Dinarius

I want to be in a minor suit slam and I want partner playing it - the point made above about 4♥ bidder being void in a suit is well made. I have nice spades, but I could well end up in a spade contract with the spades stacked, as well as a heart ruff. I bid 5NT - pick a minor. What else can it be? Yes, I'm not bidding a grand slam, but we're missing enough points for them to have 9 hearts to the J and A♠. I know, I'm paranoid. D.

Since UDCA covers all bases regarding count and attitude, I thought I had answered the specific question about count. The only thing that UDCA doesn't contain is suit preference. We only play that in obvious situations. e.g. Partner leads an Ace against a suit contract and a singleton appears in dummy. Now the attitude normally asked for with the lead of an Ace is irrelevant. SP is usually required. UCDA frequently involves discarding what you don't want without necessarily giving anything away about the other two suits - unlike suit preference. So, while partner still has to work out which of the other two suits you want, so does declarer. D. Ps. I'm not sure what OP means by "full holding".

I've been playing UDCA throughout with one partner for a while now. He talked me into it. I can say with certainty that one problem my game does not have (it has many others) is signalling, counting and discarding. I'm hooked! D.

Thanks for the replies. I should have added that if my partner's 2NT is A♥ only, I'm down after my 5♥ Exclusion enquiry coz it's useless to me. So, maybe not a good MP % bid? D.

[hv=pc=n&e=sakqjthdkqckqt652&d=n&v=e&b=9&a=2dp2hppdp2np]133|200[/hv] Here is my hand and the bidding. At the point where I now have to bid again, I bid 5♠, partner bid 6♠ and 7 is cold. As is 7♣ and 7♦ We play exclusion RKCB, and I considered 5♥, instead of 5♠. I know we haven't agreed a suit. But, it cannot be anything but asking for Aces outside of Hearts, I think. When he now bids 6♣ (=2), I could now have bid 7♣ or 7♠. I think Spades is safer and we were playing MPs. What do you do against Multi with this? Thanks. D.

Diana, thanks. I run BBO through a laptop browser (Firefox) and I’m never quite sure whether I’m up to date with BBO versions, or not! D.

The question is in the title. If I can’t include voice sound in Start a New Table, where can it be included? Can players speak to one another? I’ve looked here https://www.bridgebase.com/help/v2help/index.html and can’t see anything. But, maybe I’m going blind. Thanks. D.

Assuming a bid of 3♣ comes round to you, then 3♥ seems very risky at red, I think. D.

I take your points re passing. But, I'm confused as to why you will bid 3♥ over partner's 2♠. (I have no issue with 3♥ over partner's reopening double. That's obligatory.) 3♥ over 2♠ strikes me as asking for trouble at red v. green. Even at green v. green, I want to try and make a possible plus score in 2♠. Thanks. D.

[hv=pc=n&e=shk98753dk842cj72&d=s&v=e&b=3&a=p1s2c]133|200[/hv] What do you now bid as East? Scoring is IMPs.(Do you bid differently at MPs?) Partnership agreement may come into your choice. Yes, your void in partner's suit is not good, but you have wonderful playing strength if a fit can be found.Do you Pass and risk not finding a red suit fit over a 3♣ bid by South? While considering your response, this is interesting. D.

The strong vs. weak NT arguments are very interesting. As played, I think that Pass is the best action most of the time. Can S really force us to the 4 level with that hand? I'm not convinced now. Yes, preempts do work sometimes, and we have to take our medicine. Weak NT pairs might have opened 1NT with North. Now East gets to play in 2♠, presumably. So, the Strong NT N/S will gain when 3♠ is going minus one. And if 3♠ makes, they score the same as the N/S weak NT pairs. But, for the record, the actual hand was.. [hv=pc=n&s=s84hk983d765caqj9&w=sq765hj742dkj4c52&n=shaq5daqt9832ckt8&e=sakjt932ht6dc7643&d=n&v=b&b=13&a=1d3s]399|300[/hv] Yes, all S Doubled and they got away with it. Almost all N/S in 5♦ None in 6♦ Thanks for the replies. D.

Great responses. Food for thought. Thanks. If you Pass, LHO passes and Partner bids 4♦️. Do you bid 5♦️ now? I guess my main concern was MPs tactics and the equal vulnerability. Isn’t it so important to be in the auction at MPs? Put it another way, do those advocating Pass do so at Imps? I would. But, I’m still not convinced by Pass at MPs. We have more than half the deck. If they steal +140, we’re scoring near zero. If partner passes, as has been said to be very likely, and they go forward minus one, even +100 to us may not be great. Yes, preempts do sometimes work. So, does that strengthen the case for bidding? D.

At Matchpoints, playing Strong NT/5 card, your partner opens a natural 1♦ East's 3♠ is weak. Both sides Vul. Given that N may have everything from a re-biddable 11 count in ♦ to a bad 1NT 12 count rebid, to a powerhouse, what is your bid now? You are playing negative doubles. D.[hv=pc=n&s=s84hk983d765caqj9&d=n&v=b&b=13&a=1d3s]133|200[/hv]

I bid 2♥, forcing. To me, 4♥ is a splinter. So, after my forcing bid... If partner rebids a black suit, I'm rebidding 4♥ If, by some miracle, partner supports my 2♥ bid, I cue bid 4♣. The fact that you can only make 8 tricks is in keeping with how freakish the hand is! :) What actually happened, and what was the "correct" bid partner thought you should have made? D.

