ArcLight

To learn 2/1 I used: 2/1 Software (CD) by Mike Lawrence then I read his books: 2/1 Workbook - (the basics) - just to reinforce what I had learned, and there are some differences. Worth reading. Uncontested auction - fundamental bidding using 2/1. Very much worth reading. Contested Auction - probably doesnt have to be 2/1, just in that context. Very much worth reading in general. (His bidding newsletters use standard and are a bit out of date, though there are some interesting judgment/hand evaluation hands as well) To be honest, I had to redo the CD afterwards, and take many pages of system notes to really get a handle on it. I haven't read the Thurston book, I would not assume that a pick up pard uses Bergen. Not even Inverted Minors. The other BIG point about 2/1 is there are different flavors - is 1D-2C ALWAYS a game force? - can a 2/1 ever stop short of game? - what do jumps means? In Mike Lawrnces CD they have very specific meanings. (picture bids) >Standard bridge bidding for the 21st Century could be great... Is it a 2/1 book or a more general book on 5th card major bidding? The emphasis is on Conventions, not basic 2/1 structure.

Try reading Mike Lawrnces "Complete Book of Hand Evaluation" He discusses issues like this in great depth. The book is excellent.

What am I missing? West has shown up with: 3 clubs 1 spade and since east followed to 1 round of hearts, presumably 6 hearts, for the 3♥ bid on KJxxxx Would West bid 3♥ with just 5? I don't think so. That leaves room for 3 Dimes. Reject the finesse play them top to bottom. What was wests double based on? Was it based on what he though easts values were?

Do you use New Minor Forcing? If so, the 2H rebid shows a weak hand, with at least 5 hearts. Pard probably has a stiff of void, as with a doubleton he could pass. Whats pards shape? 6♦ - 4/5♠? 4=0=6=3 maybe? Your diamond Queen is useful, the heart quuen is worth little, even the ace isn't worth much except in NT. The other question is: Is this sequence forcing? If using NMF, pard is bidding on in spite of your weakness. ♠ A K x x ♥ ♦ A K J x x x ♣ A x x can make slam, ♠ A K x x ♥ ♦ A K J x x x ♣ x x x is off the top 3 clubs, 4♦ is high enough I'm not sure if its forcing, I assume not, and would pass. With the first hand, pard should have bid differently

I have begun rereading books I read. While How to Read Your Opponents CArds is excellent, Mike Lawrence has another less well known book - How to Play Card Combinations. It covers a number of common situations like KJx in Dummy, or Ax opposite Qx. Its similar to HTRYOC in that you have to use the opps bidding and play to place the cards to make your decision. I consider it a sequel to HTRYOC. I thought I Fought the Law by Mike Lawrence and Anders Wirgren was certainly worth reading. They spent a bit too much time up front showing how the LAW doesn't work that well at high levens in a number of situations. Their suggested method is generally easy to use and seems to work well. I recently read 2 books by Jim Priebe. - Thinking on Defense - Matchpoint Defense I had high expectations for Thinking on Defense, but was disappointed. The premise is excellent - generate a few hands declarer might have and see if they fit in with the bidding and play. Also, don't just make the "obvious" book defensive play. Think deeper about whats going on. Can that play REALLY work, given what you know about the hands? While some hands were quite good, and most were not easy, I found that the inferences the author drew from the bididng didn't always make sense. I would love to read a good advanced book on defense. Too bad this wasn't that good. Cou;d have been a lot better. I give it a C. [i don't rate a book 'bad' if its not at my level, or it was too hard. I rate it bad because its not all that good ;) ] I liked Matchpoint Defense much more. Some good problems and points. There is a quiz of 50 problems at the end. The problem is the later half have bididng that is either bad, or not what you would expect. The author says you have to expect bad bidding and deal with it. I guess thats true, but it makes it hard to defend. For example, there is a hand from 1971 where the opps open 2 Spades It turns out to be a 7 card suit A J 9 x x x x Not what you would expect today for a 2 spades bid. On another hand, declarer makes a strong jump bid and turnsof with 15 HCP. It was a crappy bid, and teh author says you have to expect that. I think of Eddie Kantars quip (from his excellent Modern and Advanced Bridge Defens ebooks) Its hard to defend against a madman, becaus etheir bidding will throw you off. But they will ultimately give it back by ending up in more bad contracts. Decent Book, I give it a B- or B Eddie Kantars "Kantar for the Defense" is a great Intermediate level book. 100 problems, wioth card by card play and questiosn. You are not told what the key play is, but at some point you are asked the critical questions. The problems are not very hard (though I missed a number) and test your signaling and signal reading. 2-3 key points are summarized after each hand. For intermediates its an A.

