luis

I've been playing SA transfers for a long time so let's drop a few words. As in Texas the idea of SA transfers is to provide 4 level transfers to the majors so you can multiplex the meaning of both 4M and 4NT after a transfer. 4♣ is a transfer to 4 hearts. 4♦ is a transfer to 4 spades. A 2 level transfer followed by 4NT is cuantitative with 5 of the major. A 2 level transfer followed by 4 of the major is a mild slam invitation A 4 level transfer followed by 4NT is RKCB in the major A 4 level transfer and then pass is the only signoff in 4 of the major. The advantages over Texas are: - You no longer have confusion about the meaning of 4♥ in competitive auctions. you keep 4♣ and 4♦ as "always SA transfers" with 4♥ and 4♠ as "always to play" - Responder can choose from what side the hand should be played, when he has some kings to protect he can bid 4♥ or 4♠ to receive the lead, and transfer in the other cases. - You no longer play Gerber which is good for you and your bridge health. Luis

Normal.

I hate the dbl. If the opponents know what they are doing they have values in spades so pd might have all the good fillers for our hand. I'm going to bid 5NT as "pick a slam" I can easily miss a grand but will be happy to play 6.

Dbl = 3♥ and a suitable hand to play in hearts. Support doubles must be optional, support doubles must be optional. 1NT = Depending on agreement this can be your 17-18 hand so you don't have to jump to 2NT leaving pass for the balanced hands and the flat hands where you don't want to make a support dbl. Luis

Ben's post is very interesting because it raises a topic that is not discussed a lot is individual style a partnership agreement? Where is the line between playing a different system and having a different style? The law forbidding each player from playing a different system is very subjective because it's not clear if bidding style is part of the system or not, if it is then you and your pd must agree to have the same style, if bidding style is not part of the system then what is a system? Mmmmm food for thought.

3♦ values in diamonds and invitational.

With the description you make of pass and double I think South is closer to pass than double and North is much closer to pass than 5♥. So it will be 40% south 60 north in my view and not a big crime by any player. With J9xx of spades and the heart ace, knowing that pd has 11-15 should be enough to think 4♠ might go down.

Opening 2♠ will probably protect the club queen. I have a lot in my hand for 2♠ but being NV and up by 4 I'm not really afraid of missing a game. So yes, I will open this 2♠

I will be on vacation until the 17 or so in January will be happy to participate if ok with your deadline. Luis

2♣ to me, seems to be descriptive.

4♥ automatic.

Passing is out of the question I might open this 1♣ If I open 1♠ I would rebid 2♠ over 2♥

roflmao...another less urbane one is taking off your glasses and saying "without my x-ray glasses it should be more even now....." I did have a story with Sunglasses in a tourney that was played on a tent placed outside a hotel. One of my opponents (why all this always happens to me?) called the TD as soon as we arrived at their table (without even saying hello) and asked if I was allowed to play with Sunglasses. Please note I'm always a good guy until they say something. The TD told them that it was ok to play with sunglasses, we had players in shorts, players with hats why not sunglasses?. Inmediately my pd added: "Those are infrared sunglasses from the army, with the light of the sun he can see through the cards because the cards here are very cheap" My opponent asked "Can I see them"? And I replied "Of course not, they are mine go get yours" There was some discussion they told each other to hold the cards under the table. In the very next hand to this episode I had to lead against 5♥ they had showed hearts, and diamonds and a lot of power we sacrificed in 4♠ but they went to 5♥, I had Jxxxx, xx, xxx,AJx. A club looked obvious (MPs) but before leading I saw one of them had taken his cards from under the table and was holding them above the table ready to table dummy so I directed a very strong look to his cards like focusing through them.... Then I lead the club ace from AJx and turned out to be the only lead to defeat 5♥, pd yelled "Oh I love those sunglasses" The opponents went berserk and one of them yelled "they are cheating with something from the army!" Imagine the kind of looks he collected from neighbour tables... The TD was called again they asked my sunglasses to be examined, I gave the TD the sunglasses and the TD asked my opponents to stop calling him for stupid reasons :-)

Well I know the feeling :-) In every local club there are some bad players that are just "evil" and say terrible things trying to make you feel bad about your results against them, I think this may be a tactic to get better results. My method is to use fire to stop fire. They accuse you of being unethical or bad or anything then you can just praise yourself of being exactly that. One quick example: I made once a tricky 3NT hand after a lot of effort the comment from lady1 was "pd put your cards closer to your chest or he will make every game he plays" My reply was: "No need, I know these hands, they were played in a previous tournament" Two hands later I sacrificed in 4♠ over a 4♥ game and went down 4 undoubled. Lady1: "Pd why not double 4♠?" Lady2: "How can I double? He knows the hands!" Curious tactics Mr Watson.

