luis

Maybe we have a "master solvers forum" hand here :-) I'd vote for 2c and score 100 you crazy 1s bidders get your 80 and stop crying :-))) Life is not only about spades. Votes?

Hehe, I also mentioned the Raptor 1NT overcall, maybe that's why we play the same system :-) I really don't like the 1s overcall if they play the hand you want pd to lead a club not a spade and if you end up playing 4s in the 4-3 fit with a good 8/9 card fit in clubs pd will not be happy. I like 1s with a bad 5 card minor or when I have just a few points and want to introduce spades just in case we can compete if pd has some strength. In this hand 1s can attempt against your own constructive bidding...

You can play the "Raptor" NT convention where an overcall of 1M shows 4 cards in the other major and a 5 card minor suit. This hand is just perfect for that treatment :-). (Playing Raptor over 1m 1NT shows 5om and 4M) If you don't play that then a 2c overcall seems to be normal, if pd has values to bid 2d or cuebid 2h you have an easy 2s rebid if pd bids 2s then you can bid 3s. It doesn't seem to be a problem. Dbl is surely wrong, you will be in trouble or in a wrong spot if pd bids 2d.

The famous "movement factor" that is measured by good declarers using a modified Mercalli scale. The last trump would surely have generated a 5.3 movement in the modified Mercalli scale from east :-)

I'd like to express my complete support to all the polish players and other pairs playing polish club. I really don't like the tone of many protests against PC players that sound like the holly inquisition. There's somehow a strong tendency of SAYC players to yell after any succesful polish club auction.... The 2d wilkosz opening bid was perfectly alerted and explained 3nt is a gross aberration since opener is likely to hold 5h for his bid. You can't just "gamble" 3nt and then call the director if that doesn't work. You can't pretend to win a board just because you don't like what your opponents play you must accept that there're other succesful approaches to biding different that sayc. I know sometimes alerts are missing and sometimes bids are not explained properly but that happens also to sayc players and we take that as normal. We have to learn to be more tolerant and we have to learn to play international bridge, BBO is not your local club expect strange systems and learn to play against them it's so good to have a free chance to learn different systems why complain?

Well.... you asked.... It was in a Juniors south american championship and we had to win to get to the semi-finals, then both argentinian teams will be there ensuring a place in the finals and a place in the world championship. We were facing a team much stronger than us, no chance to win unless.... We quickly fielded our best pair in the open room and the combination of a good player and a very weak one in the other playing the "I can't play the hand system". Our captain dressed with fluorescent clothing and dumped a galon of perfume on him before sitting just next to our oppo in the open room.... I remember I opened 1h on AJx of hearts and 3343, pd bid a forcing NT and I passed. Then we bid 1c!-2c!!! (inv); 3c!!!!-3n!!!!!!!; 4c all pass opener: Axx, xx, xxx, Axxxx responder: x, xxxx, xx, JTxxxx Then we send our two female players to offer some drinks to the open room opponents... Then they called the director to protest because our captain was "too close to the table" We played a simple 4h missing just two aces, our oppo lead an ace and then the other, my pd said "you can't play like an old lady, making 5" and put the cards on the board. :-) We bid a slam after the informative 1s-6s sequence, they erred the lead, I erred the play, our captain send the girls back, they erred the discards, making 6. We opened 1NT with 2 singletons and played 2NT down 1. They called the director and asked how many psyches were allowed in a match, the director told us to be very careful, we said we weren't very sure of what was happening They tried to psyche, failed badly and ended in 6N undoubled down 5 pd commented we could win 3 clubs but they psyched. The we went for 2 more -800 in very funny auctions that only time will remember, now we called the director to say that we psyched again and see if the board can be canceled. No way and the director was getting very red. My pd went down in a cold 1d contract! Captain asked for better lightning, play stopped for 5 minutes. We collected some funds for the bar :-) We got booked 800 again (damned!) After this 800 our captain had to send the girls back, and we were running out of cash but then after many "free" beers this hand appeared: I opened a multi 2d with Jxxxxx, xx, xx, xx (vulnerable!) Our captain fell off the chair (not a lie) and the director was called, he ruled the chair to be replaced and playing to proceed. LHO bid 3c pd jumped to 4h RHO doubled, I corrected to 4s, LHO doubled. All pass. My pd tabled: ?, AQTxxx, ?, KJxxx I started to yell.... How can you .... with a void.... I will..... LHO lead the diamond king Then he showed his two remaining cards: AK of spades I was fuming I tried to ruff but couldn't because the lead was actually the hK!!! hA, two spades (2-2) hQ dropping the J, 13 tricks. Pd asked for a calculator. Captain yelled +1390 I said: They will always wonder which minor suit slam made 7! We won 24-7

