luis

Your 3s bid is perfect. The 2s bidder is not allowed to bid 4s, normally preempts don't bid again, an accepted exception is when the preempter has a void in the opps suit. You can have whatever you want to have for your 3s bid from 0 to 15 from two trumps to four with or without an honor. Your 3s bid is understood as "I bid 3s" and that's all. You may be bidding 3s just to make difficult for them to reach a slam or you may be wanting to double any 4x bid next.... 4s is 100% wrong and a common mistake among inexperienced players.

I think that after 2h-p-4s a double is clearly for penalties, with both minors you can just bid 4nt and with a one suited hand you can bid 4m, the penalty double is needed in case you were about to bid spades and your RHO is having some fun on-the-route to 5h, it's the only way to tell pd that you do have a spade suit and a good hand and that a forcing pass situation will be created after they rescue to 5h...... Maybe I'm wrong but I don't think we have a takeout dbl in tis situation....

We arrived for the final qualifying session in 11th position with 12 pairs qualifying. Not confortable. As you know it was decided that our system meet the unwritten regulations mantained by a guy who know what you can play and what not so after the director "banned" the system per-se we were back with it. There was a rumour about an attempt to ban the system based on that it was not "common" adding a verbal regulation indicating that systems must be popular to be played it seems like it didn't succeed because we sit for round one without any bad news. Prepare to laugh...... Board 1: I held Qxx, AJx, xx, AQxxx. I opened 1d alerted by pd as 10-14 without a 4 card major. LHO called the TD asked if that was allowed, the TD said it was ok. He said that he didn't have a defense against 1d, I told him it was like "precision", he babled some words and play continued. They played 3nt down 2 on a old-fashioned 4th best club. LHO called the TD at the end of the hand. "He opened with 9!" I explained that two aces two queens and a jack summed 13 in my way of counting and play continued. Then I opened 1h with: Axx, 8765, xx, AKQx. Pd bid 2NT showing 8-11 with 4 or five hearts and no singleton. Vulnerable all. 1) What do you bid? After my bid (won't reveal which) LHO called the TD, he asked if our bids were allowed, the TD said they were, he stated he feeled "raped" (textual translation) by our system. My pd laughed the TD instructed the play to continue... "I understand your feelings but I can't do anything...." I'll come back to this hand in the quiz answers. Then I opened 1h on Kx, AJ9x, Qx, QT9xx. PD bid 2s constructive but non forcing with 10 HCP... guess what... LHO called the TD, he said that he was being devastated for not having a defense against our system. I said that 2s wasn't even a WJS but a constructive bid.... We made 2s +1 for a normal result. After the hand LHO called the TD and said that 6HCP wasn't constructive in his vision of the game, my pd picked back his cards from the board and showed two aces and a queen and asked "do you even know how to count points?"... Then they played 6h pd erred the lead and that fatal board cost us the match. After winning 64-36 LHO decided he needed to present a note to formally complain against our system. I guess we are in the middle of a complot..... I can't believe it.... Back to the quiz...... Nobody vul: x, xx, ATxx, AKQxxx LHO Pd RHO You 2h p 4s ? 2h was a weak 2 and 4s "to play" 2) do you bid? what? KJ9x, xx, AQx, AKxx LHO Pd RHO You 1c 1d p 1h p 2h 3d p ? 1c was strong (15+), pd pass showed 0-5, your second pass showed 15-18 and no heart stopper. 3d is natural, 4-5 HCP and a diamond suit. 3) Do you bid? What? Your hand: AJ9xx, 932, Jx, T74 LHO Pd RHO You 1d p 1s p 2d p 3n p p p 4) What do you lead? After losing the 1st match against the inquisition (LHO was a complete pain in the ....) we fell to the 2nd page of the positions.. We won the 2nd match 53-47 to reach the 14th position 13 points behind pair number 13 with 12 pairs qualifying, it seemed impossible but..... Our last scorecard was: +400, +480, +510, +600,+300,+400,+90,+110,+130,-110 So we win that match 71-29 and enter 11th piuf!! We were lucky to be NS in the last match with all the cards. Apparently the computer sympathized with our struggles to play Moscito and let us pass to the finals...We love you computer! We forgive you for the 3-0 split in 7d down 1 in the first round. The inquisitors were happy to almost eliminate our "satanic" system but now they all will have to play against it and our dreaded 1s opening with "only 4 spades" will be back...... May the force be with us.....

