luis

A quick simulation: Weak hands 3-9 HCP: 5440 or 4441 short diamonds: 0.49% 5530 or 5521 with clubs and diamond: 0.31% I think the 55 variation is better because it has the power of preempting a major fit in the opponents. The three suiter is riskier because in a missfit you will ge doubled for a number and the chances of a major suit game slam for the opponents are reduced since you have 4-4 + in the majors.

If you want to learn useful conventions to soup up your SAYC system my list is: 1) RKCB, complete. So you know how to explore for slam and find grand slams. 2) Double checkback, it will simplify a lot of very common auctions 3) Ogust so you can open random weak 2's.

You have AKxx in clubs. The auction: PD You 1s 2h 4c 4h 4n foo 5n ? 4c is a splinter with support for hearts. Do you count the club king? I have a fun discussion with a pd and we are conducting a local poll, let's query the opinion of my fellow BBF friends. (I won't reveal my position until we declare the poll/discussion closed. I want the truth not support)

I've conducted a study about this kind of hands about 1 year ago and my conclusion was that hands with 26+ combined points and 10+ combined controls (A=2,K=1) should investigate slam when there's a fit. So in this hand somebody must have asked for distribution, controls and location of controls eventually bailing out to game or the 5 level if the hands don't "fit". That's why in German Moscito we always ask for the distribution and controls as long as there is some hope for slam (when slam is surely out we just bid the best game) Simple German Moscito auction: 1c - 1h (spades) 1s - 2d (just spades) 2h - 2s (short clubs or 6322) 2n - 3d (5-3-3-2) 3h - 4d (5 controls) Now with a 9 card fit in spades and 11 combined controls south knows that there are excellent prospects for slams and can continue asking eventually reaching 6s.

I think I'm being misunderstood. I'm not saying you have to gamble a slam on this hand. What I am saying is that there're good chances for a grand slam and the most simple way to find a grand carries the risk of ending up in a not cold six since you don't know about clubs. As I said I was willing to take that risk.

I said I was taking the risk. I don't care about c) and I like the chances of the slam in B). Are we talking about a bridge decision or pure bidding theory? If this is bidding theory youare right and the artistic bids are needed. If this is a bridge decision you should play the slam , the idea is to win imps not bidding awards.

No I can't Misho :-) I was talking abuout 1h-2d;3d. Hand :) can't support diamonds with a singleton :-) Hand c) can't support diamonds either but if it does what is the problem with 6h ? Asking for key cards in diamonds doesn't mean we are going to play in diamonds.

I actually disagree with the premise that you will only get a club lead if opening leader has both the club ACE and King. For one thing, they are going to lead a black suit for sure. So you stand roughly a 50-50 chance for a club lead. And against this double fit auction, I would certainly not hesitate to lead away from a king, and I might well underlead an ace to put you to the test at trick one if you (dummy) had Kx of clubs. But no matter, I will avoid slam off two top clubs, and that is good enough for me. That's what YOU would do, but for the stats what counts is what happens in average. Anyway respectable position, more than mine but I take the chances. It's a matter of strategy.

What do you want to explore? I want to make sure that my partner has a CLUB control BEFORE I commit to slam (small opposite two key cards). I assure you, I am bidding seven opposite 3 just fine. The three heart bid give us two suit trump agreement, so when I eventually use BLACKWOOD (assuming partner can cue-bid clubs), we will still get to seven. In addition, we get to six when he has a) two controls, and B) a club control. I consider S-KQJ H-Qxxxx D-AKJ C-QJ very reasonable. Your way gets you to six hearts off one on a club lead. My way stops in 4H without giving up on six. I consider, Kx QT9xxx AJT C-QJ not quite so reasonable, but my way stops savely in 4H, while your way gets you to 5H and loses two club on the lead and has only 50-50 chance of making 5H (must find diamond king). Yeah, thats why I supossed you are afraid of losing 2 clubs. That was my point, with this particular hand I disagree with the idea of looking for a club control.... Even without cAK the slam is very good since you will go down only if the opening leader has both the cA and the cK. In hands were a slam is not so evident I'm 100% for your approach, I just think this hand is too slamish to bother about the club control. Just a personal theory :-)

