bluenikki

I don't know the answer to your questions. But I do notice that the old guideline has been forgotten: When the opponents have used a distributional gadget, strain to lead trumps. I have always darkly suspected this is because authorities like to use distributional gadgets themselves, so they want to keep the defense secret. Carl

My question is whether partner is barred from *bidding* over 4♠. Your rebid plan depends on that, no?

That is *your* call if 4 spades is followed by two passes. Is partner forced to pass???

You'd better have a strong agreement (recently reviewed!) about the auction 2♣ - (4♠) - ? Which is to say you must not do with a stranger. Carl

Of course it *seems* logical. Except. That means you are bidding 2♠ over 2♥ with both. AKxxxx xx Ax xxx and AKxxxx xx Ax KJx. This is acceptable when the bidding starts at 1. Many things will happen before you have to decide what to do next. Partner will rarely pass. But when there is a pre-empt, partner will *often* pass. Why do you think my single jump overcall over a pre-empt is not narrowly defined? It certainly is!

In case it wasn't clear, all this applies only in direct seat over a pre-empt. Kaplan wrote that if you get a bad result from assuming values with partner that they lacked, they are supposed to apologize for under-holding. Your last comment was the crux: How can partner know to advance without knowing which of their values are already baked in? Sure, it would be safer to assume 6 opposite rather than 8. But then you will be forced to pass far far too often. Carl

*Why* do you pose such a high standard? What do you gain? You and I routinely bid 2♠ over 2♥ with hands that will go plus only if partner has more than a minimum response to a 1-bid. Kaplan summarized it as what you expect to make opposite 8. A responder to the uncontested 1X - 1Y ; 3X. will go to game with 8 . It follows that a hand that would have bid 1♠ - 1N ; 3♠ must not make a nonforcing bid over a 2♥ opening.

I overcall 3♠ with that. What I can make opposite 8.

And if they bid the game, is your side going to save or double? Save pays, but not as well as passing out 2♥

Has nobody but me noticed the missed game? Are you opponents so oblivious that they won't allow themselves to be pushed to it?

Yes. If you reverse with a bad main suit, you have no safety net at all. And for me at least, I want the reverse to alert partner to slam possibilities in the first suit.

Won't partner need that much from you to make 2?

As I learned it long ago, the immediate overcall of a preempt assumes 8 working points opposite. You have a full king in reserve. Passing is out. Double?

Competition will often/usually push them to a game you can't beat. What's the problem? Carl

The agreement about game force is unplayable, as you see.

Somewhere I read "With a suit fit, no valuation method is better than Losing Trick Count. Without a suit fit, none is worse." I had thought it was in Kelsey. But checking his "Faulty Valuation" chapter, I find he said only "For estimating the number of tricks the combined hands will produce in a trump contract . . . there is nothing to beat the Losing Trick Count." He does not mention it again in the chapter. Carl

Yes, but. If your partner opens a suit you have four of, and you potentially cover SIX losers, that looks like slam zone to me. It doesn't mean you Blackwood right away. It does mean you try to make you ambitions clear as early as possible.

I believe "highly" is an overbid.

Well yes, but the system forces the underbid.

Certainly, partner promised (not just happened to have) a better hand than you thought they did. But still they only had and promised covers for potentially 4 losers. Since you had 7, you needed all potentials to be actuals. A hand that potentially covers 5 losers should itself commit to game. Carl

Partner definitely has fewer than 9 losers. A 9-loser hand with 4 trumps would have bid 3♠ directly, wouldn't it? It seems to me that putting HIGHCARD point requirements for the 3♦ response has little utility. This hand as at least 9 dummy points. Carl

Under what circumstance does ace request unblock?

What is a script?

In the last week or so, chat manager has stopped accepting editing of entries. New iteration of BBO software, I guess. I am running under Chrome, if that matters. Has anyone else noticed this?

Aren't you supposed to guess correctly between 2 and 4?