luis

Pass over 1N-x is natural, to play 1N doubled. Nothing to say, we play rdbl for rescue. Of course sometimes we decide to take a small loss in 1Nx, typically with 3-5HCP balanced hands. I bid 4s to test the reaction on my opponents, LHO doubled with a lot of confidence so I decided we might be in a 3-3 fit so I pulled. I'm afraid there's no good solution to that.... is it? 4N and 5c were what I define as "last boat to alcatraz" bids, I'm going to play 5dx so let's give them the chance of making a mistake 3 or 4 times. Sometimes an opponent gets obfuscated and just blasts to some contract, sometimes they become double-wacky and double a good save... who knows.... :-)

For the Coke good guesses, yes I was the one who opened 2c. Thanks for many interesting auctions. And some scaring auctions too! ;-) Luis

I'm starting to like my auction.... :-) Dean's auction is not so bad if it starts 1S-2S-4D-4H-5D..... Ben After what I did I'm in no position to say what is good or bad :-) Starting with 1s-1N;4d seems to be unrealistic :-).

I define the "clown seat" as the seat after two passes NV vrs Vul. This story is dedicated to my friends Lenze, who faced a similar situation reported in another thread and Misho, the master of psyches. My hand: Kxx xx T98xxx Qx Green vrs White, pass pass my turn.... Following the Misho school and knowing I'd get Free's approval I opened a 14-17 NT. It went: Pd RHO Luis LHO p p 1N x p 2h p 4h x p 4s x p p 4n x p p 5c x p p 5d x p p p Pd a Junior (!) didn't even move an eyebrow, kudos for him maybe you will hear about him soon. Dummy went down: Axxx Kx Qxx T8xx So far the psyche story, you are invited to comment, you can beat me for opening 1N and you can also beat me or my pd for any subsequent bid :-) Looks like you lose 2d, 1s, and 2c and maybe 1 or 2 hearts. The fact is that I went down only 3 for a top, there was a lot of confusion and 3 penalty cards. I discarded a spade on the cT and cashed the hK with the hA offside :-)

I'm starting to like my auction.... :-)

Take it easy Free, I think Lenze overreacted when he said we (and Ron and others) don't know what this game is about :-) I forgive him and I'm sure he will forgive us all for the beating :-) After all the idea of the arguments in this forum is to have some bridge conversation and some beating from time to time is fun to read and write as long as the opinions are respected ant nothing is taken personal. Now..... If you don't open 1h you are a loser :-)))

Cute story... but word of caution when you get the notes... the 1NT opening bid isn't what you think it is... :-) I'd have guessed that :-) My NT openings are not what they think it is even playing natural so no big deal.

Misho, I'd like to see the notes even unfinished: luis@fuegolabs.com About playing it I'd love to ... I think that if I ever play with you as a pd we would probably get horrible results and about 989 kibitzers with popcorn who preferred to see us playing instead of Kill Bill :-)))) Misho Jxx, x, Qxxxx, 8xxx Luis A, xxx, Axxxxxx, x One likely auction Misho Luis 1N (15-17) 2d (transfer to h) 2h 3N (choice of games) pass (dbl) 5d (oh well) Making 5, they win 6h but somehow it was not easy to bid it.....

a) Looks like a 1NT opening to me. The intermediates in diamonds and the club ten are values for NT. :D I'd open 1d too on this one. The hand is too suit-oriented for 1NT thes uits have no texture and I have an easy rebid over 1d-1h. c) Doubtful but I think I'd open 1N Luis

In a recent tournament my pd and I reached an excellent slam that nobody at all played. But we got to the slam on a series or really horrible bids. I'm not ashamed, you can't argue with success. Is there a way to do it better? North: Axx KQx Jxx 9xxx South: KQxxxxx xx - AKQT Our horrible bidding: South North 2c(1) 2N(2) 3s 4N(RKCB) 5s 6s (1) The one and only (2) Balanced positive So you can now have some fun and make fun at me and my pd, I won't say if I was South or North, you have to guess that for a Coke. Is there a right and nice way to reach the excellent 6s slam? Luis

As a general rule we copycat the panel as if we had a 15-17NT, if they are in game we want to be in game too. But we reach some games that the 15-17 Nters don't reach, mostly 14 vrs 10 NT games, while this 24 HCP games sometimes go down sometimes you make them and that is usually a bunch of imps for your side. The panel is usually weaker in average than our level of play so we can compensate the point we lack sometimes on the play. I used to play the 14-16 NT but I just hate not opening 1NT with 17 as all the players in the room will be doing, you are subject of overcalls that didn't happen in all the tables, you can play the contract from the "wrong" side etc etc. That's why we choose the 14-17 range. In our last tournament the following happened (MPs) - Pd opened a 14NT nv, went down 1 the panel was making 1NT on the other wind. Absolute top #1. - Pd opened a 14NTnv I bid 3NT with 1HCP and 7 clubs. Down 4 with 4s making on the other side. Absolute top #2. - Pd opened a 14NT, they overcalled 2h and played there on a 5-1 fit. Absolute top #3. - I opened a 14NT vul, went down 1, everybody making 2s in the other wind. Absolute top #4 There were 3 more sightings of the 14-17NT that were average or average plus on the play copycating the panel since we didn't have 14. About your second question we play the same structure we played using the 15-17 NT, Stayman, 4-way transfers, Smolen, etc. South African transfers, etc. Nothing strange.

