AL78

Do you really want to be in 7NT? You need to run the ♣J on the first play of that suit and you need to cash the correct spade honor first so you can pick the suit up for no losers. Are you really going to correctly guess all that at the table? Just because it is theoretically the best contract on the lie of the cards doesn't mean the winning play is going to be found. You might think to play the clubs correctly if West makes an unusual 2NT, but I still don't think you want to be gambling in 7NT unless you are desperate for a big imp swing.

I open 1♣, planning to bid 2♠ next, then bid spades again, and if partner bids 3NT, bid 4♣ if partner predictably bids the red suits. If opponents pre-empt in a red suit, I'll bid my spades over them. If by some miracle partner supports me in a black suit, I am almost certainly driving to slam. I am hoping I can get my shape and playing strength across to partner before the opponents ram the bidding to the stratosphere in a red suit.

Nothing to do with me, I have no control over the direction I sit. It is me that registers for the session and then invites my partner, would that influence which direction I'm seated?

Wow, quoting one sentence out of context, I've never seen that before on an online forum. :rolleyes: You completely ignore what I said about the 10 board bias not being susbtantial and about not inferring much from small sample sizes just to try and imply I am jumping to conclusions about a hand bias. Please don't do this, I've seen it too many times, it is old and it is boring.

My local club has run ten BBO sessions. So far there seems to be a bias against East (the direction I sit). Over all 10 boards it is not that large but it is substantial if only the sessions I have played are counted, but the caveat about not concluding anything from very small sample sizes applies. Average East HCP 11.94 8.44 10 10.83 8.33 8.67 11.11 9.11 9.56 9.83 Six out of ten below average, mean 9.78. For the sessions I was East: 8.44 10.83 8.67 9.11 Three out of four well below average, mean HCP 9.26. Even on the evening I had better than average hands, my partner copped the worst hands at the table (mean HCP 9.33) Online bridge has started in a similar way to bridge at the real club. I often used to have evenings at the club when I wondered why I bothered turning up (pass pass pass follow suit follow suit BOTTOM, oh look, no-one else bid the game/slam), and I went home feeling crap rather than having an enjoyable evening. I keep telling myself next time will be better, and that is what I will continue to do whilst playing online. At least the number of boards is lower online so a really poor evening is over quicker. I seem to have started online bridge at the time of a random poor hands streak. If the deals are fair, this should regress to the mean over the long term (i.e. I won't get a poor set of hands ever session, and a good streak will come up eventually). I will continue to monitor occasionally out of personal interest.

That doesn't work. Declarer wins and leads the ♠Q through West (covered else it is over for the defence), then knocks out the ♠J. West can lead a heart but declarer wins and now has nine tricks (5 diamonds, 2 spades, ♣K and ♥A). The killing lead is the ♥K, which immediately sets up communication between the defending hands, and after knocking out the ♥A, the defence can establish the required tricks in whatever suit declarer attacks and have the heart communication to cash them. It has to be the ♥K so East can play a small heart to knock out the ace if declarer ducks, and have the flexibility in the heart suit for either defender to put the other on lead, depending on who has established black suit tricks. I'd challenge any expert, or even world class player to find that defence at the table.

I would assume takeout. You have values, don't have immediate heart support, want to bid but don't have a suit to bid, and want partner to say something else about her hand. You shouldn't make 4♠, I don't think it makes if the defence lead a trump at every opportunity (and you have to lose the lead at least once to set up a big cross ruff. The only reasons the 21 count game on a Moysian fit has chances is that virtually all the HCPs are working, the ♣A is onside, the hearts are 3-3 and can be set up with one ruff, and you have all the spade honors between you, which prevents the defence overruffing when you start the crossruff.

Problem is most bridge at clubs is MPs. One significant problem I have when defending is when I narrow the layout to two possibililties, and if the layout is A, I need to defend using plan B, and if the layout is C, I need to defend using plan D. If I use plan D against layout A, or plan B against layout C, I blow one or more extra tricks. When I need to make the critical decision at a time where I don't have all the information needed to make a solid decision, bad scores come my way.

This is a good point. The slam is good because of a combination of a double fit and all the HCP save the CJ are working to their full potential. Is it possible to diagnose that in the auction in a way to be able to bail out into game if the hands match less favourably?

One of my now deceased bridge partners used to play disturbed bids weak after an overcall, with a jump showing invitational values and a long suit, double would be used to show a game going hand (IIRC). I didn't care for it very much.

That is a good auction. When South bids 2NT showing a spade stop, North knows the overcall was on garbage so he can count three spade tricks.

I count how many have gone, note who shows out, and note which are the masters as the honor cards come out. I also work out from the bidding and dummy how many HCP partner can have and where they likely are (if possible) based on the bidding, declarer's line of play, and partner's lead(s). I don't always manage to retain all of this through the play, which is why I sometimes end up botching the defence half way through.

I know what you mean with your last sentence, it is more like playing a computer game than social interaction. Does your local club not have a partner finding facility? I doubt you are only one in this situation. What you need is someone within your club to match singletons looking for a game, my local club has this facility. Funny you should say you think the game moves very quickly. So far when I have been playing at my local club within BBO, I have found the opposite. Yesterday evening, when we finished a round I was playing Lemmings whilst waiting for the next round. That is one advantage of online bridge, it is easy to occupy yourself whilst you wait for everyone else to finish a round.

