Vilgan

AQxx AQxxxx is worth considering a push to the 5 level over opposite a silent partner?

That's true of all national events, plus GNT district finals. The payout is decided ahead of time, before the event, and is not based on the number of tables. Yes. My confusion wasn't that it was the same so much as that it was not the same as a few years before in the Hawaii NABC.

Its not that the Reisinger is omg terrible (although it might be... not an event to play for plat though), its that female only events get so few entries that the payouts are pretty ridiculously high. 13th out of 36 total (18 in the finals). So not even in the top 3rd was 24.44 plat. I was 13th in the fast pairs in vegas out of 306 initial entries (156 in the finals). That paid LESS, 22.22 to be exact. The Reisinger isn't great for plat... Swiss is a lot better I believe, especially given the competition. But I doubt you'll find ANY open event that paid 25 plat to someone who didn't even place in the top 3rd of the initial field. The equivalent placing in the open Bam in San Diego - 44th (13/36 * 122 initial) did not even make the overalls whatsoever. Edit> Interesting thing I noticed. Going back and looking at previous Women's BAM events, the payout recently has been the same regardless of tables. For example in Boston, based on 33 tables the payout was the exact same except 1 spot was eliminated. 12th was worth 25.88 in both. However going back further in time to Hawaii, it was a lot less.. only 82.5 for first and 22.00 for 10th, while the open event has always been 140. Not sure what to make of it really, just seemed like an odd difference.

edit> nevermind, will edit again when I find a board that fits. Assuming like 4-5 spades, and a hand that didn't want to bid spades first until RHO showed the minors.. now willing to compete to 3♥ but show spades on the way.

I'd have bid 4♣, but I'm a bit aggressive and would not blame partner for passing. With the west hand, I'd have also led a diamond.

LoL at this entire line of discussion. There is a bunch of meckwell stuff floating around, including much more in depth ones. I doubt the main notes (which I'd assume are pretty extensive) will become public knowledge anytime soon and not due to copyright or NDA or any of that nonsense.. but the simple expedient of not sharing them outside the partnership.

This is a pretty bad hand to splinter on though imo. You have the A in the short suit, and more points than partner would expect. Imo auction went perfectly until responder passed, which is a pretty wtf?!? mistake even for a beginner.

I don't need "points" to overcall a 4 card suit other than our minimum overcall amount, but I do promise 3 of the top 5. Has worked out very well. I would not usually overcall on KJxx or AJxx as mentioned above, unless I had some other reason for bidding.. like too many points to want to pass and no other good bid.

2s wtp...easy. Pard can be 5=3=3=2. No they can't. At least, not if they are my partner (as we agree to bid 2♦ on that or 2♠ if spades are good and diamonds suck). Last I'd heard, that was reasonably standard.. and the 2♣ required an alert if it could be short but not positive on that.

Pretty clearly east... Ax in support and blah stoppers in both black suits? blah. Would expect so see either less heart support or a solid diamond suit in east's hand for this bidding.

Awesome to see a director actually assess a procedural penalty. I wasn't sure if they even existed anymore given most director's refusal to assess them no matter how deserving.

Having trouble constructing hands where declarer would decline the invite and still have the K of clubs. Maybe KQJxx K Qx Kxxx? Regardless, even then if I let the spade go by (or win and don't switch) I am still getting only 1 club trick. If I continue something other than a club, declarer might come to 10+ tricks.. KQJxx Kx QJx xxx for example yields 11 tricks if I don't switch to clubs now. So I win the A of spades, cash the AQ of clubs and (assuming declarer doesn't claim immediately) figure out what to do from there. Maybe a heart in case declarer has 4414 shape.