I pass. I have four cards in their suit and only one in Partner's suit, and I have only 5 points It's a case of what's the winning action most of the time. D.

As I expected, a huge range of responses reflecting how rich a game bridge is. If there was a definitive answer, we wouldn’t be playing the game because it would be too boring. Heck, we can’t even agree on a single way to play each of Stayman, Transfers and Blackwood! :) Re the first reply from P Marlowe: you say that if it’s simply a question of frequency, then weak 2♦️wins over strong 2♦️. Fair enough. But, the strong 2♦️ removes a lot of the burden from an all-embracing 2♣️ opening. So, I guess I was considering the issue of what’s gained by strong 2♦️, as well as the issue of frequency. I play mostly MPs and I can say with absolute certainty, in my case, that far more MPs are lost through tricks slipped in play and defence than in the nuances of bidding theory. So, for me any discussion of bidding is a bit moot. That said, there’s a lot of food for thought above. Thanks. D.

Who here plays Benji Twos? Is anyone aware of deal simulations that compare the relative frequencies of weak 2♦ vs. strong 2♦? Even if the frequency of weak outweighs strong 2♦, there is the issue of the ability to differentiate between 2♣ and 2♦ when playing Benji Twos. Normal Strong 2♣ can be a lot of things - many by prior agreement, obviously. Benji 2♣ is more limited. Is it more useful as a result? Or can all possible responses to Strong 2♣ and the rebids take care of the problems? Personally, I prefer Benji Twos. Back of the envelope, while I'm not sure which I would bid more often - weak or strong 2D, when I play Benji, I do find the limited range of the 2 Club bid useful fairly frequently. Anyone for Benji Twos? Thanks. D.

Read somewhere once that is you’re opening a light or bad suit pre-empt, you shd have at least singleton or void. The dreaded 6,3,2,2, at red is not worth the risk, in my opinion. I pass on the basis that I’ll get a chance to show the boss suit later, or it will become apparent from what they bid that I have it. D.

I inputted the hand into the bridge program Jack. It begins correctly by finessing the diamond at trick two. But, it does not finesse the heart, instead playing for the drop. (East showing Spades in the bidding) If I correct that play and make it finesse the heart, it then finds the squeeze. D.

Key card in the entire hand is ♠️9. After that, ❤️Q has to be right. Lack of a ♠️ lead is revealing and helpful. As for "duck soup" for an expert; I've seen easier newspaper column hands. I suspect many would fail. But, I'm no expert. Great hand. Thanks for sharing. D.

And it didn't solve my problem. If I change the Chrome to V3, I get the same no Undo button and no Bidding displayed (during play) both of which do work in Chrome/Flash. (In addition to which, saving my preferences so that I get email notification replies achieves zip. I don't receive any notifications. One reason I didn't notice a reply on the other thread.) So, if there's a way of displaying the bidding during play, in V3, in any browser, do tell. Thanks. D.

Windows 10 x64 I play bridge on BBO using a laptop and mouse. (I use the BBO app on iPhone and iPad only for watching bridge, mostly the Vugraph.) Currently I use both Firefox and Chrome for BBO. If I'm staring a table, I use Firefox because, for whatever reason, Robots don't sit in the vacant seats and refuse to be removed, as they do with Chrome. If I'm logging in just to play at someone else's table, I use Chrome for two reasons: 1. The Undo button appears at the bottom of the table by default in Chrome. It's hidden in a menu when I use Firefox. 2. The bidding appears in a tiny window in the top right hand corner of the table in Chrome. In Firefox, the bidding disappears as soon as the play begins. When I login using Chrome, I am asked to activate Flash, which I do. (If I click Block, BBO doesn't open in Chrome at all for me.) Is Flash what makes the Undo and Bidding Window features visible during the play? Questions... 1. Is Firefox using Flash in the background, but just not asking me? 2. Is it possible to have Undo and Bidding visible in Firefox during the play? 3. How are others accessing BBO? 4. Anything I should be doing differently? Thanks. D. Ps. What I see if I use Microsoft Edge is identical to Firefox - no Undo, no Bidding during play.

When I login using Chrome, I am asked if I want to allow Flash, which I do. I then have all the features I want - Undo and Bidding both visible during the play of the hand. (But, I have issues starting a table with Chrome, so I use Firefox.) When I login via Firefox, I am not asked to allow Flash. But I don't have either Undo or the Bidding visible during the play. Undo is hidden in the three line menu top left of the table, and the bidding is nowhere to be found. Annoying. Thanks again. D.

Thanks. So, in Firefox, can I set it up so that I have the Undo button visible and the bidding visible during play, like on Chrome? D.

Windows x64 In Firefox, when I set up a Competitive Imps table, I can click on the other seats and Reserve/Invite. In Chrome, when I try to do the same thing, BBO immediately puts three Robots in the seats. Clicking on these does not give the option to Reserve/Invite. It merely asks me for BBO $. Secondly, if a human player occupies a seat, I cannot remove them and Reserve/Invite as I can do in Firefox. Why is this? The reason I'd like to be able to use Chrome to set up tables is that, by default, Chrome shows the Undo button at the bottom of the table and is shows the bidding during the play of the hand in the top right. Firefox appears to do neither. Thanks for any help. D.