dwar0123

1♣-2♣-2♥-pass 4nt-pass-3 keys-pass 7♣ Looking at west's hands, I am not sure what else he needs to know except where the 3 aces are.

Partner felt I was light for this takeout double. At imps. [hv=pc=n&s=saq76hdkq86cjt863&d=w&v=e&b=16&a=1hp3hd]133|200[/hv] Two questions. 1. If 3♥ is limit raise, do you x? 2. If 3♥ is preemptive, do you x? Thanks!

See, I learned something, I didn't realized we played the game of skipping steps in the lead up to a hand position. Guess that knock me down a peg for blindly trusting op.

I admit at the table I would probably get this wrong, but double dummy, you take the ace♠ use the jack♣ as an entry and finesse the 10♠ for the same 9 tricks. At the table I would probably assume it is kq♠ tight but there is no harm in crossing over with the jack of clubs and leading through it. When he plays small I will probably guess wrong but oh well.

I believe han meant that my partner is very likely to be 6-4 in diamonds hearts because he didn't open 2♦(and of course he is spot on). I don't think he was questioning the auction at the 4/5 level.

[hv=pc=n&s=st653hda743ck7642&d=n&v=b&b=13&a=ppp1n2cdp2hp4h4sd5ddppp]300|300|[/hv] Was happy to hear the x by east as I was still debating passing 2♣ out of fear the 1 suit was ♥. However when it came back to me at 4♥ I realized my hand was a monster opposite anything partner had and bid the lowest suit knowing he would correct if needed. I guess I should ask a question, if east does pass 2♣, what would you do?

In general, count them, but for many types of hands there are more then two ways to show them and often it is understood that you bid one way when you have distributional strength and another way when you have high card strength. As an example. If you have 6 spades and 18 high card points and your rho opens 1♦, you double and if your partner bids 1♥ you bid 1♠. This shows a very strong 18 high card points. If you have 9 spades headed by the akq♠, only 9 points, but still plays like an 18 point hand in ♠, you just bid 4♠ directly.

As I appear to be completely backwards on this, can you elaborate.

West has a definite preference here, but still that looks like a freebid and thus showing 6-9 points? Should he pass here? Cute auction by East, I rather like it, I prob would have just overcalled 4 spades, but this is a much better bind to put your opponents into. Once south redoubles showing 10+ points, you can't be misconstrued for having 18+ points and can freely bid again, and heck why not preempt a little too. Of course if south passes your double you will have a heck of a time convincing your partner you don't have 18 points, but whatever, your hand will play spectacularly well in nt or spades. North's bid seem reasonable. South's bid seems reasonable up until the last pass. South should be able to figure out what is going on by now and run like a scared chicken to 4♦. Or lead a spade, which sets it, partner is not rated to have any vulnerable spade honors and your side has both minors and you have slow tricks in hearts so you need to kill any cross ruff.

In duplicate, you get a 50 point bonus plus the points for each trick when the hand is over. Nothing carries over to the next hand in a way that would effect how the next hand is scored. Probably because it isn't very useful, the more you have the higher you can go, it is a fairly straight line and pays no attention to the suit(or lack there of) of the contract, only the level. Generally when starting out, it is 26 points for 3nt or a 4th level game. 32 points for a slam and thus 28-29 for a 5 level minor suit game. Depends on the computer program. A large part of bridge is bidding and playing in such a way as to obstruct your opponents. Preempts, false carding, interference bids, pysches. Often you don't want to make a bid that best describes your hand because you already decided where you want to play and the only thing describing your hand further would do is inform the opponents on how to defeat you. Also, you underestimate the level of commitment it takes to master a bidding system as well as declaring and defending. When you get right down to it, ignorance creates the illusion of almost infinite freedom for pretty much everyone, even the experts. You take a dozen hands and you will get significant disagreements on the best way to bid and play many of them. A lot of it comes down to taking the 58% line over the 45% line and being able to figure out those odds at the table is hard, even harder is recognizing the different lines of play as options. To make matters worse sometimes it comes down to taking the 45% line over the 58% line just because of how your opponent paused or didn't pause at a specific trick.

