ochinko

You look at car plate numbers, and wonder why they don't add up exactly to 13. You are being asked for your opinion on something, but you just say Pass, and look what the person on your left has to say. You reserve your right to reenter the conversation though <_<

I am surprised no one overcalled 1S here. We could still have a game here if partner has passed with 10-11 points. Pass and double are both out of the question. 1NT has its merit too.

You can have both. For example, even with ♠ Kxx ♥ AQJT ♦ 2 ♣ KQ753 4♥ has a good chance to make, and you show a limited hand. But with ♠ KQx ♥ AQJT ♦ 2 ♣ KQ753 you could splinter to show 4- losers. Again, it's not about the points when you have at least 4:4 fit, and such a good distribution.

Points are irrelevant here. Every time I have 4+ trumps and 5 losers, i bid 4 in the major. Not that there's anything wrong in a splinter, of course, except that it could be misunderstood, as the others pointed out.

I read the book recently, and don't find it any more negative than I expected. Perhaps it was the title that suggests the Law would be taken apart. Well, it was, but in a gentle manner IMHO. Being a big fan of the Law for some time I frequently got embarrased when it didn't protect me, and I saw many other players showing better judgement than mine with the same hand. In the beginning I simply attributed it to their lack of knowledge of the Law. Was I naive, or what? I find the book useful, and a much needed balance to LOTT. Their way of counting the tricks is both original and convincing. If there's anything I don't like is that it takes a whole book to deliver one idea. But then again Larry Cohen filled two books that added almost nothing but examples to Verne's article. If IFtL was an article it would have made great impact, but it would also allow someone else to reap the benefits :)

Thanks everyone for your input. Obviously I didn't phrase the bet terms properly because it turns out that the 3NT bid wasn't impossible after all. The thing is that partner had somewhat balanced 19 points, and I tried to explain how the NT ladder goes.

In the SAYC realm, silent opps, new partner, not many agreements, is this a possible or an impossible bidding? 1♣ - 1♥ - 3NT

I pass. A NT contract can't be good if I'm the declarer. RHO's points are all working if s/he has a 4=4=4=1 distribution. Oops, sorry, didn't see it was MP. Then I agree, 1NT makes sense, and preempts LHO from bidding their 4CM.

East deals, and opens with a pass, you are South. The bidding goes: (P) - 1♣ - (Dbl) - Rdbl (1♦) - P - (P) - 1♥ (P) - ? Are you in a forced position or not? And if you don't feel that you are, do you still bid with: AK6 KQ 9763 J1085

Neither the greatest, nor better than the original, but still one of my favorites: Frank Zappa's version of Purple Haze If I remember correctly it was performed only to test the microphones before a concert. Don't ever listen his version of Stairway to Heaven. Worst. Parody. Ever.

I don't mind the off-shaped hand but 1NT from your hand is wrongsided unless you really believe you would get a ♣ lead. :huh:

I have a reason to celebrate, since this is one of my rare decisions that goes along with the majority of voters. But if someone points a gun at me, or I need a swing so badly that I feel like a gun has been pointed to my head, requiring me to bid something, I'll go for 3NT. I'd be even more inclined to bid 3NT at IMPs, but again only under considerable pressure.

Declarer seems too weak to make the contract, so I don't see any need for active defense. I simply return a trump, and watch how the things are going to develop.

South encouraged both minors, so North was left to guess. If South was dealt ♥632 and was doubleton in both minors, ♣6 would be the right card as South would be unable to overruf the dummy if a ♦ was played instead. OTOH, if North starts with ♣K showing three honors, it would be safe for South to play his ♣Q first, showing either three clubs or singleton, and revealing the exact count at the next trick. So, at the end both North and South defended badly.

Run winecfg if you have it, and add atl.dll in the libraries that are searched for native first. Prior to that you should of course put atl.dll in ~/.wine/drive_c/windows/system32/. You can find it on the net searching for "free dlls". This and the regsvr32 mozctlx are two of the three critical things to do. The third is editing the bbover.ini file. And the symbol.ttf, of course, helps. :D

No problem at all. Obviously my bid (2Sp) was wrong even at mp. Learning something is more important. Thanks for your cooperation and advice. I'm looking forward to play with you again sometime. Petko

When partner opens 1H, and I have 3 hearts and 4 spades, I bid 1Sp, but if I have 3 hearts and 5 spades with 11-13 ponts I don't try to find a second fit, but bid 2m, alerting it as 3+ just in case, because I'm ready to double opps if they decide to defend in 4Sp, and they might feel deceived.

