rmnka447

I believe with the dealers here, you put a small decal with the board number on the side of the board and the dealer is able to read it. It makes everything a whole lot simpler and efficient.

I'm looking at a 5-5 3 loser hand. So I'm opening the hand 2 ♣. With my favorite partner, our auction would proceed as follows: 2 ♣ Big hand no more than 4 losers if a major or 3 losers if a minor. ...... 2 ♦ Waiting bid. 2 ♠ 5+ ♠s no more than 4 losers. ...... 2 NT Forward going 7- 20 HCP (We play very disciplined raises. A raise to game 4 ♠ is a signoff. A raise to 3 ♠ shows 7+ AND at least either Hxx or xxxx in the trump suit. Without either of those raises, we simply force with 2 NT.) 3 ♥ ...... 4 ♥ 4+ ♥s since opener promises no more than 4 at this point. 4 NT (1430 for ♥) ...... 5 ♣ (1 KC) 5 ♦ (Queen ask) ...... 5 NT ( I have it, no K) 6 ♥ Given the actual auction, I blame North for driving to slam without planning to show the ♥ suit. If South held something like xxx xxx QJxx Axx, the slam still wouldn't make even if ♠s came home. With one A missing, slam depends on bringing in the ♥ suit without a loser. That's something North can never know about without introducing ♥s at some point. After a 3 ♥ help suit game try and 1430 after South's return to ♠, would 5 ♥ be an ask for ♥ help? (5 ♦ would be the Q ask.) BTW, I would bid 2 ♠ with the South hand. Pairs that play 2 ♠ constructive would have an advantage on this hand. They'd probably bid 1 NT Forcing with South's hand and opener could make a 3 ♥ jump shift. That would get the pair on the right track.

It's much faster to have the dealer compatible boards which open up and let the dealer deal directly into the board. Also, the dealer is able to recognize which board has been placed into the dealer and deal the appropriate hand into it. If I recall correctly, my brother said it takes about 20-25 minutes to do a complete set of boards in this manner. Additionally, you may want to have several sets of boards, so you can prepare ahead of time for several games in one sitting. Yes, you can use regular boards but that means you have to make sure that the hand dealt gets into the right board another potential source of errors. And it does mean more manual handling of the boards and cards.

I'm inviting. Bidding and making thin vulnerable games is vital in IMPs.

Both a dealer and electronic scoring have benefits, but the dealer which allows providing hand records probably is more important. My brother runs the two bridge games in the town where he lives. He typically has about ten tables a session. He started out by purchasing the electronic scoring (bridgepads) first. It took a while for the players to learn to use the devices, but as people got used to them, it markedly speeded up the game. The info entered includes the contract, the result, and the opening lead. It seems like the player population really liked that results were available almost as soon as the game was over and the consistently shorter total time for the games. The club was also able to unload the results on line which eliminated a lot of the printing out of results. One unforeseen benefit is the ability of the devices to accommodate just about any movement or game efficiently. Something like a Club Swiss event is much easier to do and doesn't drag out like it normally does when run manually. Getting a dealer was more difficult because of costs. They included not only the dealer, but dealer compatible boards, new cards, etc. He ultimately was able to finance the dealer by raising the entry fees from $4 to $6. The players, of course, grumbled but there wasn't a big drop off in attendance. It took about a year for him to accumulate enough to purchase the dealer. In the interim, he was able to work a deal with a club about 30 miles away to produce sets of boards with their dealer. One of the players at his club regularly played at this other club and agreed to transport sets of boards back and forth for free entries. The other club was also paid something like $10 a set to produce the pre-dealt hands. There were the usual complaints about the pre-dealt hands, but the big benefit was in being to provide hand records. This provided a means for players to review the hands. Even better, the pre-dealt hand records were uploaded along with all the results from each board (contract, score and opening lead) to the results section of the ACBL website. So players can see how they and everyone else did on the board. Newer players interested in improving especially like this as it provides a way to analyze and learn from their results. The dealer has since been purchased and the entry fees reduced by a dollar.

