luis

I certainly hope so. What I was thinking was that you misdescribed "negative slam double" as it is my belief this double DENIES a defensive trick. Here is what bridgeworld says about this... Negative slam double = in a competitive auction, the double of a slam to deny defensive tricks. Bridgeworld link Now you can play it differently if you like, that is fine, but I was correcting the description as of the convention you described. The idea of making it ZERO, instead of ZERO/ONE is that you can count your tricks better if you know if your partner has one trick or not. If you hold one trick, and partner double shows one or 0, you don't know what to do. But if the double shows 0, then you know what to do with only one trick. Ben Well I learned the convention the other way around and it's the same. I think that it's like Ogust where what matters is the concept and not the order in which you use the bids because it is the same. Dbl = 0 Pass = 1/2 Or Dbl = 2 Pass = 0/1 Can be summarized as "negative slam doubles" in my opinion. The idea of making it ZERO, instead of ZERO/ONE is that you can count your tricks better if you know if your partner has one trick or not. If you hold one trick, and partner double shows one or 0, you don't know what to do. But if the double shows 0, then you know what to do with only one trick. Double doesn't show 0 or 1, PASS shows 0 or 1. So you know what to do: Double with 1, pass with 2, defend with 0. See? It's the same :-)

Yes 4h show spades. Tks Free (corrected) The idea is to make opener transfer to his suit so you can play it.

I had several good results with the adition of a simple convention over our Multi-2d bid: 4c = I want to play the hand in either major, please transfer to your major. 4d = hearts 4h = spades This allows the strong hand to play 4M when he can play in both majors. With a simple direct bid at the 4 level. I think this is far better than a 4h pass/correct

this seems a useful trick. I would give it a try. Well Luis has it wrong... a negative slam double implies ZERO tricks, not 0 or 1. So you double with zero tricks, and pass with more. The idea is that after your side has preempted and they bid a slam, if you double with ZERO tricks, it tells your partner what to do... bid on or defend based upon his hand. And a pass tells him about your trick. There are a couple downside to negative slam doubles on this hand. First, it takes ligthner double out of your arsenal. Second, it is not necessarily all that clear who is sacraficing and who is bidding to make... let's change the vul to no one, for example. Finally, to double with more than two tricks and to pass with 0 or 1 as luis suggest would not exactly deserve a special conventional name. Doubling when you can beat them is called normal bridge. Here is how negative slam double would work on this hand. Your hand would pass, because you indeed have at least one trick (you would double with zero). When bidding comes to your partner, he will pass one trick, happy to defend, since you promised one. With zero tricks, he would double, and you would bid 6♦ as a save since you can only see one in your hand. This is a nice convention, you must be willing to give up lightner doubles in the direct seat, and it only applies where yourside is preempting in a save-or-defend position against their slam. Ben What ? Ben ar you ok? It's exactly the same, there is absolutely no difference in playing pass=0/1 dbl=2 or dbl=0 pass=1/2 When Pass is 0/1 trick And double is 2 tricks After pass pd bids pass with 2 defensive tricks double with 1 6x with 0 (you don't have 2) After pd's doubles with 1 trick You pass with 1 Defend with 0 When Pass is 1/2 tricks And double is 0 After pass pd passes with 1+ doubles with 0 And after pd doubles you defend with 1 or pass with 2 What's the difference?

Well I double with the second hand and bid 4 spades with the 1st one. When I have a contract that can be made when pd has 0 and 4333 I don't double, I just bid the contract. That's why I bid 4s in the 1st hand. I know a double sounds elegant but why present my pd with a losing option?

Pass showing 0 or 1 defensive trick (the dA is not a trick I suposse) (I'd double with 2 defensive tricks) Then pd will bid DBL if he has 1 defensive trick and I pass with 1 or defend with 0 If pd has 0 defensive tricks he bids 6d and if he has 2 he just passes. This is called "negative slam doubles" and I think it's a very useful convention.

Ok let's see Take the 1st trick in hand. Club K and club to the A. If west dropped 2 club honors cash the dA if the dJ or dK fall continue diamonds and claim. If no diamond honor falls play heart ace and heart to the Q. Then take the spade in dummy and hook clubs if the hK didn't appear singleton or doubleton in east. If west didn't drop 2 club honors then cross to hand with a third club, if clubs are 3-3 duck a heart for the 9th trick. If clubs are not 3-3 then diamond to the Ace, if no diamond honor appears play for hearts 3-3 playing heart ace and heart to the Q. If a diamond honor appears just play on diamonds for 9 tricks. I win when a Clubs are 3-3 and west doesn't have JT9 b West has 2 club honors doubleton c Any player has a singleton diamond honor or KJ doubleton d Somebody has the singleton hK e East has the doubleton hK f Hearts are 3-3 and west doesn't have JT9 of clubs

Am I wrong of this is a squeeze? Take the dA and now draw trumps. Then duck a club. If they take the trick and return a club then either clubs are 3-3 or LHO will be squeezed in hearts & clubs or RHO will be squezed in diamonds and clubs. If they take the trick and return a heart then there is a double squeeze, LHO guards hearts and RHO guards diamonds so nobody can guard clubs. Is this line 100% I didn't think enough.....

