AL78

Ha ha, you've noticed. I wonder if it is me that is behind the times in terms of bidding theory, because it is amazing how often these apparent out of the way actions seem to work well, or at the very least don't cost. :-) At my local club, the standard is very mixed, and there are players who take liberties because people in the main are scared to double partscores.

I'm guessing my partner didn't want to bid 3♥ is because on the auction, it is impossible for me to hold the hand I have, and there is a fair chance of going one or two off doubled if I have some semi-balanced 15 count. West has effectively psyched a reverse.

MPs [hv=pc=n&s=saq4hak82dq76cat2&w=skt8hdk5432ckq763&n=s962hjt9763dj98c9&e=sj753hq54datcj854&d=w&v=n&b=12&a=1cp1sd2dp3cppp]399|300[/hv] A balanced 19 count and completely powerless. There is no defence to 3♣, making exactly for a 36% board for us, others going to 5♣ off, or 4♥ our way one off. We only beat the two pairs who let 10 tricks through in the same contract. It is one of those hands where whoever gets the plus score does well.

This is a good novice lesson on counting top tricks, how many more needed to make the contract, and how to do that. Then before playing from dummy, formulate a plan. The 10th trick has to come from a heart ruff, which means being in hand. There is no way back to hand other than overtaking dummy's trump winner. Once all this has been established, the line of play is marked. It should also be noted on the lead that there are insufficient entries to dummy to establish the diamonds for heart discards.

Wouldn't a 4♠ cue strongly urge slam interest with ♠ control?

That would have been a good idea, I didn't think of that at the time and it would likely have worked. At the time I decided South had done a lot of bidding on not that many HCP and little enthusiasm from North, so I played him for a singleton heart, playing ace then back to the jack. Wrong - South held ♥Q5, so I gave away the trick they apparently blew at trick one. I made 11 tricks: four hearts, five clubs, and two spades. The apparent trick I gained at trick one wasn't a gained trick. I still only have 12 tricks if I get the hearts right, because I have three losers in hand, and can only throw two of them on dummy's clubs, so have to lose a diamond or spade at the end. The lead I got only replaces a diamond ruff with a second spade winner for the 12th trick. [hv=pc=n&s=sqt3hq5daqj983ck3&w=s642hat74d2caq982&n=sk987h82dt754c654&e=saj5hkj963dk6cjt7]399|300[/hv]

This is on BBO, so not possible to missort hand. Another explanation is a misclick.

I admit we had unusually poor opposition yesterday evening (partly why we won) but I was just curious as to how others would play the heart suit given the bidding. I feel it is worth posting instructional hands where there is a possibility my judgement was flawed.

Sim pairs. [hv=pc=n&w=s642hat74d2caq982&e=saj5hkj963dk6cjt7&d=e&v=n&b=2&a=1n2d3c3d3h4d4hppp]266|200[/hv] We play weak NT and Lebensohl, so 3♣ is natural and forcing (maybe a TOX is better here?), and I decided I might as well show my heart suit. The opening lead is the ♠3 which runs to your jack. How do you plan to play the hearts?

Isn't 4th best a subset of BOSTON? You lead fourth best from a suit containing an honor, partner interprets your lead as low for like, high for hate.

Leading an unsupported ace is usually horrible, leading a spade might be into the AQ and blow a trick, and leading a suit the opponents have bid naturally doesn't look appealing, so I would lead a low diamond and hope it isn't a frozen suit.

I'd have probably dismissed it as one of those things. It is not so much missing a game I am worried about, it is more whether bidding three of my suit means something similar compared to if there was no interference. It turns out it is not obvious. My question was more about whether the bidding our way was sound and whether my 3♠ showing a decent opening hand was reasonable. The replies have made me realise it is another competitive situaion where partnership discussion is needed as to what directly (re)bidding suits means compared to going through a cue bid or double.

I find it easy to do this during the auction. My view of the hand changes whenever partner or the opponents bid. It is a bit like when playing the hand, you sometimes have to change plan when the distribution of one or both of the opponents hands is not as expected, or when defending, observing partner's plays and discards gives clues as to where their 8-10 HCP lies. I'm not a beginner, I am a very average/mediocre club player, by that I mean if I turn up at a local club with a regular reasonable partner, I can usually finish in the middle of the field or better (although the last couple of years I have performed worse than prior years).

Straightforward pass after briefly thinking about 1♠. It is a grotty flat hand with little trick taking potential.

I pass. The suit quality is not quite good enough for a red vs white overcall (I'd like a sixth heart), and with my luck at the bridge table I am not pushing it.

