jahol

I think that the story like 1club....... 2clubs..... 3clubs......... 4clubs....... DOUBLE.... two overtricks.... is just an illusion (by the way, four clubs doubled +2 is a quite bad result in comparison with 6 clubs just made, and four clubs doubled +3 is even worse in comparison with 7clubs just made - of course, you may redouble...but you will not play the contract then). A much more probable sequences may be 1club-3diam-double-5diam-??? or 1club-2hearts-double-4hearts-???. What the 1 club openers are going to do now (and then... :) )?

IMPs, both vulnerable, you had AQ---74---J943---107542 and the bidding was simple 1 heart(LHO)---1 spade(CHO)---3 hearts(RHO, game invitation)---pass(ME) 4 hearts(LHO)---pass..... I was affraid a bit of CHO first lead, but, finally, it was better than expected - spade 5 (fourth)(!), however the dummy was K103 KQ95 7652 Q8. The declarer (good player) was thinking over for some time and put spade 10, finally, what I covered with spade Q then. How should I continue? Should I cash spade ace and play my partner for fast entry and potential spade ruff or should I believe that the declarer is going to misguess spades? Jahol

Deal 1: 5x voted for 5D, 3x for 4D, 4x for 3D, these votes did not care about possible H fit, three "more constructive" attempts (double, 3 spades). In my opinion, the problem of 3 spade bid, for example, is that after 4 spades from RHO, one more bid (after partner's double, let us say) may look like much stronger hand than it is in reality. I bid just 3D and with partner's hand A2---10---AJ962---AQ874 we made 5 diam +1, 5 spades contract is down two. Main conclusion: People vote for no searching for H support. Looks reasonable since the opponents have got spade suit, anyway. Deal 2: 9x voted for constructive 3 clubs, 4x for more aggressive 4 clubs, once (a lady!) for 5 clubs, once for 4NT. My very young and brave (and good) partner bid 5 clubs and this was the deal: [hv=d=s&v=n&n=sakj10haq5d5ca10742&w=s32hj10963dq109762c&e=sh842dakj3ckqj953&s=sq987654hk7d84c86]399|300|Scoring: IMP[/hv] 5 clubs contract was doubled and the result was -1400 (partner lost trumph control). Few times, spade slam was bid and made, but quite often, the result was diamond contract doubled down several times. Deal 3: Absolutely clear. 15 votes for 4H. I bid 4H as well, here, I was curious, whether it is automatic bid for you, experts, or not. I can see, YES is the answer. Deal 4: 13 votes for pass, 2 votes for 4 spades. My young partner bid 4 spades (of course :) ). On one side, the arguments for pass are fairly logical, however I may have a sympathy for 4S bid, since there is strong possibility, both lines have double fit hands (the 4H bid may be based on good hearts AND club support). In addition, the opponents may face real problem whether to go to the fifth level. Anyway, from point of view of the Law, our line may correspond to the equivalent of 10 tricks (3s bid can be based on 5 cards support or there is double spade-diam fit), the opponents may have potential of 9 tricks...another reason for bidding 4S. In reality, four hearts could have been made, four spades would have been down two, but the opponent with clubs had AKJxxxx in this suit (and Jxx in hearts) and bid 5 clubs (mistakenly, probably). This was the final contract, doubled and down one. Deal 5: Almost all votes for pass, many objections against DONT, double come from my partner (surprisingly, I would expect him to bid AT LEAST 4D immediately), my choice would have been immediate 4D as, well. I do not think, D.O.N.T. is the problem, I like this convention, but it must be used conveniently, of course. In the real deal, 3NTshould be made just, 4D are down four, when defended carefully.

A couple of bidding problems encountered last night (all IMPs): 1) Both vulnerable, you have void---98754---KQ853---J92 your partner opened the bidding with 1 diam, RHO bid 2 spades, your turn. 1 diam is 12-17PC, at least four diam. 2) Non-vulnerable against vulnerable, your LHO opened 2 diam (weak Multi, weak two in hearts or spades), partner pass, RHO 2NT (asking about major suit and strength, game possibilities), you have void---842---AKJ3---KQJ953. Your bid? 3) Vulnerable against non-vulnerable, you have J---AKJ96542---54---K6 your RHO opens with 2 clubs (Precision, 6+cl or 5+cl + just 4 in major). Your bid? 4) Both vulnerable, you have AJ743---108---AKJ8---84 your partner passed, RHO 1 heart (Precision, 11-15, 5+H), you 1 spade, RHO 2 clubs (nat), your partner 3 spades (weak), RHO 4hearts. Do you pass? 5) Non-vulnerable against vulnerable, you have K86---653---AK97654---void (see, how frequent are voids here ;) ) . RHO started with 1NT (14-16, balanced), you doubled (D.O.N.T., one colour - you can not bid 3 diam, it would have been "strong D.O.N.T. two suits hand"), LHO 2NT (nat. invitation), partner pass, RHO 3NT. Do you pass? Thank you in advance for any answer.