1) All vul x void KQJTxxx ATxxx (4S) P (6S) ? Do you bid? Do you make a lightner x ? What would you do if they pulled to 6N? Argh! I bid 7d 2) All Green T98xxxx void void JT9xxx Playing Polish Club pd opens 1C which can be bal 12-14 or strong. Your 1D bid is a negative. 2H was weak 1C (P) 1D (2H) 2NT (P) ? 3h 3) Red vs Green AJx xxx 8x QJTxx (3S) X (P) ? Your bid? 3nt 4) Polish C again all green A432 6542 2 JT64 1C (P) 1D (1S) 1N (P) ? You play a 15-18 NT, so pd's bid here shows about 19-21 Your bid? Pass

Well time for the solutions! Problem 1. All Vul KQJxx,T,KQ,AJ987 You open a strong club and it goes: You Opp Pd Opp 1c x p 1h 1s 4h p p ? 1) What do you bid? I passed because I was afraid of running out of trumps in 4s on a heart lead losing the control for a typical -800. But it turned out that they made 4h and 4s was on (pd has xxx of spades, 2 hearts and KQ of clubs). Maybe pd should have bid 4s, who knows? If you bid 4s kudos! Problem 2. Not vul vrs Vul x, AT9xx, xxxx, QTx You Opp Pd Opp 1s 2h 2s 4h 4s p p ? 2) What do you bid? I bid 5h and I think it is terrible, but I couldn't resist the invulnerable temptation to defend..... Down 2 doubled when 4s was not making..... Problem 3. You have: Q9xx, 9xxx, KTxx, x The auction: You Opp Pd Opp 1c* p 1d* 4h 5c Dbl ? 1c was strong and 1d negative. 3) What do you do? I rescued to 5d making that! 5c was going down 1. Pd hand: KJT,-,AQxx,AQJxxx Problem 4. Your hand: QJ9, Ax, xx, AJxxx You Opp Pd Opp 1d* 1h p p 2c 2h p 3d p 4h p p p Txxx, x, AQJTxxx, x 4b) You win the cA and now what is your plan on defense? Why? I played a spade and declarer took the Ace, ruffed the cK in dummy and discarded a spade on the dA, making 4..... I really don't know about this hand, imagine you return a trump, declarer takes that and plays a trump again claiming on the diamonds, how do you feel? Knowing that the diamond finsesse was on or declarer has the dK I thought it was mandatory to attack spades.... Oh well..... Today's is the last session of the qualifying phase, we are 11th with 12 pairs to qualify (!). I've been told the TD and other villains are planning a move to ban our system even when it is legal under the current regulations.. I wonder what they are up to....

