ArcLight

Playing 2/1 1♥ - 1NT X - 3♣ A delayed jump of a new suit is mildly invitational, good 6/7 cards suit (like a weak 2 bid). Not as good as a direct jump on the first round. This hand is not good enough for an Invitational Jump Shift If pard bids 2♠, showing a big 4=5 then we may be able to help out, though there is a lot to ruff in Diamonds and Hearts. Probably game is the lmit of this hand even opposite a Reverse. If pard bid 2♣ then Hmmm. 5 C is still a long way off. The opps may balance with Spades at some point, boy will they be surprised at the distribution

If we have 4 hearts and RHO has at least 5, pard is probably short. He is likely to have another suit (assume the 4 remaining hearts are 2-2). Pard can eaily have a 4 card spade suit. I DBL and pard will strain to bid the major. A Spade overcall may mislead pard in the length of our spade suit fit. If I DBL and LHO bids hearts then its likely pard has 1 heart or a void. The danger is pard will have 2 hearts, 3 spades, and 4-4 in the minors. Or 5 Diamonds, resulting in a 5-2 fit. I would rather pards long weak minor be trumps than my spades in a high level 4-3 fit, if pard cant ruff hearts.

Just my 2 cents 1) South made a negative double and bid diamonds, implying longer diamonds than hearts. North bid hearts, so there was no gaining of trump length. North was trying for the best game, and took a risk in 4H rather than the 4D part score. Thats a Normal guess. 2) North has the KQx of hearts vs xxx in Diamonds, that is a huge reason to bid hearts over Diamonds. Probably South has Diamond honors and length, but not trump honors. If South bid Hearts, and north with KQx in hearts took a poreference to Diamonds then THAT would be strange. What was North able to infer about Souths hand from the delay? That soouth ws short in Spades? North held 4, and both opps bid them. Isn't it likely that South has just 1? Bridge is a thinking game, and not all of us (well at least me) can think that fast. I need time to visualize the hands. To always award a penalty against a pair that takes a while to think makes the game no fun for those who are not yet very experienced and stong players. The way to deal with this is to hand out a sheet of paper at the start of the game that says "To protect partner, we will always take 10 seconds before making any bid or card play. We may or may not have a problem, and don't want to be accused of influencing partners play"

>My hand was ♥J54 ♥9532 ♦3 ♣AK1086 Since when is 4 card support, with a singleton, and a 5 card suit headed by the AKT only worth a 1 level response? This is worth a Limit Raise. Unless you use some other kind of system. (you count distributional points, not just HCP for responses, spade Jack = 0, stiff dime = 3, thats 10, plus the clubs length may be vluable, and maybe the spade J may help) Is it possible the TD felt that the 2H bid was abnormally low, and that a psyche was being fielded? I don't know all the facts, but look at it form the TDs point of view: An opening bid on the light side in terms of HCP, ok that happens. But then pard with a very good hand, only makes a 2H response? Couldn't that be interpreted as an agreement to open very light and respond at a lower level? With the right 13 HCP opposite this dummy, you can make slam.

I think Clubs are more likely than Spades to yield 5 tricks, because of the jack. Still, you need an extra trick, and thats the Spade finesse. Win the heart king take the WINNING spade finesse (you can cash a dime and hope for a stiff Q, don't hold your breath) play on clubs

>Arclight didn't express himself as clearly as he might have, but his basic point is fairly well known. I've been know to do that on more than one occasion... Posting and emails are not as good as phone or in person discussion. People demand/expect much more precision in posts email than is needed in voice discussions. I'm rereading all Marty Bergs books- they are certainly fun. What I like about Better Rebidding, Understanding 1NT Forcing, and Hand Evaluation is he gives lots of examples rather than just a lecture and 3 examples. He never wrote "Is it Forcing" and I think that would be more useful to Intermediates/Beginners than anything else. I've only seen that covered in more tahn 1 paragarph in Paul Marstons excellent and clear "The Language of Bidding" and Eddie Kantars OLD "Bridge Bidding Made Easy"

Pass. 100% pard has 4 hearts and 5 spades, or is 5-5. With 3 hearts tehy would bid a different suit. Pard didn't make a strong rebid, you don't have a great fit (4-3), you have length in suits pard is short in, and they are not especially good. 3NT is unlikely. Pass in 2H and ruff a spade or 2.

