AyunuS

http://www.bridgebase.com/tools/handviewer.html?bbo=y&myhand=M-1419975-1411645681 Basic GIB btw, but still. Look at the 4♦ bid. It says 13+ points, which is more than it has. Yes it has a doubleton diamond with no wasted point in it and possibly thinks my hand is weaker than it is, but I wouldn't consider that to be worth all that much. So why not just bid 3♠? It only has a Qxxxx of spades, which is okay to introduce at level 3, but not at level 5. And then it gets stuck introducing it at level 5. Maybe I'm just missing something here, but can someone explain how 4♦ is the best bid here? Or just agree that it's a bad bid and it shouldn't bid it with that hand. And they only got 9 tricks so being at 5♠ was not a very good place to end up.

I agree with a lot of that, but the bug still stands. Even if you open 1NT with a 13-card suit, if it makes a bid that is forcing to 3N, then it should keep bidding as though the bidding is forcing to 3N. I.E. it should still follow that part of the description. Either the description should be changed so that it doesn't say it's forcing to 3N, or it should actually be forcing to 3N. And I noticed on the link I posted it's maybe too hard to see some of the description, but it also did say on my bid, "forcing to 3N." I remember it.

Well, you may be correct. I'd like to know more about what 2♠ meant. If it means at least 4 clubs, then you probably can't make 4♠. But if there's still good hope that neither opponent holds more than 3 clubs, then 4♠ has good chances since you'll have 1 fewer loss in clubs as the 4th round is a free win.

Just bid 4♠. With that hand, it's going to work most of the time. And considering that so many tables are going to bid 4♠, anything fewer and you're going to get a bad score in MPs. If you double they can probably run to some suit, and doubling a suit you're short in isn't likely going to get you as many points as 4♠. You have the advantage of passing earlier so you look like an idiot and someone might double your 4♠ bid, too. This would let you beat the other 4♠ bidders which would get you a ton of MPs.

http://tinyurl.com/mn579h7 It said forcing to 3N, I bid 3D, and then it passes. And it has enough points opposite a 1NT opener that I think it should be willing to go for a game here. Both 5D and 3NT make.

Just go for 4♥. Since partner made a takeout double, you can assume 3+♥. With a 10-card suit not vul, I almost always like to go for a bid no lower than level 4, since there are 2 possibilities: 1. You have a decent number of points and can make it. 2. You barely have any points but then the other team could have made a big bid if you let them, so they still probably rarely get very many more points out of it than if you let them bid. And with your hand, I wouldn't worry much about missing slam by bidding 4♥ because you'd need a monster hand from partner to make it, and if he/she has such a hand, he/she could bid again anyway.

1st hand: Yep, I'll open that, unless my partner sucks. Just don't open 1♣ since then you don't have anything good to bid if partner bids 1♠, which is very likely. 2nd hand: Nope, don't open that. Even if you're in 3rd or 4th seat and the action seems passive, your partner will likely compete a bit too much since you had an opening hand. And with a balanced hand I don't like to compete too much with both teams have about 20 HCP since they'll probably end up either being able to make spades at the same level you could bid at, or cause your team to bid 1 level higher where you can't make the bid, and then they still get points.

But the topic says 7NT bid and made. With a singleton K and all but the K in another suit, you wouldn't ever want to bid 7NT. You'd bid 7 in your suit for fear that they'd lead one of the suits you didn't have. It wouldn't be worth the risk to go for 7NT. Lowest HCP I'd think you'd bid 7NT with is if you have - A A AK1098765432, where one opponent bids 7 of the suit you have none of, and possibly redoubles if you double that instead of overcalling, so you can be pretty confident that they have all 13 of them. Then bid 7NT where their other hand has to lead so you can be sure they have to lead one of your suits. Then you can bid and make 7NT with 15 HCP.

Don't duck the first trick. If you do, then even if partner has J10, declarer can just duck and take with the Q later so as to prevent you from running spades with that hand no matter what. Just take it and lead something else. Hearts might lead to setting up and extra trick for them so it doesn't seem worth it. But clubs you can't get endplayed with that holding and there's little fear of anything to lose in leading away from it. So just lead a club.

I noticed a bid that I can't seem to figure out. Free robot tourney, MPs. Consider this: http://tinyurl.com/lfgv35v And then this: http://tinyurl.com/p8roxx6 What's the big difference that makes it so slam is worth checking for after 2nt opening but not after 2c opening? The 3c shows the same thing in both cases. And 4s shows 3+ spades in both cases. So what are the differences? Well the 2nt is necessarily balanced and has fewer total points. Both of which should be considered worse at going for 6s.

Seems easy enough. Just draw 3 rounds of spades and all the hearts and diamonds. Then lead a low club to the 10. LHO will either let you have it, in which case you only lose 1 in clubs, or take it and be forced to either get endplayed on the next round of clubs or concede a sluff and ruff. Either way, you win the rest.

I don't really feel like it's worth it to go for 6♣. If you go by partner has a balanced (or close to it) 11-12 HCP, then it doesn't seem to me that most hands that meet that description would be able to make this bid. I don't even think it's good to bid 6 with ANY 11 HCP partner could possibly have. Count up the losers in any case of a balanced 11 HCP. There's always 2 unless you count getting lucky finesses. Alternatively, partner could be short in hearts. But then seeing that partner has likely bad clubs, you'd have to ruff 3 hearts and still not get endplayed on clubs. You likely would get endplayed on clubs or get stuck getting counterruffed on hearts when you led the 4th round of hearts so that they'd probably be able to get 2 tricks with their clubs.

