ArcLight

The No Trump Zone by Danny Kleinman In depth coverage of the strengths and weaknesses of the different NT ranges. Not just obvious things like HCP, but what are the implications. What does this do to your other bids? What should an NT bid look like, pattern, rebid problems, implications. The author seems fair and reasonable in his arguments and presents both sides. The author seems to know the history of Bridge and bidding and conventions very well, as he explains how things developed over time. Although I don't agree with everything, the guy REALLY knows his stuff. This is a fantastic book for anyone designing a bidding system. Its a bit heavy and theoretical for non advanced players. He gives a lot of conventions, and his suggested improvements, even Cappelletti. (Ben should like this book!) The downside is most partnerships will never use them, and thats more than half the book. A lot of food for thought and issues to consider. Interesting book for advanced players or established partnerships. I rate it a C for intermediates and an A for advanced players and system designers. This is probably of more use to them than Roy Hughes "Building a bidding system". Its a very good book, but a bit theoretical. I'd like to have seen more quizzes.

He gave up Bridge and has taken up Spades. You can find him at: http://masterspades.home.att.net/ :lol:

Why 3♠ and not 4♣ (cue bid) with ♦ as trump? Do you know pard has 5♠? Are you looking for 4♠? What about a ♦ slam?

2♠ You are stronger than pard expects, but unless he has a monster, game is very risky in ♠ 5-2 or ♥ 4-3 Pard is short in the minors and ♣ may be a disaster, esp. since you may be exposing pards stopper. Sign off in 2♠. Let pard continue if he wants, maybe he's 6-5 :-)

I'm partial to Excel, as the columns work nicely. You can use internal hyperlinks and group/ungroup blocks of data, or split it out among many tabs. This is quite easy and requirres no programming ability. (This would not have Nice Printing !)

Roots Bidding book is good, I never said it wasnt. But I dont want it anymore. I (think) I know the material, and I never look through it anymore. (Roots books on Bidding Conventions and play are excellent). Same for the Watson book because I have Mollos book, and a bunch of Reese books. I'll never look at the Squire book again. I read Mike Lawrences 2/1 system book after doing his 2/1 CD so I got a bit out of the book. But it was kind of a hodge podge of things. I took 9 pages of 2/1 system notes in MS Word off his 2/1 CD and book. HIs Uncontested Auctions is a great book. It would have helped A LOT had he had some kind of summary.

Take a look at Mike Lawrence & Anders Wirgrens "I fought the Law of Total Tricks". They have a nice simple system.

True Bridge Humor by Mike Lawrence This is the only Mike Lawrence book I've read that I thought was bad. There are a few funny quips, but by and large I didn'y find the situations all that humorous. At least it was short. Play Bridge with Mike Lawrence is funnier than this, and thats a fictional representation of events. I rate it a D. Anyone want to buy my copy? I'll trade it for almost anything (like Mike Lawrences book on Scrabble) and throw in "The Theory of Bidding" by Norman Squire (from the Library of Albert Moorehead). I've also got "common Sense Bidding" by Bill Root and "Play of the Hand" by Watson to trade. I'm finishing up Tony Sowters "Bridge" Improve Your Defense". Its a good book. Clearly written (Chamaco should like that!). Based on the first chapter on opening leads I will definitely buy Sowters book "Opening Leads in Bridge" recommended by Chamaco a few posts above.

How is 4♠ cold? If North didn't bid 1♠ then East would have been the declarer. I see 2 Club losers (on a club lead), 1 Diamond, and a Spade. You wont be able to pick up all of Souths Spades without finessing through them twice, and you have just one entry. I think 4♠ is down 1.

4♠ There is a decent chance I'll go down, but given the scoring, I think its worth it. I assume pard has 3 Spades and Im hoping they are at least 2 honors. My ♣Q may be useful, and maybe I can set up pards ♥.

Note: this is IMPS not MPs (scoring was mentioned in the original post) In Lawrence style 2/1 1♠ - 2♦ - 2♠ does not promise 6 ♠. In denies being able to make another bid. I think this is a tough hand to bid. Does anyone think its cut and dried?

