HighLow21

That seems reasonable. This is a ruling issue much more than an analytic issue. To me, if the ruling is that they were damaged, they should get +600 for 5♦=.

What is the vulnerability? I'm going to assume NV for NS. Partner has at least 7 spade tricks, assuming he holds the generally accepted 8 spades for the 4♠ opener. He might have only 7 spades to the KQ if at favorable, but even then, that adds only 1 more loser. Even with 8 spades he might have 2 losers in hearts and 1 in diamonds. It is actually possible to fail at 4♠ if he has something like ♠KQxxxxxx ♥9xx ♦x ♣K. Meanwhile I can't imagine a ton of 4♠ openers that would give slam a good play. Maybe ♠KQxxxxxx ♥x ♦Ax ♣xx. It's a borderline decision IMHO to investigate slam. I'd estimate as many hands that make 4♠ but go down in 5♠, as there are hands that are safe at 5♠ and have a play for 6♠. Really close. Something to note, though, is that there's a good chance the opponents can make 5♣ or 5♥. So investigating slam maybe a good way to shut the opponents out if one of them has a hand they really like. You might get a top with 5♠ doubled or undoubled down 2.

I'm not clear on the rules... but if partner forgets the meaning of my bid, and as a result ends up in the wrong contract and goes down, how exactly is the opposition damaged? I'm not clear on the ruling when partner forgets the meaning of a conventional bid. I do agree that E/W can do better than +100. Also, I think E/W can make 11 tricks in diamonds, double-dummy, not merely 9. A heart lead can jeopardize that but is unlikely. The real loss is the value of bidding and making the 11-trick vulnerable game, not simply +110 vs. +100.

I can't imagine the odds against 6♥ are worse than 30%, even without having an Ace or keycard count yet. The 2♣ bid should show at most 4 losers, and North's hand fills 2 of them. The diamond length makes it probable that a 3rd hole is filled. The outside aces are always worth a trick. The risk of losing a black suit trick is near zero. So the primary risk is losing two red suit tricks. One thing I always find helpful is to imagine a minimum hand for which 6♥ is essentially cold. If you can, then slam is probably a good bet. Here's one: ♠Kx ♥AKQJ5 ♦AQJ95 ♣x. This makes 6♥ unless RHO has a diamond void, or hearts are 5-0. This is about a 9% fail rate. And partner could be stronger. Sure, there are plenty of hands where 6♥ or even 5♥ could fail, but the reward seems higher than the risk here. Bid 4NT (or whatever ace-asking convention you're using) and go to 6 unless you're off two aces (or two keycards). If you do so and go -1 in 5♥, chalk it up as extremely unlucky and expect to have plenty of company.

When there's such a magnificent disparity in the quality of the suits, I would tend to bid the strong one and treat the other as a 4-carder. Besides, always best to show a major if you have one and might not have a chance to show the other.

the 2NT bid is somewhat encouraging. But opener is likely to have at least 7 of his 16+ points in diamonds. I would probably bid 4NT or whatever ace-asking system I was playing and settle in 5S if partner only has 2 aces (one of which is very likely to be in diamonds). That said, all partner needs for slam to be cold is Ax KQx AJxxx KJ. This isn't much above a minimum and has 5 wasted points.

Phil, I still can't find the stickies. Maybe it's because it's 4:30AM and I'm not interpreting directions correctly. Stickies are forum threads that stay at the top of the forum, yes? (i.e., not replies within the individual thread that are at the top). A/E forum doesn't seem to have any such pinned threads at the top. Am I missing something? I am a total newbie to forums. And my apologies to anyone I might have offended --> I guess when someone uses the phrase "everyone of a decent standard" they may not have meant any offense, but I definitely took it that way. I may not have the best bidding system in the world or a litany of championships under my belt, but I am excellent at this game and can't see myself ever playing a double in that situation as being primarily takeout. It can show cards; it can show quick tricks; but if I were interested in slam the last thing I personally would bid at the 5 level is a double of the opponent's very ambitious and long-suited preempt.

