AL78

You are like the players at my club, they love to drop singleton offside kings in my hand even if it is against the odds. :lol:

No we don't do support doubles.

I'm not a fan of opening eight loser sub minimum balanced hands in second seat vulnerable.

You can joke, but last year this partner had a severe reaction to a covid vaccination which has led to debilitating health issues including hair loss and severe fatigue/weakness. I was directing and made a mistake thinking we had a sitter and we didn't, so had to assist with moving her chair when we had to move between rounds. It was almost like playing with someone who is fighting to cling onto life. It is unknown how long it will take for her to recover, the best I've heard is that she has to wait until the vaccine is out of her body.

You have eight tricks off the top. If East can make a forcing bid opposite the equivalent of a weak two they are likely to have all the HCP except the heart ace or have a bit of distribution if missing one of the black honor cards. I can't see anything better than taking the club finesse. If you want the declarer hand at the bottom make South declarer and adjust the auction accordingly.

5CM, strong NT.

I passed, thinking partner held something like a minimum weak NT e.g. 3325 or 4324 and decided maybe we don't have much on. I am not bidding 2NT as we almost certainly have only one diamond stop and that gets knocked out immediately, and are we any better in a seven card major fit? Turns out we are as we have three possible partscores on but I/we fluked it when the other two tables overbid to game going down whilst we took 2♦ one off: [hv=pc=n&s=skt4hkt5dkt62cj32&w=sa632hj3d8ckq9765&n=s875hq87dqj753ca8&e=sqj9ha9642da94ct4&d=n&v=e&b=9&a=ppp1c1d1h2dppp]399|300[/hv] The traveller: 3NTE -1 +100 5♣E -1 +100 2♦N -1 -50 This was mildly annoying to me as this was one hand in another session where I only played three hands in 21 boards, and holding values opposite a partner who opened I was expecting one of us to play the hand, but again I get stumped.

[hv=pc=n&e=sqj9ha9642da94ct4&d=n&v=e&b=9&a=ppp1c(Could%20be%20short)1d1h2dpp]133|200[/hv] A nice little collection after partner opens but what do you do now?

This hand was held by my LHO, I was East who opened and LHO did overcall 2♣ on this hand. I would like to say we got multiples of a hundred out of them, but what really happened was he found a partner with five card support to the king, so we ended up defending 3♣ and let an overtrick through when neither of us attacked the diamonds in time, and declarer got one away on the ♠J. [hv=pc=n&s=saqhat82d93cqj942&w=skt842h974dkj86c8&n=sj53hqdq754ck7653&e=s976hkj653dat2cat&d=n&v=b&b=13&a=p1h2cd3cppp]399|300[/hv] The full traveller: 3♣S+1 +130 3♣S+1 +130 2♠E+1 -140 2♥E+1 -140 I knew immediately that declarer had a poor suit and must be overcalling vulnerable with a good opening hand, which meant I wasn't sure if it was safe to attack diamonds, and partner didn't find a diamond lead when in either. How do I know when in with the club ace? I did question the wisdom of overcalling vulnerable with such a poor suit but these two are amongst the strongest pairs at the club and regularly do well so who am I to question?

I made a mess of this one playing North: [hv=pc=n&s=st95ha64dkj6c9842&w=skj8hq985d732ckqj&n=saq762h2daq54ca76&e=s43hkjt73dt98ct53&d=e&v=n&b=2&a=pp1n(12-14)d(Penaties)2d(Transfer)p2hppp]399|300[/hv] We play Landy so have no way of showing a major/minor two suiter over 1NT. That was a bottom for missing a spade contract, never mind a spade game. I would have liked to have made a takeout double on the second round but did not have that agreement with partner and where that would go no-one knows. I considered bidding 2♠ on the second round but felt with a flimsy suit I could be walking into a world of pain given partner has failed to say anything and could be weak. I hoped partner might find a bid in the passout seat with some values knowing I am strong. Unfortunately partner didn't find a bid and has a perfect hand for me in a spade contract. On a second note with the North hand, how do you defend passively holding unguarded honors in three suits over opener and holding a singleton trump. I started off with the trump lead hoping that was the least of evils, fortunately it didn't finesse partner this time, but I am getting in quite frequently and there will come a point where I don't know how to position the minor suit honor cards, so don't know how to get off lead whilst minimising giving a trick by either opening a frozen suit or leading up to declarer's broken honors, and does declarer have four clubs and the ability to set up the fourth one for a discard (not this time)?

