jmcilkley

In hand one of the Weekly Free Solitaire after 1d-1h-1nt the robot has shown 12-14. Now 4nt by me asks Gib to bid slam with a maximum but if fact with only 12 points and a 2-3-4-4 hand it bids 6nt. Hardly a maximum! That it does make doesn't mean that it's correct.

Maybe I should say they are at least 5-4 in clubs and hearts so at most 4 cards in spades and diamonds. They were actually 2-4-2-5.

Some interesting ideas so far. It seems some think that bidding 3c does not show any more than a minimum opening hand and others think it does. The bidding from partner only promises 5 clubs and 4 hearts so a double after the 2s by opponents could be ambiguous and I would have thought it showed at least 8 points. What happens if I decide to pass over 2s? Opener is likely to be 2-4-2-5 shape so would they double 2s? Would that show more points? How many? Clearly this question does not have a simple answer!

As normal - 5+ clubs and 4+ hearts and being a reverse shows 15+ points It is forcing for one round.

I wouldn't double with that had - see what a quandry it leads you to? Partner is showing 9+ points but not necessarily long hearts, may only be 4. If you pass initially and can rely on partner to be protective in the 4th seat then you won't miss a game anyway.

You hold a pretty miserable hand : S: 842 H: 963 D: J873 C: AJ3 and partner opens 1c (playing 4 card majors so a natural club bid) your RHO passes so you make a natural 1d reply LHO then overcalls 1s and partner reverses to 2h RHO now bids 2s Clearly you would have bid 3c without the 2s bid on your right. But should you still bid 3c or pass? Does bidding 3c show a bit better hand than you have? I would be very interested in comments.

I came across an interesting alternative - transfer bids after 1M-dbl- After 1H-dbl then 1S is natural, 1nt is a transfer to clubs, 2C transfer to diamonds, 2D is a GOOD raise to 2H and 2H is a weak raise to 2h After 1S-dbl then 1NT is for clubs, 2c for diamonds, 2d for hearts, 2h a GOOD raise to 2S and 2S a weak raise to 2S Similarly at the 3 level, over 1H-dbl- 3d is a good raise to 3H and 3H is a weak raise, over 1S-dbl- 3h is a GOOD raise to 3S and 3S is a weak raise. Now maybe you could use the 2nt bid as game forcing like Jacoby 2nt?

I think some of you are missing the point of my question. A friend likes to play stretch raises so after 1H-dbl they would bid 2h with 3/4 hearts an maybe fewer than 6 points and 3H with a 9-loser hand with heart support. Which means they want to bid 2NT to show any hand with 8 losers irrespective of points. My contention is that if they do this then opponents bid on, you now have no idea whether you should double them. I would want the 2NT reply to tell me that we have the majority of the points.

So - you open 1H and LHO doubles and partner bids 2nt. What does this show? For sure it shows heart support up to at least 3h - but what else? I have always played that it also shows that we have the majority of points so probably 10+. But it seems some players don't agree and would bid 2nt to show any 8 loser hand with heart support. If the bidding goes 1H by me and a 1S overcall on my left then 2S by my partner would also show a good raise to 3H - and again show that we have the majority of the points. So I believe it is exactly the same as the 2NT bid over the double. What do others think?

I don't understand the 1nt rebid. Using Crowhurst 2nt would show 19 points. But what's wrong with 1h? Opening bid and a reply is forcing to 1nt so partner isn't going to pass 1nt.

The 5h was indeed asking about the queen of trumps. If you have it you can now bid a useful king. So 6c would promise the queen of trumps and the king of clubs.

Maybe this question is basically wrong. Would I even have bid Stayman? The hand has a losing trick count of 8 and a 1nt opening hand has 7 or 8 losers. On this basis there is no chance of game in a major. However, 11 points is usually enough to invite game in NT. At pairs I would be tempted to pass 2s but at teams I probably would not even bid Stayman but immediately invite game in NT.

Would he lead from a doubleton? It's often a poor lead, seeing up declarer's second suit. So I would assume it's a singleton.

I can't see that there is any choice here, your only bid without lying to your partner is 1nt

A 5 loser hand and a self-supporting heart suit. 4h describes the hand correctly. If partner has a better than minimum hand he can go on. 3h would not be forcing and I would hate not to be in game. There is also support for partners spade suit which improves the hand. A jump switch would be forcing but where would it take us? I can't agree with those that think 4c would be a splinter. Even if you play splinters in this situation would it not be agreeing spades as trumps?

