msjennifer

Playing Precision ,RKCB and SPIRAL We arrived in 7Hearts.On some day we may go down on a spade lead and spade ruff at trick one only,else there is nothing to worry about(a 6/0 trump break would have led to playing the hand as a squeeze as described by all others)

Leaving aside the possibility of a psychic opening by East,it is possible he has sub-opened.Partner can have a 2Suiter in minors wherein he could not overcall 2NT perhaps with a weakish diamonds.If that is so then he easily can have some strength in hearts like say Axx .Anyway,.I shall pass and lead a club.I do not see any point in bidding my spade suit now.( When one did not think it proper to open 2/3 S )

With any 4/3/3/3 hand,when playing Wriggling convention ,the bid is PASS.This alerts the opener that the responder has either 1) a 4/3/3/3 hand or 2) a hand with which he normally would have redoubled.He then takes appropriate action as described by me in my previous post.

Too many artificial bids create too many complications and furthermore they fit only established partnerships.Better to abandon playing 2/1 and stick to normal SAYC.!

This is a hand which depicts the disadvantage of playing weak twos.However,one has to abide by it.I shall ask one question here.What would be the rebid if the hand was AQX,A,AKJxxx, xxx.Big problem now! I,therefore,would prefer to rebid 3 Spade on the given holding reserving the 3C bid for Axx,x,AKJxxx,AQx.The spade support is good enough for bidding 3S..

One will have to change the whole system if one says that 2C is Forcing for for one round.

This is a part of the " Wriggling" convention which enables one to play in a 5+ card suit with responder or In a suit at least 4-3 fit which opponents may find difficult to penalize( more so if the contract is 2H/S.) With a responding hand which responder would normally have redoubled,he passes and then opener may bid a 5 + card suit of his own or redouble asking responder to a) pass with a hand which normally would have redoubled or b) to bid his only 4 card suit as an escape with a poor hand.

I can make nothing from the auction given above due to lack of knowledge about the Swedish system.The Standard system which we play the bidding will go 1C-3D ( four card support to two top honours 4414 hand and 15 plus.) 5C-Pass The hand is not easy for Precision,as 2 opening bids are available namely, 1D and 1NT.Further development, therefore ,will depend upon individual styles and is beyond the scope here.

PASS.Not a single sure defensive trick! TWO passes after LHO opened sounds strange.Partner did not overcall nor did he double holding a decent 11/12 and four carder fair heart suit.And almost 9 losers!

If,in this sequence,one wants to make a realistic bid there is no bid available to show this giant of a double suiter except a take out double,then it is very unfortunate and naive to treat it as penalty double.No body will make a penalty double on any hand because we all know that opponents can even score a grand slam in spades.The double has to be a TOD.

Yes.It has been the case many times with me too!

Since a slam is a very likely possibility,I would like to know what does a bid of 5 S now mean in Polish system..If it means Hearts and Clubs then it's OK to bid it.A double in this situation is surely a TOD guaranteeing a heart suit and 5H bid by partner can be converted to 6C (in this particular hand) or 6D (if the second suit was Diamonds and not Clubs).These bids may be enable the NS to play the right slam.

Sir,one of your two guesses is correct.Which one? The second one where you say that I am fully entitled to call it by any other name and to me it includes Lebensohl.I feel sorry but your first guess is quite off the mark.I humbly request you to see my profile and you will see my real name.As regards my profession also you can get a hint from my interests.I ,thank you profusely for very kindly supplying the other details about encyclopaedia and all which by the way I knew already.In the end ,I wish to make a polite request " We agree to disagree".

This depends upon ones partnership agreements. With adverse vulnerability and playing a standard system the range of 1 S opening is very wide.However,by doubling 5H bid opener, as per my contention,has three defensive tricks outside spades.The double if made by a sane partner tells responder NOT to bid 5 Spade.I shall hence,pass without a quiver.since I have not guaranteed even one single defence trick.With only 2 outside defence tricks he will ,or rather should, pass.Doesn't one open with Jxxxx-Ax-Axx-Axx or similar?

Sir,I beg your pardon,there are 6(Six) situations where Lebensohl is applicable.It s likely that perhaps you know only one.The remaining five situations is what I leave it to you to find out.The six situations were given in details by an International player to my daddy who passed it to me.If you wish to call it by any whatever other name it's your pleasure to do so.For me it is and will remain LEBENSOHL.