Playing normal 2/1 with a random partner. [hv=pc=n&s=skjt2hjt42dj65c62&d=e&v=n&b=2&a=1cppdp]133|200[/hv] Do you bid 1♠ or 1♥ with this hand? I bid 1♠ in the thought that if they compete I can show ♥ the next round without reversing. However when my partner instead responded 1 nt(assuming this is the 16-18 range in balance seat), I rebid ♥. This got him all excited and we ended up in an unmakable heart game. He said 2♥ showed 5-5 and was game forcing. So I have 2 questions. 1. Is 1♠ correct or should I show the lower? 2. Does the rebid of 2♥ indeed show 5-5 and is gf, if so and the answer to 1 was ♠, I should just pass 1nt? Thanks.

Lots of great advice on the importance of signalling, to bad it was just a random online pickup partnership like most of my games. Hard to develop a good understanding of defensive carding when you only play with people who are mostly oblivious to it(or assume you are). I was the partner and I tried to give correct signals(std) and attitude signals often work, though not in this case. Count was given at the table, but I felt that would make solving the problem to easy. I really wanted to focus on the idea that it was a race between setting up spades for declarer and clubs for the defenders and that having 1 ruff available is exactly the same as having 1 additional stopper, no more no less. I was the partner and did have the qj :) Ah well, I knew I had to lead a club, I figured there was 0 chance of it successfully running to the 10 and lead low. I gave it little thought at the time, I would have buried it had I the 9 but I didn't see much future in doing that when I didn't have the 9. Giving it more thought I can see it can't hurt.

Declarer is cold if he just ruffs 2 clubs before pulling all the trump, but he didn't do that, not my problem. My problem is punishing him for it. And to answer my original question, apparently not very reasonable to have expected partner to see this.

Why must declarer have a stiff diamond for their to be a legit chance? There is a line of defense that will set it from where we are now that declarer can not stop even with perfect play from here on out.

Partner missed the setting defense, is it reasonable to see from her hand? [hv=pc=n&n=sq62ht98dt974ck74&e=sjt93hqj63dakq5ct&d=e&v=b&b=10&a=1dp1hp2hp3cp4hppp]266|200[/hv] 4♦ was lead to the queen. 3 rounds of trump(qjk) were pulled ending in declarer's hand(south followed twice and pitched 6♣ on 3rd). 8♠ was lead to south's king. South returned the 3♣ taken by declarer's ace. 4♠ taken my north's queen, this brings up this position. [hv=pc=n&n=s6hdt97ck7&e=sjth6dak5c]266|200[/hv] How do you proceed and why. P.S. I didn't point it out, I am just think it is an interesting beginner/intermediate defensive problem and am curious how much harder it is to see from the opposite hand. Edit: fixed mistakes in hand

When in NT and you have the top 3 honors in a 4-3 fit, find out if it splits 3-3 for a 4th trick before pushing out the ace in your 6-2 side suit just so you can make one less then everyone else.

Perhaps not, but I certainty don't favor the one that makes it hard for new players to find games.

Well, very clearly going 5♥ if I was smart enough to know it wasn't forcing. After 5♠ I would double.

I'm tempted to say 5♣, but I think that shows more then you have. Pass is forcing I assume, implying you are inclined to bid 5 but just want to let partner have a chance to weigh in first. 5♥ would show weak defense but with two aces you are not sure that is best, though it is close, your shape really wants to declare. Double would be for blood and you are to distributional for that and two aces is at best two tricks. So I think I would pass, but I would be very tempted to bid 5♥

The main flaw with step bridge that I see(having never played) is that new players are always under rated(or lowest level) making them a bad wager to play against. It is difficult enough being the new guy unfamiliar with the specific social norms without having to deal with opponents being openly hostile to the idea of playing against you.

Huh, so is 6nt one of the choices being offered, I would have thought he was insisting on a suit contract despite our strong indications to the contrary. There is no point to being in 6♣, nothing much to ruff in short suit. Ruffing some ♥ in 6♦ might be very usefull but you have to contrast that with the chance of getting a bad diamond break when 6nt might be cold.

Grats on 12000 posts! Celebration time, looks like you already ahead of us :) Beginner and intermediate, I think we would get verbally molested if we had such conversations in the a/e forum.

Gonna trust partner, 2♠ is semi artificial I assume and he knows I might only have 4♦ and have a strong preference for nt, he said no to nt so 6♦. Thinking he holds something like 4-0-4-5 or maybe even 3-0-5-5 with the intention to reverse in the minors but we stole his bid and was bidding like this to seek out a potential grand.

I'm stumped, why would the vulnerability make a difference, is it to give partner more info so he might goto the 5 level in a sac against spades if w/r? Where r/w you want your best chances of making so hide the info from opponents?

If my majors were equal I think I would bid 6♦, but they are not, so 6♠.