gszes

when the opps show dia + spades the x can be either. The problem is partner has to decide by looking at their hand and they may all too readily decide it is diamonds.

must be something I am missing note how everyone seems to be assuming your 2c is inverted when you have not specified it as such. Unfortunately partner was laboring under the illusion that 2c was non forcing (see board 1). Now does a 2d bid look any better? How about passing 3n when the weak 2c bidder stops both majors? See how a tiny detail like inverted off in competition can have a huge effect on the outcome of the bidding ?:))))))))))))))) Note how your interpretation of my 2d bid does not read as 16+ but mainly min with dia stop for NT purposes--it does not even promise extra values. so both sides were essentially operating under the invalid premise there was communication happening:)

HEHE after the game you admitted to me that inverted minors are off after interference. However by that time I had already seen hand 1 where you bid 2c with a 6 count after interference so I had no reason to assume you were suddenly playing inverted. This game is about how well partnerships can exchange information using a VERY limited vocabulary. Show up early and do not handicap your partnerships further by making your partner guess your intentions. By hand 10 I was doing stuff like telling the opps (transfer I hope sigh) since we seemed to be all over the place. You played pretty well overall and our partners did great so we got within spitting range. JEC does not have a ton of patience for really simple errors in the bidding so don't ruin these matches for the rest of us by not being as well prepared as reasonably possible Happy Chinese New Year.

several things: 1. You are a passed hand at favorable so don't expect your partners "weak" bids to stay within too well defined parameters (once game appeared to be non existent I chose 4d in the hope it would be more disruptive to opps than us). 2. Assuming you think p has around 8 dia just how much defence do you think our partnership has against the opps. A better strategy might have been an immediate 6d (hard to bid 7d looking at the spade AQ behind the xer) or maybe even pass is better since the opps do not have much room to explore anymore. Your 5d gives them another chance they do not deserve and the 6d gives them yet another chance (an this time they got it right). Preempt to max or silence are the best ways to go and silence can be powerful when an opp has a void (quite likely given the bidding). 3. Something can be said for a 3s bid (as a lead director) but having 5 of them (rather than say 3) diminishes the effectiveness for that purpose.

I will show up around 20 min early if nee3ded break glass:)

opps have 4 trumps AQJ9 when u lead from board the 9 pops so you need to go through the different cases in your head before making a play. You are looking for cases where your play makes a difference. If lho began with: your choice is insert the T or the K AQJ9 makes no difference you will lose 3 spades AQ9/AJ9 makes no difference you will lose 2 spades QJ9 inserting the K will lose 3 spade tricks anything else loses 2 spade tricks A9 ducking loses 2 spade tricks rising with K loses 1 spade trick Q9/J9 makes no difference you are losing 2 spade tricks 9 makes no difference you are losing 3 spade tricks Note that once the 9 appears we need to assess what to do given our overall strategy of making 4s. It appear we have 1 dia loser so we should gear our trump suit play to trying to make sure we lose no more than 2 spades. The ONLY situation where it makes any difference is when lho begins with QJ9 if we insert the K we lose 3 spade tricks (I think it is a mistake for lho to not split honors here since a trump coupe appears to be VERY VERY unlikely). Since it makes no difference in any other holding inserting the T is the right play for that reason alone. It is not just the suit itself in isolation but in conjunction with your overall strategy. If you needed to hold your trump losers to 1 than going up with the K would be right.

I think the point here is to show up EARLY on game days and have time to discuss these simple problems OR at least put something on your profile to handle the easy stuff like this situation). JEC needs practice and letting them gain imps on simple sequences like this are irritating to them:)

Is it possible partner might think you wish to penalize diamonds when you first x?? I think so (in this case east might have saved your side from disaster) saves you) but do you really want to risk playing 2d x?? ackkk so to begin with x is a huge risk. I think a simple 2s bid to begin with (checking to see if p has a dia stop) might be amuch better idea. If p cannot come up with a dia stop (or maybe in this case x 3d) our hand becomes a rock crusher. We are still not sure just how much our combined assets are worth and taking it slow might easily be the best approach. Given the original x (we have luckily survived) but still face the same problems as before just how good are we? IMHO start with 3s which should show spades stopped and asking for dia stop for 3n. Do not expect much since p did not x 3d to begin with). The 3s bid is mainly to help gauge if p has any wasted dia honors before we decide how high to go.