Ok session II, called "The computer goes bananas", story plus quiz hope you like it. Before the session we what was the difference between a 1s-1n forcing and the relay they said there wasn't so our 1s-1n relay is back. Then we asked if 1h-1s relay was allowed and they said it wasn't so I asked if it was against the regulations to change the meanings of 1s and 1nt over 1h as many pairs do, they say "oooops... you are right" so our full system is back after being "banned" for one round due to the use of relays with positive hands... Dear TD: "Stop trying to hit me and hit me" (Matrix) The computer was on steroids for this session, almost all the hands in the 3 10-board matches featured game swings, double games, voids and horrible breaks. We managed to play 3nt avoiding a 4h game in the 5-3 fit with hearts 5-0, good. Then pd decided to let them play 1s when the field was in 3s or 4s doubled for a number, bad. We bid 3nt and made it on a Squeeze plus a lucky club position plus a defensive error at trick one, very good. Pd missplaced a heart as a diamond so we didn't play 6h cold, very bad. We managed to avoid a hopeless 4s game but the opps doubled the 3s partscore and scored 300 on the typical 5-0 trump break, nobody doubled 4s so that was really bad. In hand #1 I held KJTxxx, -, xx, KJxxx. Pd opened a weak 2h, RHO doubled and I bid 2s, now LHO bid 3d and pd insisted with 3h (!), RHO asked some questions and bid 3s (!) I passed and LHO rescued to 4d undoubled down 2. Field results varied from -1100 to +1400 :-) so 100 wasn't bad but we missed a chance (or they?) to score a swing. Computerrrrrrrrrrr! Problem 1. All Vul KQJxx,T,KQ,AJ987 You open a strong club and it goes: You Opp Pd Opp 1c x p 1h 1s 4h p p ? 1) What do you bid? Problem 2. Not vul vrs Vul x, AT9xx, xxxx, QTx You Opp Pd Opp 1s 2h 2s 4h 4s p p ? 2) What do you bid? Problem 3. You have: Q9xx, 9xxx, KTxx, x The auction: You Opp Pd Opp 1c* p 1d* 4h 5c Dbl ? 1c was strong and 1d negative. 3) What do you do? Problem 4. Your hand: QJ9, Ax, xx, AJxxx You Opp Pd Opp 1d* 1h p p 2c 2h p 3d p 4h p p p 4a) Why does this happen to me? (1d was precision style) Pd leads a low club and dummy tables: Txxx, x, AQJTxxx, x 4b) You win the cA and now what is your plan on defense? Why? Pufff it was a very hard session, we are now 11th with 12 pairs qualifying and the last session is to be played next Wed, our chances are slim, maybe you can do better in this quiz.... Thanks for participating.

I think I'd bid an unusual 5NT ! After all if I do that every time I get a 7-6 hand It can't be that bad.....

I'm not very experienced in teaching but from my point of view competitive bidding is an area to develop for well advanced players. If you think you are intermediate my advise is to improve your defensive skills, defense is the hardest part of the game and it's very important. Get some books on defense and apply the concepts. Just my 2cents.

Hi fly, I never blame my pd, it's very hard to bid 4s on a singleton but maybe that is ok after I reopened with 3s instead of 2s. Of course I might have a very different hand and we can collect 500 or 800 against 4h.... It's difficult to know what went wrong, maybe my 1s bid or my 3s bid, maybe pd's pass over 2h or pd's double of 4h or maybe my pass of 4h doubled..... I just don't know but my hand has only 1 defensive trick (hA) and looks like my spade suit can take 6 tricks in offense and 0 in defense maybe that's why I think I must pull the double.

