jonottawa

I blame not south 100%.

I will take the middle road and bid 2N originally. I doubt I'll have many tough decisions after that.

I have another drink and spin the dial and bid whatever comes up like I did last round.

I'd settle for a lack of rude behavior from yellows. When a yellow sits down at my table, my partner and I greet him and his partner, and he replies with: "wonderful (not.)" I understand that Fred gives his employees a lot of leeway, but I think he'd draw the line at a complete lack of common courtesy. Not that this is the first time this particular yellow has been gratuitously rude. Edit 8/18. Changed 'volunteers' to 'employees' as I've been informed that the person in question is the latter.

Anything but double is a pretty deep position to take imo.

I'd rather double and be wrong than pass and be wrong. We're not beating this 9.

Claim? I like this line (except I'd ruff high if the 9 happens to be high,) not because I'm convinced that N has ♠K (though since this hand showed up on the forum he probably does) but because it seems better than 50% (at least, when the hand can be made at all.) But if S follows to the first ♥ with the T or J I'll just guard against 4-1 ♥ (it sounds to me like he has a stiff somewhere but maybe he's just hyperaggressive) and fall back on the normal ♠ hook.

Your partner opened 2♣, you had the S hand, and it's pard's fault that you didn't get to the grand?

I agree that slam is probably not on opposite a passed hand. Not with opening 5♣, though, especially at matchpoints.

I can't have less than this (I too would have overcalled 1♠.) Pass. (The latest forum trend seems to be declining slam tries with absolute maxes and accepting game tries with absolute minimums.)

Cheating is rampant on BBO. Story at 11. Now, did I make 3♣?

I'll play for W to be A Kx AQJxxx AKxx He should have led his pard's suit. Ruff the club and spade up. Edit: changed my mind I'll play for W to be Ax - AQJxxxx AKxx, seems more consistent with auction (and arguably, with the forum.)

If partner needs more than this he's gonna have to reevaluate his hand evaluation. Surely I'd have bid 2♥ with as much as xx xx Qxx AKQxxx, no? If partner was playing me for a specific singleton, and solid ♣ and 3 card ♦ support, we'll have to talk about it later. I don't see how I can not bid blackwood here (given the choices.) Pard is not staring at 2+ fast losers in 2 suits and bidding like this opposite a nonforcing 3♣ bid. If he's insane and has Axx Axx Axxxxx x I hope his suits break. I expect something like x Ax AKQxxxx xxx or better.

The last 2 replies are one side that I thought would show up for this hand that until now have not. I'd still like to know what 4♥ would show and why it's clear to bid 4♠ instead of 4♥ (is it a lack of ♥ control or a lead issue or does 4♥ show a hand I now wished I'd opened maybe JTx AQ ATxx xxxx or QTx x AJTx KT9xx or similar?)

I consider it a blind spot because I've always thought that with a respectable invite and no invite available you bid game red at IMPs. But I just couldn't bring myself to pull the trigger here (in part because my trumps were so bad, in part because pard might have opened light and in part because I wasn't sure if I was going to force game whether 4♥ or 4♠ was right.) I'm sure I wouldn't have settled for 3♠ with JTx xx in the majors. Do some folks here consider that categorically wrongheaded? Do we reserve 4♥ for a hand that we now upgrade to an opening hand then or does it show a 'good' limit raise to differentiate it from a weaker distributional 4♠ bid or are we reluctant to bid 4♥ because it seldom helps us and is more likely to let the opponents find the right lead? Or am I just overthinking this hand?

Muchas gracias. I was looking for 'invisible' so missed the 'spoiler' option.

Spoiler (Is this as invisible as it gets these days or did I forget how to do this?) Actually at the table it went 3♠ p p p, +140 But rather than be stumped, ultimately uncertain and break tempo again the next time this comes up I'd like to add it to my pattern recognition collection and make the 'correct' (even if losing on any particular hand) bid in tempo next time.

Sorry if this subject has been hashed out before, no doubt it has. I was stumped what to do here. I'm primarily curious what 'standard expert' is but if you have a specific nonstandard agreement (maybe double or 3N,) do share. All red, IMPs ♠T62 ♥J6 ♦KJT4 ♣AQ93 P - P - 1♠ - 3♥ ? Edit: Hmmm, unanimous conservatism so far. If you're a 3♠ bidder are you also a 3♠ bidder with JT6 62 in the majors?

3♣!

If there was no agreement, there was no failure to alert. But there was UI. It seems to me that e/w earned their result when w doubled. Seems like a 2-way shot and I suspect w knew what was going on. I'm torn what to do with n/s. On the one hand you could argue that the 5♥ call itself (perhaps in conjunction with the ♣Q S is looking at) was strange enough (from South's perspective) that it revealed the earlier misunderstanding. On the other hand you could argue that in a cramped auction with ♣ trump, 5♥ must mean SOMETHING here (perhaps a specific K ask? perhaps an attempt to get out in 5N off 2 keys (if matchpoints)?) and that whatever it asks/shows, 6♣ isn't the answer it's looking for. I'm glad I'm not on the committee. I think most committees would let the result here stand.

I'm going to guess to pass. I think we beat it over half the time. Somebody's getting a top and somebody's getting a zero. I like 2♥ as a very close 2nd choice. Let partner place the contract. It should tend to show something like this. If he has ♠ that will play well opposite xx I think we'll hear about them soon.

Partner should have opened 1♦. Preempts opposite passed hand partners tend to be wider-ranging and (speaking from repeated experience) often result in poor results when partner had an opening bid that he chose to pass.

After winning the third ♥ (surely W will continue ♥ whether E encourages or not) and running the ♦, RHO will often pitch at least one ♥ and even if he doesn't, to not take the ♠ hook to guard against 2 completely random psychs (2 ♥ and 3 ♥) seems overcautious, to put it mildly. Edit: Actually I guess here it's right to win the first ♥ (winning against KJx xxxxx Kx KQJ or similar with E.) I guess it's possible that you don't end up with enough information to safely take the ♠ hook, but I still think you usually do.

I like a heavy 3♣ as well. It's matchpoints, go plus. I'm curious how people play 2N-3N vs 3N here. On this auction I would pass and hope for the best, apology ready.

It's far from clear that 3N would not make an overtrick. Life is too short for me to dwell on my opponents' adventures. If it were me I'd be more interested in getting to 3N if partner has this hand or a better one in the future. I'm curious, does anyone play that 2N retains its artificial (ogust/feature) meaning here or is that not playable? Even without that agreement you might have tried 3N instead of 4♦, giving partner a choice.