor of playing to the J? It would seem that of the IMPORTANT remaining distributions playing to the J caters to 60% while playing the A caters to 40%. While there are other factors like the bidding etc that change the odds I am curious WHY or WHY NOT does this highly limited set not more accurately reflect which LOP should be chosen vs one that merely reflects a pool of all the possible distributions????????

there is a ton of odd stuff going on with the opps carding (why not unblock spade K at trick 1 for ex). But all that aside what about laying down the dia K at trick 4. This will keep all communications open so that if something nice does happen in diamonds u can always make 4. BTW the bidding is messed up (2h insufficient) and who owns the spade 7?

Until now no one (even you) has commented on the subminimal dummy due to the lack of the spade K (come on partner quit hiding the spade K and put in on the table - when the dummy hit). N bidding looked totally normal to me (would turning the heart K into the heart A have made a difference? or did the lack of a key card reinforce the idea of the existence of the spade K?). You made an assumption on the presence of the spade K that I would not have made and explored in a different way because of that assumption (my theoretical partnership would have stopped in 5c but that is not important). That is what makes the bridge world go around and helps partnerships flourish (when they agree with each other's thinking). Given your assumption of the spade K I think 6n is a reasonable final spot (especially if you are counting on only 6 clubs) but please also note that with the assumption of the spade K there are many more instances where 6c makes easily and becomes a way better than 50% contract (90%+ with this particular distribution) even with the "tomb digging" lead of a dia through the AQ since we would just hop the A and ignore the, apparently doomed, finesse completely. Though this is only 1 distribution of many.

Looking at this hand objectively we seem to be worth a 4c bid BUT given the way bridge is scored failing to bid 4h seems almost criminal. I have no intention of letting the opps play 4s and I will bid 5c even if 4s x happens. I might have a problem if opps bid 5s

pass there is a VERY strong chance p has he spade Q so our hand is already a tad disadvantaged. The one probable dia ruff merely makes up for needing the extra trick at 4h. The 4 atom sized hearts are just another strike against the all eggs in one basket 4h approach.

I am somewhat skeptical we can beat this but it seems logical to duck the first spade (I will regret this in the am if lho manages to have 6 spades though).