WARNING: ANSWERS HERE, DONT READ THIS IF YOU WANT TO ANSWER THE QUIZ AND HAVE FUN. Ok, here we go, thanks to the ones who posted. As usual answers are based on what happened at the table/tourney and not on what is right or wrong. Problem 1 Playing 2/1 (while "the Oracle" was deciding about Moscito) None vul xx, AKJxxx, Axx, Kx You open 1h pd bids a forcing 1nt. 1a) your bid? Richard said this was the most difficult problem, sure it was since I'm getting a lot of different rebids: 2d, 2h, 3h etc. What did I bid: 2nt. Pd held: JT9x, Tx, Kxx, Axxx and bid 3nt, heart finesse was onside so we made 10 tricks. We were the only pair in 3nt.... even with the h finesse offside this is a good game, and if you rebid 2d or 2h you might not reach the game. I think this is good for Sartaj who bid 3h you will get a 3nt rebid from pd as well as me. Now the question is whether 3h or 2n is the best bid. What do you think? Problem 2 Playing 2/1 Vul vrs not KQJTxxx,A,xx,xxx Opp pd Opp you 1s 2h p p 3s 4h x p ? 2a) Do you agree with 1s? 2b) What do you do? I opened 1s following my rule "If it looks like an opening bid then open" My 3s rebid was qualified as "brilliant" by one player and "horrible" by others :-) It's a wonderful game. Ok I passed the double and scored 100, we are cold for 4s, pd held x, Txxx, xxxxx, AKQ. Congratulations to the 4s bidders. I guess that if you don't open 1s you can't reach 4s, so I'm happy with my 1s and 3s bids, I just hate myself for not pulling the double. Problem 3 Playing 2/1 Not vul vrs vul J,Qxxx, 98765,Txx Opp pd Opp you 1s 2h 2s 3h?! 4s x p ? 3a) Do you agree with 3h? 3b) What do you bid? I was really in doubt between 3h and 4h, I decided to give my opps the chance to play 3s instead of 4 bidding 3h after all pd may have good values and they may not win 4s.... Maybe I was still blaming myself for not pulling the 4h double in the previous problem because I bid 5h undoubled (!) down 2. They were going down 1 in 4s doubled, congratulations to the ones that passed. Wasn't it tempting to bid 5h with 0 tricks after pd bid 2h instead of doubling? Mmmmm I still need more disciplining pills.... Problem 4 Vul vrs not Qxxxx, 9xxx, AQx, x Opp Pd Opp You p 1h p 2h x 3h ? 4a) What do you bid? It's hard to say what is right and what is wrong here. I bid 4s, and played there almost doubled (RHO doubted after 4s-p-p). My pd held: Jxxx, x, Kx, Axxxxx They lead a heart and switched to a spade, RHO took the sK and played a diamond, I took the K, played club to the ace and ruffed a club, then diamond to ace and ruffed a club, I exited with the sQ and since spades were 2-2 I was able to claim ruffing any return in dummy and ruffing the 4th club to stablish dummy. This game can easily be defeated in several ways, the most simple being playing A-K of spades, and a 2nd heart to force dummy. Now there're no entries to stablish the clubs and you have no place to park your fourth heart. Nobody in the field bid this 4s game and BTW the opps are cold in 3nt! Maybe that means that 4s is a winning bid even if you don't make it (bid 3n now!). I liked this problem a lot... Problem 5 Vul vrs not KQxx, x, AQTx, AQJx Opp pd Opp you 2h x 4h 4s p ? 5a) What do you bid? This was very interesting and the guys looking for slam were right, pd held Axxx, xxx, KJx, Kxx Is pd expected to bid anything but 4s on that hand? If no then you should do something or you will be losing a very very cold slam, I think the risk to end up in the 5 level is ok this time. The key was the 4h bid on xxx, Kxx, xxx, xxxx. It was a very good bid since if he bids 3h now it is easy to bid 4s showing good values and pd can go on, over 4h your options are limited and 4s is wide-ranging. What did I do? I watched them playing 4s :-) I was the guy who bid 4h, after all I was "invulnerable"

Ratings are evil. Imagine a professional player, after playing with clients he will have a very bad ranking and nobody will want to play with him or will suspect from him.... And don't suggest unranked tables, if there's a ranking everybody will want to play for the points. Imagine a good player that usually plays with some beginner friends, if his local archi-rival is ahead of him in the rating he might just refrain from playing with his beginner friends. Ratings are also discriminatory, tables wanting players with more than X are not fair, young good players without many points shouldn't be deprived from the nice pleasure to pd a world class player. If you have a rating a player having a bad session with his pd may boot him or close the table, happens all the time in okb and it's a stupid behaviour, many times you are just booting the chance to have a friend or a good pd that has just started with his left foot. I played for a year in okb closed the account because I wasn't able to pay for it I had a very good ranking something like 57-62 or so in a moment I was better than Soloway and worst than a horrible player that can't count to 5..... nonsense..... The BBO system is ok, is based in trusting people which is good, if you find a player that you think is better or worst than his level just add a comment to him and you won't have the same problem twice.