Here is another view by someone else: 1S 2D 2S 3C 4D 5D "Opener ought to let this go because South could have bid 4H or 5C with slam interest. Bidding 3 Diamonds might be temptine. If he had the king of diamonds instead of xxxx, raising diamonds might be right. The Spade suit has good intermediates though"

Fred and Roland, I should have phrased my post better. I fully agree with your points. Especially opposite a weak NT, where responder may have more strength than opener. What I meant (and what Mike Lawrence writes) is that its generally important to have a stopper like Kx not being exposed (strength of hands may not be that important) when bidding an NT contract. It's more of a luxury in a suit contract, though can be important in slam bidding. His writing was geared towards people who bid so as to end a sequence in NT with no stopper, exposing pards stopper. Kx opposite Jx is a good example of when this doesn't work. And I can certainly see the opening lead being away from the Q, allowing the K to make on the next round, or the J making if East plays the 10.

> In my opinion this is a secondary consideration (or even a tertiary consideration playing weak notrumps). The main advantage of Jacoby (versus 2-way Stayman for example) is that this convention allows the responder to control the level of the auction thereby allowing him to describe several hand types while keeping the bidding conveniently low. Mike Lawrence says something similar in his Conventions CD. However, I think Fred and Mike are speaking generally, when you have multiple hand types to show. In his bididng books (the Uncontested Auction and 2/1 Workbook and 2/1 CD) and Mike emphasizies trying to right side contracts. Protecting Kx in a side suit can easily mean the difference to making or going down.

Please answer this using the 2/1 methods advocated by Mike Lawrence, not Max Hardy. Please don't answer "in my own system ..." 1. Lawrence uses Strong Jump Shifts. 2. 1♦ - 2♣ is not a game force, just forcing to 2NT or 3 of a minor. 3. 1M - 2x is a 95% agme force but may stop in 4 of a minor if no fit is found and 3NT isn't playable [hv=d=n&v=n&n=sak9842haqd8543c4&s=shj96daqj76ckq732]133|200|Scoring: IMP[/hv] 1♠ - 2♦ (Would you ever bid 2♣ instead of 2♦?) ??? What should North bid? 2♠ or 3♦? 1♠ - 2♦ 3♦ - ??? Do you look for NT or a ♦ game/slam?

Building a Bidding System by Roy Hughes A good overview of bidding methodologies and theory. It covers: relays - one side, asking for info transfers - dialogs - balanced transfer of info Frequency of occurences of bids and useful bidding spce. Hence you should design the system with the more frequent bids having a lower value. Slam Bidding, Constructive bidding, Destructive bidding. Modern things like transfer advances and preempts. Their strengths and weaknesses. It also has a short discussion of several popular systems (MOSCITO, SA, PRECISION, Polish Club). The author also presents a home made system. Its a decent book, and I rate it a B. To earn an A it would have had to have a section like "Common problems" or "what to look out for" when you design your own system. The book doesn't give me enough knowledge to design a system. It gives just enough knowldge to be "dangerous". I would like to have seen things like: 1) how Precision was refined and what its early problems were (and how system designers could avoid them) 2) be taught enough to evaluate a new system with holes. (either my own or someone elses) A while back ZAR presented his ZAR Backbone bidding system. Some of the members here felt there were problems. I think some of the things they didnt like were: a) an in bewteen bid (1D) halfway bewteen an opening bid, and a strong bid (like a 2 Club in SAYC). :P the vulnerability to this system to interverence because you hadn't yet determined shape and fit c) perhaps some NT issue. It would be nice to have the author take us through some evaluative steps. 3) A "Check list" of evaluative steps to see if a sytem is robust. What I'm asking is A LOT and would require another book. The current book is good, but its just an introduction, like Building A Bidding System 101. I want to see BABS 201 and 301 and 401. I've not seen any book like it. I found it far better than "Theory of Bidding" by Norman Squire.

Using Mike Lawrences Methods 3♥ shows a Limit Raise (4 trumps, 10-12 support points) and is not Preemptive over an opponent Overcall. 3♥ would be preemptive over a double. You don't have enough points for a Splinter.

http://www.bridgeguys.com/MGlossary/MathTables.html This is the link. Useful tables. Richard Pavicek has some good calculators too. http://www.rpbridge.net/index.htm ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In the past I've been able to find probability tables on the net for things like: Given X cards in one suit, what is the probability distribuition of the other 3. I think Ive seen these tables were in the Bridge Encyclopedia Where are they on the net? (www.durangobill.com/Bridge.html doesn't have what I'm looking for)

Uncontested Auction: Mike Lawrences Bidding Quizzes #1 Mike Lawrence has his own version of the 2/1 system, presented in his 2/1 CD and also in his 2/1 Workbook. 2/1 is complex and even with study you make not always make the right bids. (Lawrences methods have a few differences from those of Hardy) This book has around 600 bidding sequences and hands and asks you what to bid. It explains why a bid is good and why others are bad. A great way to reinforce your understanding of the system. What makes the book valuable is it doesn't just show easy auctions, it shows someone in between hands. The reader learns how to interpret what an unusual bid can mean. The problems cover both declarer and responder bids, up to the 4 level. Great book, I rate it an A (if you are interested in 2/1).

