luis

Flame: In the last tournament I played locally I've seen in 128 hands exactly 1 psyche. A 2/1 2♣ over a 1h opening with K,Kxxxxx,Axxx,xx (MPs). Spade lead against 4h, making 7 for a top. (LHO held AK of clubs). Do you really think this wasn't fair bridge ? A good player did this to me and I just laughed and say well done to him. It's part of the game. ACeOfHeart: You are wrong, forbidding psyches doesn't remove the fun of the game it removes the whole game since the laws do not allow any TD or Organization to forbid psyches. Tournaments with "forbidden psyches" are pseudo-bridge.

1) & 2) Pass or psyche up to you, they have game. The partscore doesn't matter 3) You can bid 2♣ and show a canape with spades later or you can bid 1♠ and treat the hand as a 5-2-3-3 hand. Up to you. If you don't want to show clubs, maybe you will lose a better club fit. Luis

Abstain, what the hell is 2♠ ??

Well, there're a lot of "views" I will try to put in this post both a summary of what is used and some personal opinions about the subject. Let's start with: Variations for trial bids (Used after 1M-2M or 1m-1M;2M usually) a) Help asking bids 3c/3d/3OM asking for help in the suit bid (OM=Other major) this bids have a big problem: no matter if pd can cover or not your losers the opening lead is pinpointed to the opps. This is I think the first historical approach to trial bids, discontinued in modern times for the reason I mentioned. :rolleyes: Long suit trials 3c/3d/3OM show 4+ cards in the suit bein bid so pd with some complement in the suit can go to game. The problem of this approach is that is difficult for pd to know if a singleton or doubleton in the suit is useful, to prevent such dilemmas you have to agree that using long suit trials singletons and doubletons are NOT useful. You can use 2N as invitational without a second suit using this approach. c) Short suit trials 3c/3d/3OM show a singleton (rarely a doubleton) in the suit being bid so pd will go to game without waste in opener's short suit. It's easy to know that Axxx is useful as well as xxxx while KJxx or QJxx are not. Without waste in the suit pd can go to game even when he has a minimum 2M bid. You can use 2NT as "invitational without a short suit using this approach" Of course with a maximum you should go to game no matter what pd has. If you must play one of the three mentioned above I recommend option "C" invite showing a short suit. With both a,b and c you can use 2NT as a "general" invitation which frequently is a very good bid wihout giving away any info. You can use 2NT when you don't want pd to evaluate his holdings in any suit or when you think you can mislead your pd. For example if you have 5422 with Jxxx in the 4 card suit you'd better not show the 4 card suit as a second suit. Finally there're ways to COMBINE both short and long suit trials bid using the 2NT bid one approach is Example after 1s-2s 3c/3d/3h = long suit trials 2NT asks pd to bid 3c, after 3c, 3d,3h and 3s show a short suit in diamonds, hearts and clubs respectively. (3M always used to show shortage in clubs the suit that responder bids after 2N) With this approach you can both invite by a long suit or a short suit loosing the "generic" 2NT invitation. Hope this is useful, feel free to ask questions. Luis

Club splinter no doubts.

Flame: I think that learning relays and how to use them is actually easier than learning natural bidding.

Flame: Being able to find good slams is only a very minor advantage of the system, among the great things that happened in one hand we asked about controls to play 3s !!

Yes exactly as you posted :-) After knowing if the hand is a one suited hand or a two suiter we are using the Viking club relays because we use Viking club but you can use Moscito or other structures to resolve a 6+-x-x-x hand for the one suited hands and a 5+-4+-x-x for the two suited hands. In case it's useful After a one suited hand is shown and relay: 1st step: 6322 (relay asks 3 card suit) 2nd step: 6331 (relay asks about singleton) 3rd step: 7321 (relay asks about singleton) 4th step: 7330 (relay asks about void) 3NT shows 7-2-2-2 and if that's in the middle of steps they are moved. So 3NT is always the 7222 hand. After a 5+-4+ two suiter and relay: 1st step: 6-4 hand or 7-4 hand (relay asks about rest: 1-2;2-1;0-3;3-0;1-1;0-2;2-0) 2nd step: 5-5 (relay asks same steps as before) 3rd step: 5422 4th step: 54 with 1-3 in the rest 5th step: 54 with 3-1 in the rest 6th step: 6-5 hand Luis

Typo perhaps? 4th step "with" support I guess :( ? Yes :-) I typed fast, you can find other typos/errors. Hope the general idea can be understood.

Nope, we use the normal tools and weapons against 2x opening bids. Some soup against multi 2d (ala Dixon), Leb after 2x doubled etc. The overcalling system applies only to 1x opening bids by opps.

