pbleighton

"I do not agree that you can't bid 3D with only 5. For all partner knows 1D could have been on 5432 and 0 hcp. NT is out of the question with no club stopper. Partner may take me seriously! Roland" Well, I know that you're the expert and I'm definitely not, but: 1) Mightn't pd take your rebid of diamonds seriously (i.e. 6 cards), and 2) After 2NT, with 6 spades, pd will rebid, and with 5, he has a decent chance of a club stopper, not to mention the other half of the heart stopper ;) or may bid 3D if he's 5341 or suchlike. 2NT is a bad bid, I just think 3D is worse. Peter P.S. 5432 and I call the director!

A tough problem. Pd has a big hand, you have near the top for your 1D bid, you should probably be in game. 2D - too weak. 3D - you can't bid this with 5. 3S - you have 2 small. I would bid 2NT, and pray for rain :) Peter

I play: 1C - 15+, any shape 1D - 10-14, 0+ diamonds, unbalanced, either 1) any 4441, or 2) minor 2 suiter, or 3) 4 of a major and 5+ of a minor 1M - 9-14, 5+ cards 1NT - 11-14 2m - 6+ cards, no 4cM 2M - 3-9, 5+ cards (vul is better) 2NT - 8-12, 5-5 or better in the minors The 1D opener in uncontested auctions is good, the non-fit rebids after 1D-1M clarify the shape quite nicely. The 1M and 2m openings are great. Peter

Agree with HeartA - 9 hcp plus a singleton is too good for 2S IMO, though it is a soft 9 and 2S isn't that bad. This is really a style issue. Do you like playing marginal games bid on distribution? Some do, some don't. Cherdano - do you splinter with only 3 trumps? Peter

Double - I'm more cautious with pickup partners, for exactly the reason you give. Peter

Luis stated "pd bids 4NT for minors". Peter

1) Invitational, unless 1D-1S-2S, in which case I jump to 4S, and hope. 2) 5D. One king, no aces. Whereagles, why do you think pd has spades? Peter

4S. Three aces are nice, but you have close to minimum for your bid and a balanced hand. If pd is still interested in slam, he can go forward. Peter

1S. Peter

1) I think 1S/2H should be made on a minimum, otherwise you will miss games the field will reach. Otherwise, it is interesting, as long as the NT rebid is weak. 2) Does this apply over 1D/2C? 3) "I was considering the opposite of this just last night...how about a 1NT rebid showing 15+, can be fairly offshape? Makes slightly more sense playing weak NT obviously." I play weak NT in the context of light Standard American, and the 1NT rebid shows 15-17 vul and 14-16 NV (we play 1NT as 12-14 vul and 10-13 NV). This is pretty standard treatment. However, I think off-shape (not counting 5422) 1NT rebids are problematic with a higher rebid range, as there are more hands where responder has a 6 card major suit, and 2 card support puts him at or near game. Knowing the NT rebid guarantees 2 is important. OTOH, the weak rebid usually just gets passed out, or playing a 6-1 fit at the 2 level isn't so bad. For a long time, my pd would make off-shape NT rebids to communicate hand strength. We weren't happy with the results, and now make them only when the alternative is worse. Peter

"However with Precision I like 1M to be 5-card major and opened on thin air showing 9 - 15 HCP or the like (extremely high frequency)." I agree. I play 9-14. It's very descriptive, and common. The 15+ one club opening is a bit of a stinker, though B) Peter

"I would leave the skill as it is today, but consider adding rating system which would be based on all of the player's results in the past." NO, NO, NO. Peter

"Assuming that you are saying that your 3rd seat 2-bids could be either 5 or 6-baggers, that P is a passed hand, and that liberties are taken especially at favorable: I am curious about what kinds of agreements various members of the forum have with their partners regarding what types of action, if any, that the partner of the pre-emptive 3rd seat 2-bidder (a known passed hand) is permitted to take should the opponents take action and compete? I am also curious about how undisciplined you will go in terms of suit quality, and what assuptions your partner may make regarding your suit quality should he/she be so unfortunate as to be on lead against the opp's contract? I would appreciate feedback." Good question. When I bid 2S in the third seat NV, I am much more likely to have 5 than 6, especially as I will frequently (but not always) open 3S with 6. Therefore pd usually passes with 3 card support. However, at favorable with 3 card support and a singleton he can raise if he thinks game by the opps is likely. Pd's discipline on this is crucial. Suit quality per se is irrelevant (but I'll pass with ~10 hcp and a 5 card suit headed by the 10). In spite of this, when pd has bid a weak 2 and I am on lead I lead his suit, unless I have a better option. Not that it always works :o See Partnership Bidding At Bridge (chapter 3, "Putting On The Pressure) by Robson/Segal. You can find at http://www.geocities.com/daniel_neill_2000/sys/ I play 5 card weak 2s in the first and 2nd seat as well as the third (though with more selectivity), as a result of reading this book. Works well (though be prepared for some bad results), and is lots of fun. Peter

