Cthulhu D

I'm not an expert, but it seems like Card play is the most important skill, as card play is 'transferable' between partnerships. If you had perfect declarer play, you're going to get to keep that regardless of what happens in your life. General bidding is important, but if you change partners, the hours you've invested in your complex precision relay system is dead weight. So given that our priority matrix is probably: Declarer play (Highest, very important in 25% of hands) Opening leads (Somewhat important in 25% of hands) Defensive play more general (modestly important in 25% of hands) General bidding with popular systems Very important on 100% of hands, but not fully transferable Specialist bidding and detailed agreements. (Lowest priority, Unlikely to come up on most hands, not transferable at all) The best way to practice this stuff is different: A) I think the best way to improve this is to play a ton of hands on BBO, or on your phone against bots or whatever. B) Study is going to work best here as opening leads is a probability based thing and as such learning from the bridge table will require an impossible number of hands to tell the difference between a 52% play vs a 45% vs 3NT after opponents have bid stayman but not found a fit. C) Play a ton of hands with your partner and talk about them. D) Read a book, bid a bunch E) Discuss with your partner practice bidding. So that gives us the following way to improve your play 1) Play a ton of hands online with a focus on improving your declarer play 2) Work on your defence when you do live play with your partner. Talk about what they were thinking 3) With your study time, focus on opening leads, then bidding systems 4) Practice bidding with your partner before a big event, but play a mainstream system to ensure you can flexibly change partners and to reward your investment in study time. edit: HOLY THREAD NECRO BATMAN. On a related note, I don't take my own advice here.

My take on opening depends entirely on what partner thinks is an opener. With my regular P he's opening all 11s and some 10s and has a pile of preempts so if he's passed and opponents are sound bidders I'd strongly consider pass. If you play Ekrens the chance of them having a major fit surely goes way up as well and thus bidding is more counter productive. If you played a weak NT in 4th though I think I'd be more likely to open 1NT?

Doesn't the answer to this depend on if you open 5422 or 6322 shapes with long minors 1NT? I guess you can play in a 5-2 fit always.

I played a 11-13 NT in a T-walsh context when NV. We decided to scrap it because of the complexities when you don't open 1NT are not outweighed by the advantages of the NT opening. Contested auctions are just to hard in particular - you need different competitive understandings, and the competitive agreements seem tough. We have since reverted to 14-16 1st through 3rd and 15-17 in 4th.

You don't get to pick oppo's system... so even if you think it is bad they are doing it.

You can play 4 suit transfers and prommisory stayman, e.g.: 2C: Stayman! 2D: Hearts 2H: SPades 2S: Clubs or range ask (bid 2N with a min, 3C with a max) 2N: Diamonds.

Am I correct in saying that if you were playing a 14-16 NT you are opening this 1NT?

The candidates shouldn't matter one iota - never has the gap between the GOP and the Democrats been bigger. The reason America is in deep is because people somehow think this is a personality battle between Hillary and whoever the republican clown car spits out. But look at the party policies for even 5 seconds: Democrats pro social safety nut, republicans gut the ACA, medicare and convert medicare to a voucher system Democrats pro high income tax hikes, and probably extent - Republicans cut taxes on the wealth and cut programs like food stamps that lower the effective tax rate on lower income family Democrats pro 2010 finacial reform, republicans cut it including consumer protections Democrats pro climate policy (if required to be exec action), republicans would block efforts to regulate. That's just the fist 4 things that spring to mind, igoring supreme court justices - it's not inconceivable that 1-2 more republican justices could see gay marriage overturned. Trying to make it about Hillary's personality is what is wrong with the system.

Yeah, this wasn't a good problem sorry. Pard has two keys (AC and KH) but will correct 4H to 4S as he has a 2245 shape and thinks it is all a big misfit. I'm not sure if he should continue, he can tell from the diamond raise and his length that this hand is void in diamonds so the AC is likely a great card. Basically the entire field played 4M with two slams (6H and 6SX), so not sure if you can bid normally.

If you bid 1S it goes I probably should have put this as a supplementary poll question.

[hv=pc=n&s=skqj974haqjt53dc8&d=w&v=0&b=8&a=ppp]133|200[/hv] Basic system is a gadget filled 5cM 2/1 GF. Oppo are playing Australian standard with a strong NT and are sound. Partner opens any 11 count if that effects your decisions. Not sure what to do with this collection. Realistic starting points are 1M, 4M, or 3NT as a specific Ace ask. What's your decision, and likely view of continuations.

It's been discussed before, but in a limited opening context where this a much better idea. Partner is much less likely to want to bid again and this minimoses the risks.

This sort of thing works a lot better if you dedicate a few bids to the task. Playing 1NT overcall as a light TKO (limited to a good 14), we dedicate X and 2NT to stronger hands - a small loss to let you compete more frequently on hands like the above. If you don't split the ranges it becomes much harder.

