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Attitude first is a good approach. The question is what do you do when attitude is no longer nececarry, for example you lead a suit and find dummy with AKQ in that suit, or a siglton (in suit contract) is there a point in signaling attitude ? Most play that when the honors of the suit lead are known signaling is switched to count instead of attitude. For example if i lead K and dummy has the A, KQ and A are known so count instead of attitude. Others add more situations where count is given, and many others signal whatever suit the situation, meaning they will think when they see the dummy and decide wather partner would prefer count or attitude. These options especially the last one (which is quite common i think) are not easy and will lead to misunderstanding. On the other side there are those (im included) who like attitude all the way this mean if dummy has AKQ i will still play attitude but my attitude will not regard only this suit but the all hand, this approach is know as the ovious shift principle, we look at dummy and find (in a systematic way) which is the suit which the leader suppose to shift to when i discarage his lead, now if the leading suit as AKQ and i want the ovious shift suit (i want partner to make that ovious shift) i will discarage, if i dont want that switch (wather i want no switch or i want a switch to a third suit, not the ovious one) i will encarage, now partner looking at dummy's AKQ and see my encaragment will understand. As i mentioned before i like the attitude way. Even when playing attitude all the way, there are some special situation where you show count, most importent of them is the lead of a K vs a 5/6 suit contract, this is to let partner know if his next trick (the A) is going to work or be ruffed. Udca is atleast imo better then std, but it doesnt matter for this discussion. And to the last question, its very importent to show count in dummies long suit, especially when dummy doesnt have many enteries, partner needs to know whater to duck and how many times. In trump most give count (count in trump is given in the udca way even when you dont play udca, small=even, high=odd) , most would give count only when they have a ruff situation and partner need to know if they have another trump. Some play suit preference in trumps which is also what the ovious shift inventors advice.

Who is your world master Fluffy ?

Yes great book, emazing how well they played, sometimes hard even for a double dummy.

My english is pure but false carding is widther then previously explained , its generaly means play of a card that will mislead your opponent, this is usually not playing the card you would be taught to play in a begginers school. like playing K from KQ in third hand, or signaling you have even number of cards when you have odd number, or many other examples i could give. Its also include playing the card which reveal as little as possible for the opponents.

I didnt watch the play but from what i understand here, you won and also free and Richard won, i dont know the players too well but from what i know you are just better player then the other team and also better pairs since you play more together, maybe it was a bad idea to put you on the same team. If the turney was swiched teams then sorry for my stupid comment.

They are easy to use thats thier biggest adv. When the hand is right for support double and you use it you will get to the right contract (including leaving this double with 4 card and a balance/diffensive hand) When you play t.o double and you use it, you are still far from the best contract, you dont you might still miss it.

Finnaly i have a board for this thread, played today, my partner doubled 1nt showing a one suiter RHO bid 2D transfer, i pass and LHO bid 2h , pass pass. i have 2344 hand and decided to bid 2sp as pass or corect, opponents doubled and we didnt take it out. (the opponent did :) )

i thought those are all premptives, and was sure that over 3c since i have a cue bid to show a good hand 5H would be a prempt.

What are those 5 level mean ? partner opens 2H premptive and you raize to 5H 1. RHO pass 2. RHO doube 3. RHO 3C would you play any diffenret had partner's 2H was H+S prement ?

How about playing taking the A of club playing AK and another diamond pitching a club ? If diamonds are 3-3 i can take 4H+1C+4D+1 spade for 10 tricks. If west has QJxx in diamonds (if only Q or J its still right) then RHO is marked with both the other Ks and i have 2 entries to take 2S+3D+4H+1C,a good diffence can force me to ruff west play his forth diamond i will ruff with the Q, then play the 10 ,east will take this one or i will cont a small heart to the J which he will take, anyway he can force me to ruff again but if trumps are 3-2 i will make. Didnt think of it too much so i might have missed something simple. I'll think loudly about other diffences, at trick 4 west cont a club. i ruff low, play Q of H, then small to the J east take either one and must play heart, i will take the J of heart at the third round ruff a diamond and enter with the J of spade. another option: east returns a spade at trick 4: ill play small, west will put the 9 (the K will just give me 3 spades) I take the J, ruff a D with the Q, if east overruff its over, if not i play the 10 of heart, then heart to the J, east cant do nothing better then take the K and let me win the J and the diamond later. And last option, east returns a heart at trick 4: ill play the Q and have my entry to the table wather east ducks or not. I guess my line work at 3-3 diamonds or 4-2 diamonds with 3-2 heart.