I said more than a minimum, and that can include having extra shape or length. But usually, to go on to 3-level shows something beyond a horrible 4-3-3-3 hand with 2 jacks and out, for example. Given that the minimum for responding to a takeout double is 0 points and no good shape at all, going on to the 3 level requries SOMETHING, even if it's simply 5 clubs. I'm not making this up, I'm just quoting Terence Reese on that. In a pinch I might go 3C if I had a worthless hand with 5 clubs and 3 spades, but not with a worthless hand with 4 clubs and 3 spades. This is why I say the takeout double the 2nd time around is wrong. It only provides 2 card support for the other unbid major. I believe the overcaller bid wrong BOTH times; he's too strong for the original heart overcall, but I can see why the hand might be downgraded from a strong double to a pure overcall--no points in the 6-card suit. However, it sets the overcaller up for a much worse call at his 2nd turn, the double, showing more support in the black suits (and definitely more spade support... as we have discussed, partner may be flat broke with a 4-card spade suit to the 10xxx).

Cool, how do you get the hand editor to work? I was worried about copyright infringement or something.

When I typed the example hand earlier I meant to include 1 fewer clubs and 1 more diamond.

Phil, where do you find these "stickies"?

Yes, he might, especially given that the TO double distorts your shape. It suggests at least 6 cards in the unbid suits. Also, he would never respond 2S with that specific hand. He might though if he held (S) Jxxx (H) 10 (D) 9x © 10xxxxx.

Wow. WOW! I'm really fascinated by the obnoxious arrogance of all 3 responses to my posts. "Everyone of a decent standard..." Are you saying I don't have a decent standard? Ha. I have plenty of partners of decent standard and they certainly wouldn't bid speculatively at this level under these conditions unless he was certain we were slamming somewhere. If he did, he would have something more descriptive to offer than "X." I challenge you to construct a hand where bidding on over 5D doubled leads to a better score than passing and taking it down at least 4, maybe 6. You are bound to run into horrendous distribution in the side suits; your partner may have as many as 4 diamonds and 4 spades; you do not know whether partner's double is penalty or takeout unless you've specifically discussed the issue beforehand; you have lost a ton of room for exploration; and the probability that you have a 10-card fit that would justify bidding on is well under 50%. All of these factors point toward leaving the double in and taking as many tricks as you can on defense. On this hand, even with 29 HCP and a 9 card fit, you could go down because the defenders have a singleton or void in every side suit and you fail to successfully locate a jack here and an 8 there. The long suits are just no good. For any such hand you can construct, where bidding on improves your score, I can construct a similar one where the opponents can set you in anything you bid, and 5D is down a telephone number. If partner had interest in a suit slam, he should have bid his suit. Again --> if you have an agreement in this specific situation, then fine. But barring one that says something like this-is-a-"we-have-slam-on-this-hand-somewhere" double, I cannot imagine that bidding on is safe and there is no way 5D is going to be down any less than 3. Even if you stay at the 5 level you might be off a ruff and 2 side suit tricks. And if you're using doubles as takeout over 5 level preempts, I would be thrilled to be your opponent. It means I can preempt you with impunity and you don't have a method to penalize me. With respect to my blog, I encourage you to check it out and give any feedback, positive or negative. I just started it, it's a whopping 3 articles long so far, but I have 100 ideas and I'll be adding 3-4 articles a week. The more controversy and dissenting opinion the better. :-)

:-) Good luck. Your bidding methods are horrendously flawed.

No, what I'm saying is that if partner has a complete bust handhe will tend to bid 2S instead of 3C because he only has to take 8 tricks rather than 9 to fulfill.

I think wank is probably an appropriate name. Anyone who plays takeout doubles at the 5-level needs to find a new game.

We're talking about 14 vs. 17 HCP. The hand I mentioned earlier is anything but a pile of crap. It has 14 HCP and 3 quick tricks. Technically he was too strong for 1H overcall originally. Most modern bidders double first anytime they have 17+. Overcaller's actual hand was 17 HCP including no jacks at all, and 3 aces. It is a super-maximum overcall. But given that he has nothing wasted in hearts, given that responder was silent over a minimally-intrusive overcall, given that opener could do nothing over 1H than rebid a suit in which he has no more than 3HCP, all of these factors scream that the overcaller's partner has points. That he didn't support hearts means he has 2 of them at most. Whether he has spades or clubs, the most possible losers outside of trumps (spades or clubs) is 3 and will almost always be fewer than that. (There are actually only 1). Both overcaller and overcaller's responder grossly underbid, but I tend to put more blame on overcaller. There is simply no way he could know he held an uber-prime 17 HCP with NONE of them in hearts, none of them in jacks, and only 2 of them in queens. (The queen being in responder's long suit). Again, I cannot design a better-fitting 17 HCP hand in a lab. There are 22-counts that would have more losers. 3C is a slight underbid, but 1H and especially the pass of 3C are borderline criminal!

