Kaitlyn S

Well, we're both going to get a shock. So far, on BridgeWinners, 2H (on QTxxxx) is ahead of Pass 6 to 4. I'm shocked that 2H isn't almost unanimous. If you're not trolling (and I have to give you the benefit of the doubt simply because there are bridge players voting to pass 2C), you're probably shocked that 2H is getting any votes at all.

1. I find that it's easy to brush against the plus sign on a tablet and give someone positive reputation unintentionally. Is there a way to teke it back in those cases? 2. I've had 986 posts and have a +189 reputation but I am not allowed to give a negative reputation. What does it take to do that? And isn't almost everybody going to have a great reputation when almost nobody can click on the minus? Now, normally, I would not give a negative reputation. However, I ran across a situation where I would consider doing it if I could. I suspect a user to be trolling, and when I mentioned that, another user suggested that this was his impression from another thread also. However, if he is in fact trolling, he's going to do it to several people in different threads that are unlikely to talk to each other. If he had some negative reputation, others would be aware that he might be trolling. (Of course, I would never give negative reputation for simply disagreeing with me; if people did that, I'd be -1000 or so from the water cooler! :D ) Also, I would be really hesitant to give someone negative reputation if I couldn't take it back if the person later proves to not have any bad intentions. Plus, I feel like a -1 rep is only a minor "accusation" whereas reporting the person (however one does that) would be a major accusation.

I thought you were new but now I think you're just trolling. If you can convince me that you're not trolling, I'll respond to your posts. That being said, your points aren't totally without merit (which is why I discarded the premise that you're new.) However, I think you're misapplying them, but I think you already know that. Just for fun, I'll ask a friend to post this question on BridgeWinners.

Surely they can double if each of them has three spades. The opener has shown at least three spades with his reopening double. Responder knows that and I believe that the opener's side is in a forcing pass situation so it's safe for opener to pass even with a good hand. Responder with three spades doubles and the defenders lead trump so that responder will get his heart tricks. If E-W don't play forcing passes after they've doubled for penalties, it might be harder to double you, for West (the reopening doubler) has to bid with a good hand with three spades (E-W could have an agreement that double shows a good hand now, but if they don't play forcing passes there, they are unlikely to have any agreement.)

Also, you are constructing the hand to fit your narrative. Let's see what happens if I do the same. 6. [hv=pc=n&s=sa74hqt7632djt54c&d=n&v=0&b=1&a=1cp1hp2cp2hp2sp?]133|200[/hv] N has: S-65 H-J9 D-KQ3 C-AQ7632. A perfectly normal 2C rebid, wouldn't you say? You pass 2C and lose a spade,two hearts, a diamond, at least two clubs, probably more. In 2H, which partner will pass, I lose 1S, 2H, 1D. Yeah, it was kind of unfair to give myself the jack of hearts (but not nearly as unfair as your example.) Let's give you some better clubs. N has: S-K65 H-83 D-Q8 C-AKJ654. Better? Okay, in 2C, on a 4-3 split you lose 2C (I'm putting the queen with four where it is more likely), 2D, 2H, and 1S. Down two - but probably you get your spade loser off on a diamond if they don't lead spades for down one.) How do I do in 2H? I lose 3H and 2D. One spade and one diamond go on the ♣AK. Dang - 2H is better again! Of course, there are some that demand that a raise of one heart shows four cards, and would be compelled to rebid 2C on: S-K6 H-K93 D-75 C-AQ6543. Here in clubs, you rate to lose three trumps, two diamonds, and least a heart and maybe a heart ruff! In hearts, I can trump a spade and maybe a diamond as well unless the opponents are kind enough to find the trumps for me. I might lose two hearts (if unlucky) and two diamonds. Please be aware that I am not trying to show you up. Although I am not an expert, I have a lot of experience, and have done much reading of bridge material, and like to teach the game (as evident by these problem threads.) If you choose to, you can learn from my experience and from the experience of other teachers, decent players, and experienced players. Or you can assume that you are always right in the face of overwhelming evidence implying otherwise. I hope you choose the former.

