luis

Ben Said: West 3h North Double East pass South 3s (alert!) West What is that? South Transfer West Transferring what? South The blame ..... :-)))

Very nice problem, Pass. Can be very wrong but I take my chances, 4333 hands are horrible dummies for pd.

Not bidding 3s on the Ax after pd opened 2s and 3h is doubled is a very serious crime. Not only because it's one of the worst bids of the year but because you are insulting your pd. Sometimes I examine hands, it's fun I llike to blacklist players like this west so I can't accidentally end up playing with him :-)

Hi Roland :-) 1) In hand 1 pd held A, KQxxx, JTx, AQx 2) He wasn't sure between 2h and double, since double had the option of leaving the x he preferred to x. I was his pd so if he thought I have good judgement to leave the double or bid 2M then I'm thankful. I'd have preferred 2h with his hand but double is ok to me. 3) Well, I think he thought I held some tricks for bidding twice vulnerable vrs not including a 4 level bid. Too bad I just had a lot of distribution and no tricks for defense. I think I should have pulled the double to 5s. Can't blame him. When I have a freakish hand and it's not clear that I have a freak I prefer to bid one more.

1...is there any way that you can compare your boards,bidding and scores with that of the top players - perhaps using some kind of split screen ie yours on left others on right? 2... when you ask an opponent the meaning of a bid and the response is "no info available". Is that a valid reply within the spirit of the game? 3... I have an impression that Polish players may be having a lot of success in these tounaments and is there any notion of what system used is most successful? 1. I've had some "dream" tourneys and finished 3rd/4th so I know that to win, specially a short tourney you need a lot of luck! The shorter the tourney is the harder it is to win. A 400 boards tourney will be won by the best pair without any problem, in a 12 board tourney everybody has a fair chance. 2. If they don't have an agreement they don't have to say what they have in their hands. I trust players when they don't have an agreement about a particular bid. It's a 100% valid reply. 3. Poles play well and they play Polish club (WJ2000 usually) a system that is far superior to SAYC. So they have a natural advantage and it's 100% fair for them to have it. Polish club is not hard to defend, on the other hand it's easier to defend agains PC than to std methods, they just have more accuracy and bidding space because their system is better designed than std. Misho said: I think this is a difficult issue, for poles their system is standard, but most sayc players found polish club an evil invention that was created to destroy them, the second statement is usually materialized and complains begin. Why aren't we alerting our SAYC bids to poles? Because we think they are natural and so they think their bids are natural. Being PC an easy to learn and fun to play system I'd just recommend you that it's better to study the system and have a better understanding of the auctions they produce than asking a zillion questions. You will find that you can bid better, lead better and defend better if you know your opps system. You know what can they have and what they can't, it's impossible to transmit in a tiny box all the inferences and conclusions that can be obtained by someone that know the system.

BBO hand, you might have played it. Everybody vulnerable. Good stamina, good opps, full glass of coke next to your mousepad, very good pd but you never played with him. You scored +480 on the first hand when your "safety" play picked up a Qx of trumps for +3.8 imps. As usual when you play with a new pd, freakish hands appear from all the corners.... Your pd (dealer): AQT9x, KJx, KJ, AQ9 You: -, Ax, Axxxx, KJT765 1) I've always said that the 2NT opening was the worst opening in std systems, since there's no point in preempting your pd when you have half the deck on your hands.... But yes, opener bids 2NT, how would you bid the hands with your pd? 2) Playing with a pickup pd I bid 3s (to be interpreted), and over 4c I jumped all the way to 5NT, he bid 7c ending a to-be-determined-if-succesful auction. Plan the play in 7c on a low heart lead into.. yes, into your KJx If your plan depends on the trump position clubs are 3-1 the opening leader having 3 of them Luck!

I'm in the club of the 2s bidders. Didn't read the book, would love to but impossible to get it here :-) at least we have the best meat in the world.... 8-) I once commented that if we double in sandwich to compete then we compete, we don't double just to let them know where are the cards if they play the hand, we aim to play the hand. And the 2s bid having two cuebids available and a 2NT bid cannot be encouraging at all. 7s? Crazy but fun bid. Since we are almost sure to get a good result playing 6s why risk 7 missing the trump Q? At the table I'm sure I'd have jumped to 5NT asking to bid 7 with 2 trump honors, 6c with 0 and 6d with 1. So I'd have played a peaceful 6s and congratulate my pd for bidding 2s. "It's what we do, it's in our nature"

1) I'd take the sJ and play the sA, if west ruffs and returns a heart I take the hA, ruff a spade high, play dA, dto theK and ruff the last spade high. Now if trumps fall I can ruff a club in dummy and discard on the good spades. This wins if spades are 3-2 or if spades are 4-1 but west has 3 trumps. 2) Pass.

