paulhar

This sometimes might get you too high, but the method I've seen most often in print is: 6 of your void = 1 ace and a void (or 1 or 4 keycards and a void in that suit) 6 of your suit = 1 ace and a void in a suit higher than your trump suit (or 1 or 4 keycards and a void higher than your suit) 5NT = 2 aces (keycards) and a void with 0 or 3, you don't show your void

Totally agree - maybe that's why most beginners are afraid to post here.

I'm not sure I agree with all these disparaging comments about the ace of diamonds. Granted, I'd rather the ace of diamonds be an ace of a different suit, but if partner had held the king of diamonds or the queen-jack, he's going to count them as nothing given the bidding and your ace is worth two tricks in this case - the ace itself and also the value in bringing back the honors that partner is downgrading back to life. Still not enough for a 3S bid but not trash either.

I agree. Neither has an extra trump or exciting distribution and both of them might think that their minor honor in clubs would decrease the number of total trumps on the hands. Normally you would want to bid 3 over 3 with 17 total trumps but the opponents don't necessarily have a fit and neither East nor West can be sure that N/S's club fit isn't 6-1.

Partner already stuck his neck out to bid 2H and may not feel like it's his job to bid again. I support with support. My spades may take a trick and be a nuisance on defense, but opponents frequently bid 3S in these situations. In any event, the only card I expect to be useless in hearts is the SQ. I suspect about 16 total tricks which means I should be bidding - with none vul, it should be -50 instead of -110 or +140 instead of +50. If partner bids 4H, the placement of the diamonds may be enough to make it.

No, not unfair at all. The side that got +1.26 IMPs reached the par contract, something that some others their way didn't do. So, in effect, they risked being one of the pairs who didn't, and if they had been one of those, they would have lost mucho imps. This pair had to do something right to reach par, something that not every pair would do. So they should be plus IMPs since other pairs did not do that something right. The other side lost IMPs for playing against somebody who did something right, the way it is in any bridge game. The total avaliable IMPs available to their direction is zero. Just because their opponents bid the par contracct, they lose a couple IMPs. If they had happened to play against one of the pairs who didn't, they would have won many IMPs. Would you prefer a system where the side that bids par gets nothing while if they don't reach it, they lose a bunch (heads, I break even, tails I lose bigtime), while the other side gets +0 IMPS with a shot to win the lottery if their opponents mess up? Now, THIS system seems unfair to me.

Naw, I wouldn't have lost by 30, I would have already been losing by 30 already so I need the three slams to go down to win! :huh: I forgot something. My analysis is for MP or team matches. If you're playing a short BBO X-IMP tourney, then bidding a close slam is a good thing because you need to pick up tons of IMPs somewhere to win the tourney.

I believe the classic meanings are: 5S shows a hand that wants partner to bid 6 with one of the top two honors and 7 with both. Example: QJ109865, - , AKQJ2, A 6S shows a hand that wants partner to bid 7 with one of the top two honors. Example: AQJ10986, -, -, AKQJ32 Not useful? In my early bridge days, my partner opened 6S, and with Kx and little else, I bid 7. Cold. At the other table, it went 2C (5C) P (P) 6S (P) 7S. Unfortunately, the partner of the 5C bidder (our teammate) had a clearcut 7C bid which might have won the board for us. I think that the auctions that occur after 2C would indicate that partner doesn't know these classic meanings. Here's a problem I was given 25 years ago: 5S P ? void, AK, AKQJ, QJ109765 Answer in hidden text:

Plan the play. Is there an alternative, and is it close? Does it matter whether you're playing MP or IMP? S- QJ64 H- K986 D- J6 C- A54 S- AK3 H- A53 D- QT984 C- K2 1NT by you, 2C by pard (double) ending in 3NT. Opening lead: club 8. Plan your play.