How do you feel about S-10 7 2, H- K Q 8 5 4 3, D - Q 9 6 4, C- void? For I happened to run across this gem in the December 2013 Bidding Box. The decent pair who plays Standard (2/1) who was invited to bid these hands had the auction 1C-1H-2C-2H-P. (The other pair played Precision and got to 3C.) The Bridge Bulletin suggested auction is 1C-1H-2C-2H-P (for a poor result.) Maybe those people at Horn Lake (ACBL Headquarters) should all give up bridge? The companion hand in the Bidding Box was S-QJ4, H-void D-J1032, C-AKQ954. Plus, I disagree that the bidding is very normal. Most partners would never find the spade fit if you didn't rebid spades. This hand looks like you have the same number of losers in spades or clubs if you have a 4-4 spade fit, and if that number is 3, then you want to be in 4S, and bidding 2C precludes that, unless you can find a partner that thinks like yourself. There's a reason to bid 1S on your example hand which was xxxx, -, Kx, AKJTxxx. If partner has Axxx, Kxxxx, Qxx, x, you want to be in 4S but partner passes your 2C rebid. Even if partner has xxxx, Axxx, Axxx, x, you want to be in 4S. Partner will move over a 1S rebid but will pass a 2C rebid. You can see that 4S has reasonable play on a 3-2 split but 5C is a disaster. It's not only when responder has short clubs that bidding spades might be helpful. Give responder: QJxx, Jxxx, Ax, Qxx. Partner will pass 2C (the doubleton diamond doesn't help in 3NT and you don't have enough for 5C) but with an apparently decent-fitting 8-loser hand, will probably raise a 1S rebid to 3S. Is the ace more likely to be in hearts? Sure. QJxx, AJxx, xx, Qxx. Same deal - you play 2C, my partner raises my 1S to 3S and I bid game on my 5 loser hand. The opponents are likely to lead a diamond regardless of who has the ace, but if not, a diamond loser goes on the ♥A and I just need to hold the trump losers to two. Admittedly, if partner doesn't have four spades, your 2C bid will work out well because expert defenders will misdefend and then grumble about how they were fixed by a bidder unfamiliar with the basics, but they won't respect you. However, I am not gong to suggest that you give up Bridge. I'm going to suggest instead that you be open to more mainstream bidding ideas, which will open up a whole new world of partners for you.

In reality, the advantage is probably more; Deep Finesse defends double dummy, and IRL it's a lot easier to defend with 16 of declarer's 25 points on the table rather than 9. And while a dummy dummy lead is unlikely to give anything up, a blind opening lead up to a 16 point hand is more likely to give up a trick than a blind lead up to a 9 point hand. (I'm ignoring bidding considerations; assume it goes 1NT-3NT to have the 16 point hand play and 1C*-1NT-3NT to have the 9 point hand declare. (1C 16+, artificial).

I think everybody is playing results here. If North doesn't have a spade fit, it's likely that any contract higher than 1H will be worse than 1H. If partner's overall is normal, opener has a normal reopening double, and responder has a normal penalty pass, then your score which might seem bad, will beat the scores of those who felt compelled to run and went for a bigger number when North didn't magically produce a spade fit.

Of course, misclicks happen. I should rephrase to "plays that a BBO expert makes and defends."

1NT is very easy to double. A while ago, there was an "assign the blame" thread where the auction went P P P 1D 1S P 1NT X P P P. The spade overcaller had a good suit and about 9 points, the 1NT bidder had a doubleton spade and about 9 points and a diamond stopper. The contract went for 500 NV vs NV. Almost everybody said that there was no reason to bid 1NT as the overcaller was a passed hand and there was no game - just play the 5-2 fit and be happy. 1S would not have been doubled on this hand. I think the people dissing the 1NT advance were correct. If you bid 1NT here after 1H has been doubled for penalties, you are certainly going to be doubled. On this hand you might save 200 points but there is no doubt that you will be doubled unless the opponents are asleep (and maybe even then.) And while you might take a diamond and four spades on this hand to only go for 300, on many hands 1NTx will be worse than 1Hx since in 1Hx partner has the opportunity to endplay the long trump hand to gain extra trump tricks, a maneuver which is quite difficult in notrump. EDIT: As I look at the hand, you shouldn't go down less in 1NTx. Assuming clubs are 4-4, the opponents should be able to take 4 clubs, 3 diamonds, and 2 hearts before you get the lead. If somebody has a fifth club, you're down 800.

