karlson

I'm going to win the K and play three rounds of clubs (pitch a spade, ruff), then a heart up to the Q. I like my chances as long as trumps are not 3-2 (3 with lefty, seems unlikely) or 0-5.

I think it's reasonably standard to play that if you've shown a lot of length in the suit, middle is encouraging, and high/low are suit preference. That's the way I first learned it. Of course how much "a lot of llength" is will depend on context. I think 5 is almost always not enough, and 7 is always enough. I would signal that way on this hand, especially because partner having stiff A is not at all unlikely and he will need suit preference.

We did not get to a very good spot on this deal. Would you have done better? [hv=d=n&v=n&n=sahakt9xxdkjcajxx&s=skqtxxhdqtxxxxcxx]133|200|Scoring: IMP[/hv]

Perhaps you're mostly trolling, but .... the thing that strikes me as the most insane is that you might seriously think that the forums, filled with bunch of people who only know you through bridge problems, might actually have good advice for the stuff you've posted recently. This is what your real friends are for, the ones who've hung out with you a ton and know when you're happiest, and when you're at your worst, ideally ones who have met the girl in question. There are always a million subtleties, and if you listen to advice from anyone who can't possibly be familiar with them, you're an idiot.

It seems clear that if south is allowed to raise with hands like his, north has to bid 3n with hands like his. In my usual style, south has a 2s bid. I really hate 4d also though. He's already showed at least as much diamond support as he has, and this hand can play well in a 5-2 spade fit, why not bid 3s?

If you go to the USBF site, under open trials, in the third and sixth paragraphs there is a lot of detail about how the seeding points are calculated, including charts for exactly which event gave how many points. I also think that it's excessive considering this tournament on its own, but it basically says "performance in nationals is part of the process of picking the US team".

Would never pass. I think 2 is ok vul against not. Definitely 1 if not vulnerable.

If west has stiff ♦Q/J I can make without much difficulty with an elopement/trump coup. Win either the first or second club, ♥Q,♦A,♦hook,♠KA,♥AK,♠ruff,exit and claim. If trumps are 3-2 it looks like there should be a simple squeeze possibility against east, but I think the defense can always break it up by shifting to a spade when they're in. It doesn't seem cost to duck the first trick in any case. I doubt that east will have difficulty finding the shift, but you never know.

I actually thought that by "easier on the eyes" might be referring to the minor issue that I've had. I've found that the font/images used for the cards on the windows client to be much clearer (by which I mean easy to quickly internalize the hand I see) than on the web client. I find that on the web client it takes me a few seconds of conscious effort to figure out the cards after I see my hand (or see dummy) whereas I never had to do anything like this on the old client. I think specifically the amount of whitespace and relatively smaller symbols make the cards run together somewhat, especially, I find, for consecutive red cards. (It's much worse with the big cards options enabled, also) Anyway, this is obviously pretty minor, and probably to a huge degree a product of experience with the windows client, but if it's easy to implement, it would be nice to have a few more options for the card images.

I would double and I don't think it's all that sick, especially white all at MP. Passing 4♣ of course.

LOL Ok, fine, lol at myself.

Spade queen is awfully generous. How about taking away the club ace, and slam is still good. I think a lot of beginners underestimate the power of extra trump length after a fit is found. It seems that happened to north here.

I would 2♥.

5♠ at either, but of course wouldn't be surprised if 5♠ and 5♣ both go down. Would be very surprised if a strain other than spades plays better for us.

I think that the 3n jump opposite an unpassed hand should be the long minor hand, and the balanced hand should just double then bid 3n. It seems pretty unlikely that that's what partner has on this hand though. Not wanting any accident I would just bid 5n and hope for the best. If partner bids a grand over this, I'd kind of expect to make it, actually.

♠AK ♥Txx ♦Q9x ♣JT9xx White/white, imps. p p 2d 2s p ? Your limit raise is 3h in case it matters, and you open most 11s. I don't actually think all the poll options are reasonable, but they're all available for you.

Extras for me, I think that there is no alternative to double of 2♠ with x KQxxx xxx Qxxx, which means that partner really can't go above 3♣ safely. I would play 2n as scrambling.

If declarer takes the last trick with the ♦7, making the contract, when diamonds are not trump, partner owes him/her a beer. This also works on defense, if you set the contract. If it's doubled, you get two beers. Some people think overtricks/extra undertricks don't count, but the most common rule is that it counts as long as you go plus.

That's definitely true. That seems to be the most elegant version to me, but some people disagree (see above). Of course it also runs into some issues. If you take a 50% line instead of a 75% one, is that a trick you should have scored?

Suppose declarer takes an anti-percentage line and scores the beer. Does this count? Does it matter how antipercentage it is? (e.g. what if he had the rest in top tricks but pitched one to play for a squeeze and the beer).

6-4 is still ok (3s over 3h, 4s over 3n), and with 4-6, I would transfer and bid 3s, then 4h over 3n?

We did this a very simple way once. We play 2n-3c-3h as no major, so over either 2n-3c-3h (no major) or 2n-3c-3d (one+ major) 4h=13(45) 4s=31(45) It came up so rarely (i.e. never) that it's basically been forgotten.

2

[hv=d=n&v=n&s=sakqxhat98xdaktxc]133|100|Scoring: IMP p 1♥ to you[/hv] Edit: You have the ♠Q also.

Two passes for me on those last ones.