Squeeze Play Made Easy by Reese and Jourdain Terrific book! For some reason I found this clearer than most others. I wish it didn't have so many double dummy examples, but I just covered up the East and West hands. The focus on the book is on recognizing squeeze posibilities and learning to execute the squeezes, rather than just being presented with many problems (the Clyde Love book). Reese writes that Squeeze possibilities exist in one out of every 6 or 7 hands. Most of those will be simple squeezes, not exotic ones. Frequently there will be another technique you can use, such as an end play. Still, it seems that being comfortable with the simple squeezes should allow you to make an extra contract every 20 hands or so. Thats a huge increase in made contracts. The book also explains how to defend against Squeezes and what to look for. Reese also writes that Squeeze play needs to be studied, it can't be picked up. He advises rereading his book after some months. I agree. This is a great book, I highly recommend it. I also recommend David Birds "Bridge Squeezes for Everyone". I much prefer it to the Clyde Love book. (I still have Kelseys 4 volume set that I'll eventually get to)

I've read almost 90 books on Bridge (I have a long commute). On the one hand I find it frustrating that I can read on a subject, then as the months go by it slips away. But probably each book does make a little dent subconciously. I'm concentrating on declarer play. From that solid base I can expand to defensive play. I try not to spend too much time with lots of conventions. I LOVED doing all the Mike Lawrence software. But his 2/1 and Conventions were a lot of work, requiring me to take lots of notes. I really do enjoy reading and studying Bridge. I think by far the hardest part is being able to track the cards.suits/hcp and build up a picture of the unsceen hands. Thats whats needed to become a good player.

From Mike Lawrences CD on 2/1 responder would bid 3♦ over 1♠ showing: Jump Shift to the three level in a lower ranking suit– good 6/7 card suit, similar to a weak 2 bid. Invitational but not forcing. (precludes Bergen Raises). Don’t make a jump shift with 4 cards in the other major. A 2/1 response shows a MUCH stronger hand. Making a 2/1 then rebidding ♦ shows a long self supporting suit (which you have), but you dont have enough other values. 1S - 1NT 2? - 3D shows: (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 Opener should bid 2♠ in response to 1NT to show his extra Spade length. His Spade suit is good. Show the length and quality, don't bid 2♣.

> I'm sure you've noticed in this day and age, a 2♣ overcall provides zero preemption to practiced opponents (they ignore it) and a 2♦ overcall doesn't get you much more. How as the partner of the 1NT bidder how do you deal with the opponents bid of: 2♣ ? Double for Stayman? What about penalizing Clubs? 2♦? Doesn't that kill of Jacoby transfers? What do you do over 2 Diamonds?

>Got anything else you want to complain about? :-) Gas is rather expensive these days ... :) I'm scared as hell of Iran getting Nukes. :) My order for Kelseys "Logical Bridge Play" by Hugh Kelsey wan cancelled by AMAZON after I've been waiting for 3 1/2 months! Yup thats right, I placed an order on May 28th and they just canceled it, and stiffed me out of a promotional certificate for $9.28. I asked them for a credit on another book instead and they said no. :) While I personally don't really like the GIBs, I think its a terrific idea for BBO. It may turn out to be a big hit, or not. You can't tell without trying. No risk no gain, so I think it makes sense for BBO to try them out. The bots on Yahoo are shall we say "not quite up to par", so there must be a market for better bots. Perhaps its just me, but I didn't enjoy bidding with or playing with my GIB partner. They did erratic things. Also I got a bit annoyed at their occasional slow speed and set them to quickest response time. Maybe I need to set them to slow, and they will play better.

Are Minor Suit Stayman and 4 way transfers really that useful? I can see that maybe a 4 way transfer might be useful, but Minor Suit stayman?