This is a hand from a national tournament. Opener: AKTxx, JTxx, AJx, x Pd: x, AKQxxx, xx, Txxx I conducted a survey 8 pairs bid 1s-2h;3h-4h;pass 4 pairs bid 1s-2h;4c-4h; pass 1 pair bid slam after 1s-2h;4c-6h 1 pair bid slam after 1s-2h;3h-4h;4nt!!-etc And there was a lazy pair playing Moscito (not me, I was playing vanilla 2/1, and I won't comment my auction) 2c (10-14 5/4 or better in the majors) 2d (relay INV+) 2n (spades > hearts and short clubs) 3c (relay GF) 3d (5-4-3-1) 3h (controls?) 4d (5) 6h pass Many players were obfuscated for not bidding 4c "how stupid it was not to splinter now I had to pass 4h..." Others were fuming at pd "I bid 4c and you have 0 waste in clubs and all the hearts and signed off in 4h? Why don't you think? Do you want me to splinter support and ask for aces? Do I have to do everything?" This were follower by a chain of "sorrys" from the 4h bidders. And there was one pair talking about movies.... "Did you bid the slam?" "Yes sure, there wasn't a way to stop, he opened 2c and I relayed and..." Note that they were "forced" to bid the slam and that's very healthy. Conclusion: Relays once learned are good to relax between boards... your brain is fresh to play and defend since bidding is almost automatic. Luis

"A miami endplay is an endplay in the last trick" "A jamaica endplay is an endplay that almost works...." Now the hand: Amazing Dealt in BBO maybe you played this hand! KQJ9 AK32 Tx xxx 8 ATxx T98xx QJxx xx Q98x AJTxx x 7654 - AKJ72 KQx In the bidding NS slided to 4s: 1d-1h;1s-2c!;3c-4s West leads a heart, plan the play without seeing the 4 hands.... I took the hA and played the sK, east took the Ace and played a heart Plan the play :-) I ruffed and played a spade to the Q getting the bad news Plan the play! I played a club to the K, west took the Ace and returned the cJ, east refused to ruff discarding a heart so I took the Q. Now I tried a Jamaica endplay. I played my last spade to dummy J cashed the hK and played the last spade to east's T. The end position was: - x T2 x Inmaterial - - Q98x - - - AKJ7 - The Jamaica endplay, east is endplayed but he has 1 card that dooms the contract.... And yes, evil east played the dQ and I had to claim down 1. Comments feedback and warm words are welcome! A crossruff works but I don't know if that is the line that you should take, opinions? Have fun with this hand, copy it and let all your friends play it. They will comment "Only 4 spades?" and they will go down :-) BTW: East was bridgeme very good plays by him on this deal.

So you are leading this event? :-) Congratulations but my 2nd session was 72% (!!!) -quiz soon- so I guess you are second now :-). I've scheduled a Zen meditation session for today to get concentrated for the match of the "time period here".... We still don't know how to defend against their 2NT 20-22 preempt.... Somebody send Fred some bottles of wine before the match please!

I really don't know :-) Might depend in the conditions of contest since you are playing 2 systems. Maybe this is the same as playing different systems in 1st/2nd and 3rd/4th position or depending on vulnerability. Once in a team one of our pairs was formed by a very weak card player and a very strong one, the strong player opened 1nt with 15-17, the weak player wasn't allowed to bid NT in the auction and all his bids except 1c/1d were transfers. It worked out very well. :-) Of course we did that only because we "badly" needed to win that particular match.... The other team got obfuscated but the director decided that the system was perfectly legal since transfer openings were ok and not being allowed to bid nt wasn't against any rule. We did other dirty things in that match that I won't admit in a court :-)

