LBengtsson

The one thing that not one has said here is that with a void in a suit, there is a little more probability for you to have a misfit with partner, and whilst you have two strong suits in the minors, the hands might not fit well. I am in the camp of bidding 1♦ followed by 2♣, not reversing here. With a good partner, and the opps not making intervening bids, he will realise that you have shape and points and are close to a reverse but cannot bid it.

Agree. But it only answers one question that Cyberyeti asked: 1. What do you do now? 2. What is double by you? 3. What would double have been by your partner? My answer to 1. Is bid one more. Cannot see X getting us the best score. So best bid here imo is 4NT (takeout) My answer to 3. X by partner after 3♠ shows extra values without an available bid. Pre-emptive bidding by opps. is made to make your life difficult. You are not always going to get it right, but you have a good hand with some good controls so you have to bid. Gambling on slam straight away is poker bid imo.

Thanks for that, smerriman, Interesting :) So why did the robot not play (on my friend's board) for this line that I have highlighted? Difference between basic and advanced robots, I guess. Yes, I admit I did not see the line highlighted as probably the best probability play. A complete blind spot on my part. This is a hand where if you were playing in a club and did not draw trumps early, your partner would never play with you again - lol! - as it looks like a beginner error, but the GIB line does look best I agree.

This is the full deal [hv=pc=n&s=sj52hkq985dk7ckqt&w=sq9843h2d984c7643&n=sak6hj76dat532ca5&e=st7hat43dqj6cj982]399|300[/hv] Trick 3 West discard small ♠. (declarer drawing trumpss) Trick 4 West discard small ♦ (declarer drawing trumps) Trick 5 West discard ♠8, dummy ♦2 (declarer drawing trumps) Trick 6 ♣K all follow Trick 7 ♣Q opps. follow, dummy discards ♦3 Trick 8 ♦K, all follow, no honors Trick 9 small ♦ to ♦A, East drops ♦J Trick 10 ♠A all follow Trick 11 ♠K all follow, no queen appears Trick 12 ♦10 covered by ♦Q ruffed by last trump Trick 13 ♠J loses to ♠Q result one down

A friend was playing with a robot (GIB), and they bid quick to 6♥ without any opps. bidding. The robot declarer did not see the easy squeeze and went down :( I have put this board in the Intermediate Forum as it is instructional, and easy to follow. I am not sure why GIB missed this play, and maybe someone familiar with GIB can tell us why? This is one easy squeeze compared to some of the more complicated ones that are for advanced and expert players, and some beginners with good previous card play skills would see it imo. [hv=pc=n&s=sj52hkq985dk7ckqt&n=sak6hj76dat532ca5]133|200[/hv] Contract 6♥ by South. You receive the lead of ♥3 from West, you play the ♥6 from dummy, East plays the ♥A, and you play the ♥5. East now returns a small ♣ and you take it with the ♣A in dummy You then cash the ♥J in dummy and you note that West is now void. You then take the marked finesse of the ♥10 and draw the last outstanding trump. (It is important that you plan ahead here and leave a small ♠ and a small ♣ in dummy for communication to the South hand.) This will leave these cards. [hv=pc=n&s=sj52h8dk7ckq&n=sak6hdat53c5]133|200[/hv] You can now try for a 3-3 ♦ break by cashing the ♦K, leading to the ♦A and ruffing a ♦. If ♦ are 3-3 your ♦10 is good and you can claim the rest of the tricks. If the ♦ suit does not break 3-3 you are left in this position. [hv=pc=n&s=sj52hdckq&n=sak6hdtc5]133|200[/hv] You now have two chances to make the contract after cashing the ♣KQ. If West has both the ♠Q and the good ♦ he is squeezed before you play from dummy, or either player has ♠Qx as a doubleton. I hope this is useful and easy to follow. And did you see the other way it could be made?: if either of the opps has ♦ QJ doubleton, then the ♦10 will be good also. Edit: And I am sure some expert players will see a slight variation on this that gives them a extra chance of making the contract: cashing a top ♠ during the play after drawing trumps. For your information, on the actual board the ♦ did split 3-3 which meant you did not have to think about a possible squeeze.