The deal: [hv=n=s64h862d1063cq10654&w=s3hq10743dkq974c87&e=skq109875hakj95d2c&s=saj2hdaj85cakj932]399|300|[/hv] 5 H doubled makes, 6 clubs doubled down one when played carefully, in addition, E-W may bid 6 H doubled, the final contract at many tables. We lost 11 IMPs.

You do not see anything special in your hand (IMPs competition, vulnerable against non-vulnerable): xx---xxx---xxx---Q10xxx but, believe me or not, things are going to develop very fast and you are going to have problems. Your partner is the dealer opening the auction with 1 club (SAYC). After pass from RHO and you, there is re-open double followed with 3 clubs jump call from your partner. The RHO bids 3 hearts and it is your turn. Actually, this is not the problem yet, I am going to speak about. At the table, I decided, it may be better to pass. There is some chance, 3H will be the final contract. As soon as the opponents bid game, I can bid 5 clubs, what definitely should not be, in accordance with Cohen's LTT, a bad step forward. Too simple reasoning.... My LHO bid five hearts doubled with my partner and passed back to me. What would you do? And...do you think that pass of three hearts was a big mistake?

After some thinking, I bid RKC and my partner showed zero values. I bid 5 spades. My RHO led singleton diam to ace getting ruff and cashing club ace. Down one. That is, what pre-empts are for, in my opinion..... This board was played in team competition. At the other table, our partners were even more aggressive and the opening bid was 4H (they bid by one trick more aggressive than the opponents i.e. for four down, when non-vulnerable against vulnerable, partner having absolutely no useful value). In fact, the more agressive bid caused less problems, by chance. On the first look, the reaction of the opponents was the same as in our case - double and four spades. However, the opponent bidding double was not encouraged to bid slam now, as 4 spades had been the lowest possible answer of his partner. He passed 4 spades and our partners bid 5 hearts doubled, down two. I think that I would still prefer trying slam with similar hand next time. There is reasonable argument (made above) that my double should represent a quite nice hand (an equivalent of 15 points) so that my partner does not quarantee perfect hand jumping to game. Yes, but not only me, but also him was put under big pressure with that pre-empt. With relatively nice hand, he still may not have any other bid but 4 spades. JH

Vulnerable against non-vulnerable, you have: AKQx---Ax---KJ10x---Q10x. The bidding starts with 3H pre from the right (explained as having potential 6 tricks for H contract). You double, pass from LHO, and your partner bids 4 spades passed back to you. Your decision? JH

As far as I understand, OPPONENTS were bidding this way. I think that 3NT is a sort of bid : "My partner is stupid, I WILL PLAY AND SAVE US FROM DISASTER". I would not play with such partner. Hate such bidders. From technical point of view, such bid is nonsense. The double is also very bad bid. Jah

Hello This contribution (to some difference to my first two weak two stories presented in expert bridge forum recently) is, perhaps, more about communication among people than about bridge. But communication with partner does represent crucial aspect of bridge...or does not?. Individual tournaments bring specific requirements regarding communication, not seen in the other "normal" sorts of bridge. Let us see the following problem: Both lines nonvulnerable, IMPs, you are the dealer having: xx---KQxxxx---Jxx--Qx. In your short CC, SAYC is mentioned and emphasized, not much more, except for few specialities bid just WHEN AGREED, but nothing connected with weak two's specifically, anyway. The short CC of your "random" partner marked Expert looks like ....something irrelevant...."Multi"......something irrelevant ...."weak two"......something irrelevant..... What would you choose? 1) You bid 2H....just having normal common weak two and expecting that your partner, when playing BB individuals, is expecting SAYC and knows that weak two is the far most common meaning of this bid both in SAYC and in BB individuals (when there is no other agreement) B) 2) You bid 2D Multi (weak two in hearts OR spades), because this bid is the first relevant mentioned in your partner CC and because you just expect that your partner is going to understand the bid like that :huh: 3) You pass to avoid potential disaster caused by mutual misunderstanding. Anyway, you are not oblidged to bid 2H or 2D keeping reasonable chance to get neutral or even plus score. :ph34r: 4) You ask a question (using chat line): "Do we bid Multi or normal weak two, pard"?. Indeed, there is no sense in bidding nonsense and even your opponents will surely understand that you would not like to destroy nice fight with them just at the beginning. ;)

