akhare

Pass -- 5422 hands don't play too well in my experience and besides pard never bids either of my long suits when I X w/ such hands :D.... Atul

Mark me down for a ♣ or a ♥ -- don't know if I have any real preference other than the length in the former... Atul

Sounds good -- do let me know if you need Moscito players for the "also played" team ;) -- I will be happy to play the system. BTW, this will presumably be the Moscito system from your Moscito 2000 document, right? Atul

Sounds great -- on a related note, I too vote for the open chat unless we have a couple of Moscito experts willing to explain the auction as it unfolds and respond to queries.. Atul

Pass and hope to go plus -- pard ranks to be 5-5 in the majors and the two major suit kings should help overcome the likely bad breaks... Atul

Hi Sonny, I don't know exactly what you are looking for, but we (DrTodd / foobar) play a similar system (albeit w/ FP openings) on BBO from 12-1 PST every weekday. The purists might object, but there are a lot of similarities (opening ranges, transfer openings, symmetric relays, etc)... Atul

Hi there, I must have missed this somehow, but I can chip in to write such a tool -- I am pretty neutral about the choice of language... Atul

Close call between P and 1♠ -- 1N is an abomination IMO. The ratty ♠ suit and poor values might persuade me to pass if I can do it in tempo... Atul

We went through several revisions ;), but thought we decided to play the natural order i.e.: 1N = relay w/ invite or weak, after which: 2♣=♦+♣ two suiter 2♦: RELAY BREAK; to play 2♥: Relay; resolve two suiter at 2♠+ 2♦=SS ♦ P: To play in 2♦ 2♥: Relay; Resolve ♦ SS at 2♠+ Atul

On a related note, how many relays are allowed before entering GF mode? In other words, responder may sometimes want to relay to find out more and then break relays either because of: 1) Apparent misfit 2) Asking opener to do the right thing (presumably after taking preference to one of the shown suits) 3) Slam aspirations w/ the mentioned exclusion sequence Also, how is the exclusion sequence initiated? Atul

Here's an unedited post by John Sheehan (of Prism Signals fame) about his GOFISH alterative to DCB when using RPs (aka AKQ points). It looked pretty playable the last time I looked: Hi all, Dlr: W Vul: EW Auction: Moscito Variation West East A863 K5 A652 K8 Q A4 KQJ5 A876432 1C 2D 2H 2S 2N 3C 3D 3H 2=2=2=7. 3S(a) 4S 10 relay points. 4N(:( 5S No. Go Fish! 5N© 6C Same rank. 7C (a) 'Number of Relay points?' (A=3 K=2 Q=1) (B) 'Do you have any queens?' © 'Tell me about your two kings.' Note(B): The first step after the relay points response asks,'Do you have any queens?' In response to the queen ask: Step 1 = 1 Q. Step 2 = 2 Q's. Step 3 = 3 Q's. Step 4 = 0 Q's. Go Fish! (or 4 Q's) If The number of relay points is known; and, The number of queens is known; then, The exact number of aces and kings is known. Note©: 'Tell me about your kings.' The first step after the number of queens response asks about location of kings. (If you are more interested in queens than kings, skip to the second step to ask about the location of queens.) In response to, 'Tell me about your kings.' To show one or three kings, stop at the bid that corresponds in the scanning order to the one suit with (or without) the king. If two kings are held; then Step 1 = 2 K's of the same Rank Step 2 = 2 K's of the same Color Step 3 = 2 K's of the same Shape (C/H D/S) Dlr: W Vul: EW Auction: Moscito Variation West East A7 KQ85 AQ3 K852 AQJ874 K6 J4 A96 1C 2D 2H 2S 2N 3C 3D 3H 4=4=3=2 3S(a) 4S 10 relay points. 4N(B) 5C 1 Queen. 5D© 5N No club king. 6C(d) 6D Spade queen. 7N (a) 'Number of Relay points?' (A=3 K=2 Q=1) (B) 'Do you have any queens?' © 'Tell me about your three kings.' (d) 'What about that queen?' Is Go Fish! for relay points a practical approach to solving the problem of discoverying and pinpointing honors in slam auctions? Johnny Sheehan www.prismsignals.com

