luis

I might ask my mom AnaA to play again, we play the German version of Moscito known as German-Moscito but the whole relays are there as usual, with denial cuebids and related. I'm not sure about the local schedule for April or if you want me to play or not. Luis

Finesse the diamond Q if it holds then lead a club to the King.

3NT for me.

I think your pd's pass was bad. I have a partnership rule that there is no hand that can pass a balancing double of a supported 1M-2M major, since in order to make the double effective that hand would have overcalled 1NT before. So in this hand your pd can try 2NT or 2♠ I'm not sure which call is better but passing and punishing pd for balancing is in my view terrible. In the best scenario you will make pd sweat and suffer to get +100.

I balance too. And I'm going to say that whoever says he will pass I bet $25c that he wouldn't pass at the table. This looks like a typical redemption post where you did something normal as balancing here, and something terrible happened.

4♥ protecting the club Q...

Discard a club from dummy. Then enter dummy with a diamond and play a spade towards my hand. I think this will work in many scenarios. Luis

Ok time to tell what happened at the table: On hand #1 where they opened 4♦ I really didn't know what to do, 5♦ seemed to be very technical but then when pd bids 5♥ or 5♠ I would have exactly the same problem. I decided that 5 in a major would be a generic invitation to 6 but I had both majors so my choices were bidding 5♦ and find the right suit but don't know about the level or bid 5♥/5♠ and find the right level but maybe the wrong suit. All in all I decided that it was important to know if the hand was a slam or not and bid 5♥, pd raised to 6. Dummy presented: AQx QJxxx x AQxx The opening leader had AKQJxxx of diamonds so there was no overruff and the heart King was onside. Some interesting things about this deal: - What would have happened after a 3NT opening? - If they open 3♦ and we have space for keycards it seems like you will stay in 5 because you might be missing 2 aces so I wonder, when they open a preempt is it better to play regular blackwood assuming the trump king if missing will be onside?? *Luis scratching his head* - At one table the auction went 3NT (gambling) - DBl - All pass (!!) for -2300 :-) - Besides the 2300 nobody opened 4♦ so +1430 was worth a bunch of imps I'm not sure if we did right, we were lucky or a combination On hand #2 where they opened 2♥ and pd doubled I decided that 4♠ was not a good idea because it was very likely that pd could have a strong hand with a minor so I bid 3♠. Over 3♠ pd asked for keycards and then bid 6♠ this was his hand: AQx x AKxx AQxxx With the sK he only needs the club king for 6 and how are you going to find it? Do you have a way? Again 6♠ depended on a finesse, this time it was offside as expected, down 1. The 2♥ bidder had 7 cards, his pd decided not to act with 4 because he thought it could help us. Sigh... On hand #3 I think I agree a lot with Inquiry, when my pd refused to make a takeout double and decided to go above 3NT my conclusions were: - His hand can't play 3NT facing a hand that couldn't bid over 3♠ - He doesn' have 4 hearts - Clubs must be a broken suit too So I passed, pd had: x Kxx Axx KJ9xxx He misguessed clubs (the 3♠ bidder had a singleton Q) then there was a combination of endplay or diamonds 3-3 that worked for down only 1. At some tables they didn't bid 4♣ and 3♠ was made, at some others when 4♣ was bid all the pairs raised to 5♣, this was doubled half the time for 500. You might disagree with 4♣ but when pd has some moderate values and a club fit he might not act over 3♠ and yet you can be cold for a club game. Who knows? The important thing is that if you are going to reopen with 4♣ on such a hand your pd has to be in the same wavelength to pass with the posted hand. Feedback as usual is welcome, interesting discussion so far. Luis

Cuebidding of course. 3♠ is either hearts + stoppers or hearts without stoppers depending on your agreements about fast/slow leb. In either case when the doubler has a very strong hand with hearts it is cheap to bid 4♣ or 4♦ agreeing hearts and showing a very good hand. 4NT has to be natural, not 4♥ but a hand that is too strong to bid 3NT. Luis

1. LHO is an unkown player, probably not a good player. Impossible to know what is 4♦ for him. 3. That's one of the interesting parts of the questions, what kind of hand with clubs bypasses 3NT? While opponents are unknown pd is -usully- very realiable.

I love this discussion, it's fantastic. Let me add some questions to the ones already posted about hand #1. What would a direct jump to 5♥ or 5♠ be ?

4♥ = to play 3NT = to play 4♣ = pass/correct 4♦ = pass/bid 5♣ X = asking for the minor I think that a penalty double after 1♠ - 2♠ - 3♠ is useless, they are not goint to bid 3♠ to go for a number and if pd has a lot of shape and very few defensive values you are in a good position to do something really terrible. There has to be a way to ask pd to bid his minor and then proceed in a smart way and I think a non-penalty double does the job. Luis

1♥ I don't have anything to say, I think 1♥ is obvious.