I think that this "Polish NT" works fairly well. It helped me many times. It is not only the question of showing major and minor at the same time, it is also a matter of showing the hand WITHOUT major suit with 2cl/dia bid. Loosing "natural" 1NT call is not that bad, in my experience. You can make "strong" double most of the times continuing with 1NT call, if you have 16+ and you are allowed to do so. And sometimes, you may be very lucky, you did not make 1NT call since that could have costed 500 or 800 whereas, after your unclear dynamic double, the opponents made partscore contract only, or, more probably, went down playing on their own. Jah

OK, there are definitely ways how to bid NT contract after 1 diam-1spade-two spades. But there are also definitely ways how to bid spade contract after 1diam-1spade-1NT(or 2 diam) with 5-3 spade fit. I think that I simply should bid my hand. At IMPs, an automatic response is 2 diam. Still, my first bid promised 3 diamonds and, in fact, I have five(!) of them. I do not see any reason why I should mis-inform my partner. At MPs, I would bid 1NT probably. An important fact is that no oponent bid heart suit. It looks like either no opponent has 5 or more hearts and/or the opponents are weak and 2 spades is not going to be the final contract anyway (or the hand with five hearts is weak and there is no entry to cash the suit in NT contract). With such bad trumph support like Jxx, spades may not be the best contract. Jah

Well, my partner bid 6 spades and that was not a very good sacrifice, since my hand was 10xxxx---xx---x---Axxxx. 6 spades doubled from my left and down three, spades 1-1 and singleton spade king off, clubs 4-1, 6 dia down one. You may blame me for my weak two bid, but I do not think that it was going beyond the agreement I made with my partner (0-7PC, at least five spades). Neither do I think that such bid is bad in the first seat when non-vulnerable against vulnerable.... In my opinion, 4 spades are far from using all the potential of this nice hand. Simple 5 spades are much better as well as any kind of psycho - in fact, you can bid almost anything and you can bid almost anything several times, when allowed. Once I had similar hand like my partner, but just AQJxxx---xxx---x---xxx and my partner opened 2 spades promising weak two with 6 spades (at least :blink: ) that time. I bid 4NT (Blackwood!) doubled from my left. Now, according to our agreement, I knew we had no ace after my partner pass and I could make a sacrifice with seven spades after opponents' 7 dia bid without any doubt (almost :) ). I think that Blackwood is perhaps not that bad bid also in the presented example. Jahol

A couple of days ago, my partner had the following hand: AQJxxx---xxx---x---Kxx. Nonvulnerable versus vulnerable, I was the dealer and opened 2 spades - weak two. For this situation, we made the following agreement: "at least five spades and 0-7 points". After opponent's pass, what would you bid with partner's hand? Let us suppose, you bid 4 spades and the auction continued 2 spades---pass---4 spades---5 diamonds pass---6diamonds---? What would you bid? Jahol

Opposite hand: AQJxxx---Jx---10xxx---x Nothing special, but playing small spade from dummy, singleton king appeared and with diam 3-3, the game was laydown. Of course, the probability of making the game was fairly low in this case, but the hand could have been much better many ways. Seems to me that the hands like I mentioned at the beginning of this discussion are sometimes underestimated. Jahol

Hi, a couple of days ago, I had a small controversion with my partner. Both lines vulnerable, I opened weak two spades and my pard had: 10xx---Axx---Axx---AJxx. What would you bid? Pass? 2NT asking for strength and trumph quality? 4 spades? (3 spades are blocking in our agreements so that I do not think, this bid would have been possible). Jah