Some posters asked about the overcalling system I'm using with my pd, the system is based in an original work from a local player and modifications made by him and my partnership. Basically: When they open 1x: Double is 15+ any (power doubles) 1NT is a takeout double of their opening bid (11-14) Offshape is ok as long as you have 5332 or 4432 with 2 4 card suits outside the opening bid suit. Level overcall: Either one suited in the suit bid or a two suiter (can be canape) of the suit bid and the second highest suit (opening suit is eliminated) 2NT: Any weak(ish) 5-5 two suiter. cue: Three suiter short to opener's suit Jump overcalls: Weak Example of "level" overcalls If they open 1c 1d = diamonds or diamonds and spades 1h = hearts or hearts and diamonds 1s = spades or spades and hearts After a level overcall the relay (the suit that overcaller denied) is used as a relay, overcaller indicates in his 2nd bid if he has a one-suited hand, a two suited hand in canape, or a two suited hand with the 1st suit longer. If available 1NT shows a balanced one suited hand (5332) Example: (1d) 1h : Hearts or hearts and clubs 1s relay Now: 1N = 5332 with hearts 2c = Canape hearts < clubs 2d = Hearts and clubs h>c 2h = One suited with hearts A second relay is then used to find the exact distribution, then your favourite slam tools can be used to determine controls and location of controls. In some cases advancer will be interested in the suit that overcalled denied (the relay suit) in that case he bids the "cuebid" as an asking bid in the missing suit, the answers are: 1st step: Minimum without support 2nd step: Minimum with Support 3rd step: Maximum without support 4th step: Maximum without support After this advancer can bid a relay to ask for shortness 1st step=no shortness, others= shortage up the line. After a 1NT overcall we use 2x = Natural NF, with maximum and support overcaller can raise 3x = Inv with 5 card suit Cue: Asking bid 1st step: 4432 odd suit = same color as declarer (if declarer opened 1s for example this shows 4-4 in hearts and diamonds since the odd suit is clubs) 2nd step: 4432 odd suit = same range 3rd step: 4432 odd suit = alternate 4th step: 5332 suit = same color 5th step: 5332 suit = same range 5th step: 5332 suit = alternate Overcaller can choose between 1NT and a level overcall with 5332 depending on his strength, suit quality, intermediates, etc. Generally we recommend the level overcall showing the suit inmediately so 1NT is almost always a 4432 hand with 2 4 card suits outside the opening suit. After the power double: The 1st bid not NT available shows a negative. Others 9+ and stablish a GF situation. Continuations are natural. Overcaller usually uses DBL or a cue to show a hand with 19+ hcp and bids naturally with 15-18. Some Advantages: - Relays can be used to show exact distribution and explore best game/slam - 1NT can take quickly off your chest a hand with 13-14 points and 4432 shape even with a doubleton in "the other major" or similar. - Pd inmediately knows the combined HCP since overcalls and 1NT are limited and double is always 15+ I'm open to questions and comments and of course improvements :-) Luis

One of the funniest "Blackwood moments" ever seen ocurred in a Juniors Zonal Championship when the following hand appeared: [hv=d=n&v=n&n=sakxxxhkqxdxcajxx&w=sxxhxdxxxxxcxxxxx&e=sxhjxxxxdaqjxxxcx&s=sqjxxxhaxxxdkckqx]399|300|Scoring: IMP[/hv] North opened 1s East interposed a 3d bid South bid 4d West doubled Now north used 4NT to ask for aces East passed And south bid 5c (one ace) West decided it was time to bid 5d North passed using the "forcing pass" something that was new and fancy for him East passed And now South bid 5NT (alerted on both sides as "asking for kings") West passed and North bid 6h showing 2 kings. Now north knew about aces And South about kings Eventually in a classic juniors move South bid 7d (!!!!!!!!!!!) North thought for a zillion years and emerged with a 7s bid And yes East lead a heart.....

Ben, Isn't it funny that, to defend blackwood, you choose two hands where it has been missused ? :-)

Your bids look fine to me and 3s is horrible.