You know it's bad when you can honestly say that you have never seen a BBO "expert" make such a play.

What prompted me to post was the fact that you, who has demonstrated a high degree of competence on these forums, is one of the people that he would want to exclude from his set of potential partners, and I think that this pointed out the shortsightedness of his statement. BTW, I noticed that you didn't vote in the poll :)

Several decades ago, Alvin Roth was a top player who was in favor who passed a lot of hands that most of us would open (I think he passed many 13's.) His results were excellent, and if he were alive today, they probably still would be despite that one wrinkle in his bidding theory. I find it hard to believe you would exclude such a partner simply because he doesn't open this hand. I am guessing that what you mean is that you believe that players who would pass this hand are necessarily poor players and you would expect to do poorly with them, but what your statement actually says is that you wouldn't want to partner a world-class player (I mean real world-class, not world-class by BBO self grading standards) whose philosophy was to pass these hands.

What makes you think it's a zero? You have taken no unusual actions. Why couldn't every other action in the auction have been perfectly normal? This reminds me of a hand in a decent field where I converted a double to penalty. A couple tricks into the play it appeared like the opponents were making their doubled partscore, but I thought my action was pretty normal and instead of giving up, I thought hard about the hand and found the only defense to stop the overtrick and got almost an average board as we were the only ones that held them to 670. So with many partners, especially the ones who might double with North's hand, I think looking for a spade fit is optimistic. I'm pretty sure one frequent poster to these forums would double. That being said, my favorite partner, upon being asked about her second choice to 1H, might say "Excuse myself and wait until 1H is a viable first and second choice" (and who might be the only one in the field who overcalls), I have to seriously think about pulling.

d Partner might not take 5C as a slam try once you have bid 4H rather than trying for slam earlier. Of course, partner might work out that his double made you consider slam, but a more common interpretation of 5C would be: "Partner, I have a lot of clubs – we are going to 5H but I am telling you this in case they bid 5S to help you decide what to do. If you have a side club fit with me, you may want to reconsider defending and take the save in 6H." I don't think 7H is reckless at all – it makes when partner has a diamond void, or if the opponents don't lead diamonds. That's a lot of IMPs. While you might be risking a small slam if partner has the ♦K, most of the time you will only be risking a game bonus (or maybe a couple of undertricks if there are three cashing diamond tricks for the opponents.) I hope my partner wouldn't hold that hand. 3H would be my fourth choice of opening bids on a hand with a losing trick count of 5. If my partner reopened with a double, I'd be really afraid to defend 1S doubled when I have six hearts and partner has shown hearts. I'll concede that partner has a really tough time with that hand once you bid 2C, for you shouldn't have more than two hearts and are likely to have one. BTW, if I, as opener, had the same shape and 14 points, I would sell to 1S, for there's a missing heart suit out there and it's a lot more likely to be with E-W than with N-S. Why wouldn't responder just raise to 2D (or make a limit raise showing bid if he's too good for 2D) ? No reason to be sorry – I appreciate all constructive criticism, and in fact, changed my last problem set for the better because you found a flaw in my analysis. Thanks! You will note in many of my problem sets that people will disagree, and many of the issues are based on the fact that people bid differently in different parts of the world, and I am compelled to concede that while my answers are sound for prevailing bidding practices in the USA, they might not apply elsewhere because my assumptions about alternative possible sequences are inconsistent with bidding practices in other regions of the world. Then, of course, there's always the chance that I just messed up, and would be quite pleased at being told that so I could fix the solution before many others saw it :D

