SimonFa

Do something intelligent partner. And then in the post mortem when staring at a bottom score... but not that, idiot. Or if a good score, well done partner.

Thanks.I thought I was missing something about UI or similar.

I'm obviously missing something here so another chance to learn :D If I was your random partner, depending on your profile I would treat it as if I was playing with my regular partner: - dbl shows opening points+ and support for the other 3 suits. - 1♥ at least 4 card suit - my 1♠likely to be my best suit and because it wasn't a raise I have 0-7 pts - partners 2♥would be arguing after take out and show 17+ points but I would be rather perplexed at his ♥ bid and would have to read it as 5♥ so I would probably expect something like 3514 or even 3613 but wonder why he didn't just bid 1♥ Anyway, it would be an interesting ride home once I had seen his hand or maybe I would leave him to walk and contemplate the error of his ways on his own. So that's my reading, what am I missing?

For my education could you explain why 6♥ would be disaster a call to the Director and a scandal, please? Thanks in advance, Simon

Problems fixed, thanks.

You pick up: ♠AKJTx ♥ ♦KQJTx ♣AJx You just know that partner as dealer is going to open 1♥and lo and behold it comes to pass. Partnership agreement is open on count of 19 with unbalanced hands and partner has been known to open with 10 points with 5/5 in the Majors, but that seems unlikely as he would be reversing to show 16+ points. You decide to progress slowly as opps are unlikely to start intervening and the bidding goes: 1♥ p 1♠ p 2♥1 p 3♦ P 3♠2 P 4♣3 P 4H3 P ? 1. Doesn't guarantee 6♥s 2. Probably 3 card support on this bidding 3. Cue bid first round control Firstly, do you agree with bidding so far? If not what's the best approach? What now? Slam is a definite possibility but I see no point in bidding RKCB at this stage and what I would really like to know is if partner has ♣K but we don't really have the tool kit for going much higher without RKCB. In practice I took a leap of faith and bid 6NT. Partner showed up with ♠Qxx and ♥AKQxx ♦xx ♣xx and the contract walked home after ♦A lead and a ♠switch.

Thanks to everyone for their comments, very useful. @Nigel, thanks for your vote of confidence but I've only been playing 8 months and if you'd seen me play last night you'd put me down as a novice :(

Match points, white Vs red. I picked up: ♠KQx ♥Txxx ♦QJx ♣AKQ Partner opened 1NT, 15-17. We play 1NT mandatory even with 5 card majors but and only one doubleton, and we don't play Puppet or Gerber. I bid 4NT (quantitative) and partner raised to 6NT with 16 points. 12 tricks came home when ♥QJ dropped on partners, ♥AK. It was early on and Bridgemate gave us something like 80% as someone had made 13 tricks in 6NT and there were a some 4♥+2 contracts and a 6♥, but we were feeling quite pleased with ourselves and confident of a reasonable score. At the end of the evening I was surprised to find we only scored 45% as 6H+1 had been made at quite a few tables. It should be noted that this is a UK club and a large proportion of the members play Acol, weak NT. My questions are: 1. Is 4NT a reasonable bid? Partner, a bit more experienced than me, suggested I might even have bid 6NT. 2. Should I have bid Stayman? Bearing in mind I had figured partner to have some serious ♥ honours for his 1NT? As it happened he had ♥AKxx. Thanks in advance, Simon

Thanks again. Oops, cue bid is two highest unbid suits. 1. When I bid 3♥ partner raised to 4♥. Without the UI I was intending to bid 3♥first as they were my strongest suit and over anything else partner said, other than 4♥,I was going to bid 4♣to get the message across and hopefully wake him up. So even without UI we would have ended in 4♥. We don't have agreements on what to do if partner has his own strong suit but we will by next Monday ;) As were a new pairing, only 3rd or 4th time together, and the system was new I took it as a mistake by partner anyway and not strong diamond hand. Is it acceptable in these situations to ask partner to write his answer so there is no chance of UI? As I see it there is little I can do that doesn't look like I've taken advantage of UI. 2. I didn't take offence at Ops request to reserve his rights, indeed once he explained why, to our genuine question, it seemed very sensible. This team were the eventual winners and they are one of the leading pairs in the region so I understand their desire for correct etiquette and ethics and on my side I want to learn as quickly as possible.