I play the following with my current pd: Pass is forcing when: - We have bid game VUL and they bid a 5 level contract - We bid a cuebid, fitshowing jump or SPl that forces our side to 10 tricks - When a game forcing situation was created during the bidding A direct raise never creates a forcing pass situation A direct bid to game never creates a forcing pass situation When pass is forcing we play the Meckwell philosophy: Pass = "I'd have doubled this" (If pd dbls a pull then is slamish) Dbl = "If it were up to me I'd have bid 5" Bid = "The weakest of all" Luis

Abstain. I open 4d this hand. For a zillion reasons. One of them is that I have 1/2 defensive trick

This my Top 10 Please take it with humour some good conventions are here, not because they are bad but they do have some "danger" if your pd tends to forget some things... #10: Namyats: Down 6 in 4d when you can make 6s? Run before your teammates arrive! #9: Rubensohl: Very similar to Leb with the disctinction that you can play in a suit you don't have. #8: Exclusion Blackwood. Ok I reckon this is useful just experience the thrill of being left to play in your void and you will understand why this is here. #7: Capp. AKA "Crapp" not only this does nothing at all for your constructive bidding over 1N neither it does make the auction of the opponents more difficult, it can even make it easier. #6: The "Ipioca convention" 1h-1s as a forcing NT with 1h-1N showing 5 spades. A convention you can say "can't hurt" until pd forgets you produce a beautiful 1h-1N;2s-Some Slam down 4. #5: Gerber: A gerber sighting is actually more interesting than an UFO encounter so it is worth to play this convention only to see if you ever use it at all. #4: Romex 3s over 2NT: 2N-3s transfer to 3N so nice. But wait... 2N-3N is NOT to play? You bid 3N with a balanced 5 over 2N and pd removes to 4c what now ? :-) The convention no partner can remember. (Note: In a Bermuda bowl a team played 4N after 3N-4m as "I forgot 3N was not to play, please pass" #3: Blackwood: "No convention has damaged american slam bidding as much as blackwood" (E.Kaplan) #2: Ghestem: AKA: How to play 3c on a 3-1 fit. 1d-3c pd smiles thinking you have a club preempt and you play 3c on a 3-1 fit in a hand where you can win 4 of a major. Oh dear... #1: Texas: AKA: How to play 4h on a 2-1 fit 1NT-4h and if pd forgets about Texas you are in a disaster. Not only Texas is dangerous, South African Transfer serve the same purpose and are not likely to produce accidents.

Thanks for the answers! First hand: Pd held: Ax, Kxxxxx, AJxxx, - 6d is down on a hA and h ruff lead. I think DBL is the best bid. At the table pd bid 4h over 3NT and it went pass, pass 4NT! pass pass 5d x all pass for +550. Both hands are difficult to bid after 3c and 3NT by opps. Second hand: Pd held AKxxx, x, Axxx, Kxx so 4s was cold and 4c was down 2. Luis

You are being too hard with west, he just couldn't control himself. I think that crimes commited under "violent emotion" should have a decrese in the penalty :-)

I wouldn't adjust the result, it's impossible to get less than 4 tricks and they could have got a lot more with a better defense. I think west comment is just the result of the logical obfuscation, poor west, doesn't seem like something unethical just unpolite. About the "disciplinary" question I don't think this is worth discussing in this phorum, since you run these tournaments you are free to decide what to do with west. As long as you are consistent with your actions there's no reason to object them. I you need opinion I think that just a light warning is ok. Luis

Since this topic is active I will re-insert my idea about rankings here: Bridge is a pairs game, so instead of having a ranking for each player keep a ranking for each pair. An individual will then have different rankings with every different partner. In this way you can see how good your opps are as a pair or how good or bad you are doing with some partner. Doesn't it make more sense? Luis

[hv=d=w&v=n&s=sqjtxxxhjxdktxxcx]133|100|Scoring: IMP[/hv] LHO opens 3c Pd bids 3h RHO bids 3NT Your turn. [hv=d=w&v=n&s=sqjtxxxhjxdktxxcx]133|100|Scoring: IMP[/hv] RHO You LHO PD 1h P 1N X 2c 2d 3c 3d 3h P P 3s 4c ? What's going on ? Your bid? Do you agree with your previous bids ?

Pass in normal mode. 3h is acceptable if you think it is your day.

I agree with hrothgar in everything he said. 2h is no way a Psyche, South decided to open 2h with a 5-6-2-0 hand NV vrs VUL and he is free to do whatever he wants. 2s is strange and South passing 2s with a 5 card hidden spade suit is even stranger. I think that investigating if NS was a regular partnership is the first TD task if they are not then they were just Lucky. I think EW deserve a procedural penalty and a visit to the ethics comitee for calling NS cheaters. If I werea TD I'd rule the result to stand and I'd impose to EW some kind of penalty. Luis

As you know I think that player rankings (AKA stats) are evil. What I think can be useful is to keep a record of "partnership" results, so whenever you play with a partner you can see somewhere your record with that player both in IMPs and MPs. Example: Foo & Bar (IMP: +0.54 in 31 hands, MPs: 53% in 987 hands) This is a nice way to keep an idea of your success ratio and the results you are having with a particular pd. I don't know if this should/shouldn't be visible to opponents, I accept suggestions about that. What do you think?