There are very few absolutes in bridge. On one memorable board from my youth, I bid an about 70% six club slam. This time I got lucky and got 920. When I looked at the matchpoints, I saw that if I had bid TWO clubs and make six, I would have got 7 out of 8 matchpoints, as there was only one other score higher than +140. I had foolishly given 7 to 1 odds on this slam. (It was +400, so if I was bidding 5C anyway, I was risking all the matchpoints for none :) ) In theory, even playing against a good team, if there are no sacrifice issues involved, you need a little better than 50% to bid a slam. Even a good team will have an accident once in a great while, playing in a bad strain or going to a grand or being dropped in a forcing bid or having the wheels come off their relay system. In any of these instances, you'd rather not be in the 50% slam. After all, your teammate might have made some bodacious bid making it very hard to reach a decent contract at the other table, something that wouldn't be clear from your opponents' silence. The worse your opponent's teammates are (these may be the pairs sitting in your direction in a MP game), the higher percentage you need to bid the slam, since there's more accident IMPs or MPs available to you only if you bid a game. All this changes if a likely result at other tables (the other table in a match) could be +800 against your teammates' sacrifice or the like.

I just looked at these auctions. It appears that most pairs that reached 4H had a player that was either confused about what partner showed, or was simply misbidding. This is more likely when the opponents are in your auction.

Just out of curiosity, if you're playing in the Main Bridge Club, do the other 15 results all come from the Main Bridge Club or can some of them come from the private and public clubs?

Switch either player's black suits and you wouldn't want to be in game off four inescapable losers! And yet everything would still apply, the ZAR points, the losing trick count (BTW, I still think jack fourth is three losers, but AKxx is only a half a loser according to Ruben's Modified Losing Trick Count so you're still half a trick shy), and all else discussed here. You would need one heck of a system to tell the difference. Heck, I think I would still miss game after 1H - 3D (7-9 with four hearts). Note that if responder has the ♠QJ and the ♥A, all wonderful cards, you have no play whatsoever for 4H. You need it all - two cover cards for the minors, the doubleton spade, and great trumps to avoid the overruff. Did people really bid this game?

This thread seems to be missing a good reason not to open 4S on the second hand, namely, you don't have a clue as to what to do when they bid 5H or 5C. It might be your hand but your partner can hardly double if you could also have QJ10 eighth and out. If you double, and partner is close to broke, a redouble could cost you four figures. I know - it has happened to me recently on BBO when I tried a 4-bid on one of these hands as an overcall. With thirteen hearts and eleven clubs out there, it seems likely that somebody will bid over 4S. The first hand has close to the right amount of offense and defense for a 4S bid so I would do that against a stronger pair or if I needed a swing against an equal pair. If I think we're the better pair, I open 1S and increase the number of decisions made in the auction as well as decrease the number of flat out gambles by both sides.

I suspect as you gain experience, you'll find flaws in it too. You can reach the optimal contract of 3NT on: [hv=w=skqhkj1097daj3ck62&e=sahq64d10752caqj109]266|100|Scoring: IMP[/hv] but you're going to lose a lot of matchpoints and IMPs to pairs that reach 6H and don't get the dreaded diamond lead. Enough hands like this and your opinion might change. Let me add to Richard's (hrothgar) excellent comments: Your descriptive auctions give the opponents lots of room to find their own games and slams and good sacrifices. Your penalty doubles at the 2 level may get you some +300's but they hurt you in trying to find your own best contract. Ron should be by later with a much more persuasive argument. :)

This seems like the perfect hand to try to get doubled! Unfortunately, this strategy probably won't work this hand - it tends to work much better when the strength is more evenly divided and one of the opponents is annoyed enough that I dare try to outbid the master suit that I get doubled. In any event, I pass, and over 1S P 2NT, I'll bid 5C and hope it's enough to cause them grief, but it appears from the original post that this time I lose. If they bid 6S now, I'm going to hope that the bad breaks are enough to set them. I can't see a strong opening - the opponents are bound to play some high contract doubled - and if you pull, it might be the time your partner has five good trump. Of course, if your partner has the good hand (say some 18 count with spades and/or diamonds), they're thinking there's about 19 top tricks when any slam has no play.