What if west has Kxxx of spade and xx of heart ? you will get a spade ruff. or what if east has xx in diamond and Kxx in heart and u get a diamond overruff. or if hearts are 4-1 ? I wouldnt say this cover almost any bad split.

You can look at a WCer profile and find clues there, a real WCer should have a name, and a country, also you could get some clues from what he writes at the buttom of the profile. And last but not least you should ask yourself, is this a WC table ? if not then why is this WC trying to get here , maybe he's not a real WC.

1. Your success was due to luck. 2. north should bid 2S over 1nt 3. If 1nt show 4+ hcp then bid 1nt, if it show 6+ then pass, i play 1nt as 6+ so i wont bid, i dont understand why ppl hate to pass when they should. Playing 1NT as 4+ would make ur life harder on other hands. Actually if my partner would bid like that i would be very unhappy, i dont mind partners making mistakes, but the ability to count 6 hcp is something i expect from partners and the luck of disiplaint really freaks me out.

I have no respect for World classers, i always look for adv or experts to play with, my next choice would be inters, then WC and private. The chances of a WC player to be a bad player and a non serious player (redoubles...) are higher then an adv player. private is something else i dont like, if you want to play with me let me know ur level. WC with a star is always welcome ofcourse. I dont think there should be a change in levels , it just wont solve anything.

No one like going down with such a good hand, i guess thats why no one answered yet.

Its not a misfit atleast a minimum fit but could be alot more, because its mp i would pass and hope to bid 3c next, on imps i would bid 3c now.

A i said before i usually take one point off for 4333 shape and will invite with 9-10 bid game with 11, but this hand has K and A which are good points, the K and J are in the same suit which is good, the KJ are in the long suit which is good, and i have a 10. If the rest looks like 234 234 234 i would pass but if i have a 8 here and a 9 there i would bid 2nt. Anyway either pass or 2nt is not a big mistake and can turn out successully.

First the way to explain is to take one point off a 4333 shape so the hand is 7 hcp and not worth invite. Second it should be noted that many many 3nts including at the top level but more at lower levels are made due to mistakes and less the best diffence, 3nt is the contract which the opponents make more mistakes against then any other game. I think if 3nt should be bid without partly depending on opponents mistakes then 27 hcp would have been required, but this mistake factor is intigrated into the bidding systems.So my point is dont feel bad about getting into an hopeless 3nt, or going down with a good diffence, this is the price you pay for those 3nt that will make due to bad diffence.

nice

Only resson i see for this bid is the 7NT bidder lucking the A of spade and another A but have the a long minor suit and a spade void. Your partner has an A will i would try to find it in spade.

i don't think pass is reasonable, you have three card support and some values, so even if you are in a very pessimistic mood you should bid 3c at least. I guess you're right, im an unerbidder in my soul, also a mp player who sometimes play with not very good players and prefer to see plus scores.

I think id bid 2sp. Am i the only one who consider passing ? especially NF ?

I think maybe there could be a scale for how rare the squeeze is and how hard it is (hard is a complex thing, hard to understand, hard to recongnize, hard to execute) knowing for each squeeze how hard it is and how rare it is with a simple set of numbers at the header, can help , one can decide to read only the easy ones, or maybe just the more freqent ones, inters can begin with more easy material then go back in few months to read the harder material.

Hey Ben I finnaly finished the first thread, i enjoyed it very very much and will read the rest tomorrow or the next day. I hope to see it continue. About questions presented here: im not a begginer or intermidiate but i find this forum best for teaching, even when the material is complex. adv/expert forum is more of conversions disccusions then teaching, experts read here too, therefore i believe its a good idea to continue in this forum. I think atleast some of the material is too complex for intermidiate, this doesnt mean they cant understand it, the can and they will enjoy it, but it wont be the best return per time spending they can get. i think at the end, that seperating this into different levels will kill the logic organization, so id stay this way , and maybe put an expert mark at some sections, so inters could skip it if they like. -organization style is great, including the summering at the end of each section and the end of the artical. - Examples i am sure new players will need lots of examples and quizes to learn how to use it, but i really liked the idea of a seperate thread for quizez, because any more examples would make it too long, so examples in seperate thread is the best. Usefulness - i find it very usefull, im looking forward to read more ,and also to play hands and think in the line presented. Thanks alot Ben keep up the great work

Nice line Ben and good points by free free, need a good heart break (atleast 4 hearts with east) to make this endplay.