Hi all, Thanks for your answers, more quizzes coming soon. Now the results for this quizz. a) Nobody vul, do you open this hand: 954,A2,76,AQT975 ? I really don't know why but I passed this hand, and then I faced a horrible problem, LHO opens 2s, pd bids 3d and RHO passes. I was fixed and passed. 3d made for +110 but we are cold for 5 clubs. If you opened your pd drives to game and you get a top, if you passed you are well below average, if you open 3c you get an average plus, pd will compete to 4c but not to 5. Pd's hand: xx,xxx,AKQJx,Kxx :) All vul. Do you open this one: AKT953,5,9753,QJ ? If you passed or opened 2s you play 3s for +140 and a shared top, if you open partner forces to a hopeless 4s and you get a shared bottom. Pd's hand: Qx, KJT9xx, AJx, Kx I opened 1s and scored -100 quickly. c) All vul. Your hand: A942,K,KT873,AJ6. You open 1d, RHO bids 3H, pass pass do you reopen? how? If you reopen your pd bids 3NT making 3 for a really good result, if you passed you get an absolute zero. My pd reopened this hand so we did have a happy ending. d) NV vrs vul. AQ, AKQ974, 72, A43 LHO opens 2s, pass, 3s. You bid 3NT, LHO now bids 4s! pass pass. Your bid? If you passed or doubled you get a zero since 4s actually makes. At the table I bid 4nt, pd decided that I had a two suiter (?!) and bid 5d quickly pulled to 5h undoubled down 2. So if you bid you get an average result, if you pass you get a complete zero. Pd's hand: x, T9xx, J9xxx, xxx e) Vul all. A8,KQJT832,A3,A4. Nice hand uh? The bidding goes: You pd 1h 1n 2n 3c (x) 1n is forcing for 1 round and shows 5+ spades. 2n is forcing by agreement. Your bid? Wrongly I reuled out 3NT and bid 4h, then I missread the ending and choose the wrong endplay for down 1. 3NT is a joyride. If you bid 4h you get a bad result, if you bid something hoping to get to 3NT then full marks for you , a super-top!. If you passed or redoubled 3c then I don't know, glory or disaster! Pd: QTxxx, -, Qxx, Q98xx f) J,J84,QT96, AK982 You are vul against not, pd opens 1h and RHO bids 4spades. Your bid? My pd bid 5h wrong because I couldn't play double dummy and went down 2 (singleton hK offside etc). If you doubled you get a normal average plus. If you bid 5h you get an absolute bottom since only your pd is down 2 :-). Sorrrryyyyy My score in this session: 55%. 4th place. Hope you did better :-)

I don't know.... Maybe you must pass leaving the decision to pd, you don't know why he bid 4h if it was distributional or just sound values. I'd like to know what others think about this particular sequence. Are we in a forcing pass situation by responder only ? :-) Can you bid over 5d? Do you? Maybe pd wants to double any 5x unilateral save by the opps..... Remember they didn't have a fit so a 5x save is unilateral and can find pd with a trump stack..... Interesting.... I want to add to Richard's hands a very funny hand to make you see how Rado and Ghinze can be really a pain in the auction and how can an obfuscated player get it right without any merit (yes I got out nicely but could have been even better) You (south) have: (Nobody vul) AKJTxxx, x, AKJx, AQ The bidding W N E S 1d 2N x 3d p p 4d p 4h p 7N 1d shows 9-14 and 4+ hearts. 2NT showed both minors :-) I didn't know whether to double 3m or look for a slam/grand slam. I decided that the minor suit finesses should be working and since me/east have all the minor honors he must have values in hearts and probably the spade queen to open the bidding, so I jumped to 7NT and found that I had about 16 tricks :-) 3d doubled can be set 9 tricks (yes they don't make a trick) for +2300 which is better than +1520. The point is that I don't know why I doubled 2n nor what the hell was 4d nor if 7n was good/excellent or horrible... As you can see relay systems are nice but when the opps put some wild preempts in the way it can be really difficult to know what to do.... OTOH sometimes wild preempts push a parternship to a contract they wouldn't have played with all the information enabled. I remember hamman once heard his pd open 1x and his RHO bid 5c now he decided to bid 6c and found a horrible heart slam that was made due to lucky breaks in two side suits.... of course they wouldn't have played 6h without interference. Preempts can backfire.

Hi, I'm playing a national pairs tourney so I think I'll be posting a journal/quizz with some interesting hands. I don't know if this bores you or if you find this kind of postings interesting, please let me know, I just want to provide some material for your gray cells.... Session 1. You are always south for convinience. Expert pd weakish field since this is just a classification session (1/3). a) Nobody vul, do you open this hand: 954,A2,76,AQT975 ? :) All vul. Do you open this one: AKT953,5,9753,QJ ? c) All vul. Your hand: A942,K,KT873,AJ6. You open 1d, RHO bids 3H, pass pass do you reopen? how? d) NV vrs vul. AQ, AKQ974, 72, A43 LHO opens 2s, pass, 3s. You bid 3NT, LHO now bids 4s! pass pass. Your bid? e) Vul all. A8,KQJT832,A3,A4. Nice hand uh? The bidding goes: You pd 1h 1n 2n 3c (x) 1n is forcing for 1 round and shows 5+ spades. 2n is forcing by agreement. Your bid? f) J,J84,QT96, AK982 You are vul against not, pd opens 1h and RHO bids 4spades. Your bid? I'll post the results based on what happened at the table after getting some answers. Good luck!

