easy

I agree that j2nt in the generic form leaves much to be desired but i dont understand why you would like a gf trump raise to have slam implications. Seems to me that an important thing to do is set the trump suit and announce game forcing values. Let's here your theory as to why a game forcing raise should at least have some desire to play slam. :)

I second that comment!! Reese's books were always master pieces!! after reese i rank kantar then lawrence. i think the content is equally good for lawrence and kantar but kantar's comments make me smile or laugh.

I agree with u steve. Gadgets will not make you a better card player, bidder or hand evaluator. But i bet if hamman and soloway played momma and papa bridge versus their peers who were playing their normal system they would lose (in the long run). At the world class level all the player s"play the spots off the cards" the difference is in the bidding. I know that sounds like im a proponent of lots of conventions but I'M NOT. I truly believe that most of us play too many conventions and dont play the cards worth a darn. I think this may be because learning a convention is much easier than learning card play and defense. And to make matters worse most of us learn only 1/3 or 1/2 of the convention.

lets assume 15-17 nt opening range. You have shown 12-14 pard has bid game. unless you have found a missing ace there is NO reason to consider bidding over 4s. Partner is the captain of the team. you limited your hand by rebidding 1nt. You have no idea what partner has in his hand and no reason to speculate. One thing i feel very strongly about is that when one has limited their hand they leave all decisions about game/slam to their partner.......unless pard asks for input.

The opponents are in a 2/1 auction and you hear Rho you Lho Pard 1S P 2C X What type of hand do you expect your partner to have ?What is the minimum distribution pard can have? What is the difference between the above and 2nt by pard? Does pards hand type change if he is a passed hand?

yep they rebid 2n without a stopper. Their hands r tied. For them being 100% sure that a rebid shows 6 is more important then having the unbid suits stopped. Does partner have to have stoppers. Nope. The theory is that if pard doesnt have the stopper the opponents still must find the lead. Im not a big proponent of this style but it seems to work. however i do rebid 2n in an inverted minor sequence without stoppers in both majors. LOL . I use the same theory..........they have to find the lead. I think it is slightly different than in a 2/1 auction because there r 3 unbid suits in the inverted minor auction instead of 2 as in the 2/1 auction.

you hold x ATx KTxxx Axxx The auction proceeds rho you lho pard 1S X P 3C (invitational) 3S P P 4C 4S P P X you lead the A C and dummy has xxx Q9xxxx J Txx Partner plays the discouraging 9 and declarer plays the Jack. What do u do now? Please explain your choices. Also do you agree with the Auction?

Ok here r both hands xxx akxxx KQT9x jxx Axx Qx KJ xxx Pard bid 2n in response to my neg x and i passed.The opponents misdefended 1/2 tricks so we went down only 4. LOL. Would you have done anything different with opener's or my hand?

1. As i understand it the natuaral forcing 2nt bid does indeed promise stoppers in the unbid suits or length (such as 4small) 2. yes, no. 3. Generally speaking i would not bid 2n with 2 2 5 4 distribution. however if it were Kx Ak Jxxxx qxxx i mite consider it.

i'm not sure i understand the logic of bidding 4d. Are u suggesting 4d be bid as a place to play? or showing where ones values are? If you r suggesting that QTxx should be treated as a place with values i cant say that i agree. I would expect a control (and a better hand) if my pard were to bid 4d. When my partner opens 2c and rebids a suit i tend to expect that to be a 6 card suit. I realize that is certainly not always the case but usually. I know you and steve are proponents of the semi-positive response of 2d but personally had i had his hand i too would have bid 4s.(but then i would have responded 2h the first time.i just cant fathom that 2h supernegative u guys play) 4D sounds a lot stronger than the hand i saw.In the case of misfits i like to bail out as quickly as possible :) I must admit when i first glanced at the hand i considered bidding 4c over 3h to show my shortness but then decided enough was enough. As i would'nt have opened it 2c to begin with. Frankly that distribution is much easier to describe when playin a big club. But im wandering

I would open 1s. when i have good dist. hands i like to start as low as possible. If i have opened 2c i would rebid 2s. Over 3h i bid 4h. Since i have already overbid the hand with an opening of 2C im going to slow the auction down a tad. If slam is in the offering pard should be able to find some noise over 4H.

When using constraints mode i cant seem to put contraints on both hands. For instance i wanted both north and south to have opening hands. When i set north with a range of points i couldnt say what i wanted south to have. How do i do this? thx

Before i attempt to play this hand. am i really playing 5H in my 1 - 2 fit??