From my earlier post:

Now that we've all speculated on what your hand was, it will be interesting to see it :)

Would your partner have "good diamonds" and pass 6♠? Hmmmm I think not, and since I was the 6♥ bidder, and I passed over 6♠, I know not. Ben [hv=d=w&v=b&s=shkqt9dqjt83cq653]133|100|Scoring: IMP[/hv] I could see this hand bidding 6H hoping for partner to hold the minor suit losers to one. However, when the opponents bid 6S, your partner doesn't have to have four spades. I can easily see the opponents taking seven spade tricks, a couple of heart ruffs, a couple high diamonds, and a club. Alternatively, if dummy has four spades (sounds like it!), it's possible that declarer might be able to ruff dummy's diamonds good despite your length. You might wonder about the 3S bidder not bidding 6S over 6H with a lot of spades. If he has a couple of small hearts and diamond shortness, he may fear that partner's diamond cards might be enough to scuttle 6H but not be of any use to him in 6S.

IMO 4H is quite risky - if partner doesn't have a fit, we have about 5 tricks and the 3S bidder knows it! And when you do have a fit, the opponents can bid and make 4S or 5D... However, this may have worked out well. There's a zillion points in this deck (well, I've advertised more than I have, as usual ;) ) Certainly, a lot of this bidding is due to a big spade fit and shortage in hearts in LHO, plus a spade void and big heart fit in partner, but some of it may be due to a big diamond fit also so that one misstep could result in 5 spade tricks and 7 diamond tricks, or 5S, 6D, 1 heart ruff, or whatever. I don't see +1100 unless partner has good diamonds, in which case I should be leading trump. However, it seems prudent to try for any plus score here. Wouldn't partner (expecting me for a real 4H bid) bid 6H on: [hv=d=w&v=b&s=shkqt8d76542ck876]133|100|Scoring: MP[/hv] If partner really has diamond cards, he can discourage on the ace of clubs and I can switch to trump (or take a cashing heart Ace if that looks right.)

The most likely explanation is that at least one of N/S didn't have a clue. A director that had some time could look at some N/S bidding on other hands and make the probable ruling: "You were fixed by a pair that didn't know what they were doing. No adjustment." If the player with the spades had "Beginner" on his profile, I think you need not look at their other results, and the complaining pair had that information available to them at the time. On the other hand, if the player with the clubs was the beginner and the player with the spades was an expert, now I think there might be a problem with the pass of 3C being based on prior experiences which amount to undisclosed knowledge.

You mean that West popped with the HJ with J9x left?

The opponent only showed five hearts so there's no guarantee that your partner is going to be short. Also, partner is only going to double with 9-10 points if his distribution is perfect. With something like 4-2-2-5, no double is forthcoming because partner can't handle the likely 3D bid. With your heart cards so well placed, you should be able to make 3NT across from most 8 or 9-counts so 2NT seems right to me. BIG trouble? If partner hasn't got any useful cards, I could go down 4, but that's unlikely. A lot of times that partner is broke, he'll have a long suit to make trump and we'll scramble home for 7 or 8 tricks. And some of the time, partner won't be broke when they double the runout and we'll make it.

Correction: Very few good people play pure penalty doubles at any level. I used to play in a lunchtime game at work where all doubles were for penalty! In my experience, this isn't far from the truth in any "social" game. I would expect the auction 1C (1H) P (P) Dbl to be passed out more than half the time in a social game of non duplicate players (non-BBOers too I would hope!)

Interestingly enough, we just recently had a thread on a BBO forum dicussing vacant spaces. Here's the link: http://bridgebase.lunarpages.com/~bridge2/...our%20boss&st=0 The first mention of empty spaces is MickyB's post and most of them from that point talk some about it.