You are quite right to not agree if your partner doesn't follow the bidding rules that I would expect him to. For example: You apparently both play with partners who might bury a 4-card spade suit, making all the inferences I made suspect, and making a 3D bid far less attractive. Smerriman and I are on a lot firmer ground that our partners won't have four spades, and once you make that assumption, I think the rest follows. However, you know your partners better than I do. If they would bury a 4-card spade suit to rebid 2C, or if they would try for a 4-3 spade fit ahead of a 7-0 club fit (expecting you to go back to 3C with a singleton), then you are right to disagree with my answer. While I agree that it's generally a good policy to stay low with a misfit, if one can trust partner to know your exact distribution and get to the best trump suit any time it's not hearts, I think it's a reasonable shot. Also, when would you be interested in game after having only rebid 2C and hearing partner rebid your void? If partner had 4-7 in the blacks and modest extras, and decided not to bid 1S, wouldn't he jump to 3C on his first rebid? We all know players who take these shots. They are bidding unsoundly and if bidding 7C and going down one makes partner unhappy, maybe he'll have his bid next time. Let's assume partner is sane. The ♥K should be a useful card. For there to be only twelve tricks, that must mean that partner bid 6C with two likely losers on an auction that has marked you with nothing. He has no right to gamble on you having a single ace or king when he has a powerful hand and the opponents have tried for game. If you trust your partner to be sane, you'll see the value in 7C. If you don't trust partner to be sane, then I would disagree with my 7C bid also.

But TBH their bidding isn't that wonderful either. Plus, they are quick to criticize when you assume that one of them knows what they are doing and make the correct technical bid that he doesn't understand.