Under what circumstances would Declarer bid 2♦ rather than raise responders 1♠ bid to 2, if they had 2 spades? A Great 5-5 hand? This isn't it. Maybe i'm overlooking something, but I can't believe declarer has 3 spades. With 2=5=4=2, and pard bidding spades, would you bid 1NT or 2♦? With 2=5=5=1 you would bid 2♦. But then why finesse the clubs? You have no entry to Dummy if it loses. Take the AK , discarding a spade and then finesse in diamonds. Maybe the heart 10 (with KQJxx) will provide a 2nd diamond finesse With 1=5=5=2 you would use the clubs for dime finesses. With 1=5=4=3 you would bid 1NT not 2D. The only pattern I can imagine is 2=5=4=2 Cash a spade and lead back the Club 10, to lock declarer in Dummy. He can discard a dime, but will have to lead dimes from his hand, allowing pards 9 to make. You win 1 Spade, 1 heart, 3 Dimes, 1 club = down 1

6♠ seems like it has around a 50% chance. I assume that makes it the par bid.

A while back Mike Lawrence and Eric Kokish wrote an article on 2 Way Checkback Stayman and it was posted on E-bridge. E-bridge is defunct and neither has the article. Does anyone have a copy or know where its posted?

1♠ - 2♣ 2♥ - ? 2♠ shows 3 spades and sets trumps. Unless you want to end up in 3NT, possible. 3♠ shows 3 very good cards in pards suit (A K x) and a good hand (16+). Gentle slam try. This is from Mike Lawrences 2/1 CD

>BTW, I believe not many experts play 2C/2D over major opening as 5+. According to the Mike Lawrence 2/1 CD, the 2/1 tends to have 5 cards (most of the time). You want to be wary of 4 card suits especially bad ones. But on occasion you may have to bid one.

1♠ - 1NT 2♥ - 3♠ Shows a Delayed Limit raise. 10-12 support points and 3 spades. Its far more common than the splinter situation. Having a singleton in pards first suit is not a good thing. With 4 card ♥ support you would bid 3 or 4♥. You would not have a way of showing the spade stiff. Unelss you have some special artificial bids ready.

Playing Mike Lawrnece and Max hardy Style 2/1, the 2♠ bid confirms 3 trump support. Its not a waiting bid, and not 2 spades. Its 3. With 4+ you would probably make a splinter or J2NT response. Declarer had a minimum, but responder4 was unlimited. In 2/1 its not uncommon for responder to have a bigger hand than opener. Furthermore, opener has the AQx in responders (probable) 5+ card suit. There are potentially 5 spade, 5 club, and 1 heart tricks. That assumes responder has the ♥A, ♣K, and some ♠ help. Thats not asking too much given pard has made a 2/1, and there is room to explore. It would have cost nothing to bid 4♦, instead of 4♠. 4♠ denied a diamond control. Responder seeing 2♦ losers passed. It doesnt matter if North has the rest of the deck, once south denied a ♦ control, you could be off the first 2 tricks, and the opps WILL lead ♦. 100% blame to opener.

Elianna, By Persian, may I assume Iranian? Do Iranians use the term Persian, or identify themselves as Persian?

[hv=d=e&v=e&n=sakxhxxdktxxcqj93&s=sxhakqjdaqxckt742]133|200|Scoring: IMP East deals and passes. Opps silent[/hv] How do you bid this using 2/1, Walsh, RKCBW 1430. No Inverted Minors. No other home made systems. Please don't post "With my pard we would bid an artificial X showing Y and Z". Our Bidding S N 1♣ - 1♦ 2♥ - 3♣ 3♦ - 3♠ 4NT [1430] - 5♣ pass 5♣ making 6 Everyone made 6♣, 6NT. Even 3NT+3 beat us. Was this a slam we should have found? South needed the Dime K and Club Q from North. Should that have been "assumed"?

