jonottawa

Pass (showing doubleton ♥) I'll explain to partner later that passing and then bidding 5♣ shows more than bidding 5♣ directly. Of course this also gives partner the best chance to describe his hand (it's important that at least one of us do that) and maybe I'll have a better picture of whether or not we have slam on the next round.

If this doesn't qualify as a weak 2 you should play strong 2's as they will come up more frequently.

Recurring theme, people need to open opening hands. 100% blame North. Would never occur to me in a million years to bid game to make with a 4x3 8 count with 5 points in quacks opposite a passed hand. Yes, you have no wastage in diamonds, that's nice. That's not worth a 5 point upgrade. 2♠ is fine. Presumably you bid 2♠ hoping to buy it for 2♠. 3♠ is frisky but having passed already and with the void I can live with it. I would encourage your partner to open opening hands and leave it at that.

Maybe W is Q8 / xxxxx / KT9xxx / -

As Phil said, very similar to the black 8 count hand. Notice also that even opposite that filthy opener, 3N (on 19 high) actually has play (not that you'd want to be there.)

Agree that there is more for a new player to learn here about the (mis)bidding than the defense. I'm sure you could construct a hand where you have to duck this but so what.

Yes (1♣) 1S Yes

I shall try cashing winners and pitching losers. I don't understand the thread title.

I find that Individuals are the best tournaments to provide 1 winner.

1N 100 2N 80 2C 70 P 30 When aiming for a filthy red 3N usually best not to draw the defense a roadmap.

Ya this is pretty wtp. Wrong round Q for a light j/s.

I'm definitely tempted to pass. It's awfully unilateral, but ranges are so wide here that somebody's going to have to start guessing at some point. Maybe my +120 will beat +110 or my +150 will beat +130 or I'll get a push at -100 or ♦ play better than ♣ and we get there this way. Wish I weren't dummy. If I were in 'avoid embarrassment' mode I'd bid but I just don't think we have any reason to believe that our 5-2 minor suit fit will usually play 2 tricks better than NT.

If we're running for Nostradamus, I'll throw my hat in the ring: Letter to the Editor, The Daily Texan, October 9, 2001 Acting without thinking It absolutely boggles my mind that America seems not only willing, but eager, to abandon virtually all of its most deeply held values in a futile attempt to avenge the tragic deaths of 6,000 or more people on Sept. 11. The unbelievably skewed mass media coverage -- led by Demagogue-in-Chief Dan Rather, whose statements on Letterman epitomized hate-mongering ignorance -- has all the objectivity of the Iraqi Ministry of Propaganda. By ignoring international law, by targeting the legitimate government of a foreign state simply because it refuses to extradite a person who has been indicted -- but must be presumed innocent until proven guilty -- in the United States, by destabilizing the global economy and by climbing into bed with various unsavory regimes, many of whom, unlike the Taliban, have actively sponsored terrorist acts in the past, our government has shown a reckless disregard for the principles upon which America was founded. Killing thousands of impoverished Afghan civilians won't bring our loved ones back. Inciting Muslim extremists -- who make up a very small, but significant, percentage of the world's 1 billion Muslims -- to further, and possibly far greater acts of terror won't bring our loved ones back. Declaring war against a country that fought the Soviet Union to a draw in the mid-'80s has got to be among the most boneheaded acts imaginable. I pray that the few of us who have the courage to speak out against this atrocious, indefensible blunder, will be heard above the cacophony created by the spineless, unprincipled zealots who are doing their best to turn our great country into a banana republic by stifling rational debate, responding to terror with terror and ignoring the rule of law, while sending our economy into the toilet with their return to the voodoo economics of the '80s. Jonathan Ferguson First-year MPA student

You might have opened 6♥ but I guess you're about the ♥Q short for that action.

1N not a problem for me as I play it shows this exact hand. But seriously, if clubs were QTx instead of JTx I'd make the 1N overbid, otherwise 1♠.

AKxx for me.

Seems to me S failed to adequately appreciate the value of a red game. You'll often get a ♦ lead here and game has play opposite as little as AQJxxx and out. I'd have bid 3N over 2H (since partner likely? would have preempted with a less-than-full opener.) Partner should be able to infer doubleton support for that call. Curious what S thought N should bid over 2N.

Wow, I learned something today.

I missed all the fun ... This saga remind anyone else of Twelve Angry Men? We even have Mike ably filling in as Henry Fonda. Entirely too much use of the 'c' word for my taste. I'm more than willing to give the accused the benefit of the doubt. Have there been any more developments?

I'm not sure if bidding or passing is better but I choose defending 3N over either.

I don't consider goulash hands 'interesting'. But if this were a real hand I would pass.

K, so I was playing with a friend (a Flight C player) when this hand came up. She passed. After the set I explained to her that pass is a horrible choice because she's consigning us to a 5-0 fit (if you take 4♥ as an offer to play, as Helene did, and as I think most would play it, certainly if playing with a less experienced player.) She asked me to post the hand on forums so I have. (Pass worked exceptionally well, as I held - AQJT9xxx Qx xxx but it's always sketchy when it looks like pard has fielded your psych. (I'd never psyched with her before this hand fwiw.))

Favorable at IMPs, Dealer ♠873 ♥- ♦JT74 ♣AKQ854 P - 2♠ - 2N - 3♠ 4♣ - P - 4♥ - P - ? Yes, you probably should have opened. What now? Are any of the listed choices awful? Edit: 2♠ is a weak 2. 2N is normal, ostensibly 15-18ish balancedish with a ♠ stopper.

I'm not sure that when LHO doesn't lead a singleton red card that your math holds. I just think this is a bad problem because LHO's hand doesn't correspond to the bidding. Anyway, you're right about the unblock, maybe you're playing against the Abbot (or jonowatta.) Unlikely the pard of someone who would perpetrate this bidding would find it. Are you missing a 4th line? Lead up in case stiff A onside, then don't play the Q. What does that lose to? Guess that risks an uppercut in ♣. Anyway, I go back to my initial assessment.

I thought you'd be able to tell from my post that I'd looked up the actual hand. You're not down when you play a spade to the Q, but you are down when you play a spade back to the K (covering the J on your right.)