There is a very simple reason for me, Luis, I am staring at two little clubs. I need a club control from partner before I can bid a slam, and 3H will find out about the club control very nicely. It is game force, and requires partner to start cue-bidding. If he bids 3S (cue), I will bid 3NT (serious 3NT). If he then bypasses 4C, I stop at 4H. If he cue-bids 4C I will use two suit agreement blackwood. And if he bids a nearly impossible 4D over 3H (showing a hand like S-Qx H-KQJxx D-AKJ C-QJx, dspite his nice 19 hcp, we have nowhere to go. Even give him a monster like... S-KQJ H-KQJTx D-AKJ C-QJ, where are we going. If I blast with rkcb, I would find out we are missing one of the keycards, and very quickly we are down in 6H when they take two clubs off the top. Artistic? No, reasonable exploration? Certainly. Ben What do you want to explore? With AK of d and the cA you play 7h without one of them you play 6, without two you play 5 and ask pd to open reasonable hands. So what is the purpose of 3h ? It will only be useful to confuse pd about what keycards are the ones that you need.

why dont you play 4D minorwood over here to??? The way i play it, if we establish a minor fit below 3NT, 4 or the minor is RKC. So here, 4NT becomes RKC H... 4D control showing has little use imo. I do play 4D over 3D as minorwood, but without a club control I would not bid 4D... as we could be off two top club tricks. After "two suit" agreement, and the 4C cue-bid, I am now in two suit agreement, so 4D would just be "last train" showing at least mild slam interest or better, to see what partner does, and would promise a spade control (the unbid suit), not minorwood. But once partner can show a club control with his 4C bid (and by the way, his 3D raise arleady shows either an excellent fit or extra values) six card blackwood is the key. Free and Ben, I can't understand your 3H bids boys. Once pd supports diammonds you can just bid 4N, if he has AK of diamonds and the cA you play 7 hearts. If one of those key cards is missing you can play 6h. I can't understand why some players insist in making artistic bids....

I like flexo-Wolsey :-) 2c = Majors 2d = 6 card major 2h = hearts and a minor 2s = spades and a minor dbl = Multi a) 5m and 4M B) One suited in a minor c) Both minors (can be 5/4) Continuations after dbl are simple 2c = correct without 5 clubs. 2d = Asking bid (relay bah) 2h = suit, looking for a fit 2s = suit, looking for a fit 2n = Bid your 5+ minor please.

I like the idea a lot but complexity will kill it inmediately. Agreements should be just free text indexed by the players names. Player1 - Player2 - Agreements. Just that. When you find a new pd, you see if you have agreements with him, if so you send him the URL to review the text, if not you just ask and add an entry to the database or modify the existing entry. It must be so simple that you shouldn't notice you are doing something or wasting any energy or nobody will use it.

I know we need directors here or at least improve the ones we have :-( But it's what we have in the third world :-( embarrasing.

There's a tin line between a psyche and a creative bid. If your pd overcalls and you bid a new suit with Axx and nothing else with support as a directoinal bid are you psyching or are you making a creative bid. Last time I did that I was "prosecuted" for psyching and I said I cannot be accused of psyching for bidding the only card I had. Lead directing bids are frequently tagged as psyches, I don't know if that's right or wrong. My definition is that a Psyche is a bid that can backfire, which means put your side in a lose-lose situation. If a bid cannot lose then it's not a psyche regardless if you have the bid or not. What do you think of this definition?

