Ant590

The movie for the hand is at http://www.bridgebase.com/tools/handviewer...3994-1270099150 There was quite a cute ending on my (wrong) line, where East has to keep a low diamond to avoid an endplay towards the end (note the lead was different to the one I stated in the OP).

I think simon (simplicity) was saying not to take the second round of spades in his line?

[hv=d=s&v=n&n=sj542h96dak9ckt83&s=saq63hak843d5c765]133|200|Scoring: IMP[/hv] You reach 4♠ by north, and east leads the queen of diamonds. You win the first diamond and play spade to Q, all follow. Then spade Ace, and east produces the king. It seemed to me that I might be able to cater somehow for funny hearts by ducking them at some point, but my Kxxx of clubs looks scary. How should I plan to play it? I have no idea :lol:

Lol! One of those situations where partner does not know our system! 1N for us in the sandwich position is artificial! :rolleyes: Well, in the context of your question, you have to admit that you did make that 1NT overcall "psyche" last month... :o moi? LOL. My first thought on reading this thread for the first time was "I bet Darren psyched the 1NT", and lo! and behold, Shen Ting writes the same thing on the second page of the thread :) All we need now is the Gnome agreeing with us and we'll have the hattrick...

My gut says 3NT, but that seems as bad as a dbl in terms of convincing partner to play in a 5- or 6-0 heart fit. By brain overrules my gut to 3♣ then (hopefully) some intelligent action later in the auction. Seems the quickest route to play in 3♣ though ;)

It's not a convention but a method of hand evaluation called Offence to Defence Ratio. It's designed to help you decide in these high-level decisions how your x-count fits in with the variety of possible hands that have x points, with a view to deciding when to bid on, when to double, and when to make a (forcing) pass. An extreme example is: with a 10-count with all the points in the opponents suits you want to double their contract, but with a 10-count will all the points in your suits you want to bid on. A range of different factors favour bidding on (high ODR), to doubling (low ODR). See "partnership bidding at bridge" by Robson and Segal (an authorized free version is available at http://bridgewithdan.com/systems/), page 23 onwards for a better definition.

Ok, cheers everyone --- message received and understood :)

Hey, Suppose you're one of the 1M -- 2♣ is natural GF or balanced GF crowd that seems to be the in thing here on the forums. How would you play the following sequence: 1♠ -- 2♦ 2♠ -- 2NT 2=2=6=3 ish? Or something more exotic? Cheers, Ant.

Hey y'all, This might be one of those "depends on your agreements" ones, but here goes anyway... [hv=d=s&v=n&s=sjt4hq2dkqj765ck2]133|100|Scoring: IMP[/hv] You deal and open 1♦ (showing 5 unless 4441 black singleton). 1♦ -- (1♥) -- 3♠* -- (4♥) ? * GF fit jump, 2/4 or 3/5 top spade honours in a 5+ suit, at least 4 card diamond support. 2♠ would also have been a fit jump but could be more-lead oriented. 3♠ declares it's our hand and sets up a FP... Which action do you choose?

I think the three-level bids you play should help patch up holes in the rest of the responses, so as Frederick said, it depends on what you play at the 2-level. For instance, playing them as natural slam tries is not terrible if you don't have a way of making a slam try via a transfers. If you play 4-suited transfers, you may find that your three-suited hands are tough to bid, and you might use all the 3-level bids to show shortage. etc,etc.

All hail the king of BBF searches. Is there anything he cannot find?

Thanks for the clarification. I agree completely that I should have called the director instead of announcing at the table what I did. On the plus-side, everyone at the table was amicable before, during, and after the incident and ruling, which has been a bit of a rarity in these situations in my experience.

Thanks for all the replies in what has been a very interesting thread. In actual fact I was east, and when I heard the "12 top tricks" comment, I wasn't sure which board it was applicable to. Was I meant to call the director then? If not, when? Even when I picked up the hand I wasn't *sure* that this board was the one I'd heard the comment about (It was a 14-board cross-IMP match), and there were three on the pile at any time. If I don't have to call director as soon as I hear the comment, should I have called then? In actual fact I made my comment to the table as soon as I was sure that this was the board in question.

4♦ - 4♥ 4♠ - 4NT In principle, is this to play or a queen ask? Does the preceding sequence matter?

EBU: UK [hv=d=n&v=e&n=sj763h9542d8762c4&w=sk9852hk8dt9caq52&e=sqthaqjt63dakq5c3&s=sa4h7dj43ckjt9876]399|300|Scoring: XIMP[/hv] Bidding begins: N E S W P 1♥ 3♣ 3NT P There is a playing director. At this point, East tells the table that he thinks he overheard the last table talking about this board, and that he heard the result. N/S tell him that they believe he will act ethically and to continue. N E S W P 1♥ 3♣ 3NT P 4♣ DBL 4♥ P 5♦ P 6♥. During the claim, East (declarer) says he wasn't sure how clearcut his actions may have been, and asks director to rule on the board. East heard "twelve top tricks" from the next table, but without reference to the board number. The next table feed board to this table, so it was possible for East to have tracked the boards without much effort. How do you rule?

At the table I bid 2♥, which is where I played. Dummy tabled a 1=1=6=5 and by two careful misdefenses I brought it home (diamonds were 4-1). The consensus was that double is better, so I can hold my head high again. Interesting that the poll ranks 2H > 1NT > dbl clear second where no poster advocates that. I play with one partner that extrapolates the "open 1NT with any 5M332" to overcall with one too--- was it the 5 card hearts or the lack of spade stop (or just the presence of both) that makes 1NT bad?

At the table I doubled and felt a little bit dirty for doing so. We ended up with a bad score, but I didn't necessarily want to attribute that to the dbl prematurely. Polling local experts it was 4:2 in favour of double-wtp, against pass-wtp (with one fence sitter). It seemed that most of the pass-wtp backers were rubber bridge players in a former life. Same on the forums?

[hv=d=n&v=n&s=sa863h5dq965ca753]133|100|Scoring: IMP[/hv] White / Red you sit East. North deals and opens 2♥.

[hv=d=n&v=n&s=st83hkq862dakcajt]133|100|Scoring: IMP[/hv] If you feel you need ">>" or "=" please say! Edit: partner deals and passes. Next hand opens 1♠

I agree it's unsportsmanlike, for two reasons: (1) I strongly doubt they play any of the standard defences (2) If Meckwell play the multi also, as Rik's post suggests, they should have brought a copy for the opps and surely they can use that one. This seems akin to not lending the opponents a pencil on the premise it might annoy them and cause them to play badly. I do hope that plenty of weak 2 diamond openers came up in the rest of the match.

I probably have not understood correctly, but I believe it is a desirable feature for there to be no further bidding during an undo request.

X‽

In my (limited) experience with GB2NT, it seems the greatest problem with it is deciding when it is on. Consequently in one partnership we play "no GB2NT" and the other "if it could be GB2NT, it is". Both seem to work ok...

Heated debate on the following sequence --- two "experts", each convinced that the other was barking: 1♦ -- 1♥ 2♣ -- 2NT 3♣ both agreed 5-5 minors, but one though weak running, the other game-forcing looking for best strain. I guess there is a corollary to the question: what is 3♠ after 2NT?

Yeah, I guess. Prealerting seems to very rare in the UK from my experience, you usually state your NT range and how many cards a major shows then get on with it. Occasionally when I prealert something like a multi or a short club with transfers (IRL) I have received comments about showing off or trying to intimidate the opponents. I guess being a Junior didn't help. Sorry for going off-topic btw.