luis

You have, I have not. 4NT is not ace asking as I play it. You never have a hand where your only problem is how many key cards partner has. Use 4NT for something better, like two possibly three places to play. Roland You have it I don't have it.... This is not the purpose of the polls or is it? I mean we are supossed to be playing BBO-advanced as if we had agreed with pd to play that and then we have to solve the bidding situations posted. When BBO-advanced doesn't cover the meaning of a bid we are supossed to use judgement and logic to bid. So comments like "4nt is this or 4s shows that" are completely meaningless I'm not interested at all in what 4NT or 4♠ is when you play with your pd, I'm interested in what you would bid at the table with the posted conditions. The idea of the polls is to show how experts use judgement to determine the best bid available not as an interview about what each of us play with our pds. Note: This is not 100% for you Roland I assume you are saying you expect 4NT to be 3 places to play in this situation which is reasonable but many posters are showing a tendency of saying things like "with my pd I play that xx means yy" and I don't know the rest but I'm really not interested in such responses. Luis

Right Right Debatable but let's say that yes you have to fill the card per-rule. Yes there is Yes you are No no no and no. The violation of rule 40E can lead to a procedural penalty, never to adjust a score. Not having a system, forgetting the system you play or not filling a CC might be violations and you are subject to a PP but in order to damage your opponents and adjust the score there has to be at least a case of missinformation and this is not one. It is true that without a CC when there is doubt you can be charged missinformation but this is not the case. And this is important because? Every reasonable player plays the double as takeout and south took the double as takeout and bid accordingly. Why north decided to double is a bridge problem that does not inflict any rules. You can bid whatever you want. Luis

5♦ no other choice.

3♣ checkback then.

Why would you want to know when you don't want to be in 5♥? Roland Can you think of a reasonable 2/1 auction to a contract better than 5♥? You get the north hand you imagine pd will have a monster black suiter so you just open 1♠ and when pd bids 4♥ splinter you pass :-)

I don't think it's the NT opening itself which loses, but the rest of the system... Also when V it's not a winning thing (I've played it a while). So you need to change your system according to vulnerability and that's probably not worth the effort. I have played 10-12 NT and I would risk the following theory: The biggest problem of 10-12 NT is that the opponents will frequently blast into game in hands where if left alone they would have played a partscore. Things like (1N) - 2♠-pass-4♠ are common. Then you can argue you can defeat most of those games and it is true some of them can be defeated, others can't, others depend on the lead or a very good defense, the final point is that you really don't want to end up defending so many games .

1♠ I would hate pd psyching when I have such a monster.

This is an interesting situation that I have discussed with my pd After 1♠ - X - 2♠ The most frequent problem you can have is to determine how to distinguish a hand that wants to compete to 3♥ from a hand that wants to invite 4♥. For example: xxx QT643 Kxx xx You want to compete to 3♥, you have probably a 9 card fit so passing 2♠ is probably wrong. But with xxx ATxx Axxx xx You also want to compete to 3♥ but this time you want pd to bid 4♥ with a good double. Maybe the examples are not best but you should understand the problem So I agreed to use 2NT to show a good 3♥ bid and 3♥ to show just a competitive bid in hearts. Then X is used to show minors. A natural 2NT was almost completely useless in our long time partnership. So this hand is a problem I can bid 3♣ (not happy) or double missing a diamond card or pass and risk missing something. Not sure what I would do at the table, probably bid 3♣. Luis

So if you don't fill a convention card and the opponents went for 1100 they will say "hey they don't have a cc" and magically the 1100 is changed to +200 or something. Quite interesting. I don't want to sound rude but what you say is a complete nonsense and has nothing to do with the rules. As long as you don't have an implicit or explicit agreement you are free to bid whatever you like without alerting and the opponents can't claim damage at all. But what really annoys me about your posts is not what you think but the way you say it as if you knew the rules when it's quite evident you have no clue. Please when you are saying an opinion say it is your opinion and don't say "The ACBL says..." because that is completely missleading to the other posters and no doubt can be a source of horrible rulings in the future. Law40E doesn't say anything even remotely close to what you say.

Has partner ever overcalled 5♦? Yes my pd once overcalled 5♦ over 4♠ with KQJ ninth. I had Qxx, Kxxxx, Ax, Axx and decided to bid 6 which was impossible to make but the defense lost his way and pd made the doubled impossible slam for +1540. (Pd's hand was: x,Qx,KQJTxxxxx,x) they lead the club king, pd winning, pd played a low heart from Qx towards the K, they stepped in with the hA and decided pd had a spade void so tried to cash a club, pd ruffed, cashed the hQ, drew 2 trumps ending in dummy and discarded the spade on the heart K.

Absurd, point us to the written law that says such a thing.