3C. Probably someone will find a clever bid, but it's the only one I can see besides Pass, which I can't do. Peter

"The conventions one plays has absolutely no bearing on skill level at all." True, of course. However, to digress as threads do, knowing what to expect from pd's bidding is an ongoing problem. In theory, people could spend a few minutes discussing bidding with a new pd. In practice, it doesn't happen. Perhaps, the profile could be expanded to have a "Systems/Conventions Played" section, in addition to skill level and "Other". People put all sorts of stuff into "Other", leaving it quite unstructured. A lot of the time I'm not sure about 4 or 5 card majors, notrump range, transfers, etc. For this reason I recently changed my "Other" to: "Assume u play Std Amer w/ Xfers, neg dbls, tell me otherwise. Can play 2/1, homebrew strong club.", not that this really covers it. There could be a series of check boxes and text boxes, covering what the person can play (ACOL, 2/1, preferred NT range, transfers, etc). "Other" would supplement this section, and might say what is preferred, as well as other things. If BBO made the profile box a little wider, so that the flag was to the right of the name, email, and skill level, and about one and a half times as tall, you would have enough space for two columns of 6 check/text boxes (for example). I think that a good chunk of BBO players would use this. Online pickup partnerships will always be problematic, but this could reduce the level of chaos significantly IMO. This would do nothing about Experts who can barely take a finesse. It is not intended to do so. Fred and company would have to make time for this, of course. I know their list of desired improvements is longer than they will ever have time to complete (hey, this is systems development driven by wish lists of non-payors), but this change would be a minor effort, compared to tournament functionality, for example. Any thoughts? Peter

1) "We also play Negative doubles promising about 8-11 and min 3 card support in a major..." You should play 1m-1H-X showing exactly 4 spades and unlimited points (the standard treatment). If you did, then X would show your hand in this auction. You effectively have no good bid for 12+ with 4 spades. 2) Given your system, opener should rebid 4NT (quantitative). Peter

In the 3rd seat not vulnerable, (whatever the opps vulnerability) I would: 1) Abandon Multi/Muiderberg, and use 2D as diamonds. Open 2D/2H/2S with 5 cards routinely, including 5332s. 2) Routinely bid at the 3 (and sometimes 4) level with 6 cards. The risk/reward ratio is quite compelling in the 3rd seat not vulnerable :) Peter

"If I can't reach the forums with the shortcut on my desktop, I find that trying: www.bridgebase.com/forums usually works." This works, and now I am recognized by the forum page as myself, instead of having to log in every time

Thanks, but it didn't work :( Peter

Takeout. Pd was allowed to pass before because of the 2S bid. Peter

I agree with Richard on function keys. It's too steep a learning curve for most users. They are much less popular than they used to be in business applications for that reason. Peter

"hmm.. mind bender. under both of those tabs, is the "Default" button clickable, or is blanked out? If it's clickable for either/both, try clicking it and then restarting your browser." No luck. Peter

"I think you have replied based on playing 2/1 - the system stated is SAYC." Oops, you are right, 3H isn't a possibility - you are too strong. 3NT it must be. 3C is still wrong. If you play 3C as promising only 3 clubs, how do you show 2 suiters? Peter

"What should south bid now?" 3NT 1st choice, 3H 2nd choice. 3C in this auction promises 4 cards and a real interest in 5C. "If South bids 3C, then what should north's next bid be?" At matchpoints, 3NT. At imps, 5C or 3NT - a tough call. At the table I would probably bid 3NT. "If north bids 4C, then how should south proceed after that?" 5C. Peter

"assuming you are using Internet Explorer, you can check your Cookie settings by clicking Tools, Internet Options. If your Privacy and/or Security tabs are showing a level higher than "Medium" this may be the cause of the problem. In most cases you can change these settings to Medium without putting yourself at any risk; alternatively, you can specify to allow cookies for this site under the Privacy tab." I checked, my Privacy level is set to Medium. I added BBO Forums (lunarpages.com) to the Sites under "Always Allow" - no improvement. I have a 2 year old XP machine. IE is 6.0. On 1/12, Windows Update installed Security Update for Windows XP (KB890175) and Malicious Software Removal Tool - January 2005 (KB890830). Peter