msjennifer

11HCP,8 losers and as some will say the so-called rule of 20 and 15,go against opening this hand.However 2and1/2 quick tricks,5Carder suit headed by AK,Decent support for either major AND the fact that no one has tried to make a sub opening (10/11HCP) with a five card major or a weak 2 opening far outweigh the negative reasons.I,personally,am an aggressive player and will certainly open this hand One Club.Of course,quite a few may Pass this hand without a wink.

Kaitlyn and Trinidad have said all against opening this hand 1NT,I,too, will open this hand 1 Diamond as I am not an expert in fooling opponents and partner.

2Heart! What's the problem?, Heavier the load,the slower goes the train!

Yes.I agree fully with your argument that how can those who consider the hand not worth opening at ONE level FORCE the partner to bid at THREE level.However ,I shall always open this hand 1Club.I don't bother about the so called rule of 20.Let us say a hand 10987,10987,AK,A76 11 plus 8 makes 19 .How many dare pass this hand as it does not satisfy rule of 20? That rule is an arbitrary and general guide line for those learning bridge (novices to early beginners).Perhaps they will suggest some modifications to that rule so that they can open this hand.

Two guaranteed defence tricks,7 losers.conveniient rebid ,green,6 carded suit headed by Ace.I don't need more to open this hand 1C in the first position.Additionals are thee cards to an honor support for either major. I shall always open this hand. Supposing I ,hypothetically ,pass this hand then in the given auction,I will not be very happy ,yet, I will pass again.

Once the 9 card fit is discovered the HTC count is immaterial and the distributional count and the Losing Tricks Count comes in to rule the hands. If the pair knows how to use the Short Sui Try AND the Long Suit Try in depth it does not require 10 HCP with responder,I would like to ( pardon for the sarcasm) bring to mind the hand in which a pair holding together only 5 (five)HCP scores 7Spades xx.Opponents holding 35 HCP cannot win a single trick even double dummy.Too much value must not be given to HTC count which plays a better role in Balanced hands not holding even one 5 card suit.One also has to keep the bidding by opponents into consideration.I shall certainly give a raise if at all I make a TOD and partner bids a surprising 1S in this hand.

I have read a lot about them but did not like idea.Besides it will lead to innumerable alerts and extend the time.The director will penalize such a time wasting pair ruthlessly.Besides,I do not know if the treatment is allowed by the WBF.

You are forced to open your hand and expose what it holds when you are dummy. What you hold in your hand is yours and what you hold in your mind is partners.

It appears you don't play garbage Stayman and my polite and humble request to you is continue with the 8 + Stayman till you form a fixed partnership and discuss it in details. It is my personal opinion not to use garbage Stayman when vulnerable as,against good opponents ,you may pay a sizable penalty.Since your partner has promised 8+ HCP he has promised to keep the bidding open upto 2NT level( provided you do not play Smolen) and so he will try his best to describe his hand accordingly and you will have your chance then.As regards the second hand a one spade overcall is the best one.If your LHO lands in a NT contract you do want partner to make an opening lead of spade ,don't you ? If you start with a double and then bid spades over partners bid ( and in quite a few hands he may have very little ) it shows a single suited hand of 16 to 18 HCP,which you do not have,Other posts have given other details already so I shall not duplicate those again.Best Luck to you.

We open 1S as there are hardly any chances of it being passed out since this hand contains just 15 HCP and there are 25 HCP out.Hence there are no fears of that.On the second round we jump to 4D which asks for specific aces (we have this available since in our system since opener never makes a splinter bid)

1) Dbl.Cant let them play at one level.I expect a D or C fit. 2)3Club.Natural and Strong 3) Pass.If LHO has psyched then can't help. 4)2Heart.Preferred to 2NT. All these bids have been preferred as there is no negative double by North.(We play that with 6 good and more).

After a x by West,who has suggested fit for either major,certainly Norths xx suggests a good defence for opponents contract OR An excellent fit for openers suit with ability to play at least to three level in openers suit.If East bids something opener with a normal 13 plus hand has to pass and if he bids something it shows a weak distributional hand unsuitable for defense.Unless East has psyched he certainly has length in spades and that is why he preempted.If South passes it shows a normal hand.North can not see a defense to 2S with his given hand and having xx earlier has an easy bid of 3C.This is how we play it and it may be " silly " in someone's opinion.I have seen players playing the 2Sx as a cooperative double.We don't play it that way.Bidding 3C is good enough which shows the hand appropriately and after this there is every possibility of reaching game with the hand which South holds.Additionally, on the normal hand South doubles 2S if he holds either Kxx or Axx of spade (as the way we play it) This makes it a bit easier for the responder to decide the action which he intends to take.

Yes Sir,you got me right .That is exactly what I meant.I totally agree with all that you have said.Thanks.