If using internet explorer you can drag the url to the links portion of your tool bar. (rite hand corner of toobar)

Welcome to the forum :) 2/1 is very similar to sayc. The major difference is that a non jump bid at the 2 level creates a game force and therefore reduces some of the judgement situations that exist in sayc. In addition the forcing nt (over 1Major)is used to handle all of the non forcing to game hands with no known fit. However just like in any other natural system both partners are required to describe their hands as closely as possible. Thus in both of your examples a rebid of 2d is the best description of your hand. We try hard not to bid nt with singletons.....especially in unbid suits. Is there a std 2/1 . Not really. some play 2/1 100% forcing to game , others play it "almost" forcing to game. Some play that reverses still apply after 2/1 others say reverses arnt needed. Some play 2/1 over a major and not over 1D. No matter which form of 2/1 u learn you can easily adapt to another. but first you must learn some version of 2/1. This is really not a daunting task. As i said it is similar to SAYC. I wont recommend any particular style (but yes i have my favorite) Max Hardy and Mike Lawrence, r the 2 most popular 2/1 authors.

In imps im sure i would shoot out 3nt and never consider playing in clubs. actually in mp also i would take that approach. My style is that when my hand has the potential to make a game opposite a fit i bid game.

I think i must be getting a little weak in the brain. Surely with all the computer geniuses here we can figure this problem out in no time. Isnt it possible to take the hand in question and run a simulation to see what the most prevelant result will be for the given auction. Giving the club bidder a range of expected hands? oh no i guess not this isnt a case of frequency it more a case of potential gain vs potential loss. Or is it. ok im listening

Good Dwayne im sure we would all be interested in the result. :) ok now ill tell you what i did with the hand. I said double. Great minds must work alike because Inquiry expressed very nicely the reason i said double as opposed to 3c. Now for part 2. after you make the negative double the auction continues 1h 2c x p 2n p ?? here is my hand again so that u dont have to search for it AKxxx Jxx Qx xxx

Relax Steve we are here exchanging ideas. Your opinion is certainly as valid as mine. Maybe based on this discussion you will be more reluctant to double next time and i'll be more apt to double. Isnt that what an exchange of ideas is about :) Or maybe we'll ask ourselves who is sitting on the other side of the table from us. lol My goal here has been accomplished.... a nice discussion about the pro and cons of a bid!!

Wow i thought you guys were asleep. I expected a response to this post much sooner but .......... better late than never :) Yes ben you r rite i have missed out on some + 300 on occasion. But on the other hand i dont come back to the table with a frown on my face begging for forgiveness with a minus 530 very often, I would double 3d in a heartbeat at matchpoints but imps......... as i said i just dont double in this auction. Maybe if we were in a 48 board match or way behind, but in an imp pairs or swiss i leave it alone. Sure partner should have bid clubs immediately no question in my mind about that!! but I have a tuff time understanding why when pard gets us to a plus position (assuming 3d was going down) we need to punish him for his efforts. Wouldn't you say that this is a similar situation 1h p 2h 2s p p 3h 3s. Must we double here after pard has done his job and gotten them in a minus position?

Just attempted to review my hands from last nite and the my hands function not working. I can see the traveler but not the movie.

Dont know how i missed this introduction section but here goes. My name is Fred Wills and I live in Miami,Fl. (eat your hearts out). I earn my living, teaching , directing, and (occasionally) playing bridge. I guess you would call me a student of the game as i must have over 150 bridge books of various nature. (i have the first goren bridge complete book my dad gave me when i was a kid) I dont go to many tournaments in the states anymore maybe every other year to a national. i typically go to most of the regionals that take place in southern Fl. About 5 years ago i discovered european bridge and now i go over there once a year and play in some tourney.

you hold akxxx jxx qx xxx playing precision partner opens 1h(11-15), and rho overcalls 2c. Your call yeah, yeah i know looks like a no brainer but...

Last nite i mentored for the first time on BBO. I used the partnership table to practice bidding and then I set up a teaching table where the 2 of us played several hands. with me playing and bidding the other 3 hands. Both areas were very easy to use but i encountered 1 problem. When using the teaching table mode after the bidding ended i would have my "mentee" change seats so that he could declare the hand. A couple of times when he was changing seats someone else jumped in his seat.(arggg) I changed the table setting to require permission to sit but then i had to grant my student permission to sit every time he changed seats to declare. What can /could i do to avoid haveing people jump in the seat without using the permission to join mode?

love the feature. allows me to review my results when im not on my computer at home. But my favorite use of it is for discussion with friends and students. How many times have i heard......you hold kxx, ummmmmm axx, no kxx , ajxx, noooooo lol. with this feature i can just ask when the person played the hand , what the contract was and voila there it is. I've noted however that you cant proceed from one hand to the next without going back to the 1st screen that lists all the results. Any chance that sometime in the future the next hand button will be activated?