I think that an explicit bid that alerts partner about a memory lapse is unethical. Besides if the mistake was realized as a result of opps' query, the partership must ignore any possible UI. If the "relay reset" is initiated by the relayer, the opps usually stand to gain because responder has absolutely no idea of what partner holds and must make his best guess about where to place the contract. However, this is not guaranteed and may not protect the opps' right to benefit from partnership misunderstandings. On a related note, some relays sequences have self correcting mechanisms. For example, if pard shows a certain number of controls and then makes an impossible reply to DCB query, you implicilty know that something is amiss and can quite often infer the most probable holding based on your cards. Atul

This has probably been suggested before, but here's a wish list for tables that require permission to play: 1) Automatically accept friends 2) Automatically reject enemies 3) Filter requests automatically based on a player's "rating". Granted, it's more or less meaningless on BBO at present, but still... Also, it will be nice if we could somehow express the type of system being played at the table. This would be along the lines of color coding for systems, i.e., blue for mostly natural systems, red for say strong club systems, yellow for HUMs, etc. Note that I don't necessarily subscribe to the notion of HUMs (because I like to play them myself :rolleyes:), but it may help warn people that they can pretty much say goodbye to Kansas when they join the table :P. Atul

Pass (in tempo) -- you have already shown your hand and have reasonable defensive values. Partner should be well placed to take the appropriate action. Atul

Hi folks, What guidelines do you folks use while deciding whether to pass or pull Xs of high level preempts? Also, what would you do on this particular hand? [hv=d=w&v=n&s=sj9762hkxxxdqxxcj]133|100|Scoring: IMP[/hv] LHO deals: (5♣) - X - (P) - ?? Would you bid any differently at: 1) All vulnerable 2) Unfavourable vul. Atul

Terrible nerd pun: That AWT to SWING some people :o... Atul

X -- what other choice do you really have? 4N should show a 2 suiter in this situation I think and Pass seems pretty bad. Atul

Here's how it will go our system: P ;14+; any shape 1♣ ;GF 1♥ ;reverse relay, min hand 1♠ ;relay 1N ;SS ♥ or both majors 2♣ ;relay 2♥ ;5+ ♥; 4♠ 2♠ ;relay 3♦ ;4-5-3-1 exactly 3♥ ;control ask 3N ;5 controls 6♥ ;can't see 13 tricks

A resounding second for B2SYM (as it that's even necessary). I tried emailing the author -- Roy Kerr -- one of the original inventors of symmetric relay, but didn't get a reply. Atul

Thanks for all your responses. Partner was 3-3-4-3 (w/ Q♥) and we ended in 5♣X for -1. Overcaller had only 4 ♦s and both 3N and 4♥/4♠ would have made because of the fortituous 3-3 break in both majors. 2♦ (X) would have gone for a number and in retrospect, it was a clear mistake on my part to assume that pard held at least 4♣. Atul

The X certainly wasn't intended for penalty -- it was a "bid something" X :). The intent was of course to follow up that whatever w/ a ♦ cue bid to try and get in the hand. Atul

IMPs. all vul. you deal and hold: [hv=d=s&v=b&s=sakqxhakjxdjcakj9]133|100|Scoring: IMPs[/hv] For better or worse you open this 1♣ (some might prefer 2♣, but it's too late now). The bidding proceeds: 1♣ - (1♦) - P - (P) - X - (P) - 2♣ - (2♦). What now? If you cue bid ♦, pard rebids ♣. Note that this is your first time w/ this pard and opps. Atul

Well, since we are likely to have problems only if pard has exactly 2 ♦s, bid 2♣ and hope to play in a 7 card ♦ fit. If we end up in a 6 card♦ fit, hopefully pard has low clubs and the opps won't lead trump and we can scramble to 8 tricks:)... Atul

Partner led a small club after I passed 2♠X and I was complimenting myself after dummy came down w/: X QJTXX XXXX XXX Declarer won the A♣ and much to my surprise continued w/ a small ♠. Anyway, I continued to force declarer in ♣ and at the end of it all, we managed to set it -1 (3♠, 1♦, 1♣, 1♥). Declarer held: T98XXXX AXX X AJ So, congratulations to all who bid 3N -- next time, I will too. Maybe in a few years we'll come around the circle when people will start playing fast and loose w/ unfavourable preempts and it will be time to pass again :)... Atul

If I am trying to be cute, I might try 1♥ first but since, it's just likely to come X around to me, why not just start off w/ 5♣? Atul