Hand 1; 1S-2C 2S-3C This sequence is played by many as showing 10/11 HCP and long clubs and is passable.After opener learns that he should not give any value to JS and degrade the doubleton QJ.Diamond K may be useful.But even then the hand provides only 3 tricks and partner cant be expected to furnish 8 tricks ruling out a 5 C contract.Hence 3 C has to be passed.On some day 3NT or 5 C will make if clubs behave but one can not sneak a look at North hand. Hand-2; 1S-2C 2D-3C Compared to the previous South hand the D-AKQ,three trumps to the Queen AND a singleton heart to provide a ruff or two plus the fact that partner cannot hold more than xx in spades is definitely worth a bid of 4C if not 5C..Personally,being a wee bit aggressive,I shall bid 5C .

I have no idea of your gadgets.conventions etc but I certainly can comment that the redouble was not a good bid for this hand.WHAT DOES A DOUBLE OF 2 Spades ,(known to be preemptive) mean in your system.? I feel it should show 1444 hand since most players play a one level bid forcing for one round and North did not make any such but redoubled.Personally, I think you have to think aforehand of this sequence as both 1C/D opening can be a 3 carded one (unless you open 1C on two cards).

Win and play King of diamonds.There are good chances that if they are 2-2 they won't take the Ace more particularly if West has it. if they are 3-1 and East has AQX he may duck ,and if either has singleton Queen it will get smothered.

The bid is an extraordinary bid.If Diamonds is the agreed suit,I have a feeling,it could be a "Modified Josephine" asking the responder to bid 7D if he has the DQ.

I can recommend books which have helped me a lot. 1)Bridge play from A to Z by George Coffin.2) Endplays in bridge by G S Coffin 3)SureTricks byG S Coffin4) Winning Defence by Brown.This last named book on Defence is a true Classic and explains in full detail the logics of defense.

If you play the attitude and count then certainly the 2of clubs shows no interest in the suit as there was no reason to give count .Firstly ,as has been pointed out ,only a fool will play the HQ if he held the Jack in his hand unless he wanted to double cross (?)the opponents.which not even a beginner will fall for.Any beginner (not a novice) would have backed Hearts at the very first opportunity.You were unlucky I must say.!As has been pointed out the lead might have been from K109 only ,for reasons best known to himself ,so backing the Jack at trick two will block the suit.

I have all the sympathies for this gentleman EAST.Perhaps he could have played the Club 8 instead of 2 and hoped partner gets the hint.

INew Minor Forcing is certainly not applicable after opener rebids 1NT, as has been described in all books, since opener has shown a very limited hand.If responder holds say x-KQxxx-xx- Jxxxx,what is he supposed to bid.?If the EXPERTS say bid 3C ,I feel not a single non-expert will accept that.A simple rebid of 2C specifically shows the desire not to play in 1NT at the same time showing 4/5 or 5/4 hand.And if anyone suggests that new minor is forcing(over 1NT openers rebid) well! good luck to that one.!

The experts cteate unnecessary confusion by giving artificial meaning to natural bids like 2D and 3C. A natural jump shift to 3C is never considered to show weak clubs but always shows a strong double suiter ,as given in all books on standard systems, forcing at least to game and perhaps,as can be made evident later by cue bids etc,even slam ambitioned.3C bid stands out clearly the best bid and keeps the level low.If over 3C ,opener does not show 3 cards in hearts then since he has not bid spades or rebid diamonds his hand is likely 3253 or 3244 .In either case he will then have 3/4 card club fit.His possible rebids are 3D,3H,3NT.4C.Responder can easily make out openers hand and either cue bid (with a 3card heart or 4 card club fit) or use RKCB with or without Spiral.The two suiter concentrated values hands are tempting and more so the illustrated hand.One has got to find out ways and means to make rebids which will genuinely show the distribution,strength and hand pattern keeping the level forcing yet low to find out openers hand more clearly as far as possible.(May not be possible in every case).These types are easier when partner has opened the bidding rather than over called.LHO opens 1S. Partner over calls 2D (vulnerable overcall),RHO bids 2H you hold, Void-x-Jxxxx-KQxxxxx what do you bid.?If available LHO will bid 4S,This is an actual hand from BBO.

If 2NT is a forcing relay, which is what it should be,then 3C and 3D by the cappeleti bidder will show the respective minor suit and then a relay of 3D/3H will ask for the major. To a 3D relay 3H/3S answer will show the respective major and to a 3H relay a 3S answer will show Spade suit and a 3NT answer will show a heart suit.

By the term 'advancer',I take it as the partner of 1NT opener.i feel there should be no problem in using Lebensohl responses. If the term is used for cappeleti bidders partner then they know how and what to bid even if the No Trump openers partner makes a bid over the 2C bid.(the plan is well known ).

Instead of this awkward style of responding to a 2C opening,I would like to politely advise all to seriously consider the Precision system responses to a 1C (16+ any)opening ,may be with just a little change if found necessary.It keeps the level low as well as does not cause any confusions ,as happens sometimes ,with the "waiting"ambiguous response of 2D ( as followed by majority of players apparently).