phoenix214

Never stop loving raptor overcall of 1NT here!

Well I am playing this in my partnership, - just a toy to open both minors, when it comes up. We use it as weak or strong with both minors. So you know partner has always minors, but 2S in its nature is forcing. For defending, have not come against it, but against not too strong pairs they might get confused - and you will always be in the better fit(because of the 2NT bid you have)

Accepting the transfer on level 1 shows 3 pieces, bidding 1NT denies having 3 card support. 2M can be preemptive If you bid again, just treat the sequences same as for example 1D-1H, 1NT with some modifications due to knowing partners amount of major support.

Your partners bidding does not make sense in the case he took your double as take -out. If you are in FG auction, he knows that you should end up in game, so he has nothing to risk to double with his hand(If he thinks your playing TO doubles here), which you then would pass, I assume. As for the meaning of the double here - usually if you are in FG situation, there should be a forcing pass/penalty double, situation so the double is penalty.

Actually an interesting idea - on the last heart, cant you afford to play the king of diamonds? That should tell partner immediately what your diamond holding is(You should only be able to afford to play the king of diamonds, if you need a different switch which would be fatal or you have really good diamonds), and that one trick should not matter that much long, as long as you can get all your other diamonds.

Somewhat standard would be to play transfers: XX=4+♥ 1♥=4+♠ 1♠-bal hand 1NT - club 2C - diamonds Higher your choice Usually with a stronger hand that wants to penalize opps you can pass, then X them after they bid

Have you looked at the Swedish club that was played by Lindkvist-Fredin some years back? They played a relay version mostly with GF relays over 1♣-1♥/♠, and did not use Odwrotka/any other -wrotka Since you have the whole 1bid/2bid concept - you can basically play some sort of a simple 2/1 here(ignoring 1C) and having level 1 responses NFish and 2M response as strong(basically implying a 2C as clubs/bal strong 2D diamonds 2NT with some support maybe). With the intermediate hands - maybe 2♣ can be GF unless rebid lol

[hv=pc=n&w=sjt6hqt9dj98ckjt9&d=n&v=n&b=5&a=pp2c(Strong)p2d(Automatic%5Bnot%20double%20neg%5D)p2np3c(Pupp)p3d(Some%204M)p3s(Hearts)p4hppp]133|200[/hv] This hand came up last weekend in the Finnish Midsummer bridge festival, junior teams tournament - playing vs the Scottish U25 team, they have this auction to game - which would be your lead now. As for partners choices - double over 2D would be majors - others doubles, no specific agreement, in general should be lead directing, but we have not discussed them. So what would you lead and why? Also some followup points - I never seem to get these leads right -are the any good guidelines for these situations(Leading after 2N-to game auctions) - Also, what is the standard for doubles here, and how light do you expect partner to be, if she makes one. EDIT: Changed the question to 4H

A pretty interesting discussion: In real life partner had - ♠:QT6432 ♥:T7 ♦:K8 ♣:A92 Intending to try for 6S. The problem as it is. If the hand is played by the 2NT opener, then 6♠ is good, if diamond ace is one-side or if no diamond lead. If the spade hand plays then 6♠ is basically cold. I was mostly curious if somebody would find this as a problem or not. As the cards were, diamond ace was off-side, and we had a diamond lead(Although we finished up in 4♠) we still lost lots of imps because for most tables the auction starts 1♣-1♠, and now they have right-sided their slam.

In my opinion pass is fine, because your hand is not that strong + you have both majors, which means that you can always enter the auction again. Obviously opps can jump somewhere, but passing is okei.

Edit 2NT is 20-22, somehow i figured i posted that, my mistake

Scoring - IMP pairs NV vs VUL you deal and open You have: ♠:AKJ8 ♥:AKQ ♦:J975 ♣:K8 You open 2NT: Partner bids 3♥ - standard transfer. What do you do now?(Your pair does not have any relevant agreements over this, anything besides 3♠, should be a super accept by common sense) Relevant information: 4♥ would be a transfer to spades as well. 3♥-3♠, then 4♠ invites slam by pd. Most of the field play a strong club, and not neceserally have 2NT for a natural opener.