Answers: (More advanced material in blue - as if some of this isn't advanced :) ) 1. [hv=pc=n&s=sa974hda83cak9865&d=s&v=0&b=11&a=1c1hppd2d4np5sp7hp?]133|200[/hv] Hint: What would possess partner to pass over 1H with the strength to bid Blackwood? Answer: North has long, strong hearts, and West is psyching. Partner bid 7H not knowing about your CK and apparently doesn't need it, BUT partner needs an entry to his hand and you don't have any hearts. You should pass 7H. Partner had ten solid hearts and three singletons! 2. [hv=pc=n&s=s7542hk86dt965c93&d=e&v=0&b=14&a=1dp1sd2sp3s6cp?]133|200[/hv] Hint: Why didn't partner just bid 6C the first time? Answer: If partner jumped to 6C the first time, you would assume he was bidding it to make opposite nothing, and you would raise to 7C with the ♣A or ♣K. On this particular auction, your partner must have significant high card strength and yet your opponents are not only both bidding, but are trying for game. Your partner should expect you to have nothing. While partner could have jumped to 6C the first time, I believe the double followed by 6C shows some hearts (probably a four-card suit.) This is not a typical double and correct situation; partner must have some reason for his original double. Of course, you may deduce from the opponents' bidding that partner has hearts, but the responder could have five and the opener could have four, so it's possible that partner has a singleton ace of hearts - but partner would just jump to 6C the first time with a one-loser hand with only one heart. Partner expects to make 6C without the ♥K so he should be able to make 7C with that card. Bid 7C. 3. [hv=pc=n&s=shak5d97643cakqjt&d=n&v=0&b=1&a=3h3s4h4sdp?]133|200[/hv] This hand is IMP scoring. Hint: How can partner double with an opening preempt when you might not even have a good hand? Answer: I was afraid that stating that this problem was iMPs might give the solution away. First, let's figure out what partner is doing. We have a pretty good hand, but our side rates to have at most one heart trick, and it's possible we don't take that many clubs. Partner's hearts aren't that good, can partner really have enough defense to set 4H? Does partner have a spade stack and is he doubling to stop us from bidding 5H? Partner shouldn't have that hand. With four good spades and seven hearts, 4H is a better opening bid than 3H. Pass is even a better bid than 3H (as 3H risks missing game or playing in the wrong suit when preemptor has so few losers.) So partner has little defense and is doubling 4S. Why is he doing that? The most rational reason is that partner has a void and expects to beat 4S with a couple of ruffs if you find his void with the opening lead. He is suggesting that you lead a non-heart (and probably a suit preference card for the return.) So if partner's void is in clubs and you lead clubs, you can take three or four club tricks and maybe a heart. If you lead diamonds, OOPS! If partner's void is in diamonds, neither hearts nor clubs are going very far but you'd better get a couple of diamond ruffs and a couple of rounded suit tricks. So if you guess the wrong void, tough luck. You could bid 5H. If partner's void is in diamonds, you make two overtricks. If partner's void is in clubs and the opponents lead diamonds, you're probably down one, but you might survive a different lead. As long as we have to guess partner's void to get the hand right, let's go for the huge IMP gain, let's guess that the void is in diamonds and bid 7H! The suggested bid is 7H, which will make when partner's void is in diamonds. If partner's void is in clubs, and the opponents double and lead a diamond, your score won't be far different than if you had defended 4S doubled and guessed wrong on the lead. 4. [hv=pc=n&s=sq53h9dakj65cakq4&d=s&v=0&b=11&a=1d1spp2cp2hp?]133|200[/hv] Hint: Why didn't partner make a negative double? Answer: I forgot to ask the question "Do you agree with your bidding so far?". Answer here: You have given partner a choice between clubs and diamonds and partner ignored your choice and bid 2H, knowing that you don't have heart support (if you had three hearts with your clubs and diamonds, you would have reopened with a double.) However, with long hearts and about 6 points, partner can make a negative double, intending to correct to hearts. So partner has long hearts and less than 6 points. You don't have a game, and partner's hand isn't likely to produce tricks if hearts aren't trump. Pass 2H. Partner's hand is S-842 H-QJ86532 D-3 C-75. Partner could even be weaker. I had said that a similar hand was used in an "intermediate" class. The class hand was easier because the bidding went 1D - pass - PASS - 1S.... so that the responder had already denied six points, and there was no reason for the opener to even consider a jump shift since game was totally out of the question. 5. [hv=pc=n&s=sa5hqt9643d7ckq82&d=n&v=0&b=1&a=1s2n3hp4hpp5cdpp5dpp?]133|200[/hv] East's 2NT showed at least five clubs and five diamonds and is usually weak. Hint: Whose hand is it? Why couldn't partner double 5D? Answer: Whether you are familiar with forcing passes or not, you should be aware that your side has the majority of strength and you don't want the opponents to play the hand undoubled. So what's going on? Partner doubled 5C and you have four clubs and RHO has five clubs. LHO is clearly playing around - he has no intention on playing in clubs unless you let him play there undoubled. He just threw that 5C stinker bid on a short club suit in the auction to try to confuse your side. Don't be confused. Partner doubled 5C and has some clubs. Partner has heart support. Partner has at least five spades. Partner couldn't double five diamonds so partner is probably also short in diamonds and West likely has five or six diamonds and is hoping that you let him buy the hand for 5D. However, if partner has no wasted values in diamonds, your hand should play quite well in hearts. Bid at least five hearts. I would probably bid 5H but I would give full credit for 6H as it's not unlikely that partner has the ♥AK, ♠K and ♣A, and even the ♥AJ might be enough since the ♥K would likely be with West. 6. [hv=pc=n&s=sa74hqt7632djt54c&d=n&v=0&b=1&a=1cp1hp2cp2hp2sp?]133|200[/hv] Hint: Do you know partner's exact distribution? You should! Eliminate the impossible distributions. Answer: Partner would have rebid 1S with four, so partner has three spades. Partner is giving you an option of playing 2S in case you have four. You should have six hearts for your 2H bid, so with a singleton heart, partner would play the 6-1 heart fit rather than try for an unknown 4-3 spade fit. Also, you can assume that if you don't have four spades (which you usually won't), partner has a fallback, probably clubs. So assume that partner wants you to pass 2S with four, but go back to 3C otherwise. Would partner do this with seven clubs? No, partner would probably just bid 3C with seven clubs rather than give you an option to play a 4-3 spade fit. So partner has exactly three spades, exactly zero hearts, and exactly six clubs, so partner must have exactly four diamonds! Bid 3D and play your 4-4 fit. While this wasn't hard to figure out logically, I have to give very much credit to my partner who figured out during the auction that by bidding 2S, she would be telling me her entire distribution! It's one thing to hear a really strange bid and figure out what it must mean. It's a whole different level of difficulty to think of the bid yourself and realize that partner can work everything out. While I was able to bid 3D with my hand, I think it's pretty unlikely that I would have thought to bid 2S with her hand (something like QJx, ---, Qxxx, AKJxxx.)