I have windows 10 but no cards show up after the bidding ANYWAY it seems suicidal to pretend p might have the heart ace since that would mean the 3n bidder began with something like Qxx Jxxx AQJ AKx hard to imagine anyone believing 3n looks palatable with that collection. I would much rather imagine declarer with something like Qxxx Axx Axx KQ(x) where 3n might merely take a little luck in one side suit (spades). This hand seems impossible to beat unless P has a club winner (ie the ace). Having the ace does not guarantee we will set 3n unless we do something positive before the ace is gone. Since it seems at least possible p might have started with a short spade we must cater to that possibility by switching to a small dia. This gives us 2 possible ways of setting 3n either via diamonds or spades gaining us 4 tricks and the club A. Switching to a small dia does not change the original message that we wanted to start with spades so p will realize our dia suit is not a game changer since we would probably have preferred leading that. More importantly, If the dia switch appears to be a poor choice we can fall back on hoping p began with 3 spades if they return a spade after winning the club ace. The dia switch alone might prove very successful if we hit p with QJxx or even Q98 and a singleton spade.

ladies and gents a future politician:))))))))))))

There is a MONSTROUS difference btn bidding 1n into the teeth of a known 5+ card suit (with no stopper) and doing the same over a 3+ card suit with no stopper. IMHO 1n may be right in values but it is horrific strategy, How many players would voluntarily open 1n in first seat if everyone at the table knew their rho had a 5+ card suit and an opening hand? That is what we face here and unless you lead a consistently charmed life there is little to love about walking into this probable death trap here. A simple x will get most hands out of the way quickly and quietly with far far less danger than 1n. Remember we have a partner and who knows maybe they have a spade stopper and can bid NT when they can see it. Pass seems too timid though hardly horrific. x=9 pass = 3.5 1n = 2 and will test the patience of most partners even when it works.

we survived the opening salvo and have discovered the opps have a 8+ card spade fit and I have little intention of letting them back in easily by bidding a measly 2h.Game is 5050 opposite AQ9 of diamonds and a couple of trumps. Cannot see bidding less than 3h here. Even if 4h goes down the opps may have a making 3s hand.

I would wait until p has shown a game forcing hand then belatedly show my 6 bagger (mostly when responder bid 3n). It is fairly safe there and will rarely interfere with your far more normal sequences. If responder likes the idea of a minor slam they merely step bid to use RKC if not they use 4n to sign off OR if not sure cue bid something (besides next step or 4n) to show interest but unable to take control. As an aside I would be much more tempted to use this with hands that had at least 2nd round control in all suits so there are few circumstances where responder cannot feel safe taking control of the bidding. This method would allow responder to still splinter when not signing off or using the rkc step bid.

West should realize that opener would need close to 20 hcp and a club singleton for 6h to make sense and if p is looking at that much they will probably move anyway. West then needs to find an appropriate description for the hand and it seems that the west hand is being viewed in way too positive a light. ONE trick might make a great preemptive hand but it does not make a slammish hand (MAYBE opposite a strong 2 bid). The west hand is a nice safe 4h raise (in that sense only might it be considered GF) but should not go slowly since that should promise much more -convertible- values (convert those 3 <assuredly useless> jacks into a (non club) king and now we have something to talk about) than the hand has. Rho will have no problem passing the 4h raise. Down 1 is NOT always good bridge:))))))))))))) I did not like the 4n bid since it is being used more along the lines of a slam search tool < a technique that can be used in a cramped bidding situation which this is not> rather than being used to avoid going down in what otherwise looks like a good slam. If east had begun with a cue bid over 3h surely west would have been happy to sign off and maybe the partnership could have avoided this debacle.

MP it is one board so the occasional disaster is mitigated significantly by the huge number of times we break even or improve our score. It would not surprise me at all if the hand depended on how good partner's spot cards are. It looks like the opps are well positioned to score 8 or 9 tricks in diamonds so pushing them to 3d seems to give us a 50% chance of improving our score (I wish all my slams were at least that good). If the opps are only due 2 tricks (along with 6 dia) does it not seem reasonable that we are due close to 9 tricks on offense? This last question might be based on a faulty premise the opps are making only 8/9 tricks but what if it is right? Can we really afford to sit idly by while poor partner is holding a nice 11 count and a ratty 5 card suit (say hearts) that they really did not feel was overcall material?? If we pass this out just how aggressive will we and our partner have to be in prebalance position (ick)? We might indeed go down and make our score worse we might go down a lot and get a zero but in a life time of bridge balancing here makes great sense in the long run. DBL

JEC (winners of the 2015 Spingold) plays a match against BBO forum posters (28 boards) most Saturdays (2pm NYC time). Go to BBo Forum Events for requirements. If you ask or replay to questions frequently on the BBO FORUMS this opportunity is open to YOU:

PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT JEC (winners of 2015 Spingold) allows forum posters to play against them in a 28 board match. Go to BBO Forum Events to check for requirements but if you are a frequent forum question poster or one that supplies answers this opportunity is open to YOU: Matches are held 2pm eastern time (NYC)

I will fill in if needed be there around 20 min before game time to chat about systems carding etc