We play Lebensohl under these conditions. 1 3C is a game forcing bid in heart suit. 2 3D is the normal limit raise in Spade 3 3H is a competitive bid ,with no spade support at all. 4 3S is a totally preemptive bid in Spade 5 4H/S is to play 6 4C/D are cue bids with a slam oriented hand in Spade 7 Double is for penalties mainly.If LHO bids a minor and opener has a sure guard in the minor he is to make a double(informatory)or pass without one.He can continue with a strong hand if he is not interested in penalties. 8 Pass shows a hand unfit for any of the above bids With exactly 7 losers in the hand I, personally,would have bid 4S over 2NT bid by RHO. This type of Lebensohl bids can equally be applied in other hands where RHO announces any double suiter hand over a major suit opening by partner( and equally ,if you play 4plus cards minor suit openings) by making the appropriate changes in responders bids.

I, personally, feel that being a passed hand I would have bid 2Spade and not 2Club on the earlier round.Not only does it show a shortness in spades but also a massive fit in club suit,and 8 loser hand.Hence I abstain .

And if 2NT is raised to 3NT one will be extremely lucky not to get a spade lead and opponents cashing first five tricks .A bid of 2D allows partner to bid NT if he has say Kxx in spades.The NT contract will be played from the right hand.If one opens 1C on this hand it will not be easy for partner to describe his given hand.And then none of openers rebids can describe this hand.We temporise the bidding by opening 1H and rebidding 2D as 2C is AT LEAST a one round if not game force.One of my real expert friend opened 1H and over 2C rebid 3D ( I do not agree with him ) when given this hand,.remarking " I have no spade guard and do not want to create a wrong impression of having one by bidding NT. " By the way,I prefer playing Precision or Blue Club and confess not to be an advocate of a standard system with five card majors and strong NT.

That's the tragedy of playing five card majors! Traditional Acol or Precision will bid the slam in a whiff.A suit of Qxxxx where there is only one winner is considered a treasure and a suit AKQJ with 4 winners and which can play well with xx opposite is thought unfit to open just because an x is not there.!We do open 1H on such a hand unashamedly when an easy rebid of 2 diamonds over 2 C is there.!

We play Precision and this 1 NT is 100 p.c. Forcing for one round.It usually requests opener to bid his longer minor suit .With equal length in minors opener bids 2Club.However,this hand with such a strong heart suit has to respond 2 H. 2C bid with just two rags is simply weird bid.Playing standard We open this hand 2D ( Flannery) since we have found that a weak 2D opening fails to impress the opponents and serves no purpose whatever against advanced or expert opponents.To bid a minor with only xx in the suit is stretching the things too far.

Thanks for disturbing my sleep as I dreamt the contract was six club.In 6 NT if hearts are not 3/3 then one has to guess which finesse to take.If west has both Kings and also 4 hearts he can never be squeezed as South is squeezed before him.Toss up the coin and if it's heads finesse D and if tails finesse spades or the other way round.If East has both then the hand is lay down.There is no threat in dummy like say DJ in place of a small one when the Vienna coup may see one through hence any squeeze is out of question.There is a further twist if hearts are 4/2 , the 9and10 don't appear from W and East wins the heart ace to return a spade or a diamond.

I wonder why no one has suggested riffing out the spades because thre are enough entries to try that.SA ,S ruff,CK,S ruff,and now remove the last outstanding trump and play a heart towards Queen .You have one entry in hearts to ruff one more spade and if the King does appear you can enter by DA and discard the other diamond from dummy on SQ and dummy is good.If the king does not appear you can try for 3/3 hearts or if that fails fall back upon the diamond finesse as a last chance.

If ,as you say ,East holds both Kings then no need to squeeze him.Just take finesse and claim.

We play Precision system of bidding so there will not be the slightest difficulty of finding partners hand. 1Club -any response 3Heart ( For the given hand) This 3 Heart which is a jump bid sets the suit and asks for 1) Specific ace or aces leaving aside heart Ace. Responses: If partner has an Ace he bids that Ace With 2Aces he bids:5C to show Cand S aces,5D to show D and C aces 5H to show all three aces and 5S to show S and D aces.With no ace he bids 4H.With a king or Queen he bids 3NT. 2)Opener then makes a relay of 4C to ask specific Kings the same way with no king responder bids 4 H and 3)opener relays with 4 S and responder shows specific Queen by bidding it.With 2 Kings or 2 Queens the replies are as described for showing the Aces.After an Ace showing response opener bids the next step suit ,except the trump suit and responder shows the king etc. This method can be applied in SAYC after say a 2C opening and a 2 D response.The method has been used successfully by us and have bid a small or grand slam fully knowing the high cards upto queen of any suit. This gadget I ,politely, point out has not been described in any book on Precision system and it's different versions.

In Acol system the 2H opening is supposed to promise 8 playing tricks if my memory is correct.Acol system does not make an opening bid based upon LTC but HCP and winning tricks.LTC count comes into play when you find a sure 8 plus cards fit in a suit.I would like to know what is the opening bid for this hand from those who follow the rule of twenty..