Very well done, Tramticket! We match on 5 out of 6 (even the fact that I was tempted to bid slam on #5.) And I put #6 last because I thought it was the toughest, but indeed if you think logically it's not that hard. You may be surprised to hear that #4 was the one that I might use in an "intermediate" aka advanced beginner class; indeed when I saw a top teacher teach a class of that level, a hand similar to #4 was used in the class (the lesson had already covered things like taking a preference with nothing when you've passed and partner has offered up two suits.)

My favorite partner perpetrated #6 opposite me! It's said that they don't ring an alarm clock at the bridge table when you have to really think about the situation, but partner's 2S bid is as close to an alarm clock as I've ever seen. And I might agree that these are too tough for I/N. There is only one of them that I would give to an intermediate (i.e. advanced beginners) class.

Hi - these problems should be very easy for experienced players but an I/N player needs to think about the right things in an auction. If you get them wrong, don't feel too bad as long as you understand the rationale for the answers. I'll provide the answers later but I'll put a hint as a spoiler. Try to solve the problem without the spoiler. Also, let me know if you would be interested in seeing more of these from time to time. Assume you are playing Standard American (a natural system with 15-17 1NT openings and 5-card majors), matchpoints, and nobody is vulnerable. You are playing negative doubles through 4H. Sometimes partner makes a call that you just don't expect in that situation, or that is mind boggling. When this happens, you have to think about what could possibly make him want to take that action. Jerry Helms as an acronym ASBAF - all strange bids are forcing. We might see a couple of exceptions to that here! I think this set is one of my trickiest sets. I wanted to name it "WT* is partner doing?" but didn't want to run afoul of the censorship police. 1. [hv=pc=n&s=sa974hda83cak9865&d=s&v=0&b=11&a=1c1hppd2d4np5sp7hp?]133|200[/hv] 2. [hv=pc=n&s=s7542hk86dt965c93&d=e&v=0&b=14&a=1dp1sd2sp3s6cp?]133|200[/hv] 3. [hv=pc=n&s=shak5d97643cakqjt&d=n&v=0&b=1&a=3h3s4h4sdp?]133|200[/hv] This hand is IMP scoring. 4. [hv=pc=n&s=sq53h9dakj65cakq4&d=s&v=0&b=11&a=1d1spp2cp2hp?]133|200[/hv] 5. [hv=pc=n&s=sa5hqt9643d7ckq82&d=n&v=0&b=1&a=1s2n3hp4hpp5cdpp5dpp?]133|200[/hv] East's 2NT showed at least five clubs and five diamonds and is usually weak. 6. [hv=pc=n&s=sa74hqt7632djt54c&d=n&v=0&b=1&a=1cp1hp2cp2hp2sp?]133|200[/hv]

I was surprised to see this set pop up - it was posted in January and I've done several others since.

Thank you! It seems like we have more passers here in the few votes I've collected than on the many votes on BW!

I hope that you at least understand my answers, for if not, I've done a poor job of explaining them!

You have the wrong question. What I was asking is if there was ANY hand that the player would open in one system and not the other. To me, it seems like whether I'm playing 2/1 is irrelevant when opening the bidding. I wanted to see if others felt the same.