>declarering at mp isnt as hard, I'm not sure thats correct. First you need to estimate what the par score is. If its 2 Spades making and you are in 3 hearts vulnerable, you should play for 1 down, not to make your contract. If you are in 2NT and it looks like the field is in 3NT you must play teh hand anti-percentage. I think its harder to play MP because you must think what others will do, not just about your own hand. Are you in a routine hand, go for the over trick. Are you in a harder to find game/slam, then take the safety play. Good books on match points Kelsey - Match Point Bridge Woolsey - Match Points Jannersten - Winning Pairs Technique is ok the Kambites book (Duplicate Pairs for You) had a good 30 pages, but most of the book wasn't applicable Matchpoint Tricks (Axelsxn) is nothing special. Klingers Card Play Made Easy #1 has one nice chapter on MP hands Klingers 100 Winning Duplicate Tips has good overall advice Tony Sowters Bridge: Improve Your Defence has a chapter on MP defense.

I don't get the magazine. Is he in trouble again for free climbing the Empire State Building? Or did he win that hot dog eating contest thats held in Coney Island every year? The one thats always won by some skinny guy from Japan.

The Lebensohl Convention Complete by Ron Anderson How to use it against interference over NT, Reverses, Preempts Excellent. Full of great examples. This is a GREAT book! Having all the examples and quizes really helps. Don't rely on someones notes, buy this book if you want to use Lebensohl. The best part of this book is its the ONLY material I've ever seen on handling artificial interference over an NT opener. Classic Lebensohl is great over natural overcalls, but it needs to be adjusted against artificial interference (DONT, CAPPELLETTI, LANDY, BROZEL, etc.)

I played a little at a local club. (New Jersey Exit 14 :) ) Their charge is $9 I consider that high enough, that I'd rather play online.

Why is pass forcing? What if the partner of the 3♥ bidder is short hearts but has some other values. Maybe 4H is going down but if we bid we go down. My point is pard has shown a good hand, but he can't know that I have enough that a pass is forcing.

From Mike Lawrenes 2/1 CD Invitational Jump Shift to the 3 level – [full endorsement] (Can’t use with Bergen raises) Responders jump to 3 level is invitational, shows 6-7 card suit, and around 9-11 HCP. If opener bids again, its forcing. (responder might rebid 3NT, or rebid his suit at the 4 level) Opener raises to the 4 level is forcing. Optional – it asks for Aces. Either is a good method. Discuss it! Don’t make the IJS with 4 cards in the other major, bid 1NT. (1S – 1NT - ? – 2H difficult hand to bid) Never make an IJS with 3 cards in openers major, bid 1NT. If opener in turn jumps to game, it’s a sign off. If opener raises the suit its either an Ace ask or a forcing bid, hoping for more info.

How does Deal Master Pro compare to the harder to use but free and more controllable Deal 3.0?

I enjoyed listening to Eddie. I'd like to see his entire response structure to the 1m - 2NT auctions he alluded to. (He used 2NT as natural, not a Limit raise in Clubs a la J2NT)

Why is this a "clear cut" 2♥ opener with us Vulnerable and the opponents not vulnerable? I guess it depends on your partnership agreement. (Maybe this is a Marty Bergen V-nV 2 bid?) What would your non-vul vs. non-vul 2♥ bid look like? How about your non-vul vs vul 2♥ bid?

>So, you saying that if you hold AQxxx Kx xx Kxxx and partner bids 2♣ that you do not raise to 3♣ showing fit unless you have better values?? From the Mike Lawrence CD on 2/1 he says that raising responders minor shows more than a minimum. You can rebid your suit instead.