I certainly wouldn't bid 3 NT if my partner opened with a 2 ♣ bid. With most of the partners I play with, we play 2 ♦ as a waiting bid. If you and your partner do so too, then you need to decide what bid shows a bad hand. In our agreements, we play that the bid of the cheapest suit is a 2nd negative to show the bad hand. As a result any other bid is forward going. In addition, we play very disciplined positive responses direct over 2 ♣. A direct 2 of a major response promises 5 + cards to two honors and a hand with at least 1 1/2 QTs. A direct 3 of a minor response promises 5+ cards to 2 top honors and a hand with at least 2 QTs. Hands that don't qualify for these positive responses start with the 2 ♦ waiting bid. Under this scheme, 2 NT becomes a forward going bid promising somewhere between 6-20 HCP and not having something else to show. That would be responder's rebid with the hand you describe. This use of 2 NT is valuable as it keeps the bidding low and lets the big hand have more space to describe their hand. (Keeping the bidding low and letting the big hand tell their story is a very important principle to adhere to in bidding these hands.) Consider if you bid 2 NT forward going and opener rebids 3 ♥. You would have a very easy 4 ♥ bid knowing you have at least a 4-4 fit. If opener instead rebids 3 ♠, you now know partner has at least 6 spades and can raise to 4 ♠. If opener rebids 3 of a minor and you have stoppers in the other suits, you can bid 3 NT. Or, if you have a ♥ stopper only after opener rebids 3 of a minor, you can rebid 3 ♥ asking about the 4th suit for NT. Rebidding 3 NT with the hand you described precludes that further exchange of information. Unless opener is very distributional, it may be very difficult for opener to bid over 3 NT and risk bidding past the last makeable game.

I'm bidding 1 NT with a pickup partner (i.e. no discussion/understanding of what hands 1 ♠ will be bid on). Just a thought for the 2 ♠ bidders. Give opener a 4=3=2=4 or 4=2=2=5 hand and 3 rounds of ♦s taps the 4 card ♠ suit. You might still be Ok if ♠ break 3-3. However, against the more likely 4-2 ♠ break, trump control may be lost.

I don't see any problem with the auction through the 4 ♠ bid. Partner's 3 ♥ bid doesn't guarantee more than 4 ♥s. After the 4 ♠ bid, you know that partner has at least 6 ♠s and 4 ♥s. If you knew that partner had 5 ♥s instead of 4, you might take a preference to ♥. However, you can't know if that is the case. So, you have to make the decision based on playing in one of two 7 card fits. It's usually right to play in the one with the longest long suit(6-1 better than 5-2 better than 4-3). So after the 4 ♠ bid, pass would normally be best.

First, I would open the hand 1 ♦ and wouldn't have a problem with anyone who decided to preempt instead. You might think about a 3 ♣ call after the 2 NT whether it is forcing or not. After your 3 ♦ bid, your partner should have passed. 3 NT would only be right if your partner can see a way to score 9 tricks himself/herself and only needs a stopper in your suit. Your 3 ♦ bid isn't forward going, it's a sign off. You're advertising that you have ♦s and not much else. Think about this. At 3 ♦, partner's HCP will be useful to you covering some losers. In NT, your ♦s are unlikely to be any use at all to your partner. You did nothing appreciably wrong on this hand. Bidding NT with a void in preempting partner's suit is almost never right. Insisting on NT with that kind of hand is the worst kind of hogging the hand. In the end, you weren't the one who bid 3 NT.

It's an easy Pass. Here, you have to know how adventuresome partner is with preempts in 1st seat with favorable vulnerability. The crux is whether partner can hold the trump suit (i.e.♥) to 1 loser. If so, 4 ♥ would be reasonable. It might still go down if the opponents can attack the right suit and set up a 2nd loser in it before you can establish a place to discard it. Most players would be a bit aggressive under these conditions, so I think the odds favor a pass.