Normal in this context being negative 1D and 1M natural?

It would be silly to suggest that posting in the expert forum makes you an expert, and equally silly to limit it to just experts because the number of true experts on the forum is small. I think it's more useful to think of it as a more difficulty class of problem. I agree with PhantomSac that the best effect has been the restructuring of the Beginner and intermediate forums.

What's the responses to 1C look like?

I play the same thing as you - I've seen the results in this case so I am subconsciously biased, but I regularly pass similar hands 4th in because partner is more likely to have clubs and the points are 10-10-9-11 around the table best case, and if they don't open balanced 11 counts, it could be a lot worse than that (11-7-11 with no good suit, 11). I could lose a heart fit, but thems the breaks.

I live in an apartment, so the only thing on my balcony is my weighlifting equipment. I grow iron?

There is some scientific evidence that suggests that religious belief is in some part induced by our brain. You can convince people (in a double blinded experiment) that they have having a spiritual experience by subjecting their brains to strong magnetic fields. Additionally, it is possible (plausible?) that there are evolutionary psychology reasons that would select for religious belief. Indeed, there probably is, because you don't gain an selection advantage by explaining the thunder or rain as 'god did it' so there is likely a reason for these beliefs.

On the actual hands: Hand 1: At the table I doubled 4S. 4Sx goes two off, 5D+1 was the most common result. No-one in the field bid slam, though someone engineered 5Cx= by west, I'd love to know how that went down. My reasoning was 4Sx was a sure plus score, and there was no promise 5D was going to make, but I guess I was being a bit conservative, given RHO was likely looking at a weak hand and thought he was preempting my partner rather than the analogus auction 2D-4S where 4S rates to be constructive. Hand 2: partner probably should have passed (he has a fairly defensive 8 count with 5H and Qx in clubs), but 6H made on the lead.

HA. Yeah, good point, though, again, I don't like with the bidding - they rate to have a 9 card spade fit right? I guess doubling and backing in with clubs is the right solution.

My bidding got deservedly critiqued by oppo after this board, but I really had zero idea what to do at the table. [hv=pc=n&w=shaq9dk73ckq98654&d=w&v=0&b=8&a=1cp1d(Hearts)2d]133|200[/hv] 1C was a clubs or balanced style in a 5CM context. 1D was a transfer to hearts. Lacking anything intelligent to do after 2D I just bid 4H and that made (3 imps in), but 6C and 6H both have play but I wasn't sure how to get there. Bids that occured to me Start with 3D? I felt like that probably asks for a stopper for 3NT, and I'm not sure I know anything else if partner bids 3NT at this point. 3S is surely a splinter, but I hardly have 4 trumps (though, of course, if I'm bidding 4H anyway...). 3C is clearly NF and my hand is currently GOLD particularly if I can arrange to declare, so that feels bad. 4C.. I'm not sure what 4C is. Something good though, but I'm not sure it suggests I have hearts. Without interference, 2NT would have been 3 hearts 6 clubs and a big hand (or another handtype, but whatever), but with interference it sounds a lot like 17-19 balanced with a diamond stop to me, and while my hand is good, that is not what I have. Also the huge tank up to this point meant bidding 4H was pragmatic, but I'm not sure I should be doing.

If it helps, it's 100% obvious for system reasons that he has a weak 2D (and if he doesn't, 7NT or 7C is going to make regardless what you do now, sooooo who cares!). What would you do if the bidding had gone 2D-4S-?! We don't play WJS after a 1C opener, so this may also increase the mean heart length for partner (2C and 2D are both diamond hands, and 2H and 2S are shortness showing).

Format for both problems: Ximp pairs. Hand 1: [hv=pc=n&w=s9hak93dat5cat643&d=n&v=b&b=13&a=p2c(See%20note)4s]133|200[/hv] [1] Weak Diamonds or Weak Spades or 22+ balanced or something else strong. RHO is an internationalist, LHO is a good player. Partner rates to have a weak 2D on the bidding. X = penalties at this point. Edit: If you have a problem with the system, just assume partner has a weak 2D. Pard will always have 6D. Hand 2: Two weaker players. [hv=pc=n&w=sakj5hakq4da952c8&d=w&v=b&b=4&a=1dp1h2c4c5c5hp]133|200[/hv] 1D is an unbalanced diamond thing in a 5 card majors, 1C clubs or balanced context. Obviously this is a dead max. Do you bid 6?

Partner and I do roughly this: * Mark any boards we find interesting during the play on our score sheet * Step through every board that feels like it is worth discussing (e.g. we let through an overtrick). Boards that are normal that were not interesting that could not be made/set are ignored. We then attempt to resolve any issues or atleast understand what went wrong. If we change our agreements someone is delegated to change the notes. If we are unable to resolve the issue post session we take it to email * Bounce ideas around at the pub or via email. What does everyone else do? I note one thing we do is rarely look at where we did well.