I'd say go for 4♠. too many people just pass 3♠ so that doesn't really seem worth it and you can probably make 4♠ anyway. The problem for me with passing is that partner will probably lead from a long minor and give away an easy first trick in declarer's weak minor, and then declarer probably has enough winners between his stronger minor and possibly aces in the majors to win at least 4 tricks, and even with 4 tricks you'd get fewer points than game is worth. Neither option is a sure thing but I think the 620 is probably more likely than the 500 from passing.

Pass. I don't really understand why you'd want to double with that hand. When I double, I like to have some winners in my hand or at least winners in the trump suit. Consider this: Clubs: Your clubs are on the wrong side and could easily end up all losing opposite a short stack of clubs hand. Diamonds: They could be short considering your team has diamonds and they were willing to push. Hearts: You bid NT without a stopper and your team could easily have no winners in this suit. Spades: Again, Jxx is really not a hand holding any winners hear either. So I would no way consider you to have enough defense to double. If you double and they make they get a ton of points, but if you double and they're down 1 it didn't even get you all that many more points. So I really don't think it's worth it.

I would bid 5♣, but it's not 100% clear, and here's why not. You could have an agreement with your partner about what a double means here. Since the agreement could be anything, there exist some that'd be better than just bidding 5♣ so it can't be 100% clear.

http://tinyurl.com/lntospm Express free automated fun tourney. I just don't get it. After the spades, there were basically 2 options I'd figure almost anyone would use. Option 1: There's enough top tricks to make with 1 overtrick so just draw those in fear of letting the defense run the spades. OR Option 2: Finesse the Q of hearts by leading low to the J in an attempt to get more overtricks. Still just draw the top tricks in the other suits. And what did it do? Lead the J of hearts. Having neither the Q nor the 10, I fail to see how this was a very good idea. And then it lost the J to the Q and ended up failing the contract. Needless to say, it didn't get a very good score for the hand. Either this was a bad play or there's something I'm missing where it's somehow good but I really can't figure out how.

Basic GIB, IMPs. My 2nt is unusual 2nt and yet it gets passed? And west won't put it on 3nt even opposite a 15+ opener? http://tinyurl.com/l29bzxn

http://tinyurl.com/pwnv2nc To me, it's very rarely good to force your team to the 4 level when neither of you have an opening hand. And the 3♠ bid is especially troublesome when it doesn't have good heart support. So they got stuck bidding at level 4 in neither a suit where they had a fit nor with enough high card points. And the 3♠ wasn't like it didn't have any lower alternative bids that could have been made, and if their final contract were 3♣ or 3♦ or 3♥ they would have been in noticeably better shape.

I don't really see this as all that bad. The hands aren't all that likely to be in the shape that they are. 1NT could easily be with 3 or even 4 diamonds, and just not enough points to bid 2♦. Also I don't think it thought of this as a sacrifice.

http://tinyurl.com/lux8wkl Something didn't seem right here. East took the double as a responsive double, and yet, even though west had a great hand to bid 5♦ after a responsive double to, it left it on 4♠x in IMPs. Letting 4♠x make here is very costly in IMPs. To me that's a horrible move with such bad defense of no spades and too many points in diamonds when east has diamonds so North/South are probably short on diamonds so they're not good defense. And yet, west has great offense in lots of diamonds and no spades. In any case, I figure either west should bid 5♦ or east's bid should just say penalty double since west apparently almost never runs from it since this is about as much of a run away hand as you can realistically get. It was basic GIB, but still.

http://tinyurl.com/n5d4way After balancing 1NT, the bids seems like they could use some work. 2♥ here apparently requires 12-16 total points, which seems like quite a lot to me. And then it just jumps to 3NT even though it has 4 hearts. Isn't 4♥ a better bid for it? Since I knew I overbid my hand since I showed 12+, then I figured it couldn't make 3NT so I ran away and it happened to work out very well. But, in theory, 3NT could be a hand with only 2 hearts here and should be passed with a real 2♥ bidding hand so that if it really does have 4+ hearts it really shouldn't bid 3NT here. Also note that the transfer method, in case east doesn't interfere with 2♦ doesn't work either: http://tinyurl.com/ktdk9wt Notice it leaves it on 3NT even with 4 hearts opposite 5. I don't see how to correctly get to 4♥ with the way it bids.

http://tinyurl.com/m9j4f6d You can't see the description of it here, but I think south's 3♦ must have shown 16 points since north was willing to keep bidding somehow. I think a passed hand should be limited to 12 and there's no way north should be able to bid 3♠ here.

http://tinyurl.com/n3or7kg Ugh, the description said 4+♠ and yet it only had 2. This doesn't seem like it's a hand that should risk a takeout double at level 4, but if for some reason it has to, then at least change the description. Oh well, at least like most mistake bids, it didn't double.

It was the robots using to replace slower players in the express free automated fun tourneys. I thought those were the advanced robots but I guess I don't really know for sure.

http://tinyurl.com/poeu5e8 Shouldn't even need an explanation.