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1H-p-2H-3S I think there are good ressons to play this as strong jump rather then a prempt. what do you think ?

1X p 1Y p 1NT p p D this could be 1. take out with both other suits but weaker then direct double 2. abit offshape double with good hand something like 12 hcp with 43 other suits 3. penalty with good holding in suit Y and maybe short in X 4. showing one of their suits and on of the other suits and a good hand. All these has logic, what do you prefer ?

I would pull to 2D

what is 5H ? why bid 5H when u can bid 4H ?

maybe its a good idea to use a jump to 4m as showing 5+m 4M and pretty good hand. There are enough bids to show clubs, 3C, 2NT and pass of 3C, or 2NT and 4C. We all been in a situation where u have good minor but dont want to lose Major game and ends up in a bad 4-3 fit where a much better minor fit exist.

The first double usually shows 4-4 majors. The second double show max hand for passed hand and pretty balanced, suggest leting them play.

north has 10 hcp and bid almost the same as he had 0 hcp, assuming the bid went the same as here, i would as north correct 6C to 7C and think im underbiding (and its true since south was overbidding here).

I played against maybe the best pair in my country in a pair tournament, i was playing 3NT and had exactly 9 tricks with nothing looks like it give me an extra trick, this pair is known to think alot, but i decided that their thinking alot should not get me to claim, why should i claim 9 tricks when we all know ppl sometimes sell tricks. It took long time and at one point i mistakely took out the wrong card from my hand, now i was suppose to go down but they couldnt believe i made that mistake and gave the contract back to me. they left the table making faces about how i didnt claim, i didnt feel good about it, but i honestly dont think thier long thinking should give them the benefit of opps claiming losing poetential overtricks.

I wish it was mp and i would pass it. At imps id try 3H, yes its high bid and therefore less flexiable, but atleast ithe suit is nice which might allow dummy reversal, and maybe he will make 4H. I dont think 3C willl get us to better spot, unlike the guy before me, i think 3C is misleading even more then 3H, because partner will expect atleast 4 diamonds, while 3H can be done with 3D4H so he will be more carfull maybe. 2NT is a problem because even if partner has KX in spades we are stil lrate to go down.

this is just good play nothing else and nothing speciall, i think a player who claim like u suggest isnt playing for serious. I think ur wrong about thinking most claim like that, its the opposite, i doubt more then 10% would claim when they might get an overtrick if the turney mean something to them.

I dont agree with the director and wouldnt change the score. About your comment its out of place. I understand the director, yet i believe this kind of rulling style is wrong.

read this one jil http://forums.bridgebase.com/index.php?showtopic=15027

2NT for me, but dont make the mistake of 1D and then 3NT rebid.

Lets assume that west didnt hear his parner explains. West wouldnt pass 4S, he got too much, he would probebly double, now what would his partner do ? we dont see his hand but from the story im pretty sure he has the hand to correct to 5H, so nothing has changed and i would let the score stands. The other question is whater there was a mistake in the explanation or the bid, if it was the explaning mistake, then we need to check whather to take off the last double.

ofcourse its not std, and a this director should take some bridge lessons if he wants to be a better director. Yet in general weak players have the right to think that something else is the std and if you want to protect yourself you must ask.

I dont understand any of this but this might be related http://www.cs.technion.ac.il/~shaulm/paper...t-2005-LBB.html

Just to balance this last post in case someone is considering whather to read the book or not, i read the book and find it to be the worse book i ever read, it give nearly nothing to your competitve arsenal.

I dont thihnk you're right, i dont think they mock anyone, they said things like This guy xyz a great player faced this problem and didnt use the law and didnt succed, and many time this part ends by "and yet they won that event". marty and choen write in simple way, to make things simple to use, ofcourse they try to give simple rules, but the first book has 2 chapter of adjustments and one showing where even adjustments wont work and the law will fail you. The second book is all about adjusting the law. So saying that choen think or say the law is 100% accurent as just summing of trumps is just .... I think there was a place for more books about the law, lawrence and other should have their word about it, just like there is more then one book about squeeses or any other part of the game, but should have done in in a possitive way.

Well Done, impressive winning for the second time. and also well done to the kids of israel for winning the up to 20 years old championship.

Its amazing to see how lawrence use such a negative approch in his faught the law way, both in the book and in the book publication, i wonder why he does that. As i see it could be to improve the seeling of his book, but i bet im not the only one who hate this kind of publicity and may not real the book just because of it (i read the book anyway). I think its more of a personal problem with larry choen, either a fight they had in real life, or something imginary by lawrence, maybe he hate the fact that choen's (and bergen's) simple books succed more then his complex books. Does this negativity works for you ? Will you buy the book because of it ? my answer is no and If you know mike lawrence you can tell him, this doesnt work, it give me nausea to read this kind of criticism which is more apropriate for 10 years old children.

I think maybe the best thing about ace is that they make other lower honors better like the K in AKX is worth a full trick rather then half a trick, and when my aces are alone they can apgrade only my partner's lower honors but not mine which make them less valuable. Does this make sense ?

There is something i dont understand about the value of aces. Generally aces are considered better then their 4 hcp value, you suppose to bid more when ur hcp are aces, but then every now and then i see world class players bid less because they have aces hand. a good example iv seen recently on VUgraph from GRUE a great player no doubt, his partner open one minor he has 4 4 cards heart suit with some 4432 distribution and bid 1H, partner support to 2H now grue passes, 12 hcp 3 aces opposite an opening partner many would say this must bid 4, but he didnt even invite.

I thought about you today. I held AXXX KJ QJXXX KX RHO opened 1C i overcalled 1D LHO passed and partner bid 1S RHO passed. (1C) 1D (P) 1S (p) I have 14 kind of bad 14 and thinking of bidding 3S, but i remembered this post and decided to shut for 4S and hope for best. Partner had KQXX XXX 10 A10XXX and made the game (could have made an overtrick. he would bid 4S on 3S i think so this doesnt say anythink but still had to post.

When you make those courtesy cuebids, you give information to your opponents thats the obvious minus, the question is, is it worth it, and its important to nitice that you dont only need possible hands for partner to make a slam (like in those examples) you also need to be able to get to slam when its right and avoid it when its wrong, which isnt easy.

i think its best to play 2C as natural here.