[hv=pc=n&s=saqhat82d93cqj942&d=n&v=b&b=13&a=p1h]133|200[/hv] EW are playing 5CM. Your call?

[hv=d=e&v=e&b=6&a=1hp1sp2hppp]133|100[/hv]

South has 12-15HCP balanced and North has a heart suit. Doubling with any old 12-15 balanced hand reminds me of the players at my club who make a TOX to show an opening hand, then either fluke a top by ending up in an otherwise unreachable makeable contract, or get in a mess when their partner bids their doubleton.

I would pass on all three hands. Qxxx in two suits looks icky unless partner has AK or maybe KT with them. I'd normally want a fourth spade to bid on and here I don't think I have anything extra to justify freely bidding, and if partner has a good hand for their actions so far they may be able to compete further.

Glad to hear I got it right there or thereabouts. Going through the BridgeMaster hands teaches you how to do elimination and endplay techniques as an alternative to simply taking finesses, even if on some of those hands the winning line might not be the best play at matchpoints. I just wish I could learn the expert hand techniques, and I daren't try the world class hands.

If trumps are 2-2 there is an elimination and endplay. Draw trumps, diamond to the ace, ruff a club, cash top diamonds throwing dummy's last club. Ruff the last diamond in dummy and run the ♥J. If it is covered you win and only lose one heart. If West wins he is endplayed. If trumps are 3-1 I'm thinking draw trumps, diamond to the ace, run the ♥J. If it is covered you have 12 tricks as before. If it loses to East win the return (certainly a club) and cash another two rounds of diamonds throwing a small heart. If the JT come down the nine is the 12th trick, otherwise ruff the nine in dummy and take a second heart finesse. West might have led the king from ♥KQ so I feel there is a good chance he doesn't hold both heart honors. If trumps are 4-0, I'll beat up whoever dealt the boards this week.

I'd pass and take the plus score. If LHO's bidding is to be believed the hand looks like a hideous misfit. Let the opponents play the misfit hands. You also have to ask yourself how strong partner must be to have a spade shortage but be unable to double or overcall.

Thanks for the tip, I've never heard of that signal.

I play with a keen inexperienced partner once a month with the aim of helping her progress. I try to give her advice if there is anything obvious that I can pick up on where she could have done better. Earlier this year there was a hand where I led a high spot card to give her a ruff which was signalling for a spade return and she didn't pick up the signal, so I went through this type of signal with her afterwards. A hand came up yesterday where I used this signal and she picked it up immediately which resulted in an excellent defence: [hv=pc=n&s=s74hk9843djt872c3&w=saqt8h765dk93ct98&n=s93ha2d654cakj642&e=skj652hqjtdaqcq75&d=e&v=0&b=14&a=1sp2s3c3sppp&p=c3c8ckc5cac7d2c9cjcqs4cth4h5hahth2hjhkh6h8h7s9]399|300[/hv] That was worth 5/8 MPs. It is satisfying to teach someone a concept which they haven't come across before and they are able to understand and apply it a considerable time later.

Thanks Mikeh for the warning that trying to analyse hands I've played is extremely susceptible to bias steering me towards the wrong conclusion. Is it worth me trying to do it solo, I don't want to spam this forum with a ton of hands from one of my poorer sessions and get people's backs up. One of the harder questions to answer is when I look at a hand and the double dummy analysis, see how we could have got the extra trick (e.g. by finding a switch at a critical moment), but am wondering whether there was a way of working it out at the table. I'm certain I am blowing tricks through not taking in and/or using all the information available to find the optimal play.

At my local club we have the option of vouchers which are sold in books of 11 for £25 and works out cheaper than the £3 table money. A few people are given the responsibility of selling books of vouchers and they tally up at the end of every month and put the money into the safe. This reduces the burden of cash on the treasurer.

I've just put the hand in an online double dummy solver. 2NT is the limit double dummy.

It isn't because the spade lead kills the entry to the diamonds declarer has to establish. On the given auction there is no way I am finding a spade lead from a broken honor sequence into what sounds like declarer's primary suit, but that is why I am not world class.

My thinking is to double finesse in spades, running the queen and if it loses to the king, run the ten. I haven't worked out all the odds and suit combinations but as long as one of the finesses works, you can set up the fourth spade on any 3-3 break and some 4-2 breaks.

We didn't get it going immediately. Partner led the spade ace and continued with another one. I can't remember what happened after that.