luis

If your pair is better than the average field do normal stuff and you will win, if you are worst do strange stuff to randomize the results otherwise you have no chance. Note that strange stuff is not "wrong" stuff. For example with 4-4 in the minors open 1♣ instead of 1♦ if most of the field will open 1♦ that can't be "bad" and will make your table different than the others. Luis

I bid 4♠ he could have been thinking about anything Luis

I do not understand bidding 4H with any of these hands. When do you bid 3H? I assume your opening one bid promised some values? Are all of these a mandatory opening bid let alone a jump to 4h in Fred's system? Because you don't play to miss the vulnerable games, pd made a game-try so if you open light you are only supossed to reject the try on a very very bad hand such as: xxx Axxx QJx KQx A hand with 5 good clubs and 4 card support in hearts should accept a try regardless of the strength. That is what I think may be wrong for Fred-Brad style. Luis

Pass, it's not a good idea to look for miracles when you are under pressure. Pass simplifies the bidding a lot.

For the bidding I think his distribution has to be 2-4-2-5, at least that is in my view the most expected shape he can have for the bidding. He might have something like: Jx AJxx xx KQJxx or xx AJxx xx KQJxx or Jx AT8x Qx KQJTx I would bid 6NT because if there is a problem in clubs or hearts the contract is not inmediately down, since there will be squeeze chances. If I choose to play in clubs or hearts instead I commit myself to find a good trump break and since there's nothing to ruff at all I think that 6NT will bring most chances to our side.

About the 3♦ idea this is what I think I think. Without previous discussion I just bid 3♥ because bidding 3♦ here with the singleton will probably be too dangerous and once I bid 1NT we are probably better than the field so why now risk with a "guess what" bid ? BUT It turns out I really like the idea and I think that having 3♦ as a weak hand with diamonds that didn't open 2♦ or 3♦ is indeed ridiculous, so I will have a conversation with my pd about this auction and tell him that after: 1M - 1N 2OM Then 3m is a singleton with support for opener's second suit. Makes sense to me and I have to arrange the meaning of 2NT which natural can't be because 2NT is never natural of course. Thanks for the nice idea Kenrexford. Luis

I hate them all, but is just because they don't fit my style. You question is about style, for me all the passes are really terrible, but if you are a sound-solid player they might be ok. I hate the solid style...

3♦, automatic.

Automatic 4♥ at Imps. Automatic 3♥ at MPs. I think passing with KQxxx of support is wrong even when it is right on any field with any pd.

The problem is that bridge players are not well educated about the rules and most of them don't even care about the rules. I've faced similar situations in the past, when the pair is a social bridge pair or a bad pair I try to be very polite and explain them that by rule they have to ask about all the alerts at their turn or at the end but can't just ask for some of them. Of course this is not in the rules but they understand this a lot better than UI, as soon as you mention UI to a bad pair they think you are accusing them of cheating or something. When the pair is a good one, I just call the TD and inform the facts without any explanation, the TD usually says "If there is UI you have your rights reserved" and leaves, that is usually enough to make them stop doing what they do and scare them to ask about all the alerts or none of them. In my partnership by rule we ask about all the alerts basically because knowing what's going on can help you in the middle of the auction and because when they have to say what each bid means then if something is wrong there is UI that they can't use. Without the explanation something might "figure out" what happened. Just my 2c Luis

Since you may have a balanced hand without a real club suit I would say that 4♣ has to be a splinter. Luis

Not enough for 2♦ I hate the singleton in pd's suit. But I have some values so I would choose a negative double.