I love to have a partnership with somebody with completely different ideas than me, you learn more when you can discuss different ideas as long as you are civilized so I would put Roland in my list of pds to be :-) I have no problems with 2♠ being a limit raise or better with 3 cards keeping 2NT for the raises with 4 cards. The number of trumps is important to me. Having said this I prefer 2♠ to 2♦ because in competitive auctions bids that don't show support deny it. If LHO is going to raise to 4♠ pd will be more interested in knowing I have 3 card heart support than a diamond suit. So I agree with 2♠ over 2♦ I would have bid the same at the table. About the meaning of 3NT I have a partnership rule saying that 3NT is not to play when we have discovered a 9 card fit in a major, since 2♠ is a 3 card raise 3NT would be choice of games according to my agreements with my pd. This doesn't say a single word about what I voted since that would be revealed later but it shows what I think about 2♠/2♦ and the meaning of 3NT. Maybe it's interesting. Luis

Sorry if I sound rude but how can this be a question or a problem? It is very clear NS don't have an agreement about the double being penalties otherwise south wouldn't have bid 4♠ when east raised a 2♥x contract to 4 !!! Just the idea of north having to alert his double because of what he has without an agreement is a terrible offense. You have to alert your partnership agreements not what you have in your hand. Result stands and I would warn EW because of their amazing comments. Luis

Somebody delete this thread please!!! Somebody delete it! Lock it,hide it, destroy it, do something!!! Now!!! please!!!!

I transfer to hearts at the 4 level, Stayman is my opinion quite ridiculous having a 7 card heart suit.

Both for takeout to me. I hate playing penalty doubles at the 2 level specially when they have supported the suit.

I'm going to be very simple, the play of the club jack is just terrible. If you want your pd to win the trick and let you ruff a diamond why are you leading the Jack? I think west is 90% guilty but as Justin said East could have reasoned and reach the right conclusion.

Under your description of my options 4♣ looks clear.

Ron (The_hog) posted a revision of Keri called "revisted Keri" or something like that in 2005, the improved version solves the problem you mention and others. I've been playing that with some pds and I'm very happy with both the system and the results of playing it.

Either pd is missbidding or pd thought that 2♦ was forcing when it wasn't I would risk that no sane player can bid a non-forcing 2♦ and then bid 3♥ unless his hand was upgraded by the 2♠ call, but that can't happen or the other opponent would have raised spades. So my guess is that pd thought 2♦ was forcing. I bid 4♥ even if pd is a psycho playing 4♥ instead of 3♥ can't be a total disaster and I protect myself from missing a vulnerable game. Whatever it happens once the bidding is done we'll have a conversation about me not being happy with impossible bids appearing in the middle of the auction.

Completely offtopic but how can they call "no play" when the whole Colts defense was jumping around the offense? It's either a false start by Faneca (if you have very good eyes) or the Colts must be charged neutral zone infraction. Even worst they could have let the steelers snap and then the Colts are offside so if they blew the whistle is because they saw something. Bah! :-)

Oh I have many funny stories, like the day I broke a chair when my pd passed my 4NT rkcb bid, I jumped from the chair, raised about 1 meter in the air, and I missed the chair on my way down falling to the floor while grabbing the chair desperately, the chair went down and broke in 2 pieces. My pd then said "my bidding is so powerful, I can make people jump in the air.... and 4NT was probably RKCB". Sometimes he takes a pass card from the bidding box and asks an opponent: "can you break a chair with this pass card? I can". While playing a relay system we faced a pair that didn't like it, called it "stupid relay thing" and called us "silly relay guys", in the middle of a long relay auction (using screens) I bid 3♦ and my screenmate said "I pass" without putting a pass bid on the tray. I told him "you have to put a pass card in the tray" and the answer was... "I'm not going to put a pass card in the tray every time you make one of your stupid relays, if you want you can put it yourself I just pass everything you bid from now on" I could have called the TD and force him to put a pass card on the tray but a devilish idea crossed my mind. I used relays to ask about shape, then about aces, kings, queens and jacks, the bidding was up to 5NT. I was carefully putting a pass card on the tray for my opponent every time. When I had all the information I needed I bid 3NT put a pass card for my opponent and passed the tray. TD was called on the other side of the screen, TD came to my side, after some questions were asked the TD ruled that my LHO verbally anounced he was passing "any" bid made by me and that would include insufficient bids as long as they were legal, so the 3NT bid had to be accepted. In a nerve attack they missdefended and 3NT was made. And there are a lot more, my pd is quite a character so whenever we face nasty opponents funny things happen. We finished 7th in a tourney with 20 kibs at our table while there were 1 or 2 kibs watching the leaders and all because a lot of funny things happened when a lady declared "I'm not going to tell you" when I asked about carding methods. But that's a different story...

I don't know what you are talking about :-) but... I've done a series on competitive bidding for the BIL and one about the Law also for the BIL. While they were intended for BIL members they could be interesting for more advanced players, as I say beginers are beginers because they are learning not because they are idiots so even if some topics look complex it's surprising to see how they can absorb the ideas and improve.

I don't think so because responder will be forced to play the hand from his side when he was just signing off in 4 of a major which is the most common scenario. Luis

3♦, fit non-jump. Showing a fit to the 4 level in clubs a diamond suit, suggests a good lead and keeps 3NT or 5♣ in the picture. Luis