masonbarge

My cc function suddenly doesn't work 3 times out of 4. My Account->Convention Cards is empty, and when I try to pull up a cc in a game (either mine or opponents') I get the popup, but it is blank white. I have tried using different browsers but it happens in all of them. Any ideas?

Thanks. I was hoping there was a keyboard shortcut but I can handle that.

Okay, I see a place to save a line of text in the Chat Manager, but I don't know how to put it in the text box. That is, I want to type my system and carding info into the Table chat when a new set of boards starts, and I have the message saved. I just don't know how to load it. Is there a keystroke?

My regular partner can't make it and I want to go to the Chattanooga Regional in two weeks. I live in Atlanta. I'm looking for a good player, a student of the game, who is a serious player but has a sense of humor and proportion. I'd like to qualify for "B" flights, so <3000 masterpoints would be preferred, but I am competitive in "X" bracket events. I started playing on BBO in Dec. 2014 and in clubs in @ April, 2015. I won the 50-100 Mini-McKenney and Ace of Clubs last year and I'm running 2d to 4th in the 500-1000 this year. I'm 300 on the Barry Crane list for June, but that will come up a bit in July as we just finished the Atlanta SuperSectional. Email me if you're interested: masonbarge@gmail.com Thanks, Mason Barge Oh yes, I'm a nice guy, don't yell or make nasty cracks to my partners, and have a somewhat excessive sense of humor. I like to play good bridge but I like to have fun.

I'd say pretty much "definitely yes" and award 6♣ to NS. You're obligated to know your system, especially by the time you're playing at that level, and it's impossible to say that NS were not damaged.

If you double 4♦, you will not have the chance to double 5♦

That's all well said. There's a lot of strongly-stated nonsense going on here. I wanted to add, for purposes of determining whether a hand is strong enough for a 2♣ opening, I count AKxxx as 3 1/2 to 4 winners. I wouldn't open this hand 2♣ because, as Max Hardy pointed out, when you have 19 or less HCP, a one-bid in a suit will almost never get passed out. Then you can show both your strength and your shape (usually) at the 3 level.

There is actually an ACBL directive on this! The reason being, that it is illegal to open a game-forcing 2♣ bid with insufficient strength. In fact, psyching an artificial opening bid is forbidden on the SuperChart. Most people use 8 1/2 or 9 tricks as the benchmark for a possible 2♣, and the hand in the original question qualifies. It's not the best bid, however, IMHO.

The hand is at least close to 2♣ in terms of strength. The reason not to bid 2♣ is that, with 18 HCP, you won't get passed out in 1♠ and will be able to bid your hand much more descriptively at a lower level, which with 5-4 in the majors is a huge consideration. That 5♣ bid is terrible. In the first place, if you bid 5♣ to show a suit with the tops, you can't do it without AKQJxxx or AKQxxxxx. In the second place, I wouldn't do it anyway. Partner might have AKQxxx of hearts or better. I will say, if I were holding that hand and partner bid 5♣ over a 2♣ opening (showing a self-sustaining club suit), I'd bid 7 without a second thought. But my partner would be holding the ♣J, so . . . .

The spade overcall screws the chance of a 3-3 heart break. No realistic squeeze because of the entry situation. So, club finesse, club ace, small club. There's a very long shot at a strip squeeze if east shows out on the first or second club., now that would be fun.

No, we are saying that partner's hand might have some bearing on the best contract! Are you saying that you want to play in ♥ across from a singleton heart and five clubs? That you don't want to be in 3NT across from a double spade stopper and 5-5 or so in the minors? That you don't want to play in 3♠ doubled if partner holds AQJxx and short hearts?

I started playing BBO in Jan 2014 and started playing in clubs in Feb/March, 2015, after a 35-year layoff. I was a serious player and had to just give it up for career/family. So, my skill level is on the high side of "advanced" - generally close to expert dummy play, decent defense, struggling to learn the fine points of 2/1 and develop bidding judgment. Like a lot of guys with "card sense". I stopped playing BOT tournaments when I discovered Gold Rush :) I was getting 60-70 MP per month but stopped cold so I could get some Gold while still under 750. I'd like to find a good player in a similar situation, or a really talented new player, to grab some color points before my MP get over 750. I have a few people to play with in the 3000-7500 range, although I'll play with anyone a couple of times, and I got some "A" strat points at my first regional recently, but still -- Gold Rush is a lot easier. I'm a really nice guy and "good partner", never get mad, screw up about once a game myself, and I like to have fun. It would also be fun to have a shot at a national title in the B or C strat for GNT or GNP. I'm in Atlanta, so would prefer someone nearby - although don't be shy, one of my high-point partners is in Canada and I will travel to play with someone I have a good time with and some chance of success, at whatever level.

5♣. The fit is powerful and the secondary fit in spades is a plus. Partner should have enough in high cards to beat 5♦ but he needs to know about your long clubs to make a decision about doubling. Or he might like 6♣ which is not impossible.

I've seen this hand too many times. I'm bidding 2♥. Don't let yourself be talked out of your bid just because you're strong in a suit bid by the opponents - although this is "very strong indeed". I don't like to mastermind. My system calls for a 2♥ bid with a good 5-card heart suit (who called the hearts "weak"???) and 12+ points in an unbalanced hand. That's the most descriptive bid.

There is only one good rule as far as I am concerned, and that is Hamman's Law. Decide the strain first and then the level. If you haven't found your suit yet, don't start a slam sequence. The only exception I play is that the appropriate person might decide to play in 6/7 NT, either for matchpoints or to get a lead up to a tenace. There is nothing more miserable than making a big at the 5 or 6 level that your partner is not absolutely sure what it means. Or at least "reasonably" sure, to the degree that he at least knows whether or not you are proposing to play the final contract in that suit!