I would expect my partner to be at least 5-5 for an unusual NT bid.

2 ♦ The hand is slightly below an opening hand IMO -- 12 HCP but only 1 1/2 QTs. The ♥ K has to be discounted slightly for being in front of the ♥ bidder. Also, clearly ♦ are your best suit.

Frustrating, isn't it? Your hand looks like 6 ♦ is a lock. Then, those pesky opponents go and bid 6 ♥. Unfortunately, there's just no way to know with what hand partner has bid 5 ♦. If you could somehow be assured partner held ♦ AKxxxxx, 7 ♦ would be an easy bid. But you just can't know. You do have defensive values in the black suits. So sitting for 6 ♥ doubled looks to be a positive result. Which would you rather do -- Explain to partner why you couldn't bid 7 ♦ because of uncertainty about partner's ♦ holding, OR, Explain to partner why you bid 7 ♦ without being certain there wasn't a ♦ loser -- ♦ K off side, missing the ♦ A, etc ? PASS

4 ♠ ! Even if partner is on a 4 card ♠ suit, we have a 10 card fit. Partner needs a mountain for slam to be on. So I'll put us in what should be a pretty good contract. If the opponents have a lot of cards, let them try to figure it out at the 5 level with little or no information about our hands. If I splinter or use Jacoby, partner may play me for more than I have or it may just give the opponents a chance to compete.

Pass. The hand is just not good enough to open. The longest suit is just too flimsy. I'll wait and try to come in later on.

I'm doubling. I'm not ready to concede the hand to the opponents just yet. I don't think it is likely for partner to hold a ♦ stack and be making a trap pass. However, it isn't impossible. If partner decides to convert to a penalty double, opener's hand has some nice defensive cards. With a doubleton ♠ and a smattering of points, partner can always comfortably rest in 2 ♠. It is also possible for partner to be long in a rounded suit and we can find a good resting place there when pard bids his suit. Also, white vs. red, off 1 in a part score will be good if 2 ♦ makes. Off 2 or off 1 doubled will be good if they can make 3. Even better if we push them to 3 ♦ and beat them when 2 ♦ makes then we'll get a great board. If we compete further, then it puts the opponents under pressure to figure out what to do. That's good for you in the long run.

I'm bidding 2 ♣. Partner's 1 ♠ portends a possible misfit, so I'm going slow in any case. Secondly, I recall many years ago, a bridge columnist saying that it's a lot easier to add values later in the bidding than to convince partner you have less than originally shown. I play strong reverses, so the hand shown although about a max minimum isn't good enough for my reversing with it.

I wouldn't worry about showing ♠. I'd start with a Jacoby 2 NT raise. 1 ♥ - 2 NT (Jacoby) 3 ♥ (Standard Jacoby - 17+ flat hand) --- 4 ♦ - (Cue) (A judgement to show the control partner can't have rather than cheapest control) 4 NT - (1430) --- 6 ♣ - (even number and ♣ void) 6 ♦ - (must be a grand slam try, implies having all the keys) --- 7 ♥ - (K fifth is good enough opposite A fifth, ♦ K is here if looking for it, at worst might need ♠ finesse) (Responder should see that opener might not try for grand holding many ♣ honors.) Playing with my favorite partner, we'd have our own responses to Jacoby and some specialized old fashioned cueing. So our auction would be 1 ♥ - 2 NT (Jacoby) 3 ♦ (17+ flat hand) --- 3 ♥ - waiting bid initiating cueing 3 ♠ - 1st round control in ♠ --- 4 ♦ - 1st round controls in ♣, ♦ (Looking at ♣ A, opener knows responder has a ♣ void) 4 ♠ - 2nd round control in ♠ --- 5 ♠ - 2nd round controls in ♣, ♦, a high trump honor, 3rd round ♠ control 5 NT (GSF) 7 ♥ - K fifth is good enough.