Thanks for the responses. So the answers are: 1. I don't see a way round having to pass now that I know partner's misunderstanding. 2. It looks like I have to start getting more decisive, or maybe just add forcing hesitations to our CC :D

Thanks for quick responses but as you will see I inadvertently ht the send button before finishing :(

I have only recently started playing in club tournaments and am still trying to get my head round some of the ethics. I have read the EBU Orange Book but as a newcomer its still all a bit confusing. 1. This happened very early on and I'm still not sure I have been given an adequate answer. Over ops open we play Michaels cue bid shows highest and lowest unbid suit, Unusual NT shows two lowest unbid suits and 3♣ shows highest and lowest unbid suit. RHO opened 1♠ and I bid 3♣ showing 5/5 in clubs and hearts and 6-11 HCP. Partner alerted and then bid 3♦. I was just pondering what to do and had decided to bid 3♥ when RHO asked for an explanation. Partner incorrectly said I was showing diamonds and clubs. As hearts were my stronger suit I continued with my bid and we ended up making 4H. I corrected partners explanation at the end of the bidding and our inexperienced opponents took it no further. Q: Was I under any obligations once partner had made the incorrect explanation and I knew partners misunderstanding? I did ask a local TD the following week and he said it was opps tough luck for asking, but I'm not convinced. 2. Last night I picked up this hand ♠]ATxxx, ♥QJ, ♦Kx,♣xxxx Vul against not. We open on a count of 19 but I wasn't going to open as the 4 club card suit didn't have any HCP, but I was ready to bid 1♠ over 1♣/♦/♥. RHO opened 2NT which was alerted. At our club this bid isn't normally alerted so I asked what it meant as I till had in mind that I might be able bid. It turned out to be 5-10HCP and both minors and forcing for 1 round. I thought for a short while, maybe 20secs, and decided to pass and see what happened. LHO bid 3♣ and partner went straight in at 4♥. RHO "reserved his rights" because of the "unusual bidding pattern" to be sure partner did have a a 4H hand - he did and we made 11 tricks. Q: In these situations do I have time to think and pass or am I obliged to bid if I ask for an explanation? Thanks in advance.

Was this a good save? You could have 11 HCP and therefore ops missed out on game. A bid from N could have invited them in.

Pass. If partner has anything less than 12 points, and even with 12 points, it looks like they are missing a game. Why give them a second bite of the cherry on the off chance you and partner have a fit in the Majors?

Thanks everyone for the prompt and very helpful responses. I hadn't thought about the 2NT bid from opener with 18pts if responding light. But even if he did that would be 21pts, inside the 2NT opening so I suppose that could be safe-ish. The Polish style looks a bit complicated. We already have a number of conventions that we haven't used enough times to iron out the problems, so I don't want to suggest adding to that problem. On balance I think we'll stick to where we are and take a risk with the very rare occasions when we might end up going down a lot in 1♣. Once again, many thanks everyone.

I haven't been playing very long and we play a system based largely on SAYC as that is the system my more experienced regular partner was already playing when I met him (apparently we don't say its SAYC on our CC as we would have to play it by the book?). I am sure that this situation isn't unique but I can't find anything about it in the forum. It occurred last night at my club when playing with a new partner who was familiar with our system as she had played with my regular partner a few times, As dealer I picked up my cards and had: ♠AKQx ♥QJx ♦Tx ♣Jxx Red Vs white I didn't like the look and feel of it for some reason. The bidding went: 1♣,P,1♠,p 2♠, all pass Partner made 5 tricks and it turned she had something like: ♠Txxx ♥xxxx ♦Jxx ♣xx As she said during the break, she didn't feel she could leave me in 1♣and I tend to agree with her as in this case its likely we would have been lucky to make 2 tricks. Indeed I have raised this a few time with my regular partner as I believe a 1♣should be at least forcing for 1 round but he isn't sure. What is the current thinking about this rare dilemma? It was a Pairs even and as it is in UK our opponents were playing Acol. PS RHO confirmed that he would have left me in 1♣as he was sat with 5 to the AKQ

North did, and got quite a nice score for his enterprise.

We play Michaels always shows 2 highest unbid suits so I would know pard has both red suits. This means we could well be losing 4 black tricks and maybe 1 red, -800 doubled. Two off is -500 and as they are white still losing out against game. Also when pard bid he didn't envisage a 5-level bid. It just doesn't feel right so I'm for passing and hoping in at nearer 50%.

As I've been playings seriously for 6 months I may be a bit off-beam here but this is how I would figure out what to bid. Assuming opps are playing SAYC then 1♦ probably shows 4 diamonds and no 5-card major. The raise to 2♦ also suggests 4 or even 5 Diamonds to guard against the unlikely event that opener has 4432 distribution. 2♦ also suggests that opp is weak and doesn't have a 4-card major. So ops could be looking at about 15-18 points. Its therefore unlikely that partner has more than about 16 points. This means that partner is likely to be something like 4414 or possibly (43)15 or even 4405. With 6 clubs and a lot of points partner would probably bid 2C. If we are in spades a lead of a diamond may give me an early rough and/or a later discard with the King so I would upgrade my hand a bit. With that in mind I would go with 2♠ and leave parter to assume that I don't have 4 hearts and as he hasn't opened 1 heart I assume he doesn't have 5 and so at worst will do is put me in to 3♠.