Hi, all, thanks for posting! Hope you liked the quiz, now let's see how you did! 1) First board of the tourney, are we doubling partscores yet? NoneVul, Kxxx, xx, 8xxxx, xx West North East You 1s 2h 2s pass pass x pass 3d 3s pass pass ? Do you double? If you doubled you scored +300 for 100% and a superb start, if you pass your pd will missread that you have 4 spades and you will be +50 for 20%. I passed. 2) Do you like to defend a touch and go 1Nx or play a likely 4-3 fit? NoneVul, AT9x, J98, AT62, xx West North East You 1d pass 1NT x pass ? Your bid? If you passed you will score +300 for 100% If you bid 2s you score +140 playing on the 4-3 fit for about 30% If you bid 2h! you score +140 or +170 for a top depending on the defense. Pd held Kxx, AQxxx, xx, Axx. I bid 2 spades. 3) I have a lot of black cards pd. NSVul, KQJTxx, xx, -, KQJTx West North East You 1d 1s 2h p 3d 4c p 4s p p 5d x p ? Your bid? If you passed -550 for an absolute bottom. At least you lead the cK to prevent the overtrick didn't you? If you bid 5s you get doubled for -200 and a top. Pd held just the Ace of hearts and 3-2 in the black suits. I passed. 4) We are rolling, do we keep pushing? EWVul, x, Jx, KJxxx, KQxxx Do you open this hand? If you opened the hand you will play 4c making 5 for a top on bad defense (4c always makes). If you passed don't worry, maybe you have the chance to enter the auction later but notice that they win 3s and will bid spades inmediately. I opened 1d :-) 5) Black cards strike back! NS Vul, AKQxx, x, x, KTxxxx West North East You 2h p p ? No particular agreements. If you bid 2s you play 2s for +170 and an average board. If you doubled you are -470 for a disaster (pd held KJxxx of hearts) If you bid 3h and 4s over 3s or directly 4c you play 4s for +620 and a top. Even without an agreement I bid 4c :-) What the hell can 4c be if not leaping michs? I decided it was a convention that didn't need to be agreed :-) Pd alerted "undiscussed but if it's not clubs and spades it WILL be discussed" 6) Are we framed? NoneVUl, QJTxx, KJxx, Kxx, T West North East You pass pass 1h pass 2d pass 2h pass pass ? Easy pass or do you bid 2s? If you passed you are -110 for an absolute bottom. If you bid 2s you can get doubled and go -300 on a crossruff, they can bid 3h and go down, they can bid 2n, you can play 2s undoubled.... who knows? But It can't be better than a 0% :-) Of course I passed and blamed myself, because I did have the feeling that we were getting framed by EW. -------------------- I must say that Inquiry's comments were amazingly accurate, since this was a club game he didn't know the hands, full credits for his sound comments. --------------------- Hope you did well, if you didn't shine on this boards don't worry, as you can see they weren't good for me either and we finished with 74.9% :-) ah yes, they other boards where sweet so if you scored well you might just have produced a record score!

We have 4 heart tricks and 2 diammonds, so we need 6 tricks from the black suits. Lines: a) Play for 4 spade tricks and 2 club tricks. :D Play for 3 club tricks and 3 spade tricks. a) Is about 60% (the sp suit for 4 tricks = 62% and the club suit for 2 is 100%) B) Is about 0.375 (sp finesse = 50%, double fin in clubs = 75%) So we must play on spades. At MPs play the sA and then finesse the sJ. At imps play the sA, if RHO drops the T, 9 or Q then finesse the 8 (restricted choice). Luis

Hi, an easy quizz to test your MP luck, I'll post the answers/comments later and you can see how you did (note that answers will be based on the real life result) MPs tournament, average opps. You are always South for clarity. 1) First board of the tourney, are we doubling partscores yet? NoneVul, Kxxx, xx, 8xxxx, xx West North East You 1s 2h 2s pass pass x pass 3d 3s pass pass ? Do you double? 2) Do you like to defend a touch and go 1Nx or play a likely 4-3 fit? NoneVul, AT9x, J98, AT62, xx West North East You 1d pass 1NT x pass ? Your bid? 3) I have a lot of black cards pd. NSVul, KQJTxx, xx, -, KQJTx West North East You 1d 1s 2h p 3d 4c p 4s p p 5d x p ? Your bid? 4) We are rolling, do we keep pushing? EWVul, x, Jx, KJxxx, KQxxx Do you open this hand? 5) Black cards strike back! NS Vul, AKQxx, x, x, KTxxxx West North East You 2h p p ? No particular agreements. 6) Are we framed? NoneVUl, QJTxx, KJxx, Kxx, T West North East You pass pass 1h pass 2d pass 2h pass pass ? Easy pass or do you bid 2s?

Welcome! So we are 2 instructors and 0 students so far :-) I'll contact you privetaly to prepare the version and material.