On the auction, South will usually bid 2S over the takeout double of 2D. He doesn't. He bids 3C. This is more than a minimum because it forces the partnership to the 3 level. Meanwhile, the takeout doubler has no values wasted in his original suit (opposite what is sure to be heart shortness), has 1st and 2nd round control of the opener's suit, has AQx support in clubs, and 1st round control of spades. You couldn't design a better fit in a laboratory. It is moot whether takeout doubler should (1) Shoot 3NT or 5C, (2) cue-bid 4D showing slam interest, (3) bid Blackwood asking for aces, with the intention of raising a 5C response to 6C, and either (3a) going 6C over 5D response, or (3b) asking for kings with 5NT or cue-bidding 5S to express grand slam interest in clubs. I realize 3b is extremely aggressive, but there is every reason to believe 7C has a play if partner has the heart ace and club king. Passing 3C is what you would do holding (S) KQx (H) KQxxx (D) xx © A10x. Your hand plays at least 2 tricks better than that in clubs.

Excerpt from today's post: ... As West, you are on opening lead holding: ♠ 9 6 5 4 ♥ K 8 ♦ 8 5 4 3 ♣ Q  3 2 What are your thoughts? The first thing is that the auction tells you where most of the HCP are. Dummy has a 4-card heart suit (probably not 5) and a weak hand. Otherwise he would have jumped the bidding at some point. Declarer is also fairly minimum, and partner holds a balanced 15-17 points for his 1NT overcall. (Note that 1NT does NOT promise a stopper in both ♥ and ♦. It should provide stoppers in at least 1 of these suits, but a 1NT overcall generally means the same thing as an opening 1NT means. It does not promise a stopper in every suit, bid or unbid.) You hold 5 HCP, so the defense as at least half of the outstanding points. Dummy will have around 5-8 and declarer around 12-14. Since partner's bidding does not tell you anything about where his points lie, let's assume you choose a somewhat passive ♠ lead. Dummy appears: ...

Hi Everyone! I have started a new bridge blog called Bridge Analysis. It is targeted at new-to-solid intermediates and "early advanced" players, who are working towards becoming strong Intermediates or solid Advanced players. The blog will rely heavily on Intermediate-to-Advanced analysis of individual hands, both in defense and declarer play, and will include some detailed mathematical analysis where applicable. I will also have posts regarding my theories about practically every aspect of the game. Here is the blog: http://bridgeanalysis.blogspot.com/. All feedback and suggestions welcome. The reply to this post will include an excerpt from today's blog post on Defender's play. Thanks! -Tate Shafer

Unless you agree to play negative doubles in this scenario (I cannot imagine it), any bid but pass seems suicidal to me. Partner could have diamonds as strong as KJxxx and no other valuable cards. You have 3 defensive aces. 5 diamonds will not make, could go for 800 in spite of the vulnerability, and there is no guarantee you can make a 5-level contract, let alone a slam. If you take out the double and partner indeed has something like xx xx KJxxx xxxx, you will never play opposite this partner again and it won't be your choice. Larry Cohen and his Law of Total Tricks would argue strongly against bidding again here. It is quite possible that neither side has a 10 card fit, and there is every chance that neither side can make 11 tricks in any contract. If you cannot defeat 5D with your 3 aces and partner's tricks, or if partner turns out to have nothing in diamonds and 4-card or 5-card heart support, where we have 11 or 12 tricks on top, you should consider switching to a new partner. If it turns out you've got a game and can only set 5D by 500, or that you can make a slam against 800 or 1100, them's the breaks. Preempts have to work some of the time. I just think that it's far more likely that bidding again will reduce your score (or make it negative!) relative to what you'll collect against 5DX.