This brings up the subject of rankings, points, lehmans and prizes. As Richard says this pulls out the worst from people, players need to demonstrate that they are "better" than others by having more "pond points" or whatever. This absurd need makes players cheat, reject weak pds, close tables after a bad board and other missconducts. IMO (very personal opinion) BBO as a free site is a place to divulge bridge and where players of all skills, nationalities and economic conditions can practice, improve their game and meet other players, make friends and know people with the same interests. This is very valuable. In this context a tournament is a way to practice your tournament play, you can play in the bridge club a zillion boards against another pair and you will only know how you do against that particular pair, a tourney lets you try your partnership against different pairs, different systems and different styles, at the end the result can be used to know how you did. No matter if you play just for fun, as a training device or both prizes are not needed. If your ego is so big that you must prove you are better than others then you can pay $X per year and try to collect pond-points in other online bridge clubs. Oh Btw you will only prove you are a better point collector. ;-) IMO BBO encourages friendship, sportmanship and good bridge without caring about the particular results. I think that those values are better than pond points. I like competitions so I'm happy with tourneys and I'd like to see team knockout competitions, individual competitions and other events in BBO, I just don't think a ranking or points system is needed to make competitions more interesting.

Not so lazily, if he ruffs high then he needs to guess the diammonds if they are 3-0, diammonds 3-0 are a zillion times more probable than a 10 card spade suit. So ruffing low seems to be just fine. What do you think? I held a 10 card spade suit once in a South American championship, my hand was: Punta del Este Uruguay 199x. AQTxxxxxxx, -, x, Kx I opened 1 spade :-), and after some interesting events my pd asked for aces and then bid 5NT asking for kings, I blasted to 7s ruining his auction since an ace was missing and they guessed what card to lead, he was asking for kings to make sure 6N was safe (MPs). Some players opened 6s, others passed some aliens opened 4s.... The traveler was full of funny results: 7s down 1, 6s making 6, 6s making 7, 7s making, 4s making some number of tricks. 6NT would have been about 80%, I ruined that. Next hand I went down 1 in 6cxx (hearts were not 3-3, the club finesse was wrong, the spades didn't break and the diammond ace was wrong) I'll never forget that two hands....

No,no I was really thinking about a challenge the champs feature :-) I think it can be a lot of fun.....

Opener S-xxx H-AKJT9 D-KJ C-QJT Off two spades when ACE is behind the KQxxx.... No, because 4c showed a club singleton so the thirs spade is either the J or is discarded on the cK :-) Remember I started 1h-2n; 3h-3s; 4c

Flaps are used to provide sustentation to planes when they are landing or taking off.... If opener has AK of hearts and a yarborough you win 6h, in the worst scenario -worst, worst worst- you are on a finesse. I believe all good pairs should bid to 6h on this board.

How can you stop at 4h after your pd opens 1h and you have KQxxx, QTxxx, -, AKx ? Do you really have those flaps? At my table we bid: 1h 2nt (9+ 4+h) 3h (submin) 3s (slam try, spade control) 4c (control) 4d (cue) 4h (no Sp ctrl) 5h (asking for 2 honors to play 6) 6h (oh well)

Once I doubled 5d and then I doubled the final 6s contract, dummy's first suit was hearts. Did pd lead a club? Nah! I tried to explain it, I tried.... And he fianlly couldn't stand me: "Don't double anything, I know what to lead without your dbls" LOL

I don't know I just opened 1h on that hand :-)

Pb, I'd recomment Rubensohl, because it can be applied not only when they bid over 2NT but in many other situations. Then you do have to learn but it's worth the effort because you are "controlled" in many problematic situations. We play Rubensohl in this positions: a) We open 1NT and they bid 2x :) They open a weak 2 and pd doubles c) We open 1c and they bid 2x d) We open 1d and they bid 2x e) Pd doubles 1x and RHO supports or bids a new suit. Luis

1) Gee! What a problem! I'm between 4NT and 5h planning to correct clubs to diammonds of course. I think I'd bid 5h. I take my chances. If pd bids 5s I'll pass Maybe pd can bid a spade slam or minor suit slam knowing I'm void in hearts. 2) 3NT no doubts.

Do you play 6c here as "some clubs and many voids" ? I'd bid 6c

Hi dear mad scientists and hopeless naturalists :-) I wanted to remember that this friday, July 11th at 22.00 pm EST (3 am GMT) an adventurous team of scientists will test their satanic weapons agains the "evil forces" of the naturalists lead by Fred Gitelman. I just wanted to invite you all to kibitz the match and support us. We'll be playing Moscito (German and Aussie versions) with the amazing comments of The Hog, The Rueful Rabbit, The Gremlin and other interesting criatures. Alert souvenir cards signed by Paul Marston might be distributed after the match. Don't forget to buy your scientist "Got alert?" T-shirt. Our spys in the naturalists camp have told us that the evil naturalists are planning to use the dreaded "11-21 can be 3 card" 1c opening. We don't have a defense against such a destructive wide-ranging preempt but we'll try to prepare one before the match. The 20-22 2NT preempt is also worth considering, how do we bid game after a preempt that doesn't show any 4 card suit? Is that legal? If we only scored 1/2 an imp for each alert.... Luis