The 2♠ bid by North was self alerted as a cue bid, so I presume it was supposed to show a good diamond raise. I was surprised by the bid, as between my 16 and partner's 8+ HCP, at least one of the opponents doesn't have their bid, and I trust my partner. As for your questions: First round: A good opening hand, worth opening 1♠ and jumping to 3♠ next time if partner doesn't support. Second round: If anything downgraded it a bit, looks like if have ♦AQ over my KJ. Despite this, if we have a spade fit, I still think 4♠ should be a reasonable shot, as the lead will be coming up to me. NS bidding doesn't make sense, I believe my partner has her bid, at worst she stretched it with an eight count. Good aspects: Good HCP strength for a 1 opening, a decent spade suit playable opposite a small doubleton, I hold the master suit. I will have the lead coming up to my tenaces if I get to play in spades, unless the lead is a heart. Bad aspects: My hand doesn't fit very well with partner, xx is not a great holding opposite her suit. Having AQ over my KJ, and likely the club king over my AQ will reduce the trick taking potential of my hand with all the minor finesses failing. Having said that, the NS bidding doesn't make sense so heaven knows where missing honor cards outside diamonds will be located.

It started with trying to work out why my results dropped significantly starting about four years ago, even though the standard of the opposition hadn't changed much, if at all. I started posting hands on rec.games.bridge before discovering this forum, with the aim of finding common factors that are harming my scores and that I can address. This forum has so far proved very useful in bringing up things to address. Since my bridge club moved onto BBO, my scores have increased by a good 5%, I can get mid 50's+% now when it was an effort to break 50% with the same partners last year, not sure why this has happened. I used to play in county competitions with a different regular partner 15 years ago. The opposition strength was variable until we progressed far enough to get a very strong team, then we'd get battered and I'd have no idea why. I don't do competitive bridge (outside club bridge) any more.

If I hold 5m 4M and am responding, I only bid the major if my hand is so weak that it is only worth one bid. The East hand does not fit that category, and I can't see the problem with responding 2♣ followed by spades next round.

Even that doesn't make sense, as the multi was weak either major, no mention of a strong option, so blasting to 4M is even more obvious (unless North forgot to include the strong option in the explanation).

A two over one response in competition can be made on as little as 7 HCP? I thought it should be similar as in the absence of an overcall, with the lower limit stretched to 8 HCP in the case of holding a very good suit like the West hand.

I agree, if I were South I'd have blasted 4♥ pass or correct. Thanks for the defence suggestion. The more I play recently the more gaps I am finding in my partners and my agreements, so I am trying to plug holes as they appear.

2♥ is not forcing in this situation because partner has passed, so she is limited to around 9-11 HCP, but it would be unlimited and forcing if partner was not a passed hand. I thought 3♠ would be forcing to game, and I didn't think my spade suit was quite good enough to blast 4♠ on my own. Having said that, partner has a problem if she wants to go to game but doesn't have spade support and doesn't hold a long (6+) heart suit, there is no space for her to ask about a diamond stop for 3NT. I'll have another think about this, as I am missing something somewhere.

MPs. I don't know what the opposition were doing on this hand (I'm not sure they did either) [hv=pc=n&s=sh97daq732cjt8532&w=s52hakjt8d98c9764&n=skj843hq643dt64ck&e=saqt976h52dkj5caq&d=s&v=n&b=15&a=ppp1s2d2h2s3sppp]399|300[/hv] Double dummy 3♠ is the limit of the hands, but South kindly led her ♦A and another, solving all problems in that suit, and even with the 5-0 break I easily made 10 tricks. We had a discussion about it afterwards and partner said she interpreted my bid as showing at least six spades and a good hand, which is what I was trying to show. She didn't think she had quite enough to bid game, basically she wanted one more potentially useful card. I'd have probably gone for it but I would have been wrong theoretically. This was worth 93%, I was the only one to make 10 tricks thanks to the awful lead. What do you think of the EW bidding given the inteference?

MPs: [hv=pc=n&s=s98542hjt82dck862&w=sk63h6dat92caqt93&n=sqhaq7543dj873c75&e=sajt7hk9dkq654cj4&d=n&v=0&b=1&a=2dd2hdp3dp5dppp]399|300[/hv] 2♦ was alerted as weak either major. I didn't fancy passing planning to come in next time, as there was a risk it wouold be in 3 or 4♥ by then so I decided to double to show values. I interpreted partner's double as showing values and likely not four spades, so I decided to bid my best suit, and she put me in game. With the very favourable layout the ace of hearts is the only loser. Ideally we should be in 3NT although it is far from certain at first glance. What is a better way to bid this hand? Problem is we haven't discussed how to deal with the multi, because it almost never comes up. I'll have to look up a multi defence.

There is at least one other luck factor that isn't eliminated, taking a superior line of play/defence which fails and the majority take an inferior line which works. I remember one hand where my partner played in 6♠ after my RHO had opened a three level pre-empt. To bring the slam in required picking up the ♠Q with a nine card fit. The options were to play for the drop, or finesse through either opponent. My partner played for the drop (cashing the high honor in dummy first) and found Qx with the pre-emptor. If I were playing the hand, I'd have finessed through my LHO and gone off for a bottom.