The Casual

Sorry if I'm slow on the reply but I haven't been on Bridge lately. I think rmnka447's makes a simple 2♣ checkback sound simplest, followed by transfers, so I'll see what I can do with those. The two way systems you mention are a bit over my head :unsure: Anyway, thanks for the responses all.

My partner and i recently adopted a 2/1 approach in bidding and someone mentioned the need for a checkback bid for a 5-3 major fit in a sequence such as: 1!C>1!S>1NT. As far as I know, two common conventions for that are New minor forcing and Checkback Stayman. I was wondering what your preference is and why, and also if you would detail the calls for me so I can implement it. Thanks

Okay thanks for the input all, the consensus seems to be that the club was the correct way to go. My reason for not doing so was that it felt like giving up, just the defense cashing out and letting declarer make. Where as maybe, just maybe 1 in 10 times or so there was something possible with the diamond lead that might beat the contract, I couldn't think of anything but it seemed more likely to than the club; I was fully aware that it would probably give them an overtrick. Thankfully my p didn't get irritated when the diamond was led.

http://tinyurl.com/lxt9cfo Trick #6 with me on lead - obviously I gave them an overtrick, I was hoping that there was some holding for west where a diamond lead was necessary to beat the contract; is this true? I was thinking possibly a singleton heart spot with west and maybe with my partner holding the ♦J, not likely but maybe? Anyway, I was fairly sure that leading the last club would not get us that extra trick. What is the opinion of the more experienced? Should I have just played the club anyway?

Thanks MrAce, that line of play is quite cool; squeezes aren't really my expertise though so I would have gone with the two diamond finesses :D. I was a little annoyed that my p played for no chance to make the contract, obviously didn't count winners/ losers, but it was just some random partner I got paired with, little can be done. I'm just interested in the bidding really, the play is only left in because I don't know how to remove it haha. The answer I'm looking for is whether people think bidding the slam is profitable in the long run, with a slightly better (but non expert) declarer of course :P

http://tinyurl.com/lt68guw Got this the other day but was a little surprised when I couldn't find a bid to reasonably describe the hand. Maybe I whimped out when I passed it so what does everyone else suggest?

http://tinyurl.com/p4bkegk Two questions: Would you double in my seat (since TO x is how you show this many points)? I considered just a simple overcall of 1♥ because I would, as my partner, expect better hearts if rebid after the dbl; partner bidding hearts was a bit of a fluke imo. Would you have bid 6♥ in the end (whether that be directly over 4♠ or after some investigation I don't know)? Basically, do you think it will be better to bid 5♥ or 6♥ in the long run?

http://tinyurl.com/n5lgq2h With the 1♣ opening and 1♠ overcall how would you get to the grandslam? I doubt I can bid 7♣ over partners 5♣ bid (I was thinking he had more like 7 solid trump). I was hoping my 3♠ bid was something like "tell me more partner", 3NT being a stopper of some kind (not expected with e's holding) or maybe 4♥ with honour doubleton, is this correct?? Anyway I wasn't quite expecting 13 tricks off the top (more like 7 trump and 5 outside), what do you think? Also what would be the difference in meaning between a 4♣ bid and partner's 5♣ bid?

Thanks, I like this sequence, very intuitive.

Thank you, indeed it is a bit beyond what my partner and I have discussed, our system does not go much further than a basic SA or 2/1 depending on what we feel like. We have essentially no discussion past the 3m bid (to show 5-4 GF) other than maybe 3NT to show no fit in either suit (or a preference to 3NT over minor game) and game signoffs in 4 & 5 ♥ & ♦ respectively.

Okay, so far I can get up to 1NT>2♦>2♥>3♦>3♥>? But after this I feel like West shouldn't just punt 4NT (RKCB), because they need to know about the diamonds. Could someone just spell it out to me and give the exact sequence from 1NT to 6H.

