easy

Yes over 4s i would rebid 5d. In your example pard would not reopen with a double they would bid 3s. Are you now going to bid 4d which doesnt show the value of your hand or are you going to bid 4h which may be a probe for nt or a good spade raise. At least when having bid 4d immediately pard is aware that you have a very good hand and will know what to do with a stiff heart and a couple good cards. This hand has a tremendous slam potential and pass does not get that message across to pard. what is pard to do with xxxxx axx qxx kxx after our pass of 3h. (hand contrived to make my point :blink: i am willing to bet the auction would go 3h p p p. but over 4d pard will surely bid 4nt. (and after a heart lead, if the club finesse works wonder out loud how to get to 6d)Ah yes that begs the question is 4nt to play in this auction? I think so. as everyone here has said nothing is perfect but it has been my experience that when one passes with a good hand it's often impossible to convey to pard the value of your hand in the subsequent rounds of bidding

Yes the doubleton heart is a discouraging holding and yes pard probably does have spades but.............. to pass seems awfully negative with this hand. 7-4 with all your points in your suits is just too good to go quietly. I choose 4D

my bets are: 20000 bocchi dubion (nicest world class players i have ever known) 15000 seamon ekblad (hometown boy made good) 20000 levin weinstein (never i mean never count bobby out of the mix) Im not a gambler so im just putting my money on sentimental favorites (that is not to say i dont believe they can win) btw i see no one has bet on harry tudor and his pard barnet shenkin..harry "the king" tudor is a 2 time winner. he won with seamon and subsequently soloway. Barnet is an excellent player (former partner of michael rosenberg) and is calm enough to deal with harry and his antics. ok ive talked myself into it i'll put 5000 on harry and barnet (im sure he will take at least 50% of this action)

HI jillybean I think think your question deserves a more in depth answer than yes or no. First of all the system you are playing (sayc, precision,2/1) has nothing to do with your bid /not bid decision. On the other hand the form of scoring (mp vs imps) and the vulnerabilty has everything to do with your decision to overcall. When playing match points we have to ask ourselves what return do we expect from an overcall of their nt opening. Do we expect them to make 1nt? Do we hope to go plus when we overcall? How much will we gain if we beat 1nt? In your example they are vulnerable and you are not. When you have a good hand it's not very smart match point strategy to overcall because the opponents are likely to go down and if they go down 2 you gain 200 pts(the match point kiss of death for your opponents) If you overcall and make 2s you will gain 110 but will have lost the opportunity to get a top. On the other hand if you were vulnerable and they not they desire to overcall should be stronger because if they go down 2 you get 100 rather than 110 (assuming 2s makes) and would actually get a below average score (assuming others would overcall 2s with your hand.) All that having been said i would pass 1nt. (Also because i "never" overcall 1nt openings with 5332 distributions.

[hv=d=s&v=n&s=s6hat98xdakxxckqj]133|100|Scoring: IMP[/hv] You deal and open 1H , lho bids 4S, pard bids 5h and rho bids 5s. In you regular partnerships: 1)what are your foricing pass agreements? 2) Is this a forcing pass situation? 3) What do you do now?

Sorry but i dont understand your comments. 1) if the person with the 5-card major opens 2nt aren't they declaring the hand? 2)If they make a lead directing double you can stay out of slam or penalize them with a redouble?? (I'm presuming that was the meaning of taking them to the woodshed:)Is there some reason to believe that after the lead directing double you have enough "wood" to play 3c xx? 3) How is opener being punished by not having puppet stayman available? I'm glad to see that many of those people that play puppet have the ability to play in their 8 card fits when responder has 5-4 hands but that still doesnt address my question. What are the advantages of determining if partner has a 5card major. And what are the criteria for employing this convention. One responder to my query asked "If 5-card major doesnt interest you then why is 4 card interest you. Why ask stayman at all" Well from my point of view if i have no ruffing value (ie: doubleton) a 4-card major DOES NOT interest me and i dont use Stayman:)

By the topic description i'm sure you all can determine how i feel about this convention. But in case you are not sure B) I thought i would ask some of those people that play this convention why they feel it is important to discover if partner has opened or rebid 2nt with a 5 card major.And secondarily does the form of scoring impact their decision to use this @#$$%% convention. LOL Let me describe Puppet Stayman as i know it. After an opening bid of 2nt (and some after a 1nt opening) or an opening bid of 2c followed by a rebid of 2nt The responder with a 3 card holding in a major bids 3c asking opener about his major suit holdings. Opener responds. 3d with a 4-card major, 3h/s with a 5-card major and 3nt with none of the above. a.If opener bids 3d(indicating an unknown 4-card major) and responder has one 4-card major responder bids the major that he doesnt have.if responder has both 4-card majors he bids 4D asking opener to set the trump suit. b. if opener shows a 5 card major and responder fits the suit he bids game or makes some move toward slam. c. if opener bids 3nt responder passes assuming no slam interest. Cons to Puppet Stayman 1. Gives opponents yet another chance to make a lead directing double. 2. Gives opponents a better idea of the declarers distribution thus allowing better defense . 3. Tells the opponents about your partners secret weapon (the 5th card in the suit) Perhaps this should be included in 2 above. 4.Makes responder's life next to impossible when dealt 5-4 major suit holding. And partner rebids 3nt 1) (loses the abilty to use smolen) 2) can't bid your 5 card major over 3nt for fear pard may have doubleton 5. Most partnerships have no idea how to describe major minor hands (4M -5m) Pros. 1. allows your side to play in your 8-card major suit fit. 2. I have no idea what other pros there are.....that is why i started this thread :unsure:

Bridge is a game where there are no secrets from the opponents re: the bidding and partnership agreements. I have a very simple policy. I self alert everything that could have a dual meaning. I found when playing in italy that what i think is normal may not be so for someone from another country/region. It costs me nothing to explain to the opponents what my bids mean and since pard can't "hear" my explanation i feel very comfortable explaining my own bids. Perhaps some may thinkthis might be excessive but i prefer to win based on the merits of my "good" play and bidding as opposed to my opponents ignorance.

Is there the capability here on bbo to cut and paste hands played so that they can be emailed? What i have in mind is recording a session of hands played by myself and pard, annotating comments re: the bidding, play or defense and then emailing the hands and comments to my pard. If anyone knows how to do this i would appreciate the information. (c'mon ben , im sure you know this one :lol: Thanks in advance folks Fred

I'm interested in getting the lin files of the hands played in the finals of the Cartagena bridge festival team game. by chance did anyone record the hands from the play in the open room? If so i would appreciate it if you would send them to me at molto_facile@yahoo.com thx for your help. Fred

Does anyone know if Michael is playing in Monaco, in transnational teams?

Vincenzo sei un mago? come sai, italia era sconfitto oggi. pero buona fortuna nella 1/4 finale. Fred

My questions are: a) Have you played it, and do you like it? I do so far. I play it and like it :( What advantages and/or disadvantages do you see, apart from the above? I like it because my balanced minimum now falls in the 11-13 point range and thus i get to open more balanced hands and not get buried by pard. c) How many people are playing it? From what I have been able to glean, it is pretty popular among strong clubbers. Apart from them, it seems to be unusual in the U.S. (where I live), but seems to have some popularity elsewhere, especially in the U.K. I live in Florida and since Meckwell resides in Fl. there are lots of mimics of their ideas. Thus in the Fl. regionals u see it quite frequently

Ok this is a 3 part thread. 1. Where in the conditions of contest (or anywhere else) can i find the formula for calculating carryovers? I downloaded the coc from wbf web site but found NO references to carryover. 2. When did the concept of carryover get introduced into High level bridge and why? 3. Is this concept a reasonable approach to determining the world championship?

I know nothing anything about "mafia" or the polish club so my response is directed to those that play sayc, precision or 2/1. The response of 2d with this hand is automatic. There is a very simple rule to follow in the above mentioned systems: with a game forcing hand bid your hand naturally. that means bid your longest suit first. a bid of 2d does not deny a four card major. If playing 2/1 2d creates a game force. If playing sayc or precision it shows 11+ points and promises opener another bid. A rebid of 2s by the 2d responder shows an opening hand and is forcing to game.

I like to lead the unbid suit in these auctions. Since spades is the unbid suit i lead a spade. But they bid spades you say. nope. 2s was 4th suit forcing and not natural. The real question is which spade do i lead. That would depend on what i know about opponents. If they are novices i lead the K asking partner about his attitude. If they are experts i lead my 4th best spade. Why the difference? Because im sure that experts know that the original 2s bid was artificial and will have a stopper in the suit. novices/intermediates may think the suit is promising a stopper and bid nt thinking their partner has a stopper in the suit when in fact neither has a stopper in the suit.

Ben i think you missed my point. Yes you can do the above and be an advanced player. My question was very simple.... What attributes does a player need to be considered an expert? Winning a national event probably means you have those attributes but does not describe what they are

Ben said "So your choice is now between 2S and 3S. Both are still game force, and both deny whatever the jump to 4S would have shown. So which shows the better hand? When I play picture jumps, I use the 3S bid as too good for picture jump, and specifically mild slam interest. I use 2S as either strong slam interest or no slam interest. I will make my choice clear on the next round of bidding. Here I have mild slam interest and spade fit, so a jump to 3S is just what I play. " I prefer 2c rather than 4D or 2NT. I have a rule that with a balanced hand i ask partner about his hand via 2nt and with an unbalanced hand i show what i consider my most important feature ie a singleton or my good suit. Showing my good club suit allows us to determine if a double fit exists. I too would rebid 3s however this is a picture bid in my partnership. it shows good spades , good clubs and an outside control. fits this hand rather well dont u think. Mike Lawrence has a very good description of picture bids in his book "2 over 1 Workbook" this book is well worth the price for those that wish to learn 2/1.

