luis

Penalty double of course, how can this be a takeout when he couldn't double for takeout over 3♥ ?

I agree with most of what you said but you already know this from my posts.

3NT of course I need to protect pd's honors :-)

I find the "screening" idea repulsive. Who do we think we are to determine who can learn something and who can't? The fact that a player is a beginer doesn't mean he is not able to understand some concepts, capability to learn and stored knoledge are two different things. We can have an advanced player that can't understand anything new and we can have a player that started 2 weeks ago and anything you say to him he learns it. Besides this, what damage can we do letting anybody listen and ask questions? "sorry you can't learn about restricted choice because you went down in 3NT in your exam" this is completely absurd. It's discriminatory and I certainly wouldn't like to be in such an environment. Luis

Abstain. I refuse to answer questions where I'm forced to bid after a really silly auction. What the hell is 4♠ ? 4S = Minimum jump shift, with a suit playable for one looser opposite a void. Marlowe I strongly refuse to play this horrible treatment. You have a strong hand, pd has a strong hand, the opponents don't bid and you have to preempt your own pd? Quite silly.

Abstain. I refuse to answer questions where I'm forced to bid after a really silly auction. What the hell is 4♠ ?

I can't believe many of you guys. You hold 8 hearts in your hand and you believe North can have a diamonds+hearts 2 suiter? And the suit is 8-5-0-0 and everybody is bidding calmly. This is really bridge-insulting. Even then assuming West is silly enough to believe hearts are 8-5-0-0 bidding 3♠ accepting the transfer with 8 hearts and then passing 4♠ is completely criminal. N&S can be doing bad things but they didn't do anything to let EW get a result they really don't deserve at all. There are at least 4 or 5 criminal bids by EW.

In second position I agree with the initial pass. Now I hate the methods I'm forced to play so I would try to make a slam try but I don't think you can do it in your system. What is 3♣ and then 4♣ to any response? Hope it is natural. Anyway I want to make a slam try. Luis

He has 8 hearts and pd has spades. After 4♠ was passed back to North he bid 5♣ do you need more facts? Absurd, you have 8 hearts, North can't have a heart suit. Furthermore assuming hearts are 8-5-0-0 then when North bids 5♣ over 4♠ the picture is completely clear. Is this a joke? Since when you are forced to complete a transfer to spades when you have an 8 card suit? What kind of Wakeup call? 5♣ he has a lot of shape and both minors so he is free to make a bridge decision and bid 5♣ That's a problem of EW, first of all West only bid 3♠ when pd transferred to spades holding 8 hearts. Even worst then he passed 4♠ which I think is just terrible and now after they completely missbid the hand they want to be awarded an slam? Cmon this is really outrageous. No, there is a lot of missbidding by EW, a South player forgetting his own system (which is not illegal) and then NS want to win in the comitee what they couldn't win at the table. The TD should let the result stand and in an appeals comitee I will strongly recommend to keep EW deposit if they appeal.

There was missinformation There was damage Damage was not due to the missinformation(*) Result Stands. Procedural penalty to NS for not knowing what they play against a strong club. West knows that the NT bidder has both minors. Had east been informed of this I doubt he would have done something different than bidding 3♥ (spades) and then passing 4♠. When West bid 5♥ East knew North had both minors and yet refused to bid 6♥, I think this is a double-shot, either you don't make 6 or if you make it you claim damage so he has no right to redress. If he thought they had a slam he should have bid it, he had all the information he needed. Bad ruling but common TDs tend to punish people for forgetting their system when it's clear in the rules that that is not an infraction. The missinformation and the damage here are no linked and Eeast is trying to get a slam that he refused to bid. Luis

Typical Action double. Not for penalties of course. Tolerance to play 3♣ or 3♦ 2NT if none of the others are good choices.

