ArcLight

It might help if you explained the differences between the 2. :P

2♣. 2♣ would tend to imply a 6 card suit. I don't like that bidding sequence that hids the 2nd (but weak) 5 card suit AND lies about the club length, despite the quality of the Clubs.

If you open 1♣, then what do you bid if pard responds 1M? 2♦ is a Reverse, and you don't have teh values. 1NT is pretty bad with 5521 shape, and 2-1 in teh majors, and a singleton or doubleton x in the other major. I think the system bid is 1♦ then 2♣, despite the disparity. Over 2♠ (which is forcing for one round), I bid 2NT. I wonder if the 2♣ was not natural, and is instead some unalteretd transfer to another suit? Hearts?

How does ACOL compare to Standard American? I don't know much about ACOL other than the basics - 12-14 NT (at least NV) 4 card majors Is it less confusing than SA? Or is part of the problem with SAYC that no one "knows" what conventions are assumed as part of the core system? Splinters are not ? wow! When I play 2/1 with a pick up pard, this sequence scares me: 1♣ - 2♣ Murphys Law applies here. If you assume its Inverted Minors its not. And if you assume its not IM it is.

The ACBL website lists local clubs. If you call them and ask for a pard they will probably be able to get you one. Just be aware that many of the "Intermediate" pards (judged by having 0 - 50 MP) may not be all that good. Don't expect them to know a lot of the "neat" bidding tricks you see here in the forums, else your advanced cue bid will be passed, and you will play in a 4-2 fit :ph34r:

If South really has 20-21, and pard has shown up with 3 HCP, there is no room for pard to have the spade J. Dummy has 6 HCP, we have 11, pard has 3, thats 20 HCP. Declarer needs to have the rest. I'm not saying people don't ever open "light", adding a point for length of 10's and 9's. But I wouldn't assume so. However, if declarer has the J, then he makes the hand. So assume that he opened light (19 HCP), and pray that pard has the J. In this case you have no alternative to assuming a < 20 HCP 2NT.

What does 2♥ mean? "I have 5 random hearts and 7 scattered HCP?" I very much dislike that, as it gets in the way of the way of opener, and gives false information. A suit like KQT97 may be worth mentioning, JT984 is only useful if pard bids taht suit.

Pard didnt lead ♦. I wonder if he has a holding like AQ.... Since declarer has 17-19, pard must have a few HCP outside of ♦. Lest assume they are the ♣ Q J. If you take the ace, and give pard his 2 ♦ tricks, and declarer plays you for 4 hearts while holding AQx in hand he can make, by discarding 2 ♣ on the QJ o f♠ (he holds Q J x x as indicated from the NT bid). The ♠ king is needed as an entry to finesse hearts. If you duck, the spade K can't be used as an entry to finesse ♥ And if trumps aren't pulled you can play a third round of ♠ killing a discard. I don't see how the 2♦ can be discarded. So it seems that ducking is safe. Of course at the table I win the ace and lead back a ♦. :lol:

Its easier to concentrate on a problem presented in a book/post because you KNOW there is a point of interest. At the table its much harder to keep up that level of focus. It gets easier over time - meaning instead of 5 minutes it takes 4 :) BTW - Declarer should not attack diamonds first, he needs a club trick. Go after 1 club trick. Lead the Q from hand. Then diamonds. Declarer can also win the first trick with teh spade ace and lead a club. Going after diamonds just gave away distributional information.

The reason I say 1♣ - 3♣ is I don't really want to count the heart jack as 1. I'm not sure this is worth a game forcing jump shift on the 2nd bid. Rebidding 2NT is right on HCP, though the doubleton majors may be a problem, especially hearts. I really dont like 1NT

Why not open 1♣ and rebid 3♣?

>2) The user interface will be greatly simplified. Maybe I'm missing something, but what needs to be simplified? What do users find confusing? Edit Profile? >6) Much faster logins and connections in general (especially important for people with dialup). With my 5 1/2 year old PC using a 358K DSL, it takes about 2 minutes for the BBO connection to complete. What I'd love is a feature where I can mark players not as enemy, but as someone I dont want to play with. :blink: Another NEAT feature I'd LOVE would be color the players in the main room based on their skill level. :D :) Example - I'm looking for a game to play in. I see a vacancy, I look at the pards profile. Beginner. ok, next ... Here is a spot GOOD 2/1 Advanced , I sit, DRAT , someone beat me to it. If insted there was a color spectrum, Pink/Red = Novice, Orange = Beginner, Green = Intermediate, Blue - Advanced, Purple = Expert WC get their star. Enemies are black. People you makr as "Dont play with" can be Gray.

I think most people would bid 2♦ playing 2/1. 11 HCP and a 6 card ♦ suit headed by the AQ. What are the alternatives? Invitational jump shift 3♦ or 1NT, and then? 1S - 2D 2H all good so far 1S - 2D 2H - 2NT would 3D be better, despite the KTx in clubs as a stopper for NT 1S - 2D 2H - 2NT 3S - 4H - ??? seems like opener is 6-4, so responder wants to play in a 4-3 fit 4NT !!!!! - if responder had 4 hearts he would have bid 3H not 2NT Opener is in a known 4-3 fit, and has a weak trump suit. 4NT is the worst bid Responder probably thought opener was 6=4=?=? and 3NT was too dangerous. Bidding 3♦ then 3NT might have been better. I don't think 3NT is better than 4 hearts, assuming opener is bidding rationally. Also, what happened after 4NT? Responser shows 1 or 4 key cards. Opener has 3 himself. There is a misisng key card and pard probably has just 3 trumps. Why go beyond 5♥?