Here's an excerpt from today's blog post: ... WHAT YOU SEE WHEN DEFENDING Because you cannot see all the assets of your side, it is very easy to go astray, and it requires much more work just to get up to the level of "reasonable play" as a defender. (And even then, you will embarrass yourself or partner occasionally. There isn't much you can do about that. The goal on defense is not to be perfect, but to make fewer mistakes than the next guy.) In order to combat the low-quality information you have as a defender, here is my short list of MUSTS if you want to be any good at it: DEFENDER MUSTS You must make every inference possible from the auction phase. Every bid gives you a range of HCP (high card points) and the declarer's distribution. Dummy's bids may help too, which will be important on opening lead. After that, you can SEE dummy, which can also help you with the rest of your task. You must make every effort to count declarer's shape. Sometimes the auction will narrow this down significantly; other times you'll be in the dark until the very end. Still, it pays to gain as much partial information as possible. For example, if the declarer opened 1♥, rebid 2♠ over the dummy's 2♣ response, then later rebid ♥, he almost certainly has 6 or more hearts and 4 or more spades. This leaves at most 3 cards in the minor suits (♣ and ♦) and you must defend accordingly. Do not expect a lead from ♦J1098 to set up any tricks for your side unless partner has an honor or two there. You must interpret partner's defensive signals appropriately. Partner will tend to give you count signals more than attitude signals, but you must understand your partnership signal agreements and stick to them and take information from them. If your partner does not signal consistently, get a new partner. You cannot be a successful player at this game without defensive signalling. Remember, you will defend about twice as often as you declare. You must make an effort to place the missing high cards as precisely as possible and as quickly as possible. Between the bidding and the play, you should make an attempt to place the missing high cards (especially Aces and Kings) as accurately as possible. The opening lead should help with this. For example, if you were LHO in the above hand, leading the ♥Q before dummy comes down, and you saw dummy win this with the ♥K, you can place declarer with the ♥A. The bidding (not given) should also help you place the high honors in spades and clubs. You know most of the important cards and their location by the end of trick 1. You must try to estimate the number of tricks the declarer has. In the above example, perhaps you can place declarer with exactly 5 spades (based on the bidding and other factors). If you are holding the ♠A and nothing of value in clubs, then you know declarer almost certainly has at least the following: 4 spade tricks, 2 hearts, 1 diamond, and whatever tricks he has in clubs. That is 7 plus whatever club tricks. If declarer has ♣AKx (x is "small card") then he has 3 tricks in clubs on top. If his clubs are as weak as ♣AJx then he has 2 top tricks in clubs and can ruff the x in dummy for his 10th trick. Thus declarer's contract is probably solid in most cases, and your job is to limit his overtricks. Remember: the primary goals of defender's play are to ascertain, as quickly as possible, (1) the location of key high cards and (2) the shape of the closed hand (declarer's hand). From this you can arrive fairly quickly at his estimated trick count. Sometimes you will not know everything until the very end. Sometimes you can figure it out almost exactly at trick 1. It just depends. ...

Hi Everyone! I have started a new bridge blog called Bridge Analysis. It is targeted at new-to-solid intermediates who are working towards becoming strong Intermediates or Advanced players. The blog will rely heavily on Intermediate-to-Advanced analysis of individual hands, both in defense and declarer play, and will include some detailed mathematical analysis where applicable. I will also have posts regarding my theories about practically every aspect of the game. Here is the blog: http://bridgeanalysis.blogspot.com/. All feedback and suggestions welcome. The reply to this post will include an excerpt from today's blog post on Defender's play. Thanks! -Tate Shafer

Declarer showed a 14-17 point hand with at least 9 cards in the rounded suits. Dummy has 8 points and I have 9, so 23 are missing. Partner has shown up with the KD and nothing in trumps. He might have J10xx(x) in hearts in which case we may have a trump trick coming. The most partner can have in the black suits is 6 points. We have 2 guaranteed winners: KD and AC. If declarer is 2-5-2-4, then the AD will stand up and all we need with partner is AS, or KS. If declarer is 3-5-1-4, then we need partner to hold AK in spades or a club winner. If declarer is 1-5-3-4, he is down on top tricks unless he holds AS AKJxxH QxxD QJxxC. But if this is the case and declarer doesn't hold this maximum, we must hold up our AD until the 3rd round. Otherwise a diamond winner can be used to pitch a club loser. If declarer has 10 rounded suit cards, say 6 hearts missing the J and QJxx in clubs, then partner must have a spade trick and a trump trick for us to beat the contract. A trump coup could nullify his trump winner so it is vital we win one of the first 2 rounds of clubs to limit dummy entries. If declarer has 5 hearts and 5 clubs, then we have 1 diamond, an almost certain trump trick, and 1 club (unless partner has Qx of clubs, very unlikely). We would need to take another diamond or the space ace.