I agree a lot with Mike about the benefits of standarizing that at trick one your signal should be attitude except when dummy has a singleton or you are in an obvious cash-out situation where your pd needs the count. Then even when the position of the ace is clear your pd can signal if he is interested in continuing the suit or not. When he doesn't have the ace showing interest in the suit will imply he is not interested in the most obvious shift, while discouraging when he does have the ace will show a strong interest in a shift. Low = I'm very interested in a shift High = No interest in the most obvious shift so you can continue Unnecesary high card = Please make an unusual shift

3♦ is atrocious not sure if that is a real english word but seems to be the best description about the 3♦ bid that comes to my mind.

1♦ automatic. Starting from my longest suit and then bidding the 2nd longest, quite an imaginative plan.

How do you cross to dummy to run the diamond J ? Low to the ♥Ace or low to the ♥ J , or overtake the ♣ Ten with the A or overtake with the J ? Or did you mean to play a low diamond from hand towards the diamond J ? Ok then I think for 6 minutes and then run the diamond jack from dummy. Are you still awake? Do you still remember I won the first trick in hand and not in dummy? If after 6 minutes calling the diamond jack from dummy doesn't work then I have to think about something else! Luis

Robert, Let me disagree with almost everything you said :-) Not at all, in fact doubling with a trump stack is usually very silly and the void is not common and it is a missuse of the double. Doubles of freely bid contracts mean "I don't think they can make this" or "I think they might make this on the nose so I'm going to confuse them with a double" Yes, and I'm the queen of Scotland. To me 2♥ was fine. I might even bid 2♥ on a weaker hand. You need the 1♦ opener to have 4♥ for this to happen and the 1♠ bidder to find a reopening double. I think that your view is too pesimistic. When you have 15 balanced pd might have a bad hand and it can go 1N p p X p p p for 1100 so what do you do? You don't open 1NT? No No You don't need an agreement to play bridge, do you? I don't want to sound rude but your message sounded too "authoritative" like trying to teach Jillybean some bridge, so I have to say I disagree with everything you said and as we all know I might be wrong so I just present a different view and they can choose. Luis

Sure: I have a particular view about this problem. Pd's double says he has diamonds under control and since I have good pips in clubs declarer may have a serious problem in his contract. Interestingly when I bid 2♥ I never promised the spade king, so holding the spade King I'm going to lead it, pd might have diamons guarded and the trump ace and need to draw trumps to destroy ruffs. If leading the spade king is wrong then the double is wrong because I never promised the spade king with my 2♥ bid.

I have a particular view about this problem. Pd's double says he has diamonds under control and since I have good pips in clubs declarer may have a serious problem in his contract. Interestingly when I bid 2♥ I never promised the spade king, so holding the spade King I'm going to lead it, pd might have diamons guarded and the trump ace and need to draw trumps to destroy ruffs. If leading the spade king is wrong then the double is wrong because I never promised the spade king with my 2♥ bid. Luis

It's a very complex hand I took 2 minutes to think as if I were at the table and I'm going to take the spade king with the ace and play the diamond jack intending to run it. If the diamond queen is onside I have 3 diamonds, 2 spades, 1 heart and 2 clubs for 8 tricks with the heart finesse and the club finesse plus some squeeze and showup squeezes for the 9th.

4♣ not very happy with my choice.

I bid 2♠

why, luis? doesn't the beginner/int club do that? is it discriminatory? roland has a 2/1 club for int/advanced... is that discriminatory? i don't think it is, any more than any other clubs are... what you say about begginers is true, but why have a "club" for int/advanced if beginners can join? it would be like adv/experts joining the BIL Well If there is one thing I don't like about the BIL is that advanced or expert players are not allowed in the lessons. The fact that a player is advanced or expert doesn't mean he won't benefit from a lesson or an explanation. Some expert players are rusty in 2/1 others are rusty in competitive bidding etc etc. But I respect the rules as rules. I believe in the freedom of information and I strongly believe that a lesson on any level or any subject should be open to anybody that feels he can benefit from the lesson. Luis