Since the Grand Slam Force is less valuable today because of Roman Keycard Blackwood (where you can also find out about the trump quality) I would be careful interpreting 5NT because pard may mean it for Pick a Slam. You will end up in an "adventurous" 7 level contract! B)

2 less known Intermediate Plus books by Frank Stewart 1,001 Questions from Bridge Today - a collection of bidding sequences, and play of the hand problems. Also has some "fun" problems like matching up famous pairs, or what a famous players other occupation was. Even if you use 2/1 I think this is a good book. I really liked this one. The Bidders Bible - based on standard bidding. Has some nice sections on visualizing what pard has for his bid. I ddin't realzie all the neat things one could do with SA. Other parts were less interesting to me as they not widely used anymore. This one is ok overall. Both these books will make you think more about pards hand (visualizing) during the bidding. Both these books made me realize there were parts of fundamental bidding I didn't know, causing me to search out answers in other good books such as: Paul Marstons "The Language of Bidding - 5 card majors/standard edition" - nice clear book on Standard Bidding with examples and Quizzes. Eddie Kantars - Treasury of Bididng Tips Advanced players will laugh "You mean you didn't know THAT?" but this is material I was never sure about (or had never seen and never knew). You are far better off knowing fundamentals than a few extra conventions. (Now I have a whole bunch of new mistake to make :-) To address Flames concern (next post below) >Its important when reading this book to know that many of the answer's arent clear cut and other experts will have different answers. >Also there is a the time its was writen problem, some bidding styles have changed since 1990. Some of these sequnces may indeed be controversial. But most aren't. I saw similar techniques in Marstons book as well. I don't know that bidding styles using Standard American have changed so much, but if you use 2/1 than certainly some of these sequences will not be applicable. One of the nice features of these books is they have a series of questions where you are presented with 5 hands and a bidding sequnce and must pick the right hand. Then the author explains what the other hands would bid. This is nice because if you first try and imagine what the correct hand looks like, it will GREATLY help your visualization during live bidding. Ex: pard makes a couple of bids, what can you tell? - are they balanced? - weak, intermediate, strong? - anything weird happen, like a weak response all of a sudden elicits a strong response? - a delayed jump, what hands can they have? Not have? This is important. Its not system. Its picturing pards hand.

I think if either opp gets in, Im down on a run of diamonds. Not only cant I afford to lose the lead, I need all teh Clubs, thus RHO must have Kx or K, and even this is not enough. I need a heart finesse. Since I'm placing East with AJxxxx♠ and the Club King, I will assume he doesnt have the heart Q. With a stiff Club K I would not count it as full value on offense. 2. Finesse the heart 10 3. cash the heart ace 4. low Club to Q 5. Club Ace 6. Casj heart King 7. Club to J (3-2) else to 9 (4-1) run Clubs making 9 (probably down a ton when my prediction if off <_<

>4C for me over 2D. I pretty much just want to force partner to cuebid hearts if he can. What would a bid of 2♠ mean? Is that asking for a stopper? To make game requires pard to have one of: trump ace, heart K, or Q. Slam requires 2 of these cards, teh Ace and a good lie in hearts. The overcaller must have some values since they arent in Dimes or Spades, probably clubs and maybe hearts. I like the ♥ game try, followed by 5♦. Even with wasted values in Clubs, game is reasonable if the heart honors are split. If pard has a heart honor and the trump ace and sees you go to game, they may raise to slam.

Are there any books that spell this all out? I just borrowed Moorehead on Bidding (revised 1974) maybe it has something? (How the heck is someone supposed to learn this if its not all explained in one place? Don't say its obvious or common sense because we have disagreement here among good players)

I got these from Kambites "Slam Bidding for You" and he uses Acol. But I was curious if they applied to 2/1 and SA as well. One of the points he makes is because players don't know how to initiate forcing auctions they may use Blackwood prematurely. Thats one of the things I like about 2/1, its easier for me to figure out whats going on. While I agree with Adams replies, they are opposite of those in the book! Gosh its hard finding a concensus! Justin also has a point in that it may make certain strong hands hard to bid. How do you bid this in 2/1 Pard opens 1 Heart, whats youir bididng plan with this hand? S: A J 9 x x H: K Q x D: x C: x x x x Bid 1 Spade, then jump to 4 Hearts? Bid 1 Spade, then 4SF, then end up in hearts? Bid 1NT then jump to 3H, Delayed Limit Raise?

Are these forcing or passable? If so, then why? 1- 1H-1S 2S-3H 2- 1D-1S 2S-3D 3- 1H-1S 1NT-3H (The problem I have with SA is I am not sure if some auctions are forcing, such as 1H-2C 2D I've never seen this discussed as formal rules. Are there any books that list the "rules" of SA bidding? Not the simple ones involving limiting the hand, but in generating a forcing auction.