Well there certainly seems to have been a bias in my recent BBO sessions. Yesterday evening was the classic Horsham crapness why did I bother turning up. West average HCP 8.72, East average HCP 9.11. Partner and I defended 14 out of 18 hands, we declared twice each. The previous week, average (EW) HCP 8.67 and 9.5. Better the previous week, 10.83 and 9.33. In between all this was one game in the casual section in which I was also on the wrong end of a massive bias, but I don't have the hand records to get the statistics. We'll see what my next game in two weeks brings.

Unfortunately I don't know the exact auction. As it happens, someone has pointed out the killing defence is a heart honor which is never going to be found at the table in reality, so I can put it down to a NS fluke.

This deal came up last week with a friend of mine (our club is now a virtual one on BBO) who is an aspiring novice. [hv=pc=n&s=sqht943da74ck7532&w=skj842hq852dj92cq&n=sat93ha6dkqt65c86&e=s765hkj7d83cajt94]399|300[/hv] North dealer. I don't know the auction, other than North played in 3NT which made for a near bottom EW, because only one other NS pair bid it. Deep Finesse says it should be held to eight tricks, but I am looking at this trying to see where my friend and her partner could have done better, and it does not look easy at all to get 3NT down. As a wild guess, NS were playing Acol, weak NT: [hv=d=n&v=0&b=1&a=1dp1h1s1n2s3nppp]133|100[/hv] This is the only way I can think how they got there. East leads the spade six, which gives declarer a tempo to set up a second spade winner. Declarer can also lead toward the club king for another trick. Added to the five diamond tricks and two major aces brings the total to nine tricks, so EW have to move quick and be very precise how they establish their five tricks. It looks like the spade lead was fatal, but who wouldn't lead a spade if this was the auction? Anyway, looking at all four hands and rewinding back to before the opening lead, I can't see an obvious way to stop 3NT, the defence can establish a couple of heart tricks with the club ace, but beyond that it looks as though whatever black suit they try to attack helps declarer as much as them. What am I missing here? What I am trying to do is go through my friend's bad scores and advise where she could have done better, and there is theoretically a way to do better here, but how, and how would even a decent intermediate find it at the table? If the killing defence at the table could only be found by a pair of internationals then fair enough, I'll put it down to random crappy nonsense.

If opener can show 4333 with four hearts in a transfer auction, there is more incentive for West to bid 3NT instead of 4H. 5332 opposite 4333 often makes as many tricks in NT as the major even with a nine card fit.

https://www.bilbridge.com/

I don't agree. If South had opened 2NT, North would be much less likely to (i.e. almost certinaly won't) blast 6NT. I wouldn't go beyond 3NT with the North hand opposite a 20-22 2NT opener.

I would say that five loser eight playing trick hand very close to a strong Acol 2♥ opening is good enough for a SJS. If you are not going to SJS on a hand like that, you might as well take them off your card.

If I were going to bid anything, I'd bid 2♦, but would probably pass at the table, partner has another chance to bid holding a decent hand. I can't see the point of faking support for partner. In the event, EW are a couple of weak two hands facing each other, and it is not their hand. 4♠ is not a bad contract, shame the ♦A is offside, the problem is the useless honors in the red suits, meaning the trick taking potential is lower than the LTC would suggest.

That is normally applied in a competitive auction when deciding whether to bid 3 over their 2 or 3, or when trying to shut out an opponent who has yet to bid but could hold a decent hand. I can't see why it would apply when neither opponent can say anything. It is losing trick count that is used as a guideline on how high to bid.

I'm not convinced that South hand is worth an upgrade. Yes it is aces and kings, but it is also a pancake flat six loser with no high promotable spot cards. North has three honor cards that are working perfectly yet you can only guarentee nine tricks from both hands. North did the same thing, aggressively blasting slam with a pancake flat hand. Even with 32-33 HCPs combined, you usually need length somewhere to establish the small cards as tricks to make slam good. I'd say North is only worth 4NT, which South should pass, which has good chances of developing a 10th trick from hearts or spades. South 60%, North 40%

Not my (limited) experience so far. Last time I played I was East and I had some of the best hands in months (average HCP 11.94), and I declared more frequently than normal (six times out of 18). My partner picked up the rubbish (average HCP 8.44). If there is a bias, it was when playing at my local (physical) club. Averaged around 70% defending frequency over two years. Normally only declared 3-5 times on a 26 board evening. I compiled average HCP strength over all non-novice evenings (easy to do with BridgeWebs) over six months and found no bias in the hand strength by direction, but there was a small negative bias in my hand strength if I only included the hands on the evenings I played. This seemed to be related to a small bias against North and East on the evenings I played, which were the directions I tended to sit, and I noticed that runs of evenings with below average HCP were quite common. Another experienced player who always sits North told me his perception was a bias to picking up sub-par bridge hands. We'll see what this evening brings.

Thanks, looks very useful.