[hv=d=n&v=n&n=sakj865hq10986d9c5&w=sq93h5432dk104c863&e=s107hakdaqj72caq92&s=s42hj7d8653ckj1074]399|300|Scoring: MP[/hv] Just finishing one of many BBO individuals and strongly disappointed with the hand above. Playing against Polish-Norwegian pair. The opening was 2 diam, alerted. I have many, many pieces of experience with Polish players opening Polish 1 club in individuals, highly artificial opening, without any alert, playing with foreign partners, who are far away from expecting something like that. But 2 diam from Polish club, so called Wilkosz opening (7-11HCP, 5-5, at least one major) , is such an special opening, I would never ever expected, someone would dare to use it with "inexperienced" partner (and opponents :) . Still I asked about the meaning. Bullseye! The only explanation which appeared at the screen was "Wilkosz"! For me, the information was sufficient, but what about my partner? But there was no more information at all (may be, the author of the opening was not able to explain it in English more in detail :( ). The bidding continued with double from my partner, 3 dia from south, pass from my side and 3 spades from north. This was doubled once more from my partner side and redoubled from north side. Then my partner, who could never ever imagine, what that mess did mean, led a trumph. 3 spades redoubled made. Don't you thing, that such approach is far out of zero tolerance level?

In my opinion, west should have bid his hand. 2 spades did not describe such nice hand sufficiently. From east point of view, everything is wrong regarding expectable position of unknown honours. Even 3 spades may be too much. The situation is completely different after some other bid from north. After 2H-2spades-DBL, I would bid 4 spades, of course. The same after 2H-2spades-3(4)H. But with north passing, it seems to me, that 2 spades contract is going to a sufficient and best one, with high probability (I do not expect south bidding once more)..

Let us begin from the beginning <_< . Real hand. IMP Teams Premier League in your country. Good opponents - me and my partner :) You are the declarer with dummy: AK74---A62---K75---863 you: J652---Q103--94--AK105. Both vulnerable, you were the dealer, started the auction passing. LHO bid 1 diam (natural, 12-17, at least four, with 12-14 balanced at least five diam, at most four in any major), then your side bid for a while and finished with four spades. The first lead is CJ (natural). What is your plan?

Yes, that was the point!

Regarding second case from Fred, I think that any idea about finessing ten is just illusion. With 3-3 distribution of opponents cards, the choice is irrelevant. With 4-2 or 5-1, the only chance is to play RHO for dubleton 10 or singleton 10, respectively.

First, thank you for nice discussion. My feelings: 1) I would always prefer 1S bid in the first round of the auction. I think, the difference between 4-4 and 5-4 fit is just one trick quite often, however, this is a kind of VERY big difference when making game or even slam just! Regarding Jacoby 2NT, I think that is should be definitely bid with FOUR cards support. The difference between three and four cards support seems to me crucial, particularly in slam attempts (and that is what Jacoby is used for, or not?). 2) The potencial 3D bid in the second round of auction (instead of four clubs) is more complicated issue. This bid looks fine, but it seems to me that it can cause problems to my partner (what one should try to avoid all the time). What should partner bid without club stopper? Should it be 3 spades with three cards in spades? And then, is 4C cue-bid for spade slam?? After 3S bid, how can I show to my partner heart support AND a very nice hand? Is 4C REALLY club cue for heart slam after 1H-1S-2H-3D-3NT?? Seems to me, the case is not that easy. 3) With club splinter, I would have bid 4C IMMEDIATELY after 1H call. May I have splinter hand after 1H-1S-2H, if I did not have splinter hand after 1H? I think that an important feature of splinter is enough trumphs in hand for ruffing, i.e. at least four of them. Are three trumphs enough for splinter as soon as partner has shown at least six in his hand? Isn't it better to reserve 4C call for "natural" cue-bid in this sequence? 4) I really think that the hand is definitely worth of slam try. With partner's Qx--AKxxxx--xx--Kxx GRAND slam is almost cold and even with 10 points hand very similar to the real one, my partner held xx--AKxxxx--xx--Kxx small slam is almost cold. The question is who should ask about aces. The response should be - the one who can better decide about the final contract. I think that the solution of this question is very difficult for this board.

Sorry, the name of the contribution is confusing. It should have been "Cuebid or autosplinter?"

Tonight, local MP tournament. Playing with advanced partner, having some agreements like 2/1 general framework, Bergen raises, cue bids, Jacoby, etc. etc. Our hands Partner: xx--AK109xx--xxx--Kx Me:.......AKxx--QJx--A10xx--Ax Bidding: opponents quiet Partner-----Me 1H............1S 2H............4C 4H............4S pass..... 2H bid should guarantee 6+ H, 12-15PC according to our agreements. I started cue-bidding in the second round of auction and decided to continue even after negative response 4H from my partner. First, my partner understood the 4C bid correctly (cue for H game or slam), but after 4S bid, he reevaluated the meaning finishing with explanation that 4C was autosplinter for spade game or slam. Any comments to this disaster?

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