Assuming these two hands meet your criteria for minimum: IMHO QJ32 KQJ32 void K432 (SAYC) should be willing to make a simple 3c bid. If responder cannot make a move over 3c odds are you are not missing game/slam with all those quacks. (2/1) responder is a tad stronger so I would fire out there with 3d (splinter) and let p decide what to do. 8765 AKQ32 void K654 (SAYC) Vastly superior hand and should have no trouble bidding 2s showing extra values. If responder feels NT is right you can feel pretty safe trying it. If responder seems afraid of NT you have the values to not only feel safe in 5c but slam should be in our thinking. (2/1) You have close to a monster --for a minimum hand that is--lets get the rolling with 3c because that makes bidding NT the easiest if responder cares to bid it and if not our hand becomes gigantor and the question becomes how high can we soar and the 3c bid setting trumps becomes a great anchor. It is not just distribution and HCP but what kind and location of HCP that helps one decide the overall value of a hand.

I think 4c here should show something :useful: in clubs A/K/Q using it to show only a control is far less useful overall and can be properly interpreted as short only when responder stated with AK. In fact it is worse than that since opener has not supported clubs it becomes useless knowledge since responder already knows opener is short (2 or less) (surely opener would prefer 3c over 2h vs 3d). 1h 2c 2d 2h 3d 3s 3n (at least 2 of top 3 heart honors) I realize this is not a popular treatment (normally this bid is made with nothing crucial that needs to be bid) (ie give opener a stiff A/K/Q of clubs and would prefer a 4c bid - something that might get buried if not mentioned immediately. 4c cue 4h nothing else useful to describe pass responder knows opener is almost surely 2551 or 3550 (no 3s bid over 2h) and max 15 (can be significantly less) bidding more is hoping opener is near max and even then slam is probably shaky at best.

the opening hands are different and possibly continuing this thread can be useful as the approaches are different (just a thought) you can always just delete this post if you do not care:)

Realize the silliness of 4c/d bids as choices when 4h is higher. Preempts work. Neg x though 5s (my preferred limit) shows a pretty darn powerful minor 2 suited hand. Opener has a large club fit and while the KJ of spades are of dubious value surely the fact that we have two quick tricks (plus ruffing dia value) should be more than enough to make a positive noise rather than simply settling for a mere preference 5c. 5h (cue) showing a large (unknown) fit seems a far better idea than a mere 5c preference with our 2 quick tricks and possible ruffing value in diamonds. Responder now bids 5n and while this is GSF it is merely asking opener for 1 of the top 3 honors in either minor to bid 7 of their preferrend trump suit. 6h follows to show the heart ace and a top minor honor (just in case 7n is reasonable) (6n would show both major aces) 7c (POC) by responder is finally passed out

14 cards hard to analyze for the sake of this hand I am assuming only 4 clubs (which means I will get a lot of hate mail later on sigh after I have guessed wrong). Preempts work. IMHO 4n is too important a slam search device for our most probable slam (spades) to give up for the far less likely 2 independent minor suit hands. We are not powerless in the face of this barrage as long as we are playing neg x. I personally play my neg x through 5s (I have read many like to play through 7s) so x here is designed to show the minors and they have to be pretty darn good to force opener to choose at the 5 level. Openers hand has a lot to hate about it but that huge club fit is anything but terrible and the heart A looks like a superb card. With the spade KJ maybe being reduced to nothing opener's hand looks more like xxxxx Ax xx Qxxx. This is not the kind of (opening bid) we are proud of and therefore a simple 5c preference is called for. responder has a monster hand but faces a problem in that the simple preference bid does not even promise support (opener could have 1/2 in the minors) yet even opposite that kind of support 6c still looks like a pretty good bet so the question becomes, is there any thing we can do to search for 7? 5N here (gsf) allows us to get to a grand if opener has as little as Qx in clubs so that seems to be the way to go and on this day Qxxx is enough to bid 7c). On another day would xxxx be enough (see preempts work)? Anyway 6h by responder shows the heart A and 6n would have shown both major suit aces in case n was right) 7c by opener settles the issue

Discourage Most opening leads are a probabilistic stab in the dark. Discouraging diamonds allows p to far more accurately assess where the best chance for success lies. P will be counting hcp in declarer's hand and trying to figure out where your (much more limited) HCP are. Accurately placing the dia Q (if p is not already looking at it) will help p create a clearer picture on what to do next.

PASS yikes there are a ton of warning signs here that maybe stepping out with 3c might be a tad dangerous. Lho is unlimited. P still has a chance to back into the bidding if 2s is passed around. It is feasible to go for a huge number opposite a partscore and even down 2 x is horrid at MP opposite an opps game. Will CHO be able to take a joke and remain quiet looking at around 10 hcp and a spade stop (probably not). It just seems bidding 3c here offers the smallest of benefits with huge risks (much more forgivable at MP than IMPS.