Hi, I've received many msgs from people interested in learning Moscito, I'd volunteer for that happily. If you are interested in learning Moscito please post your name in this thread and your preferred time slots for that. I'll prepare notes and put them on the web and schedule a weekly practice sesson with comments and related stuff on BBO. Of course as BBO this is free :-) Luis

If you have a regular pd, I'm sure that learning Moscito is a good idea.There're many variations of Moscito, I play German-Moscito because it is very easy to learn and it's ok according to most regulations, I can even play it at local clubs. BUT if you want to learn a more advanced and superior treatment then you should use the Australian version by Marston-Burgess, Richard Willey has amazingly extense and detailed notes about Moscito for the Australian version, for the German version I know there's a document in German, and I'm sure there was an english version, unfortunately I just have a spanish version in paper. Maybe you can start with the German version and then "upgrade" to the modern variation, but there's some risk :-) I've been trying to do it and my pd just says "why? this is too good to change...." :-)

Even playing short suit trials you should always have "one" bid to show a slam-interested hand. I don't know which one, you have to agree that with your pd. You are fixed otherwise and I think you did well enough to reach 6s. Can I resist posting the Moscito auction? No! North holds: S: AQXXX H: A D: XXX C: AKXX South holds : S: KJXX H: XXX D: AK C: QXXX 1NT (10-14 4/5 spades) 2c (relay) 3c (4-3-2-4) 3d (ask controls) 3n (4) 4c (where?) 4h (sK) 4s (go on) 4n (- in h) 5c (go) 5h (dAK no sQ) 5s (go) 6c (cQ) 7s Note that relayer knows "Kxxx, xxx, AK, Qxxx"

So if you play precision at GCC events I'm sure you are under the glass for using satanic-yet-legal methods. :-) The regulations should try to prevent players from playing methods that requiere a prepared defense and some time to prepare counter-measures not ban bids because they are not popular. Somehow the GCC seems to be based in a mixtre of what is popular and what old ladies like to play and play against. When absurd regulations are enforced I like playing an ancient system like Colonial Acol or Roth-Stone. It has the same effect on the "stupid-field" than Moscito and other terrorist/satanic systems. They just don't know what to do agains unusual methods so they usually bid the wrong thing with exponential catastrofic result due to both players doing the wrong thing many times on the same board. Your old ladies will surely defeat mines, caffeine is a great booster for bridge players.

Then GCC is for old-ladies that play bridge while drinking tea. With respect for old ladies and tea. A tournament under such a regulation cannot give masterpoints or color-points or anything since you are forced to play inferior methods just because. I assume it is to make old-ladies happy while they dring their tea.

2) If pd assumes you hace 2 card support and rebids his suit then you can bid NT again, it doesn't mean you have a 4441 shape but it does show a lot of interest in playing in NT rather than in a trump contract. 3) I'm very sure Muirderberg is GCC legal, since if a weak 2h is GCC legal then Muirderberg is too. 5+M and a weak hand (with the extra information that we always have a 4+ side suit).

1) Hi pb, I think that all the modern versions of precision use some form of asking bid after a positive response. Assuming you don't have such an agreement with your pd you can just bid: 1c 1h 1n 3n Why "invent" a 1s rebid with 4 cards? it will be hard to blame your pd if you end up playing 4s in a 4-3 fit. 2) The only problem playing precision with 4441 hands is when the short suit is diammonds, if you play that a 1d opening shows 2+ diammonds you have to use 2d for 4-4-1-4 hands. Some players also open 2d with [4]-[3]-1-5 hands and bad clubs. 3) Weak 2's in hearts are far more frequent than strong three suiters so I wouldn't like to give up the 2h bid. Of course is only my opinion. A better option if you are obssesed with three suiters is to play 2h/2s Muirderberg style with 2d multi being an option a strong(ish) 3 suiter. 2d = weak 2M or Bal 22-24 or 16-18 three suiter. Three suiters are always hard to bid in most systems, thus the "impossible negative" bid popularized by the italians and other curious treatments.

Hi Rado, Tks for playing interesting hands. Weak 2's? Nah! I'd open 1h. 1NT. I'm interested in diammonds, if pd bids 2h or 2d my hand is a rocket. If he rebids 2s I can pass and if he rebids 2c I bid 2h. Now if he jumps I have to re-evaluate everything. Pass, and 3h if they bid 2s and that is passed to me. I don't like this hand.... 1.a. No, I should have bid some flavour of 2NT 1.b. 3s where's the problem? The splinter is wrong because of the KQx in hearts.

Never mind. I've tried to explain why you can't win the hand without a deceptive measure. If you go down you go down the same number of tricks playing either way I'm just maximizing the chances of a defensive mistake. There's no chance of a defensive problem, no matter what kind of carding you or they are using east will take the cA and shift to a low spade ctaering to Qxxx in declarer's hand.

Good tips on concealing your strength but they won't work on this hand. Your play is absolutely pointless unless you point a gun at east and threaten him not to play a spade. a) East can duck twice and get an obvious switch-to-spades signal from pd B) Even without the signal a switch to a low spade after taking the cA is 100% automatic even declarer can have Qx, Qxx, or even Qxxx of spades and you run 6,5 or 4 spade tricks plus the cA to set the contract. It's really better to play a low spade to the Q at trick two, west will play a diammond and when in with the cA east has a chance to err and play a heart.

2NT any game forcing hand that cannot double 1NT. A very useful agreement to have with your pd.

Yap, 6c is better but it was MPs :-) I guess that playing MPs my convention is good, at IMPS it is just better to accept the inv by jumping to 6 in your suit to offer a choice of contracts.

In matchpoints just bid 6h and relax, next board please. At imps you can just pass 6c, playing 7 without the hQ seems to be anti-percentage.