Okay thanks for the responses. So after 1NT>2♦>2♥>3♦>? What are the meanings of East's bids in this position (cue bids maybe?)?

http://tinyurl.com/pwjawfh Would you go for slam and if so how? I expect most to say yes but tbh, while I wanted to, I didn't know how; slams after NT openings is not a strong area of mine =/.

Thanks, I found your analysis on declarers options and WesleyC posting about declarer's shape to be quite infomative :). You both picked up a lot more information than I did during the hand and it's helpful to see. I posted the hand because I felt that I blew a trick somewhere or that perhaps something slipped my mind. I know the overall play was sub par but I was interested in what the most forcing line was from my perspective.

I'm interested in what people think of my defense in this hand: http://tinyurl.com/ktmejwe Ignore all the bidding and the declarer play, I'm sure it's not what many people would consider optimal (was with randoms), I know the contract is going down regardless but what should I have played to increase our chances at maximum tricks and why?

I have seen this treatment around a little but at the moment just trying to implement the convention and become comfortable with it rather than the optimal version; improvements can come later :)

I would like to incorporate the Serious 3NT convention into my partnership's bidding but I am having trouble finding a good source explaining what hands qualify as 'serious' and which don't. Does anyone know of a good site or want to have a crack at explaining it? Any info is appreciated, thanks.

Thanks for the responses. I didn't really have a problem with p opening in 1x with the high point count because I saw it was an awkward hand, and that they were trying to make the auction more comfortable (unfortunately I made the only bid that gives them problems), but I realise now with 24 points there is a risk of missing a solid game. I think opening 2♣ and rebidding 2NT is an adequate work around; I'll see what they think.

http://tinyurl.com/q8nqmdg Ignore the bidding, we weren't 100% sure what was happening ourselves. How should N go about bidding his hand? They didn't want to open 2♣ and lie about having a 5 cd suit, or rebid 2NT (22-24) with the singleton. Also, after the 1♣ opening p wasn't happy bidding NT without some explicit bid by me showing a stopper in ♦; I argued that the 1NT bid more or less implies at least something in diamonds and it is relatively safe to bid 3NT, but they weren't convinced.

Like I said there was a bit of a misunderstanding :). Anyway this looks good, thanks. For clarification is 3♣ there suggesting a hand that is quite interested in slam (given proper controls of course) or simply a hand unsuitable for NT and perhaps just going for game in 5♣ (with the possibility of wanting slam still included)?

http://tinyurl.com/n2gp6vv After a slight misunderstanding p and I ended up in 6s-1. I realise p could splinter but how would it go if he had a hand too strong for that?

Thank you all for posting, I didn't expect so many answered so quickly! I am very satisfied with the answers that have been given and will do in regards to the question hoarding, I was dying to post these while I was collecting them anyway. :)