If I take your question exactly as written, I suspect of players in the BBO the ones listed as advanced will be (on average) better players than the ones listed as experts. Why is this? A lot of very unskilled players with unjustified ego's have no clue what a real expert is and so they list themselves as experts. While as a group, those listing themselves as advanced know enough to know that they are not experts. That is they know more than many of those listing as experts. I imagine some of these "bbo self-entitled experts" as people who, when playing with their uncle and the little old lady down the block, often wins at rubber bridge. So what the heck, they must be experts, they win when they play in the real world, right? But ok, that probably is not your question. The BBO help file list these as the definition of "skill" level Advanced Someone who has been consistently successful in clubs or minor tournaments Expert Someone who as enjoyed success in major national tournaments World Class Someone who has represented their country in World Championships In theory there is very little wiggle room in the definition of World Class, and only a slight bit in the definition of Expert. But a lot of people can be "consistently successful in clubs or minor tournaments" especially if they participate in a community where the standard of bridge is very poor indeed. Ben It seems clear to me that although Fred has decreed the above descriptions of advanced, expert, world class the users of BBO have decided differently. I personally feel that even if a person has not won a national title but has won many regional Flite A events they are likely to be consider themselves and be considered by others expert players. ok now lets actually discuss what is an expert player. That is.. what attributes must one have to be considered an expert. For me an expert bridge player is one that a)knows how to evaluate and describe their hand during the bidding b)when defending makes few defensive errors and can draw the correct conclusions from the declarers play of the hand c) when declaring knows and makes the correct technical plays d) has the table presence to determine when to ignore the technically correct plays/bids. And how does an expert manage b and c .... by counting the hand and using their imagination to envision various holdings. Must you know how to execute a compound squeeze to be considered an expert? Or perhaps only a strip squeeze. Or know how to false card as declarer of defender? I would really like to hear from others their thoughts re: expert level bridge.

no steve not on an auction like this but...... we have played a 33 fit in the following situation 1d 1H 2H all pass when opener holds xx axx ajxx kxxx and i hold xxx xxx Kx kxxxx but that doesnt happen very often

Funny i had never heard of this auction as forcing until this thread was started. And to my knowledge have never encountered a pair that played it forcing. I guess as someone else mentioned it depends upon where you play bridge. It's just a matter of partnership understanding. My question is why would i want 1s to be forcing? And if it is forcing does that mean that a jump too 2s shows 5? Does a bid of 1s guarantee 4+cards in first suit bid? How does responder with marginal values get that message across to opener. And what other implications are there. If someone here plays it as forcing id be interested in hearing them explain the above. I mite even try it myself if i can determine value of treatment.

LOL okay uday you're forgiven.

i have 2 objections to bidding 3nt with that hand. 1. the hand is control rich and has lots of t's. its closer to a 19 pt hand than a 17 pt hand. thus 2good for 3nt. However i wouldnt be adverse to 2nt (12-14) followed by 4nt (18/19) 2. Unless pard is aware that you can have a 4 card major you may miss your major suit fit...in imps not a big deal but match points could be bad. Earlier i hesitated to mention an approach that i often use with hands i feel may have a difficult rebid. Playing 2/1 GF it is often correct to bid 2/1 by passing a 4card major (initially) and creating a game force. On this hand it wouldnt solve the problem because pard will rebid 2D and you wont know if that shows 5 or 6 diamonds. However if the hand had been AJTx AT9 Jxx AKx I would have chosen a 2C response.

Hum u have a problem. you have shown a good hand but i think you still have a lot in reserve.You have all of the missing aces and if u bid 4 forcing diamonds pard is going to feel endplayed in the auction and likely to just bid 5d or ,god forbid, pass 4d thinking the bid was not forcing. If you try blackwood over 3h pard is going answer keycard for hearts. That isnt terrible but over partners answer if u attempt to sign off in diamonds pard may think the bid is some sort of control ask in diamonds to go to 7hearts. Also would be nice to know partners style. Would pard have raised 1h to 2h with 3h and 6 mediocre diamonds? If the answer is no my next bid is going to be even more fraught with danger but........ although i have some fear of missing 7d or going down in 6d im going to jump to 6d. At least i know partner wont correct to hearts if i do that. I think this problem could have been alleviated by employing some minor suit ace asking bid over 2d. My pard and i play 4d is rkb for diamonds. i know others play 4s is the ace asking bid. Im pretty sure that 4c is a splinter for diamonds so that wont do.

how about a and low to the T. Unless im misreading the table seems to be 58.8 %. am i misreading the results?