The one big advantage of 1NT is that it impedes the opponents from finding a spade fit. But if opponents have a spade fit, do you really want to be playing in NT? If partner has, say, 7-8 points and four hearts, and you open 1NT, you could go down in 1NT on a hand where you have a partscore - or conceivably a game - in hearts. If partner has 3 hearts to the Q and 8-10 points with some shape, you could go down in 2NT where 4♥ makes. If partner is short in hearts, your suit is strong enough to play the misfit in hearts. You're upping your point count because of your heart suit. I agree with this; however, you also need to upgrade your heart suit to 5.5 cards.

I would suggest the following starting point with a strange partner: 1. Any 4NT bid over a suit bid by partner is Blackwood. 2. Any 4NT bid over any actual NT bid by partner is quantitative. 3. Any 4♣ bid over any actual NT bid is Gerber. (By "actual NT" I mean a NT bid that suggests partner wants to play in NT, i.e., not Unusual NT. Another example would be 2♣ - 2NT, if you use 2♥ as a negative response and 2NT as a response showing a heart suit. There, although responder says "NT" he is not suggesting that you play in NT but showing a heart suit, i.e, the "actual" bid is hearts - thus, a 4♣ rebid would be natural and a 4NT rebid would be Blackwood.) 4. A 4NT bid over a suit establishes that suit as trump for purposes of RKC, unless another suit has been bid and raised. You have to think ahead here, especially if you play Roman Key Card. A good auction to discuss with partner might be 2♥ - 2NT (for feature, say) - 3♠ - 4NT. This is Blackwood under Rule #1, but would presumably establish hearts as trumps, since responder could have forced with 2♠ under most systems. You will lose some natural bids with these rules, but unless partner is someone I play with a LOT, and I am sure we are on the same page, I'd rather lose the occasional 4♣ bid than get into a ridiculous slam sequence where one person thinks we are bidding number of Aces, and the other that we are bidding suits or cue bids. Another lost bid, here, would be the 2♣ - 2NT (heart suit) - 4NT sequence, where opener might very well want to bid a quantitative 4NT. I am going to tell you, unless your bidding is fairly advanced, being rock-solid on whether a bid is ace-asking is worth giving up the quantitative 4NT over a suit bid.

Yes you've missed something :) But no "forgiveness" is necessary, in fact, it might be for me to apologize for putting it on the intermediate/advanced forum. The declarer has 12 tricks off the top whatever he does with clubs. Check it and see. The challenge is to get that critical overtrick for matchpoints.

Very good, but there is a slightly better line. You don't care who guards what, because you have entries to both side suits in both hands, turning this into a beautiful self-executing compound squeeze that can always be made as long as W has the ♣K (a virtual certainty) and you correctly read which suit W continues to guard after the last diamond. You raise your chances by cashing the ♣A before you commit, because you get to see a second discard from E. Look at the difference between these seven-card endings. W has discarded one ♥ and one ♠, E has not discarded a major. South to lead. On the ♣A, W discards a small ♥, E discards a small ♠. What do you lead next? [hv=pc=n&s=sk98hat8dca&n=sa6hk6dtcj7]133|200[/hv] North to lead. On the ♦10, W discards a small ♥, E discards a small ♠. On the ♦9, E has to discard in front of you. [hv=pc=n&s=sk984hat8dc&n=sa6hk6dt9cj]133|200[/hv] If I'm not mistaken, you can cash one winner in one double-threat suit that does not accompany the threat, but check me on this. So if you said "cash the club A, lead to one of dummy's entries and run the last diamond" I think you'd have the best line in practice if not theory. (East drops a spade on the ♦9.)

From a club tournament Friday. NV/NV Pairs, matchpoints. [hv=pc=n&s=sk982hat4daj2caq8&n=sa6hk6dkqt963cj43]133|200[/hv] South is in 6NT. Opening lead ♣5, ♣3, ♣9.

Why do feel the need to attack me personally or draw conclusions about my bridge game? This poll on Bridgewinners is just a FWIW. So now you approve of South's first overcall?

I did a poll on Bridgewinners, taking out the first spade overcall (1♦-p-2♦-p-p-?) and the answers (not counting mine) as of this evening: 2♠ - 9 3♣ - 5 X - 4 Pass - 4 I don't know if it means anything or not. 10 abstentions.

I have no idea, LOL. I doubt it would be a mismatch in either direction. I would actually say "game on" and we could have some fun, except for that smug and patronizing tone in PK's post. I abandoned a reasonably promising bridge career in my 20s for the exact reason that I did not like spending so much time around unpleasant people, especially at regional/national events. It's hard to say. One of the problems with forum posts is that everybody's an expert and would have played perfectly. At the table on the specific hand, I think we would have gotten a better result, since I would have doubled and chances are we would be playing 2DX and you 2D. Not that it's necessarily the correct theoretical bid to reopen with a double, but my partner has a very strong bias in favor of "protecting partner's hand". We don't yell at each other but I would get a chilly "I think you might have doubled there". Other possibilities are 3Hx and 2S or 2Sx in the south. The doubled contracts are admittedly "tops and bottoms" depending on the play, but I think I make 2S. I'm certainly not misguessing the clubs!

And so your "anybody above a certain level" is going to let them play in 2D undoubled on this hand? Good luck with that.

At matchpoints, not vul? I completely disagree -- not that I'd bid on the first round, but I think you are way too hard on the guy. Let the opponents play 2D (undoubled), looking at a 6-5 hand and a diamond singleton?