How about bidding a 4 ♦ (splinter) over 2 ♠? With just a game going hand, you could have bid 4 ♠. With a game going hand, ♦ shortness, and 4 trump, you would splinter directly. With more than a game going hand, diamond shortness and 4 trump, you'd use the 2 NT Jacoby raise. With a game going hand with ♥s and ♦s, you'd simply bid 3 ♦ over 2 ♠. So what can 4 ♦ show except some slam interest (i.e. extras), ♦ shortness, and very likely only 3 trump.

I will double with this hand. If partner has a bust and I bid 2 ♥, partner will pass. That may or may not be good. Even if partner finds a bid, it gets nearly impossible to convince partner that you have the values you hold. If I double, partner can show a bad hand by bidding 2 ♠ or using Lebensohl. Partner can also show a good hand by bidding something else. So you can get a good handle on the ballpark of the hand whatever partner does. This may especially important when partner holds a good 7 or 8 value hand that is in the game going ballpark, but also cannot make a move over 2 ♥. Give opener about a decent 9 count. LHO and partner should have 13 points between them. Any close to even split between those two hands gets partner pretty close to that game going zone.

I probably wouldn't have bid with your hand, but if you're going to bid -- 2 NT showing the lower 2 suits seems right. Since you are showing the lower 2 suits(i.e. ♣ and ♥), partner should have bid 4 ♥. Partner has a big fit in ♥ and working cards in ♣, so the hand takes a lot of tricks in ♥s. 6 ♠ is completely out of the realm of reality.

2 ♠ in this auction should show 4 ♠ and 5-9 value. Isn't that what you have? 1 ♠ can be bid on everything up to just shy of a jump shift hand -- about 17-18 max. Partner can invite game or make a game try when holding a near max hand, but with anything else pard should pass. It's important to raise to show a fit and also to make it more difficult for the opponents to compete. Over 2 ♠, the opponents have to bid at the 3 level in order to compete. That may be just high enough to deter them from bidding and let you buy the contract at 2 ♠. A jump to 3 ♠ would be invitational. FSF and a jump in ♠ would be a game forcing raise.

I'm passing whether 2 ♠ is forcing or not. With LHO passing, you'll get a chance to pull 2 ♦x to 2 ♠ if that gets passed back to you. If the opponents bid on over 2 ♦, you're off the hook. Certainly, if 2 ♠ is forcing, you can't bid because your hand isn't good enough for a bid. Then why pass if 2 ♠ is not forcing? I think a 2 ♠ bid may prompt partner to lead ♠ if LHO declares. That doesn't look like a particularly good thing holding QJxxxxx. There is a strong preference for having partner lead his suit if at all practicable, so remaining silent may be best.

An easy 2 ♥ bid. Yeah, you'd like to see better hearts, but you have a GF hand. Consider if partner holds something like ♠ KJxxx ♥ AQx ♦ Ax ♣ xxx. You have about a laydown 6 ♠ with 14 opposite 14. So showing your suit may be important whenever a 2 suited fit is present. After 1 ♠ - 2 ♥ - 3 ♥ - 3 ♠, slam starts to come into view with room to show controls.

Is there anything you can glean from the auction? Which hand is the big hand or are they both equal? Is there a likely running side suit where losers can be pitched? Are they possibly planning on a crossruff? Who has what controls? If the auction indicates RHO has the big hand, the hand will be played on a crossruff, or the auction yields no info at all, 8 ♠. With the big hand to your right, let declarer do the work to make the contract by making a passive lead. A trump lead versus a crossruff often leaves declarer a ruff short. If LHO has a big hand or shows a strong side suit (likely via 1 ♠- 2 ♣ or apparent 2 suited fits), then maybe you should consider an attacking lead of a low ♦ or a low ♥. With LHO holding the big hand, it's more likely that any required finesses will work.