Well seems like there're many variations, I'll post mine and free will have plenty of options to choose :-) After a comic 1NT 2c = Asking bid, pd will pass/correct with the weak one suited hand or bid their suit (cue) with the 15-17 nt. Cue = Asking bid, pd bids 2nt with 15-17 or his suit with a weak one suited. Others = Natural and to play even if pd has a strong nt. 2n = INV if pd has a 15-17 nt, otherwise pull to 3x.

I really don't like my hand, the doubleton dQ is a minus in offense. I'd pass in my opinion 3h does not necessary shows extra values but it does show a hand interested in playing and this is not the case.

The Hog said: Well, I had a little accident last Tuesday when the-worst-td-in-the-world decided it was time to ban Moscito because he was getting too many complains from old ladies. Then the "guy who knows what can you play" decided the system was ok adding 4 HCP to our requierements for relays.... sigh..... I wonder if I can get Australian citizenship by pleading I'm being tortured by our only-one TD and our NBO ? Maybe you guys need a bridge player :-).

About the weak doubleton: I'm not sure if asking an 1NT opener for a weak doubleton is a good idea, if you decide to ask and opener shows a weak doubleton where you have xx, or xxx then you have a good advantage since you know 3nt is not making and you can try your luck in another game. But frequently opener will show a doubleton where you have AQx, or KJx, or Axx, or similar. Then you have a very bad problem: - If you decide to play 3n your opps will make the best lead,crossing your hand and knowing what declarer has in the suit, and sometimes if they don't have a natural lead on that suit you will be in a very bad position relative to the panel. This is really terrible! - You can decide not to play 3n knowing the panel is playing 3nt and end up in a hopeless minor suit game or moysian fit when the panel is playing 3nt making with a favorable lead or making even with the feared lead. So if you are really hyper-scientific then it is surely better to SHOW a weak doubleton instead of asking, if declarer bids 3nt then at least they are leading into the stoppers and not crossing them..... Anyway I don't like that approach either.

Hi, new local tourney new quizz :-) This time it's IMPs (we've played enough matchpoints). Mixed national tournament. This director has a ratio of about 2 rulings against me per-tournament, if I'm the offending side he adjusts the score automatically, if I'm not he let's the result stands. In round 1 pd opens 1h showing 4+ hearts, an old lady decides to bid 3h "to play" in the middle of our relay auction, we doubled and collect 800. Then the lady complains to the TD and the director starts a "poll" to see if our bidding was strange for the other players..... The director takes a Nazi point of view at Moscito and decides to "forbid" the system based on his own criteria. So we play one round of 2/1, then "the guy who knows what can you play" decides that Moscito is fine but the relays after a non 1c opening must show 15+ HCP. So our system is back with that change. Yes, we have no written regulations, the TD is a moron and there's one guy with the power to decide what can you play and what you can't. And yes, this is a national. I guess this is why our bridge is going backwards.... Welcome to the third world. We bid 7d with a ten card fit, of course the computer deals QTx of trumps offside and they score 50. Then we play 3nxx and since I can only think on different ways to kill the TD I go 1 down in a cold redoubled vulnerable game. My pd decides to take some aspirins. Now it's not a tourney, it is a war. Let's see how can you do.... Problem 1 Playing 2/1 (while "the Oracle" was deciding about Moscito) None vul xx, AKJxxx, Axx, Kx You open 1h pd bids a forcing 1nt. 1a) your bid? Problem 2 Playing 2/1 Vul vrs not KQJTxxx,A,xx,xxx Opp pd Opp you 1s 2h p p 3s 4h x p ? 2a) Do you agree with 1s? 2b) What do you do? Problem 3 Playing 2/1 Not vul vrs vul J,Qxxx, 98765,Txx Opp pd Opp you 1s 2h 2s 3h?! 4s x p ? 3a) Do you agree with 3h? 3b) What do you bid? Problem 4 Vul vrs not Qxxxx, 9xxx, AQx, x Opp Pd Opp You p 1h p 2h x 3h ? 4a) What do you bid? Problem 5 Vul vrs not KQxx, x, AQTx, AQJx Opp pd Opp you 2h x 4h 4s p ? 5a) What do you bid? As usual comments and results will be posted after collecting some answers. We are tenth with 12 pairs entering the finals. After a round playing 2/1 we are back with Moscito but relays over non 1c openings show now 15+ hcp. Ridiculous as anything.