I will balance with a double. If you overcall 1♥, then what can pard expect of your overcalls? How will pard distinguish between a 5 HCP hand and a 15 HCP hand? Might pard not make a penalty double, expecting you to have more? Or is the modern trend that a one level overcall is purely lead directional?

Why isn't this a good hand for hearts? We are short in spades and pard can ruff them in the short hand. Diamonds can work out, but its possible pard has just 1. What if the opps compete to some level of Spades? Do we want to then bid 4♥, down 1?

Good Luck! (What defense will you use against Meckwells 1♣ openers?)

After I read David Bids excelelnt book on Squeezes I poasted a question on rec.games.bridge about the frequency of different squeezes. No one had had numbers, but some of the better players said they could count the number of times they had executed certain type of squeezes on one hand. Simple squeezes are by far the most common. You may have some double squezes, and stip squeezes, etc. One person said they came acoss a Criss Cross Squeeze a handful of times, same for the others. Kelsey and Mike Lawrebnce suggest just worrying about the simple squeeze until you are an Advance dplayer. Kelsey says that its usually the talented and motivated players that become good tend to also stufy card play from books, and thus learn squezes. He writes in "Killing defense" that his chapter on defense against Squeeze play is not important. Bens blog is great. For published book I like: David Birds - Bridge Squeezes for Everyone Terence Reese - Squeeze Play made simple Kelsey on Squueze Play While the Clyde Love book is a "classic", compared to the others I dont think its very good for learning, though its got lots of practice problems.

#1 IMs , all Red pass - pass - you open 1 ♠ - pass 1NT (semi forcing) - pass - what do you bid holding : ♠A J 8 x x ♥ J ♦A K Q x ♣K x x 2♦? 3♦? Other? Why? ================== #2 Favorable, IMPS P - P - P - 1♥ 1♠ - 2♥ - 2♠ -? What do you bid holding: ♠ 6 ♥A 9 8 7 5 ♦Q 5 4 ♣A K Q 6

Hannie, Doesn't 1♦-1♠, 3♠ show a highly invitational hand, but is not forcing. While: 1♦-1♠, 3♥ is a game forcing splinter in support of spades. (Sinec 2♥ is a reverse , you don't need a jump shift) Is opener really THAT strong, that they can force to game opposite a 6-7 HCP hand? Responder could have something like ♠ Q x x x ♥ K x x ♦ x x ♣ K x x x In this case, the diamond fit is huge, and those spades are quite nice. I think it was just luck that the grand makes.

Playing 2/1, I do not consider this hand good enough to GF. Maybe if you move the spade honors to Clubs. If you GF on this, I think you may end up in many bad games as well.

Lets say this is the hand: You open 1 Club with ♠A Q 9 8 ♥ K 9 ♦Q 8 4 ♣A K J 2 pard responds 1 Diamond. Whats your bid? 1♠ or 2NT? I get the impression the best bid is 2NT. If pard has a 4 card Spade suit and accepts the game, he can bid 3 Spades on the way to 3NT or 4 Spades. Pard might be less likely to pass with 6 HCP (6+19 = 25). What do you think of this bidding: 1♣ - 1♦ 1♠ - 2♣ 2NT (showing 18-19) - 3NT Over the 2♣ bid, 2NT can't be a minimum, because you would pass otherwise.

By playing AK♦ before taking the ♣finesse, you improve your success rate a little. There is no need to take 2 finesses because of the heart discard. 5-2 with Q drop = 9% 6-1 with Q drop = 1% call it around 10% 0.1 + (0.9 * 50% = .45) = 55% chance of success The rest is Hidden below:

1. Does pard really want to know their mistakes. I do, but not everyone can take seeing LOTS of mistakes. 2. Point out your mistakes 3. Praise pards good plays 4. If there was a bidding misunderstanding, treat it as a problem area, to be reviewed again, so that you are both in agreement. For example, there was a post on a different thread about the meaning of this X 1♣ - p - 1♥ - p 2♣ - X Traditionally this is a penalty double, though some modern pairs use it as take out. Make a list of these problem bids and review them, so you are in agreement. 5. Declarer play isn't really part of the partnership, but hopefully both pards will ask if they made an obvious mistake. Then you can point out "if you first duck the X, then you can handle the 4-1 splits which occur 28% of the time..." 6. Defense is easier in a way to review because you can go over specific signals and plays. If an opening lead was obviously bad, based on the bidding , you can go over that also. 7. "Can't you count? The contract should have gone down" = while this is not the diplomatic way of making an important point, its a fundamental error to not count, and most of us need to improve upon it. If I'm aware of how bad a job I'm doing it will hopefully cause me to focus harder.

How do you bid this: ♠ A K x x ♥ x x ♦ A Q J x ♣ A x x You open 1♦, pard responds 1♥. Do you bid 2NT (showing 18 - 19) or 1♠? If you bid 1♦-1♥, 2NT - pard can still bid 3♠ with 4 or them

No offense to Eric Rodwell, but his picture form 1985 reminds me of Animal from the Muppets. ;) And Mike Lawrence looks like he was some vagrant dragged (drugged) out of an alley! Why is it when photos are taken of a winning team in bridge, they players are jumbled, not lined up, and look disheveled? Can't the photographer say "Hey XXX, please step forward, so you guys are in a line. Please all look at the camera, 1-2-3". They don't even need to smile (unless they are Eric Kokish), just at least look at the camera.