SimonFa

Sry, 6♥

Someone on another thread said that triple squeezes only appear in bridge books so I thought you might be interested in this had, again from last nights BGB Summer Summer Simultaneous Pairs (http://www.simpairs.com/freq.asp?Board=24&Submit=Go&ClubId=&session=005668) [hv=pc=n&s=st75hq4dqj9765ca2&w=saj2hk85dt3ckj953&n=s4ht97632da2ct876&e=skq9863hajdk84cq4&d=w&v=0&b=8&a=1cp1sp1n(Forced%20under%20our%20system)p3nppp&p=h6hjhqhkc3c6cqcah4h5h2has3s5sas4]399|300[/hv] According to the accompanying booklet all roads lead to 450 with 3NT as an outlier and 460 can be made on 6♥lead, which I received but didn't time the play well. I've set up the first few tricks to show the way. Yes I know partners bidding left a lot to be desired. Edit: Lead corrected to 6♥

It was the other way round, I was was West, and as I said partner bows hot and cold with her bidding style.

Some good thoughts and I shall probably continue to open that sort of hand no matter what my "Advanced" pick up partners think. Thanks all.

This came up last night in the UK BGP Summer Pairs (Monday) - Board 16, frequencies here http://www.simpairs.com/freq.asp?Board=16&ClubId=Overall&session=005668 if anyone is interested. Like most pairs we did not reach a slam and I was wondering what people thought of: 1. Our bidding 2. How we could get to slam using basic SAYC systems, including cue bidding first round controls [hv=pc=n&w=skqjha85dqj9ck642&e=sa9hkj9432dk3ca53&d=w&v=e&b=16&a=1n(15-17)p2d(Hearts)p2hp4n(RKCB%200314)p5dp5hppp]266|200[/hv] I was West and have played with partner quite a few times and she tends to be randomly aggressive and conservative and I still haven't figured her out. She is also the weaker player when it comes to bidding theory, which doesn't make an expert by any stretch of the imagination :D My thoughts are that she was too weak for a direct 4NT quantitative raise and at that stage 7H is still an outside possibility My hearts weren't strong enough for a super accept. Any other bid after my 2H I would have taken as 5/4 or 5/5 but not necessarily a strong hand, although this wasn't an explicit agreement (it is now) After the key card sign off I wasn't in a position to raise to 6H even though she didn't know about my A♥ Thanks in advance, Simon My comment to her this morning is that all she could do, given our sequence and experience together is take a deep breath and and go for it.

BBO "find me a game", partner is self declared Advanced and I picked up this: ♠J43 ♥KJ987 ♦AQ72 ♣6 IMPS, R v W (not that this ever seems to matter in the main bridge club). Bidding went: (P)-1♥-(P)-2♣ (P)-2♦-(P)-5♣ All pass Partner made the contract and then complained that I had opened with 11 points. When I pointed out Rule of 20 and the unbalanced nature of the hand he went off in the traditional huff. So, was my bidding reasonable? I thought the suits were good with all the points in them and the rebid was straight forward and so a sound open even at this vulnerability. Thanks in advance for comments, Simon

You are in 5♦with lefty having opened 1♠ (could be 4-card major as playing Acol) and received no support from partner. Opening lead is the expected A♠, presumably from AK and dummy goes down: ♠J9x ♠QTx You suspect that RHO has a doubleton so what's the best (legal) approach to try to deceive lefty and make her switch? In practice I played T and then Q on the king continuation and lefty did switch, much to the annoyance of her partner who argued there could have been a trump promotion even if t was a doubleton. In practice trumps were solid. I got lucky, but was this the best approach or should I have tried something other combination. Thanks in advance, Simon PS FWIW MPs and can't remember vulnerability

Thanks all, very helpful.