If people like to play with conventions let them - actually there is some merit to that, because at some degree it forces you to think about what your actions are more, then if you dont have any - atleast that works for me. But honestly http://sd.keepcalm-o-matic.co.uk/i/keep-calm-and-get-your-pitchfork-ready.png

If you want to defend with something destructive vs 1D you sure can do that - but it messes up your constructive auctions as a price. I like the idea - 1NT - Raptor, X = Majors, pass then X - strong balanced (2NT might be okei as natural as well). Only problem is in comp telling when pass = strong and balanced, so that needs some rules. Also when it goes 1D-p-p, you balance with almost anything, unless you think if pd has strong bal and you dont see any good place to play(4333 7 count for example)

Noticed a few times playing today, that at some point i can see my partners descriptions of bids - it looked a like a really weird feature, which should not be there on purpose.

For me it depends on table feel a bit. The question is - where do you see the auction going? If opps have the points they might have some 3NT/4S or 5m. Over 3NT you can sacrifice or let them play. For other game options it is harder. I suppose shooting 3H/4H will put up the pressure and might force them to guess wrong, - worse thing that could happen is that we get doubled for a -, and they dont have anything. If you feel creative, 1!S might work out as well, this will keep them out of 4S, or has a good try, but has the risks that partner will raise like crazy, and it might be our hand(also some trust issues)

Dunno, i just open every 11 count, sometimes it tours out bad, but still. 3 aces should still be a goodish 12, so I would. The only reason i would not open that hand although is if i would playing a style where I pass all 11 bal and some 12 bal,(Like say a 12-15 NT, where you skip on bad 12)

To the question if your hand is worth a slam, try picturing what you need from partner? Basically HA, DA and you make it on good breaks, add in red queens and you want to be 6, CA and 7 looks good. I think playing w.o many agreements I would just blast the slam opp 15-17, just checking aces, to see if the slam is not too silly. If you want to go more scientific, Maybe a self-splinter works best here? Basically telling partner that you have short clubs - it should carry about the same meaning as bidding diamonds. Lets say it goes - 1NT-2!D, 2!H-4!C Short clubs, want to play hearts for slam. Partners hand is pretty good now, only CK is wasted but basically now he can see a slam opp 3 aces, so should go on.

Not 100% sure on the rulings here, but why on earth does W ask what is 2S here, as the action developed it is obvious that the answer is going to be NAT, NF. So now what? X again because you have minors? Looks like a misfit situation + there might be some misunderstanding and partner can come alive as well. So i have no idea how there can be any damage done to W, it was her own decision at that point.

I do not agree with your minimum post requirement, because for example, there are people who are quiet and do not post that much, but at the same time do read the forum and would like to play time to time(example: me), and i checked and i do have a 0,12 per day. The format as it is, is pretty okei as well, if you play a small tourney it gets also pretty booring over a longer time. I know I had played a what was it - 2 day teams event, where we where 4 teams, playing some short matches, had to do 3 round robins. That was pretty boring. If we have more players, it makes it more interesting.

In my regular partnership, the 4th hands is on pressure to act here, because it is possible to pass strong bal hands here, so pass for me seems easier, if pd is not acting now, she has almost nothing anyway...

There is one thing im still confused about the alerting policies. From what I understand alerting should work as an announcement, that we are playing something that you are not expecting. If a NBO has a national system of strong club, short diamond, 15-17 NT and precision 2 clubs, is it possible for these bids to be made alterable. This actually arise a problem(Playing a short club, alerting the 1C bid, opponents think they are facing a strong club, so are always forced to ask)

Really depends on style of play. One option would be freiling style weak twos based on frequency. Although if there is a possiblity i would like to have some weak/strong openings there or something that helps my constructive side a bit more. Example for that would be. 2C-diamonds weak or some strong 4441 2D-Wilkosz(But also add some strong options, like same hand but can be strong as well) 2H-Flannery?:D 2S-Minors Weak or strong 2NT-20-21 bal

THanks for the answers. I personally usually look at it similar to the way awm does, but then again after reading some of Kit´s articles on bridgewinners have noticed that he sometimes upgrades even without spots, so figured to try this work on the example hand, because the hand seemed quite good to me, but still some of the time I get these decisions wrong. Also i usually check my upgrades with KnR, although i do not know if it is such a good idea. The example hand is given as 17.

Hello, i wanted to ask, how do you decide upon if a hand is worth a upgrade to a higher strength level. Mostly im concerned with balanced hands, because that seems to be the most difficult(for me). I know i can just stick to flat face point count, but sometimes that does not feel right to me. So my question would be-what does it take for you to upgrade a hand to a higher NT point range, despite its face point count? Hand that got me thinking: AKxx;KQxx;Axx;xx(14-16 and 17-19 NT ranges)