[hv=d=s&v=n&n=sa643hakt654dac96&w=skt92hdkj95ckj542&e=sqj87h3d843caqt87&s=s5hqj9872dqt762c3]399|300|Scoring: IMP[/hv] What would you do at each round of the bidding with each of this hands? Just the opening hand is interesting, 2♥ ? 3♥? pass? 4♥ ? And then what? What can you double for takeout with the west hand 2♥? 3♥? What does North do besides checking the back of the cards? And After all the huddles what about poor East? And that was only the first round of bidding. You could smell the fried brains at the table. At my table the bidding was: 3♥ - Dbl - 4♥ - 6♣ 6♥ - pass - pass - X pass - pass - pass

Corrected :-)

I won't discuss the shutup issue but I found it funny :-) My view about the bid is the following one: Since 3NT is crazy the debate is between 4♥ and 3♠. I don't think 3♠ is "so clear ", the analysis I make is: If you bid 3♠ you will play 4♠ when pd can support or 4♥ when he can't that's good. You might also land in 4♠ in hands where you can never reach dummy and 4♥ could work better. When spades are breaking very badly and you land in 4♥ it can trigger a penalty double that will be hard to find otherwise. The opponents with a singleton in spade and a double fit in the minors and shortness in spades can better evaluate their hands and find a good 5♣/5♦ contract, when they don't they are sure you have a spade suit so they will be in a cash-out situation, RHO is likely to lead an unsupported club ace to make sure they cash all their minor tricks in the right order, that's a standard procedure. In contrast 4♥ keeps spades hidden but has the problem of playing 4♥ when 4♠ is a lot better. In conclusion I think 4♥ is a better bid than 3♠ and will probably choose that at the table. Preempts in second seat MUST have a good suit, it's the most conservative position for a preempt I don't know if somebody mentioned that. Luis

At Imps playing in a team match where all the players are experts I think 4♠ is wrong I wouldn't call it sick and I wouldn't say it goes against his pd, but I don't like it. I also don't like the splinter and will start with a forcing raise of spades using 2NT or 2♣ or whatever you use for a forcing game hand with 4+ spades. As I said previously at the posted conditions the bid is very reasonable.

[hv=d=w&v=e&n=saqjt3h5dcakj9762&w=sk54hkjdjt98432c4&e=s872haqt876dakqc8&s=s96h9432d765cqt53]399|300|Scoring: IMP[/hv] Take the four seats in this amazing hand, what would you do at your turn in each round? The excercise is to see what the final contract would be according to you if you make your best bid at each turn based on your judgement. You can also comment on what happend when I played the hand 2♦ - 3♣ - 3♥ - P 4♥ - 4♠ - 5♥ - 6♣ X - p - p - p +1090 Luis

I find a splinter with a void something terrible. The 4♠ bid is at MPs in the posted conditions something reasonable this is why I think it is reasonable for the context: Since the field is weak even if there is a slam I bet most of them will be in 4♠ Since this pair you are facing is the only good pair around if there is a good 5♣ save they will try to find it and the others probably won't bid at all So you are in risk here of competition that the rest of the field may not face so blasting to 4♠ to simplify the situation is reasonable. Luis

When playing 15-17 I upgrade 14 counts with a 5 card suit to 1NT. I usually also upgrade 17 counts witha 5 card suit to 18-19 and open 1m instead of 1NT the reason for this is not to miss some good games on 17 and 7. When playing weak NT I upgrade good 11s to 1NT but don't upgrade good 14s beyond 1NT because then it will fall in the 15-17 range and I prefer to open 1NT as much as possible.

Club for me too, pedrestrian I would say.

I completely disagree with everything you said. I don't want to start a debate but since you made your points as if they were facts I just have to say I disagree with the 3 of them. Luis

You can't "be careful" if you play 1st/2nd round controls and you have the King you can't just decide not to cuebid because of any reason. Pd may be needing that control for the slam. It's true that the lead might come through the king but it is also true that pd can have the queen in that suit or they might lead something else. The point is that the cuebid is mandatory, nothing to be careful of. Luis

I think I would open 1♣ and if pd bids 1♠ just rebid 2♣. 2♥ to me should show a lot more than what I have. Passing a forcing bid intentionally is one of the few ways to end a partnership with me, I can stand a lot of things but forcing means you can't pass. The only problem of the good result is that you might do it again :-)

Who is in Spain? QJ98xx is a very offensive heading for hearts, the QJ98 combo will work for 4 or 5 winners if you play the hand but won't take any tricks on defense. So I think it is fair to bid 1 more, if you add the shape I didn't bid 4 only because I'm vul but wouldn't mind if somebody decides to jump all the way to 4♥

1: 3♥ very offensive hand. 2: 4♥ spades + clubs of course. Luis