My - I hope - logical answer would be whatever bid is best in your system and accurately describes your hand, always taking into consideration that you (probably) need to rebid when partner responds. Say we are playing vanilla (basic) Wei Precision, where 1♦ = 4+♦ 11-15, and 1NT = 13-15 balanced. What would be the best bid here? Obviously 1NT as it is a more fixed point range and describes your hand in one bid. A 1♦ opener could include many other hands such as (34)51, 4441, (42)61, (21)55 and many balanced hands where you do not have 13 points. Describing your hand accurately on an opening bid, and especially where you can bid 1NT here, if using a 12-14/13-15 or 14/16 NT system, will help partner also if the opps. intervene. There is no upgrade here as even Kaplan/Rubens rate it as a 14.2 even with its 3 controls.

Good hand to post, MP7601. I see Cyberyeti's idea of a dummy reversal if the right ♣ non-honors appear, though timing is everything here. South has not led the ♥A if he has it, as he has worked out that declarer is the one with ♥K so leading an ace against a slam will make it easy for declarer. There is probably a way to combine all chances of either dummy reversal or setting up 5th ♠ or as a final play leading towards the ♥K and guessing the location of the missing ♥ honors. Not quite sure what is the best line of play here myself at this stage, and will come back to this.

Imo it is not a weak 5/5M as if partner only has 3/3M support then you have a double fit in both the ♥ and ♠ suit. If partner has 4M in either ♥ or ♠ then you have 9 card major suit fit and should be in game. Only if partner (West) turns out with minimum strong trump opening (15) and few controls then a 4M contract would be jeopardy imo. I like the methods of both Cyberyeti and pescetom where a bid of either 3♦ or 4♦ after Stayman is some form of extended Stayman showing 5/5M and gets the strong NT hand to play the contract. Though it would be interesting to know how the bidding went at the table? I guess (and it only a guess) 1NT - P - 2♥(transfer to ♠) - 3♣ - X (to show maximum NT hand with ♣ stopper and/or suit) - P - and then East thinks whether to leave the X in (not wise) or bid 3♥ forcing (to game imo), and then West bids 4♠, I guess. As Cyberyeti said, South playing 3♣X contract may only go for -200 depending on the defense.

It is your system that lacks. If you use a artificial system and are not prepared for the opps. to bid, and do not have clear definitions of what your bids mean after the opps. intervene, then that is where the problem is. If after North has bid 3♦, and South has bid 3♥ and that does not set up a GF, then you are always going to guess the final contract. How many pairs play in 4m as a final contract when 3NT or 5m (even 6m) are the places to be? I hope you agree. So after 3♦ - 3♥ then 4♣ should be still be forcing from North. Whether you can still reach 6♣ from there is still a question mark, but by North bidding 5♣ after 3♥ that is terminal as a stop bid.

The easiest way for BBO to deal with this is ban the users IP addresses. It is a obvious dupe. They cannot register as other users on the computers they use, and so will soon run out of terminals or phones to access. It is a simple and effective solution, so why cannot BBO do this?

I am glad that someone on here is doing a systematic assassination of GIB many faults. That is why I do not play with robots: you can never trust what they do. I had to look up the 'Murphy': now I understand.

I think the board orientation threw you AL78. It threw me also :blink: The cards look very kind for declarer. Can I ask: Are East/West playing Acol or 5M, lamford?

This is (one reason) why I do not play with robots: they do not have strategy to 'think forward' (as with chess bots). On this hand if I was North I would be thinking, what is my next bid after 1♠ if partner rebids 2♦? I have not got a sensible one in 2/1. I guess (and it is a guess) that 2/1 experts - and I confess I do not know 2/1 in full - would have not bid the 4 card ♠ suit here but would have made the immediate G/F response of 2♣. If there is a 4-4♠ to be found it can be found later. As for the bidding sequence on the second hand I do not understand why the bot bid one more to 7♦? That is just crazy.

