SixOfWands

I picked up the hand below and according to the bridge calculator a hand with no black cards is picked up 17 in a million hands. This means that if you play a duplicate a day every day of your life from the day you were born you would have to live to be 114 to expect to receive one of these hands. http://rpbridge.net/cgi-bin/xsh1.pl [hv=pc=n&n=shakt976532dq972c]133|100[/hv]

Hi Stan, this is a brilliant idea. Problem is we play a Polish Club where the descriptions can be long, it's posting them automatically into the message screen for the table where my partner can also see them. Unfortunately this is breaking the rules and this is not allowed at bridge. How do I stop it doing this? The users can scroll the longer descriptions so it's not necessary to do this.

This approach does not work, I tried it and it just lets anyone in. Any other ideas?

In the UK all minimum suit advances are non-forcing and jump advances are game forcing. This makes sense to me since you can change suit and rescue a misfit without having extra values. Playing forcing advances you have to pass and play in a horrible misfit.

Most good players will lead a good five card suit against NT contracts given no other information. When this suit holds a sequence, broken sequence or internal sequence it's pretty much mandatory. So why then does GIB lead short or poor suits against NT contracts? With a semi-solid sequence as in this example below it's unfathomably poor play. Please fix this. This Hand is unbelievable.

I emailed the English Bridge Union about this because I was writing a book for beginners. Dummy is allowed to put their hand on the table when the lead is in dummy because they are helping declarer to avoid a breach of the rules (lead from the wrong hand) not aiding the play of the cards, ie the choice of card from dummy. Obviously pointing to a card is a breach but a consistent hand on the table is not, according to the EBU laws and ethics department head.

It's against the rules of bridge to ask your partner to claim. Dummy cannot assist the play in any way, by suggesting there is a claim available you are suggesting that they can make the contract and they may look again at their line of play. The opponents can ask for the score to be corrected if you do this and in theory you can be banned if you do it persistently and it's reported.

If you pass with 12 points you may pass out the hand for a bottom or the opponents may open 1NT and steal the hand. What is worse about passing is that you're short in spades, the highest ranking suit and the opponents are very likely to have a fit there. What are you going to do on the next round when the opponents bid and raise their weak 2S to 4S? Don't open 1♥ with this shape open 1♦ in Acol of 5CM. If partner responds 1♠ you have at least 18 points and 1NT would be a viable option, if they want to double bring it on! If you play 12-14 NT then you can rebid 2♣ and give partner a choice of suits. if the opponents compete in spades at least partner knows I have some points and we may find a penalty.

I'm looking for an advanced partner who can practice on line and play in green pointed tournaments in the South East. I'm also very keen to play a mini NT and some fairly radical stuff similar to Fantunes.

Where are you based, wouldn't mind someone who can play in and around South London

Hi, I'm looking for a serious on line partner too, preferably one I can enter real tournaments in if things go well. Whereabouts are you? Nigel

There are lots of better slam conventions obviously but I teach my beginners that: 4C is Gerber when partner's last bid was in NT 4NT is Blackwood when partner's last bid was in a suit 4NT is quantitative when partner's last bid was in NT. Completely clear and simple. Also works pretty well because you never want to play in 4C when partner has just bid NT.

That's very interesting PhantomSac, what other important use do you have for 2S in the sequence 1NT - 2C - 2D - 2S? If you are going to use 2S as something else then i would play 1NT - 2C - 2D - 2H as specifically weak with five hearts (and four spades) rather than confusing your partner as to the length of your majors. With five spades and four hearts you could just transfer to spades, at least you will avoid horrible 4-3 fits when you partner guesses incorrectly with 3-3 in the majors.

If you're playing a weak version of Stayman where you can bid 2C with 54 in the majors (either suit longer) then you should always bid your five card major on this sequence. 1NT - 2C - 2D - 2H should promise five+ hearts. Partner does not have a four card major and a 5-2 fit plays better than a 4-3 fit. You might still have a fit in your five card major but you definitely don't in your four card suit. So just agree to bid the longer one, its simple if you do that. This is the standard approach in the UK.

Hi guys, I'd like to meet prospective partners for real bridge in London but starting with some on-line practice sessions. I live in Purley but I'm prepared to travel for a good partner. I'm particularly interested in playing at Richmond bridge club. I can play all kinds of systems, SAYC, Acol, Precision, Polish Club, Blue Club, Strong Diamond you name it. My bridge play is good when I'm not watching telly. I've played for Cambridge University and qualified for nations finals twice before moving and losing a very good partner. Anyone ready to win some green points? Nigel PS I also teach bridge but this isn't an advert!