Alright, the purpose of this thread is to get answers to several (many) generally unrelated bridge questions I've been collecting over the last couple months. I decided to 'save' them up to avoid cluttering the forums so hopefully this thread doesn't die down with too many unanswered. Please forgive me if some of these are silly questions. If I can edit this I'll try and mark off answered questions. Here goes! So I learnt to play and bid (mostly) from the "Learn to Play Bridge" (L2PB) software provided by Bridgebase (thank you btw), but I'm still fairly uncertain in many bidding situations. Here are the majority of the stockpiled questions (bidding related): * Are reverses an optional add on for Standard American bidding or an important part of the system? * Assuming they are optional, are reverses standard? i.e. if playing SAYC with a random should I assume they play reverses? L2PB seemed to be leading up to SAYC but made no mention of reverses at all. * For responder's bidding do they always follow the same rules as opener in terms of bidding longest first, highest from 5-5 etc, or does this change depending on responders point range? In my experience this can lead to some high auctions on relatively minimum hands e.g 1s>2d>3c. * What are some agreements for new suits at the 3 level (both opener and responder). * Again assuming reverses are optional, does this change how responder should bid in constructive situations? Perhaps to avoid trapping partner when they don’t have the points to reverse? * Does the 4th suit function the same after a jump shift (4sf)? * Is there D0P1 for RKCB? Perhaps a D03P14 lol? * Are there any relatively undiscussed bids for SAYC I should know? For example I haven't seen the bidding sequence (or something of the like) 1h>2c>2d>3h (suggesting a slam in hearts) anywhere (even bidding sites) except in a pdf file by acbl for SAYC. * Are minimum raises after a 2/1 (SAYC) anything special? e.g 1h>2c>2d>2h * My regular partner and I have quite some difficulty bidding slam going hands with less than 4 cd support in the openers major (otherwise we bid J2NT). This is because to start cue bidding (and suggest slam) we need to raise the major below game while a game force is in place; to do so we need to go through 4sf and still be able to raise the major at the 2/3 level. In our experience the 4sf bid rarely happens at the 2 level (does this sound like misbidding?) like the examples on bidding sites imply. So the 3 level 4sf is invariably met with 3nt after which the major can no longer be raised and we have no idea how to start cue bidding controls. This usually results in a YOLO 4nt quantitative bid or bidding the slam outright. My idea for this was that when the major is raised without a jump to game after 4sf this is the slam invite else they wouldn't have used 4sf. This seems like a decent solution to me but what is the way this is usually handled? * Why is Puppet Stayman much less commonly used over 1NT openings than 2NT? * After a 2 level 4sf is a jump bid to 3nt defined? * Does SAYC have any general agreements for new suits at the 3 level? * If responder's first suit is a major, after a subsequent 4sf opener's 1st priority is to show 3 cd support, then a stopper; if this first suit is a minor do opener's bids change other than the priority of the nt bid? * Is Gerber only on for jump bids? * After a 1H opening not uncommonly with a fit some people search still for a 4-4 in spades; I've heard that a 4-4 fit is usually better, esp. with the 5-3 fit to discard losers, but apparently this is not the correct practice (unless temporising for a delayed game raise). If these statements are true why would this not be incorporated into SAYC or other bidding systems. * What are some common agreements for the overcalling side, for just simple overcalls, e.g 1h>(1s)>p>? The overcall is 10+ total points but what do their side's subsequent bids show? * Are there common agreements for major raises to 5? * With a slam seeking hand when should you cue bid? Use Blackwood? Cue bid and then use Blackwood? Compared to above the remaining questions are a bite sized piece so I'll just lump them all together: * For udca signalling I can understand the idea of being able to spare a high card in a weak suit (most of the time) for attitude signals but why invert count as well? * I remember a while back reading about a Bridge youtuber that records himself playing and discussed things like his thought process while playing; would anyone happen to know who that is? Finally I'd like to ask for some book recommendations. The only Bridge book I have is the revised edition of "Bridge Squeezes complete" which was bought out of sheer interest and I've found it thoroughly fascinating; however it is unlikely to be the most useful thing to learn at this stage of my game. I'm wanting particularly a large, detailed book on SAYC bidding (as you may have figured from above) and perhaps a similar one for 2/1. I'd also like to get a book generally focused on intermediate declarer play with perhaps some more advanced ideas towards the end as well as another, similar leveled, book for defence. Thank you in advance to contributors, much appreciated.

Thank you all for the suggestions, and thanks Zelandakh. I'll be sure to discuss these with my partner.

My partner and I often had trouble determining when 4NT is Blackwood or Roman Key card; to fix this we made an agreement that 4NT is always straight BW unless the trump suit was explicitly raised or something of the like (Splinters or Jacoby 2NT). However this makes it so that in most slam bidding auctions RKCB is only really in use after a 2 level response (by opener) to 4th suit forcing and a below game level trump raise by responder - A pretty rare occurrence. Because of this it is very rare we actually use RKCB and this often leads us into slams with at least 1 natural trump loser. I figure playing 2/1 would fix a lot of these issues but how is this handled in SAYC and what are some common partnership agreements for when BW or RKCB apply? Thanks.