Agree. If partner (opener) is 4♠5♥ shape, there is little chance that a 4♠ contract will play any better than a 4♥ contract, and the same applies if he has ♠AKxx ♥AKxxxx ♦xx ♣x or similar and can make a small slam. West has three card with an honor support for partner's suit, a stiff in the opps suit and a AK in a side suit. Bidding X instead of 3♦ here is the wrong bid imo. If you do not show support immediately, there is a chance that the opps, on certain hands with distributional values, could be bidding 5♦ before the bidding comes back around to you. It is more easy for partner and for you to judge if you support his ♥ suit immediately imo.

Thanks for posting, Lovera. Although wikipedia is not always extra-accurate, it does usually cover all the bases and is a reliable source of information. I have not seen this entry before.

Good slam. Poor break. **** happens :(

I am reading in the online news feeds and on BBC World News about the two candidates for the UK's next prime minister. Looks like your recruiting criteria would pick a better candidate lol! :D (The impression I am given is that the British press do not like either of them.)

I agree entirely, smerriman. His contribution on these forum pages was both excellent and wide-ranging. May he rest in peace.

Interesting hand. 4-3 split in ♥ 62%. 3-2 split in ♣68%. I would play ♦Q first trick. Then play on ♣ suit with two entries to the South hand. You are left ending [hv=pc=n&s=sj942hdc&n=sqthkdac]133|200[/hv] Play a ♠ and you will get 2 more tricks. If ♣ suit does not break 3-2 then I am in deep...

I like this line, mikeh. I calculated that odds are as follows:- 25% ♣K or ♣J dropping stiff 38% ♣K or ♣J dropping stiff or part of doubleton ♣KJ 53% ♣ 2-2 or stiff ♣K dropping 68% ♣K or J honor card not appearing when ♣A is cashed. Does this help?

Good hand to post, Stephen. If no opps. bidding, I would go for trying to set up the ♠ suit in the South hand as odds on a 4/3 split are about 62%. The problem are the entries if the trump suit does not split 2-2. (Only had a quick look and will come back.)

I have sympathy, the possum. The 5♥ bid is not just 'bizarre' but crazy also.

It is a difficult hand as... 1. You should bid up to the level of the fit. 2. You probably have some defense with ♠K making and ♣AJx 3. Partner may have the right cards for 3NT to make XX is the wrong bid as other commentators have said. Bidding 1♥/1♠ as psyche is only going to work with weak opponents. If 1♦ here is 3+ as opener, I like 2NT here to show limit raise to 3♦. It is not the ideal hand, but that is the most descriptive bid imo. With 4414 or similar you would XX here, and with pre-mptive value in ♦s you would bid 3♦ after opps. X. This hand has some offense so 2NT seem right.

Except if you playing with a regular partner should you worry whether you play 2/1 or SAYC. I guess not many (including myself) know every bid as a precise bid in 2/1 or SAYC. Playing GF 2/1 you could find yourself in 23-24 high point games where there is less than 50% chance of making the contract. As far as I am aware there is option for 2/1 players to land in a non-game contract where opener is bare minimum: I have actually seen two expert players end in 4m while playing 2/1! (So the 2 over 1 bid became invitational as in SAYC not GF) But that is exception. I like 2/1 but prefer SAYC slightly. But I have played so much more SAYC than 2/1, so I may be bias :) I get feeling that 99% of expert players now use 2/1 as opposed to SAYC. And I guess from reading players profiles that many older American players at Intermediate level still use SAYC (or Standard American style bids) and have not made the change.

3♦ bid by robot is crazy. Misfit just pass 3♣ bid. You have showed responder reverse as East and West is not interested and has shown minimum hand, and does not show any ♥ fit.