I was watching in the Acol room and was surprised to see responder bid a transfer to spades over a weak 1NT when the had around 17 HCP and 6 good spades. I understood that the point of transfers was to keep the stronger hand hidden especially when responder is also weak. In those case opener was a real expert (as opposed to a BBO self appointed one) and responder was described as advanced, so am I missing something? Thanks in advance, Simon PS they stopped went on to 5♠-1IIRC and the strong hand was on the table.

BBO pick up partner says he's playing SAYC. R v W. I picked up: ♠KQT75 ♥K9862 ♦T9 ♣6 bidding goes: P-(P)-?? Balance 1♠ or even bid 2♠? In practice I passed as I wasn't sure about partner. Luckily ops talked themselves into a 6♣X -3 contract so all was not lost. But the question is: should I borrow a K from P and balance 1♠ or bid a weak 2♠? Or maybe something else? On reflection I reckon I should have bid 2♠ to try to shut out leftie.

Having just moved from playing 15-17NT to 12-14NT (regular partner moved and now playing more Acol with pick-up partners) my first advice is don't. If you do I would advise to you make sure you have your 1NT - X escapes sorted out as you can get caught more often. Exit transfers or Houdini seem to be the most popular.

Lessee, partner doesn't like my spades and its hard to see him having any clubs. He's used a neg dbl at the two level so has 8/9HCP+. Lets give him two spades and his choice of hearts makes it look like he's 6/5 in the reds. I'm going 4♥with an aim to make it on cross ruffs.

A quick question: When in play I often forget who bid what during long long bidding sequences. Am I allowed to make notes of the bidding and refer to them during play? Thanks, Simon PS I'm in UK so EBU rules please

Thanks everyone, some interesting thoughts. I'm still not convinced that using 2♠as an invite and 2NT for minors as a basic system has any benefits at all, however I can see that the more advanced versions have some merit, especially when trying to figure out how many bananas we can make. Regards, Simon

As we are always told, it depends on partnership agreements. Based on ours, I've limited my hand, although it is a maximum. If partner had a flat hand (5333 etc) with 12-14 HCP he would pass and 18/19 HCP go to 3NT or maybe invite 2NT if he's cautious but unlikely with my regular partner. Therefore he is unbalanced and I'm taking this as 5/4 or possibly 5/5 and just looking for somewhere to play. If he was still interested in game ie >16HCP I would expect a jump to 3♣. However if I pass ops may find a heart fit, unlikely but still a chance. In our agreement we prefer to play a 4/4 fit rather than a 5/2 so on balance I'm going to 3♣knowing partner won't get too excited but giving him the option to go on if he's 15/16 HCP.

Of course there are other bids available, but you need to consider that with SAYC the aim is to find a major fit first. Partner may be bidding with 3 of a minor and 4/4 in the majors so the idea is for responder to show their 4-card majors to see if you have an 8-card trump suit. The sequence described is a very good way of working out if you have 5-3 in spades as well. While on the subject the sequence:: 1♣- (1♦)- X - Shows at 4/4 in the majors so that again you can quickly locate an 8-card trump fit before worrying about minors.

This is a special case in SAYC and 2♥requires 5 hearts and 11 HCP, even the most aggressive bidder couldn't stretch to that. We want to keep the bidding open and with a bit of luck partner may be 5/4 in the majors. So its 1NT for me

On this bidding sequence (1m (1H) ?) in SAYC dbl =4♠s and 1♠=5♠s.