While 3 point ranges NTs are popular (12-14, 13-15, 15-17 and the old 16-18) I've been experimenting with a 14-17 NT lately with a lot of success. The idea is going with-the-panel in the 15-17 hands bidding the same they would bid facing a 15-17 opening. Invitational sequences make some more sense now and opener knows that 16-17 hands are in the acceptance range while the 14-15 hands are not. No more good/bad 16 dilemmas. So far this is working very well so if you want to try it go ahead.

If pd bids 4s I bid 5s.

I think the beating the last few posters are giving you is unjustified. Passing with your hand is certainly a reasonable option, and 4H is not that bad a bid, even playing with a partner who habitually pyches, must less one who has never done so. If 4H is hammered, 5C is a good spot for you at this vul, and a cheap save. Having said that, in the last 35 years bidding strategy has changed somewhat. With the hand in question (see below), many many people merrily and happily open 1H S – A H – KT954 D – T975 C – A74 They do so because they either play some forcing club system where openine one of a different suit is capped at 15 or 16 hcp. Or they do so because of the RULE of 20, where they add their HCP to the number of cards in their two long suits. Here, with 11 hcp and 9 red cards, 20 is easily reached. There are some "additions" and "subtractions" people use to the rule of tweny. With this hand, the T9 in both red suits would be worth about a point and a half, and the lack of a diamond honor would be about minus a half. So I would count this as 21 for rule of 20 considerations, and open 1H myself, but I open aggressively, especially not vul against vul, to try and make it harder on the opponents if it is their hand, and to help partner help me make furher pressure bids in that situation. Ben I open 5h not because I play a strong club and not because of the rule of 20. I agree with Lenze that opening or not opening is a matter of judgement not of silly rules. The hand has: 11 HCP = enough to open worst hands in modern partnerships. 5431 distribution which usually plays very well 5 controls when the average for a 1x opening is 3 Excellent intermediates (T9 of hearts, T9 of diamonds) Purity (No wasted spots in the 3 card suit) 7 losers, the normal average for a 1x opening. Maybe there're enough reasons to open 1h besides rule of #xx

Well I'd open 1h in first seat and I'm very happy of not knowing what the game is about. Very constructive comment from you Lenze maybe you can use your 35 years experience to analize why this disaster happened to you. (Hint: 5h bid, not opening 1h, no flexibility for this game?)

Nice questions! Let's see: #1: Impossible to answer without knowing what kind of agreement I have with my pd over a multi 2d and 2N. Is 3d a transfer ? If not is 3h forcing? If I don't have an agreement I blast 6h, rates to make. #2: 5c #3: Very difficult. But I think I'll bid 4h, not nice but I don't know if any other option can succeed. #4: 4h #5: 4c but maybe 5c is better. I just don't want to eat all the space, we may have a slam in this one.

With all my respect I found any bid but 1N to be a complete nonsense. If pd raises to 3N I'd feel pretty good. Why can't you play 3N when pd has heart stoppers and 4 spades ? 1N is not a lie, it just denies 4 spades, 4 clubs, 5 diamonds and shows a balanced hand with or without a heart stopper. There's a lot of bidding room to find if we have heart stoppers or not. Nothing bad can happen when you bid 1N with a 4333 hand. And you are wrong about pd negative dbl, he may or may not have 4 spades and he may or may not have clubs. Negative doubles carry negative inferences not assertions.

Isn't this how it is meant to be? If the possibility of a psyche does enter your mind, and you make a different bid than you would otherwise, then wouldn't that be "fielding" the psyche, and hence illegal? I don't think 5H is the correct bid anyway. if you haven't got a strong way to raise Hearts on the previous round (2NT?) then I think you should double here. If partner runs to 5C, I think that exposes the psyche, so it is OK to pass. BTW it is much better to psyche 1S on that hand. If partner can't raise you have stolen their suit, if he can then you will make a few more tricks than you would have in hearts! Eric Agree 100% 1s is far a better bid, you can even find a "magical" 4s save against a game or slam playing in a 4-3 or 5-3 fit. Good call Eric.

If you bid 1s because you feel the urge to be creative in front of people then ok. If you bid 1s because 1N is too easy/lame then ok. If you bid 1s because you think it is the right bid then you scare me :-) No ruffing values, no doubleton, not even a jack in spades and you want to bid 1s to play some number of spades at the wrong level from the wrong side in a 4-3 or 3-3 fit? Cmon!

Actually I'm scared at this problem, do you have any other option but 1NT?

1NT, not a problem.

Am I getting old or something? Why not a normal 1d opening ? Gee.... Strange things are expected when you do strange things.

You got what you deserved for not opening 1h :-) When you have a 1h opening and you pass you are not allowed to blame pd for choosing the wrong opening bid.

Hi Misho! Yep, count with me too :-) I'm at GMT -3. Experiments are always fine. My email is luis@fuegolabs.com in case you want to contact me.

dK trying to have a chance to take a look at dummy so I can see what to do next.