Good job, Justin, I hope you'll continue with your blog. I almost never psyche, but met a partner who isn't shy about psyching, and that inspired me to make probably my first successful one last night. Partner (dealer) opened 1D, passed from RHO, and I looked gloomily at my hand: J9 Q8 Q764 Q10753 It was all white, mp where figthing for the part score is fierce. Opps are likely to have at least one major fit and the better part of the controls. So I bid 1NT, two passes follow and a double. I bravely pass. Doubler's partner pulls to 2Sp with 5:4 in the majors, two more passes, I pull to 3D, doubled. -1 for 100 - 78%. One spade was discarded on a heart. Partner's hand was 102 AK10 10985 AJ64 CK and DJ are off-side. Three pairs bid and made 4Sp, obviously a heart trick was spared. Some defended up to 5C, and ended at the bottom of the traveller. What I am most proud of is that all my bids were in tempo.

Hi all! I was the offending party. :o Al, you're not fair. The scoring was MP, not IMP. :lol: I wouldn't dream of opening 2Sp this hand vulnerable. Honestly! I figured opps were likely to have a heart fit, and it's even more likely that we had a spade fit. If I was going to compete to level 2, better do that undoubled by bidding 2Sp right away. Ok, you disregard Zar, but what about the Law? B)

4♠ is fairly obvious but opps are certain to try a sacrifice at these vulnerabilities. That's why I'll try 4♣ splinter as a tactical bid in an attempt to scare off the opps from a potential sacrifice as 4♣ shows less spades and more points, yet doesn't distort my hand too much. If they still bid at the 5th level, I'm going to try 5♠. This may not be the right bid, but at least it is where I expect most of the field to be with 11+ spades in the line.

In this vulnerability I pass without a blink at IMPs. At MP I might entertain the idea of balancing but if I'm not desperate for a swing, I pass as well.

A 50% board may look average, but it actually is a good score, because it preserves your chances to win the tourney. If you score 60% in the next, you are in a pretty good position with 55%. You should be concerned more with not falling below 50% than to strive for tops. Compare it with two swings where the first one is 5%, next one you thought would compensate, yet it turns out to be only 85%, and you have a lousy total of 45%. It is not surprising that a more experienced partner would be displeased by a recipe for disaster move from you even if it turns out right this particular time. They know that in the long run anti-percentage decisions doesn't pay off.

I balance with 2♠. It may seem like a gamle, but has some benefits: 1. If that turns out to be the final contract, the lead would be from their stronger hand. Partner is unlikely to bid 2♠ with QJx if I double. 2. You don't scare them off to compete in 3♥, unaware of the bad heart break. They know they have a heart fit, and could well rise. Most of the time partner will have four hearts, pass, and even the best defense is not certain to set them. Even if we do, we score 100, but if we don't, we score -670. 2♠ -1 NV doesn't scare me even if doubled. By bidding 2♠ I avoid a disaster while giving opps a chance to make a mistake.

A psyche could backfire badly here. If you bid 1♠ what are you going to do after partner bids 2/3/4♠? Quite likely with ♠Txxx. Every new suit you now bid partner will treat as pushing towards a spade game/slam, because the trump was already agreed upon. If you bid 1♦ opps could reach 4♠, and partner will either go to 5♦ (with KQx), or pass and lead a diamond. I dislike dull bids as much as the next guy, but 1♥ has no real alternative. ;)

Here is a hand from a recent tourney. I deserve all the flames I could get, but just have to share it. Hands are reordered for convenience.[hv=d=e&v=n&n=s10987432hk2d42c105&w=sqj6hj85d8763c982&e=sakh1063dkq5ca7643&s=s5haq974daj109ckqj]399|300|Scoring: IMP[/hv] East opens 1NT. I can't remember how we intervene over opps' NT with this partner, so I bid 2♦ in a semi psychic way. Opps enquire, and I answer that we have no agreement, so 2♦ is natural. After West passes, partner bids 2♥, because she "knows" we play Multilandy. Usually I abandon game ambitions when opps open strong NT, but expecting some real hearts, I blast off to 4♥. Out of 45 tables only one other pair bid up to 4♥, and not surprisingly South was declarer there. The traveller shows that there were opps who scored even worse than ours: East South West North 1♣ - 1♥ - Pass - 1♠ Dbl - 2♦ - Pass - 2♥ Pass - Pass - 3♣ - Pass Pass - Dbl - Pass - 3♥ Dbl - All pass