You don't have enough to double or bid at the 3 level so pass is the only possible action. Even if you did learn Lebensohl (which isn't that difficult really and well worth a bit of effort then pass would still be the only sensible action. Double would show 11 points and you only have 10. Bidding anything is just a gamble.

I can't understand why you would want to bid 3h when you have a perfectly adequate 2d bid that describes your hand. If 3h is asking for a heart stop what does partner do if he doesn't have one? The simple approach is usually the best and this hand is good enough for a reverse to 2d. You might still get to 3nt but maybe game in spades is more likely. If partner bids 2h or even 3h you can now show your 3 card spade support.

On BBO players assess their own bridge standard as novice, beginner, intermediate, advanced, expert or world class. It seems to me that these self-ratings have recently become more optimistically high. I have always encountered a few "experts" who are totally incompetent but now it seems that "advanced" players are barewly what I would call "intermediate" How should people assess themselves? It seems to me that intermediate is the middle category and that should include most of the players who play regularly at any bridge club. They know how to play standard systems be it sayc or acol or whatever and they know how to play their cards reasonably well. Advanced players should therefore be better than this - probably in the top 20% of their club. They should bid well and play their cards well. They should be able to play more than just one basic system and understnd more advance features of the game such as cue bidding, trial bids, ucb, signalling and discards. Expert players should be regular winners at club level and would be expected to play in their clubs first team of 8 and be able to acquit themselves well in regional tournaments . World class is self explanatory -they should have played internationally and certainly have represented their region , state or county. At the lower end, novices are still learning and will make many mistakes, Beginners should know their basic bidding system and be able to apply it without too many errors. What do you think? On my basis many BBO players need to downgrade themselves!

Surely dbl is the only possible bid here

Assuming 2c is your only strong bid then this ideal for the Kikish relay - 2c-2d-2h! which shows either strong with hearts or 25+ balanced. Partner relays 2s to ask which. Then 2nt shows a balanced 25+ while any other bid shows strong with hearts. After the 2nt you can then use 5 card Stayman or transfers to find the best contract. Bidding 3d is probably not a good choice. Strong balanced hands are usually much better in NT For me, the 2d reply to 2c is a negative (you need to agree with partner what constitutes a positive hand opposite a 2c opener). With a positive hand responder can bid a 5+ card suit or else show a positive, balanced hand. Bidding 2nt to show this is not a great idea since opener cannot then bid 2nt (and allow you to use Stayman to find a 4-4 fit. It is a good idea to swithch the meanings of 2nt and 2h so that 2h response can show a positive hand but with no 5+ card suit to bid while 2nt now shows a positive hand with 5+ hearts.

I presume that's a weak 2 in diamonds so I reckon 3d is Ghestem showing the extremes of the other 3 suits, i.e. spades and clubs

Why ask this? There is nothing to do but pass

Surely you wouldn't double with only 12-14 points? It is fine to open a weak NT when noone else has bid but once an opponent has opened the who;e ballgame has changed and bidding 1nt with only 12-14 is asking for a big penalty when doubled, This is clearly a 1nt overcall so there is no problem with this hand. You say that you plat Stayman over 1nt overcall - I presume you also play transfers, etc as weel. Just like over an opening 1nt but responses are with 3 points less to cater for the stronger overcalled 1nt.

I would say that it shows 4 hearts and 5 spades, forcing of course For most people 3c should be some form of 5 card Stayman of course. the other way round, with 4 spades and 5 hearts it is quite common to show that by bidding 3s directly over 3NT - as you would never need 3s naturally.

For me there are 2 possible auctions depending on what view N takes of his club suit. Assuming 2c is your only strong bid you need to show a positive with 2 aces so N will either bid 3c to show his long suit or else if N decides the suit is too poor to bid he can bid 2h to show a positive hand with no biddable suit. (It is better to use 2h for this and let 2nt reply show a positive hand with 5+ hearts - it allows a 2nt or 2s rebid by opener) In the first case it will go 2c-3c-3s-4c-4nt-5h and then maybe 7c. In the other case 2c-2h-3s (a jump to show a suit that can play even opposite a void) then probably 4nt-5c (3 keycards) - 7s