1♥

1NT here

2♣

1NT

For the record I considered 6♣ and 3NT and bid 3NT, LHO raised to 4♥ and pd bid 5♦ a bid that I didn't like at all and I still don't like but once done it's done. Over 5♦ I bid 6♣ not convinced but I had no choice. As Mikeh correctly spotted in 6♣ you need to guess the location of the spade ace and the distribution, from the discards and some guessing after the 7 clubs were run I decided to play for the squeeze and cashed the 8th club, LHO kept the singleton spade Ace and 3 diamonds, so diamond finesse, spade and he was endplayed. What I find curious about this hand is that if LHO doesn't bid 4♥ we don't get to 6♣ and even more curious if pd doesn't missbid 5♦ I would have raised myself to 4NT so we wouldn't reach 6♣ either. Is this something to analyze about high-level competitive bidding? I don't have a clue :-) Luis

3♥ forcing

[hv=d=e&v=n&n=sxxxhxxxdaqjxxxcj&s=skxhaxdxcakqt9xxx]133|200|Scoring: IMP[/hv] East opens 2♦ either F#nnery or a weak two suited hand in the majors. West is going to bid 4♥ if allowed. You are in south with da-bomb what is your plan? I'm also posting the North hand so you can guess your possible auctions with your pd. If you "land" in 5♣ how do you play on a heart lead? If you "land" in 6♣ how do you play on a heart lead? Luis

I think I would choose 3♣

Hi very nice problems. Here are my answers: 1) 3NT Automatic. 2) 3♥ showing what I have. 3) I bid game in hearts 4) None!, I bid 2♠ showing values in spades and a good hand for the minors. 5) Double 6) I'm going to bid 4♠ then it depends 7) 5♣ lead-directing if pd leads I want t a club (unless they play 6♣) if I lead I can lead a heart. Who knows where this is going to end.... Luis

My pard during this event is considered one of the top players of the club (regular partner of an ex World Champion), who has offered me to play with him for a mentorship to help me improve. He is teachig me a 5 card major system developed by Garozzo and Zucchelli, full of gadgets rather new to me, and this was the first time I played it. Perhaps the system is not effective, but I am not going to argue about the system effectiveness with a strong players who accepts to mentor me :rolleyes: The auction went: 1C(1) - 2H (2) 2NT-3S 1) 1C(12-14/18-19 bal or clubs) 2) 2H = transfer to spades, 6+ bagger, either rubbish (0-5/6), or GF slammish 3) 2NT (shows extras, natural, 18-19 bal) 4) 3S = natural signoff ======== Almost nobody in italy (and for sure nobody at the Bologna club) plays the 1m-2S rubbish WJS, so I was expecting from the field, either a 1m - all pass OR a 1m-1S-2NT-3S auction at the other table. ============ To respond to Luis question: the tourney was going very well, indeed this was the last board, and we won the event with 75% LOL (second pair had 60%) Ok If we are doing well I play to go down 1 I can stand a 40% board or so. No reason to try for 80% or 0% on a finesse. Down 1 for me.

I find this interesting. I didn't think it absurd opposite a limited opening. Your results may vary. It's MPs if bidding 1NT is not insane then you should bid 1NT. Here not only it is not insane but is probably better than 1♠ so not bidding 1NT is a mistake in my opinion.

Well, for your information, that is the correct procedure in most jurisdictions! Not just EBU. Your opponents have the right to know your agreements. If you have none for a particular situation, you should say just that: "no agreement". Having no agreements on common situations like this one is not, however, free of penalty. Depending on the level of the player and level of competition you may be awarded a procedural penalty on grounds that at this level you are expected to have agreements on basic stuff. Do you read what you just said? "You have to alert your agrements... if you have none you have to alert no-agreement" Under that base every single bid you make is alertable. There is nothing to alert when you don't have an agreement.

If you know partner's bid is alertable, you should alert it. If you don't know what it means, you should tell the opponents so if they ask. Why is it ridiculous to suppose it's possible for partner to make a bid about which you have no agreement, but you are certain it is alertable? By definition where I live the only thing that is alertable is a partnership agreement. If you don't have an agreement about what 4♣ is you don't have to alert. That is why an alert followed by "I don't know" is usually a serious infraction here, since if you don't have an agreement there is nothing to alert and if you have one you have to say what the agreement is. The only exception would be when you know there is an agreement but can't remember it then the fact that you don't remember is UI to your pd and everything continues. Seriously alerting 4♣ here when you haven't discussed with pd is very very comic. If they open 1NT and pd bids 4NT without agreement do you alert and say "don't know, but is probably not to play" ? Either the EBU rules are comic or the interpretation of the rules is wrong. Luis

Under EBU rules, they've done the right thing in alerting and then explaining no agreement. I'll definitely ask. I think I'll bid 5♣ now. Second choice (according to mood) is to pass now, and bid 5♣ over 4♦, or pass 4♥ (they'll just run to 5♦). Thanks to god I'm not an EBU player, Imagine alerting every single bid where we have no agreement to say "I don't know" when asked. Absolutely ridiculous.