>1. When partner bids a suit, lead it. ..it's irritating.....anything in partners suit is good to lead from, especially a singleton, when your trump holding is such that you'd welcome the chance to ruff. Maybe he's seen what you bid on! :P

>I am more and more convinced that the best approach is to minimize signalling altogether: playing a count or attitude or suit preference card only when you have reason to think that partner needs the information. Thus, if as sometimes happens, you can tell that you hold the important defensive cards, your discards should be uninformative. Mike, how can your pard know when you are signaling "for real" as opposed to just playing random cards or following suit. Keep in mind taht you are better than most of us. How can a good intermediate (or advanced) player "know" when their pard is signaling (becaus ethey need to know) or not. I've seen Justin and other experts make similar statements, but I'm not sure on the criterial. - Obviously if dummy has a long suit in NT with no other entries - signaling Count makes sense When else is it "obvious" to pard you are signaling "for real - when they need to know"

Thank you for the replies. I passed, they made it. Pard had 5 card spade support for me :(

[hv=d=e&v=n&s=sajt5hdakq63c8642]133|100|Scoring: IMP Dealer to your Right opens 1 Heart you DBL. LHO bid 3 Spades (splinter - 4 card support & 13-16 support points) RHO bids 4 hearts. 1H - X - 3S - p 4H -? Over to you (you are vuln, opps are not)[/hv] Pass? Dbl? Other - what does it mean?

[hv=d=n&v=b&s=shaqt54daq7cq9865]133|100|Scoring: IMP Pard deals and passes p - p - 1H - (1S) 2H - p - ? Pard has 3 trumps. You use Bergen Raises, so pard does not have 4 trumps.[/hv]

IMPS , No one is vulnerable LHO opens 1♠ - p - p - ? You hold: S: Q T x H: x x D: A x x x C: A x x x

This is MP I have a question for the 4♥ bidders. 1. Do you expect to make the hand, or are you bidding as a sac? 2. If you expect to make the hand, assuming RHO has 13 HCP (the middle of 11-15) that leves 12 HCP for pard and LHO. Lets say they are split 6-6 What 10 tricks will you make? 7♥ + 1♣ = 8 What are the other 2? If pard has the ♠ king and LHO the ace, thats 1. Pard may also have wasted values in Dimes, like the Q. How likely are you to make 4♥? If < 50%, is it worth bidding 4? What about 3♥? Maybe you can set the opps in a part score?

Why have the opponents not bid, with all the spades missing? What is pards shape? 4=3=4=2 ? If the opps had 9 spades and 18 HCP they would probably find a bid. Maybe the hearts are concentrated in one hand (4-1 or 5-0)? If pard has several spades maybe one of them is a wasted honor. Pard didn't open 1NT, so he wont have 15-17 unless a stiff (probably a Club) We do have great spots in Hearts and Diamonds. What you do want is: - 4 hearts rather than 3. With 3 pard may have bid 1NT - Trump honors - no wastage in Spades - diamond length and strength , to set up that suit ♠ x x x ♥ A K x x ♦ A K x x x ♣ x or ♠ x x x ♥ A x x x ♦ A K x x ♣ K x I'm not sure how to ask that. The opps are silent, pard knows we are limited, the opps must have something. We are not vulnerable. Hmmm... I don't think help in Clubs isn't that important. You have a double finesse, and will probably make 2 tricks even without pard having the King. The king raises your expected tricks from 1.75 to 3, which is nice. But pard may bid game with xx in Clubs as well. Do we know what the minimum holding is in a suit to accept a game try? Also, with a game try in Clubs pard will hopefully discount values in Spades. Does 3♥ ask about trump quality, or just overall strength? 3♣ or pass. Aw, lets go for it. 3♣ and hope. We can declare like Zia

Mike, Maybe the WC player may have been annoyed that you bid 15-17 1NT with 18 HCP? I like his raise to game with 7 HCP, 2 of which are the Qx in the opps long suit. Besides, If he is WC then whats he doing playing with you ;) How hard is it for experts to get into games against experts? (I wouldn't know, I'm not an expert - and neither are some of the ones I play against ;) ) There is a possible Blockage in Dimes as well. Better hope LHO has it, or taht Dimes are 7-1. Lead a dime from Dummy. If East wins with no more ♣ you are ok If west wins you are OK 1♣ 4♦ 1♠ 1♥

So post the answer already :)

Why didn't south lead spades? I think South has an unsupported ace, something like AQxxx(x) Not counting the Club Q, that 11 HCP ♦A, ♠AQJ = 11 which is not enough to bid at the 3 level, unless void stiff in hearts and 6+ ♠ I think the Club finesse is on. But there is no rush to take it. Run trumps. Enter Dummy in dimes, and ruff the 4th round getting a full count on Dimes and hearts. We can't get a full count on Spades, even with entering in trumps and ruffing. ♠ are either 7-3 or 6-4, or 5-5. lets assume 6-4, though North did go to the 5 level. Maybe north has a heart void and 5 spades? Probably south has the ♣Q (lack of further bidding may also be a clue). The count of the hand may yield an unexpected distribution that renders this moot.