I normally play a variant on SAYC with my regular partner but he is leaving the area next week and it looks like I will be playing a lot of Acol, mostly Benji. Anyway, last night I ended up with a partner who played the following: 1NT=12-14HCP Red suit transfers 2NT = transfer to minors 2♠=11/12 HCP I had never heard of this 2♠ convention and needless to say I got dealt an 11/12HCP opposite partner and forgot it and we missed a 3NT game for a bottom. Obviously that won't happen again now but..... The more I have think about it the more I don't like it; why would you have the 2NT and 2♠this way round? I can see two (at least) good reasons against it: (1) its not natural and therefore likely to be forgotten in the heat of battle as I proved (I'm a great believer in Ron Klinger's points in his book Improve Your Bridge Memory that you shouldn't put yourself under pressure when you don't need to and that you should keep thinks as simple as possible)and; (2) if you are going be playing in 2 or 3NT why give ops an opportunity to enter the bidding with 2NT or make a lead directing dbl? Have I missed something obvious that makes this a good convention to play? Regards, Simon

Bidding fixed

Having learned the rudiments of bridge a long time ago but only ever playing what I would call "crew room" bridge ie natural with no systems beyond Stayman and Blackwood, I finally had the time to start playing seriously last August. I joined a local club and was fortunate that another person was joining at the same time. He had a bit of experience and had a ready made system which is based on SAYC and provided me with some notes. I have worked hard on those, bought some books played and on BBO using our basic system. I have also used the web to understand the various systems and have down loaded the system notes for SAYC and used Bridgehands and the Bridge Guys to read about the various conventions. I have found that the best learning aids are watching the experts on vugraph whilst taking in the comments*, Gavin's videos on Bridge Winners and more recently following discussions in this forum, especially the Advanced and Expert threads**. One thing that has struck about the difference between club players and experts is the willingness of experts to compete at the higher levels and especially the 6 level. It strikes me that club players view the 6 level with a certain awe and don't want to be seen "failing" at that level while quite happy to compete at the lower levels and go off a couple of tricks. This was brought home to me with great force on Thursday night when I picked up this hand, Red Vs White: ♠K ♥KQ87642 ♦ ♣AQT982 I should say that I wasn't playing with my regular partner but with this partner we are playing the same system and she has the same notes. Furthermore she can be a bit inconsistent and switches regularly between super cautious with outrageously aggressive, especially at the opening overcall level. Anyway RHO passed and I wondered what to do and this is what went through my mind: 1. If I've got distribution like this ops may well have game in ♠s 2. I'm a bit strong for 3♥, we play 6-11 HCP 3. 4♥ might shut them out but am I risking missing a slam in clubs? I'm a bit weak on HCP but losing trick count looks good. 4. If I open 1♥ and they start bidding spades I might not get chance to describe my hand. In the end I went for 3♥with the aim of bidding 4♣over the expected 3♠. The full bidding went: (P) 3♥ 3♠ P (4♣ 4♦ 5♣5♦ At this point I bottled it and passed, partly because I didn't want them to find a slam and partly because I wasn't sure about partner. Anyway, top score for our side was 5♥x =, closely followed by 6♣x -1. The top score for them was 6♠ but most tables settled in 5♦ +2. The full deal was [bidding fixed]: [hv=pc=n&s=skhkq87642dckj743&w=saq65hajdaqjt862c&n=st97ht5d74caqt982&e=sj8432h93dk953c65&d=e&v=n&b=2&a=p3h3spp4c4d5c5dppp]399|300[/hv] The more I look at this hand the more I like my opening bid, but the less I like my pass, and not just because I have the benefit of double dummy. With all that in mind anybody got any good books, web sites or other learning aids for being competitive at the higher levels? I also think I need to improve my knowledge of duplicate scoring so I can make quicker calculations of the penalties for sacrifices and how to play the different format ie pairs, team, IMPS * A big thank you to all commentators, very informative and entertaining stuff **Another big thank you to the contributors

Why does the first one show extra values? I understood that bidding something else, aka arguing after take out, showed extra values? Thanks in advance, Simon

More often that not when using the take me to a table feature we get landed half way through a the playing of a hand. This isn't a problem when landing as dummy, but very difficult when declarer or defender. Could we have the ability to look at tricks played until making a first play?

Go into options>more options>advanced and select autoplay singletons.

1NT mandatory for us unless we have 4/5-card support for partners major. Partner can ask for 3 card support using check back Stayman.