BOTH VUL, DEALER EAST S: XX H: AQXX D: AKXX C: QT9 S: KQ9 S: ATXXXX H: KJTX H: XXXX D: T9XXX D: - C: X C: JXX S: XX H: X D: QJXX C: AKXXXX This is the German Moscito auction noting that South will open the bidding. 1d (10-14 no 4M) 1s (INV+ relay) 2h (UNB c>d) 2s (relay) 2n (short hearts) 3c (relay) 3h (2-1-4-6) 3s (controls?) 4c (3) 5c pass

I'd bid 3s. They may have a game or they may not but I don't want to force them into the right decision, being vul I prefer to present more options to my opps so they can choose a wrong bid (double 3s, bid 4h, let me play 3s, bid 3n, bid 5c, bid a slam.....) 4s puts a lot of pressure and in this particular situation they may just make take the right choice. Ben: Ins't it an implicit fit situation from the R&S book, then maybe they would recommend a 4s bid if they have a heart fit they are forced into the 5 level.... I just feel that 4s is too unilateral .....

Can players post the results and if they want a log of the matches played in this thread? It will be useful to the other teams and players to know what happened, who's your next rival and so....

I wouldn't refer to the participants as "offenders" or to the facts as offenses or rule violations, simply call it a database of facts that can be useful for tournament directors. I'll add to your list recording psyches, if a player fields a psyche and that pair has some recorded previous psyches a director can conclude that the psyche was fielded ilegally -red-. But besides all this the best best tool would be a database where all the hands played in BBO are kept and can be "tagged" or categorized so a TD or player can later find boards played by some player, or boards belonging to a specific category or cross matches..... This would be a great tool to research, to learn and to TDs. Maybe...

No, but I do like to play 2N as a balanced GF and 3c as INV+ with 4+ card support for the major. The really good advantage of this treatment is to purify all the 2/1 auctions where any 2/1 suit is now surely a 5+ card suit. My structure after 1M-3c is: 3d: Any Game forcing hand opposite an invitation+ 3h: Slam interest 3s: Minimum or sub-minimum opening bid 3n: Balanced hand 16-18 HCP. 4m: Two suiter.

Pass (*Bored*)

It is against the rules to play a hand once a player has claimed. If the claim is disputed the TD must be summoned and he must adjudicate the result of the hand using the proper rules. If your opponent claim and you let him play the hand you are breaking the rules and can be subject of a procedural penalty. This is one of the most elemental rules that most players don't know.

Hi Laird, my opnion: I agree with my fellow posters in that the north hand must open. This is not an option to me, pass is a poor bid. Once east opened 1s I think that 3c is not a good bid either I think 3s asking pd to bid 3nt with a spade stopper is a better bid. Your hand is not exactly an obstructive preempt, you have a very good chance to have a game in your side with that excellent solid suit, if you bid 3c you give away the chance to play 3n. In summary you have an opening bid facing a gambling hand and you bid it as a passed hand facing a preempt. Bid what you have, open when you have an opening bid and try to reach 3nt if you have 8 tricks in your own hand. Luis

Peter, Please don't ever think about opening this hand 2s, you have 2 aces, defensive values and a side 4 card heart suit, if your side belongs to hearts you lose the suit and it will be very hard for pd to understand that you opened 2s with 6 losers, 2 aces and two good suits.