You've just violated one of my partneship golden rules: "Never bid 1NT with a 7-5 hand" And never means NEVER.

Good inferences but many of you. Diamonds are indeed 5-1 so if you try to ruff both hearts getting to dummy in diamonds the second diamond is ruffed and you are inmediately down one. I think this hand is a valid case to change the percentage play based on bidding inferences. At the table declarer took the hA with the Ace and inmediately played a club, maybe trying to get RHO surprised. RHO played a low club but declarer inserted the king without hesitations. It held! I'm not sure what is the best approach but I'm sure that trying to ruff two hearts is the worst option.

4s. Should have a play opposite three small cards and very few values. It's only a bad bid when 4s goes down and 4h wasn't making but it's 2 to 1 better than pass or double imho.

3♣, what else?

Oh my god!

[hv=d=n&v=b&n=skq765ha62dakj2c4&s=sa42hdq65ckj87632]133|200|Scoring: MP 1c*-(1h)-1n(*)-4h x-p-5h!-p 5s-p-6s!-p p-p-p 1c=strong 1n=8+ with clubs Opening lead: hK[/hv] How do you play? There're two basic options.

Double. I'd like to have a better suit to bid 1s.

I wonder why do you all guys want to play in a 3-3 spade fit when 3NT, a minor suit slam or game can be available. Unless you have agreed with your pd that after 1c-(2h)-dbl opener can rebid 2s with 3 cards the bid makes no sense. Why would you bid a spade suit with 3 cards? How does responder know when you have 5 or 4 and when you have 3? Can't responder have a balanced hand with 3-2-4-4 distribution or 4-1-4-4 or 4-1-4-5 ? I really don't get it, you 2s bidder are getting too fancy in my opnion.

3♣, seems to be my best suit and I don't have 4/5 spades so let's see how this continues. Healthy bid.

Now I must ask: why ? :-)

Greetings from the guy who bid the "so horrible" 3s bid that made you go to the bathroom and ........ First of all I think 3s is quasi-forcing because it would be stupid to correct the contract. But anyway I'm open to suggestions WITHOUT seeing the 4 hands. Do I bid 3N and lose 4s or do I bid 4s and lose 3N or do I bid 3h and endplay pd in the bidding? Or do I bid another thing and blame pd for not understanding I had 6 spades and bid another suit to show them? Luis

Pass and I hope to write something in my column. There're a lot of inferences in the bidding: First of all 3c is game forcing with a club suit so LHO does have value for game and the 3h bid from my pd doesn't promise a single honor, just the distribution needed to play at the 3 level in hearts or spades or the 4 level in diamonds. So our side has a very good 9/10 card fit in spades or diamonds so LHO is short in spades or diamonds and has a club suit. Pd has also hearts so I don't think we can make 4s or 5d because we will lose 1c and 3 hearts or maybe 1c, 2h and 1 spade. If I bid something I force them to double because of the vulnerability if I pass they may have a losing option. Maybe they find 5c, maybe they have a slam but maybe they will pass 3N and I can run 5 diamond tricks.

Yikes, it's a terrible hand because you can't test if hearts are 3-3 before taking the club finesse. a) The pedrestrian club finesse (hA, dA, dQ, spade to A, sp ruff, now club finesse....) B) Take the hA unblocking the T, dA, dQ, sA, spade ruff and now b1) Cash a second heart unblocking the 8 b2) club to the ace directly and then run the diamonds If the hJ or h9 drops doubleton is that J9x or is Hx and I must finesse. Is the squeeze or hearts 3-3 better than the club finesse? How to factor the dreaded decision of playing for hearts 3-3 or 4-2 in the end....

Who is North? The post says 7d by North and so the lead comes crossing hearts. I assume south is at the bottom.....

My way is: go with the percetages but from time to time do something anti-percentae if you feel it is right (even if it may not work). Your pd won't be worried to play with a psycho and your opponents will be aware that you can't be fooled in every hand. And all in average your results will be normal :-)

1NT is always constructive to me, so 1NT is not an option. 2c with a doubleton is not my idea of healthy bridge. The options are pass, 2d and 2h, I think that 2h is better than 2d because a player who doubles 1s usually has 4h so his pd is more likely to bid 2h than 2m if he has 4-4 that's why 2m can show 5 cards and the doubler usually raises in competition to 3m when he has 4 cards in pd choosen minor. On the other hand doubler won't raise 2h to 3h with only 4 cards. If he raises he has 5 and a 5-3 fit isn't that bad. Holding 0 I must take into consideration that pd can have a very very strong hand, maybe a game forcing hand on his own so whatever I bid won't be important unless I pass. In this particular hand with 0 defensive tricks I doubt passing 1s is a good option and I can think about many evil things that can happen if I bid 2d so my bid is 2h.

Should be adjusted to down 1 automatically. There's nothing to even think about it.