Hi Free, One option is to use 2NT (if 1NT and 2N are available) to show a weak one suited hand without tolerance in the other suit. Jumps are reserved to show 4-6 hands with 4 in the bid suit and six in the remaining suit. I really like to reserve dbl to show 16+ hands in the sandwich position so pd can have a better understanding of what's going on when everybody is bidding and he has some values himself. The distintction between dbl and others as 11-15 is very good, you can use 2N if you want for your less than 11 one suited hands if you want whenever 1N and 2N are available. Free's modification: New suit = 3+ cards, 5+ in the remaining suit Opener's cue = defensive 5-5 hand in the remaining suits Responder's cue = offensive 5-5 hand in the remaining suits Dbl = 16+ 1N = 11-15 one suited hand without tolerance for the other suit 2N = Weakish one suited hand Jump in a new suit = 4 cards, 6+ in the remaining suit

I'd have taken the lead with the sK and play the s9 inmediately, covered. Since the 8 doesn't drop I'd have taken a finesse in clubs flotaing the 8, take the return and cash the 3 hearts and AK of diamonds, the Q of diamonds doesn't drop then another club finesse for down 1.

My friend Misho, you continue to amaze me. We definitively can play together on TV :-) My last 1h psyche was two years ago with: Kx, void!!, AJxxxxxx, xxx I also opened 1h with xxx, AJx, xxx, Jxxx once in a South American championship but that was another story :-)

I've played this for about 2 years with one pd. It works great. If you don't have a two suiter you just bid 1NT showing one suit. Pd always can figure out what suit it is. The ability to show 3 cards in a suit and 5+ in another one is fantastic to let pd find the best fit at the right level in his next bid.

A friend of mine developed a nice convention to handle overcalls in the sandwich position. I want to present his ideas here so you can comment and use them if you like it. After 1x-pass-1y-? A new suit shows 3+ cards in the suit and 5+ in the remaining suit. Example 1d-p-1s-2c = 3+ clubs and 5+ hearts. 1NT shows a one-suited hand in one of the unbid suits without tolerance for the other suit (2- cards) Opener's cuebid shows a 5-5 hand in the two remaining suits with a defensive hand. Responder's cuebid shows a 5-5 hand in the two remaining suits with an offensive hand. DBl is used to show a powe hand (17+ HCP) any distribution so all the previous bids are limited to 16. Luis

I'm with you 2o1 I will bid 1s over 1h But I will bid 2s over 2c because 1s is not legal

Paolo, with your permission I'll ask some of my pds about the Helsinki Declaration. I loved that quote! :-)

East (dealer) S 4 H 2 D A Q 7 C A R D 10 9 7 6 3 West S R 9 6 2 H A R V 5 D R 10 9 8 3 C Using Vanilla SAYC and East decides to open 2c 2c - 3d 4n - 5h 6d - pass Using Vanilla SAYC and East decides to open 1c 1c - 1d 4n - 5h 6d - pass I can't find the problem..... :-)

Thanks for your comments Gerben :-) Agustin wasn't my pd :-) It was his brother Adolfo, he's 20. The doubling rythm is a terrible disease I think that only solution is to put pride away and don't double without 4 or a trump stack specially in low level partscores, sometimes they do run away to a good fit and you just have to bid what you think you can make. Accepting that you are not going to nail them is one of the most difficult parts of the game. And yes, LHO did have to ask for more double cards. When they discovered what was going on they lost their minds, RHO revoked got a penalty card and then refused to play it getting a second penalty card and then a third one while LHO was shaking his head and my pd was trying harder and harder not to laugh. :-). "If you play with a Junior charge $5 for each rdbl, either you win or you make some money"

When you transfer to hearts with 2h, opener is expected to bid 2h with 2/3 hearts then with the GF hand you bid again to show GF and opener is now expected to show 3 card heart support if he has it? I think this approach loses a lot of bidding space for bidding hands where responder has a major and opener support or where responder has support for opener's minor and a 5 card major. You need to ask for 3 card support and they if not you have to show support for the minor.. how do you handle that?