Some problems from last night: [hv=d=w&v=n&s=skqtxhat9xdxxxckx]133|100|Scoring: IMP[/hv] They open 4♦ on your left and pd doubles,RHO passes, what do you bid and what is your plan of action? [hv=d=w&v=n&s=skqtxhat9xdxxxckx]133|100|Scoring: IMP[/hv] They open 2♥ on your left, pd doubles, RHO passes how many spades do you bid and why? [hv=d=w&v=n&s=skqtxhat9xdxxxckx]133|100|Scoring: IMP[/hv] RHO opens 3♠ pass pass and pd reopens with 4♣, what do you bid now? What do you think about 4♣? Have fun! Luis

*hehe* just a mistake in typing, correct is "expart" :lol: Please don't think that I made it wrong, when they asked ME how the suit should be played :P And thx Hannie! Which is the step-by-step WAY to work a suit combination out? Especially when time is money? One takes into account the missing honours and the most likely suit break, or? I would, with a piece of paper and pen, write down all possibilities and do some counting. That is easy when I have 9 cards together, ok with 8 but more difficult with only 7 or less, at least for me :( Again easier when I need a special combination (both honours onside for example); but when both opps were silent and nothing happened so far, and I need to draw trumps... *phew* I think that there are some dozens of combinations that you have to learn, working them at the table would be difficult or even impossible. For example: Qxx K9xx To get 2 tricks here the correct play is low to the 9, then low to the K (yes, from Qx) this is very hard to work at the table and there are others. If you are interested you should study the more useful combinations and the rare ones you may need your time to think about other aspects of the play. Luis

Hi, some quick comments: You must have a forcing bid, gambling on not needing it for a year since pd responds with 4+ is not a good idea in my opinion. You say your sys allows some nice penalty doubles, I personally hate penatly doubles, they are based in years of playing against bad opponents, if you want to play with the big guys you need action doubles, t/o doubles, card-showing doubles and when everything is bad you always have the penalty pass. That is my opinion. I've been playing a Fantunes system with the openings and some basic continuations intact with my pd, we have added a modified version of Keri to the 12-14 NT. So far I'm very very happy with the system, it has just removed any sort of bidding missunderstanding we might have had in the past. Luis

I throw one stone :-) Luis

Transfer and 3NT, close call.

With the information we have it is impossible to blame East. It just depends on how the pair play their splinter bids. Splinters must be a limited bid, but some pairs play around 10-12, others 12-14 etc. Assuming East has his bid then it is 100% west's fault because East just can't have what west needs for a good slam. Luis

I wonder how can somebody claim to be an expert and suggest running the ten here? Life is full of surprises.

You can count with Mr whereagles support but I don't think you are right at all, even when your pd is 6-5 you will be missing 2 keycards, pd won't bid 4♥ with a hand that can produce a slam with your values. The key is not what you have the key is that your pd knows you can have what you have, so when he bids 4♥ you should just pass without even thinking. Your hand is limited by the 2♣ bid you can't bid past 4♥. Yes you can have 2254 then just correct to 4♠ life is simple.

The normal play is to cash the ace and lead low to the ten next.

Indeed. But which is more likely? The above x AKxx Kxxx Jxxx or x AKxx Kxx AKxxx I'd say the first... but if you feel lucky, by all means go for the grand :) Whereeagles, I don't have the answer to the question, maybe somebody can run a simulation to determine what is best. My reasoning is: Pd might have: 1- A light takeout double with shape (as you posted) 2- A very strong hand 3- A balanced hand with 13-15 hcp With 1 you have to compare 2♠x vs 3NT probably 2♠x wins some imps in average. With 2 when comparing 2♠x vs 6x or 7x you will lose many imps With 3 2♠x vs 3NT is probably close in terms of imps Then if we compute how likely is 1,2 and 3 we can determine if pass or 3NT is better in average. I have the feeling 3NT is better because it covers the following scenarios: - When pd has a big hand you can discover a slam or grand slam - When 2♠x makes you are not in the tragic 2♠x - When 3NT makes and you can't get a lot from 2♠x But as I said I won't claim pass is wrong and 3NT is right a simulation will give us a better understanding. Luis

A.. slam??? Opposite x AKxx Kxxx Jxxx the only plus you're likely to get is pass. And that's not even the weakest hand pard can have. True, but pd can also have a hand where you are cold for 7

3NT While it is true that 2♠ is probably going down some number of tricks it is also true that we migh have a slam or grand slam in this hand, pd is unlimited so passing 2♠x is too unilateral. If pd has a big hand with clubs, diamonds, or hearts with a singleton in spades then all my values will work. With a big hand pd will bid his suit over 3NT and I will be happy to cuebid.