Yes, but universal goals usually have more appeal than personal goals. How many times have we heard people countdown various colored points to get LM? Hell I did it, and I had all my gold at my first regional. No reason the ACBL can't take those goals you mentioned, add another 40 or so, and add titles/ranks/stuff like that to them. Instead we have 1 rank which has specific requirements that people work towards, and everything after that is merely "how many total points do you have" which is pretty meh given how TERRIBLE many people over 10,000 are. Can either parallel existing ranks like: Silver Master = 1000 points Silver+ Master = 1000 points, 15 platinum, 100 gold/silver, 3(5?) regional wins of flight B or better Gold Master = 2500 points Gold+ Master = 2500 points, 50 platinum, 250 gold, 3 regional wins of flight A/bracket 1 etc Or just make a bunch of ranks/achievements that exist separate from the existing bronze/silver/gold/etc system. These can be completely separate, so that you have a really KO rank/title but a lower pairs one if you focus mostly on KOs. Or vice versa. I dunno, it seems like a no brainer from a marketing standpoint, that also has the nice effect (imo) of more bridge players. Some of these who would have quit will be bad, but not all of them (imo).

2♥ wtp?

Who said KQ Q are in the slot? Responder didn't guarantee the A of diamonds and AKJ of hearts for his double and raise. He just evaluated his hand and decided slam was the correct bid. K of diamonds is necessary when declarer needs to set up hearts (losing 1 in the process) for diamond discards. One situation might be Axx AKxx xxx Kxx opposite x Jxx Ax AQJT9xx would be one example where we need to lead the diamond now. Amusingly, a heart lead is the only lead that leads to 13 tricks on that layout :( I wimped out and led a trump. Responder might be able to trump something someday, so maybe that will be a good thing.

1) Obviously still want to play in diamonds. I'm going to make one more try with 4♥, bidding 5♦ over what partner bids to show how interested I am. If we play in 5 + 1, oh well. 2) 3♠ cue, as you did. I think the bidding is fine.. oh well :( 3♥ isn't forcing imo and I'd hate to get passed. 3) I wouldn't have played the 2nd diamond personally. I would have won the A of diamonds, played the J of hearts pitching a diamond, trumped a baby diamond to my hand, and finessed in spades. Would have been a major bummer to have my K of diamonds trumped.

Pass. I usually like 5♦ in situations like this because it makes them guess, but if their suit is hearts then responder already has to guess. It could easily go p p p making 6. Even if the suit is spades, opener might not be able to tell preference from a fit and might not push on to 6. I will save over 6 though if opener shows a diamond void.

Being in game is fine. Partner bidding like that... not so much. Definitely one of those "okay that's nice partner, now please lay down the hand that you had in the bidding" moments :D While bidding 3NT would have worked better in this instance, that is due to partner's bad bidding... not with our choice to answer partner's question. Also very bad practice imo because if opener LOVES the club rebid he should be free to drive to slam. 6♣ down 1 sucks too.

Interesting sim results. I would have just left it in 1 NT at matchpoints, worried about +120 vs +110 and opps balancing into hearts.

Ditto a few on not overcalling 1♠, regardless of vuln for me. I'd probably lead a trump. K♦ also seems reasonable. Not sure how a heart could be right, and many ways it could be a disaster (Jx opposite AKxx for example).

Yes, because no disasters could ever happen after you cue bid a king above game instead of an ace. Like say.. partner believes you, leaps to 7♥ after the 5♦ cue, and the opps cash the A of spades. Obviously, the best sequence if playing exclusion above game instead of cue bids (my preference but I've seen experts do it as well): 1♣ 1♥ 4♥ 5♣* 5♠ 7♥ * = tell me about keycards outside of clubs Asking for keycards despite a void is still going to work most of the time with north's hand. You get to 7 when S has 3 aces. You avoid a bad grand when one of south's 2 aces is the A in the suit he opened. And when it doesn't work, you'll end up in a making small slam making 7 (not an end of the world result for B/I) instead of in a grand off a cashing ace. "omg don't ever bid keycard with a void!!" is a good rule, but like most rules.. it doesn't mean you always blindly follow it. If you are going to cue bid, at least don't lie: 1♣ 1♥ 4♥ 5♦ 5♠ ? Several routes to go from there.

Assuming your hand is a bit different, say Kx KQxxx AKQTxx -, then the auction is not unreasonable. North should probably jump to 7♥ as soon as partner bids 5NT though as 5NT should guarantee all the keycards. Opposite 3 aces, north can count 13 tricks.

Why would north cue bid when all he cares about is 2 aces? I don't know that cue bidding Ks above game is terribly standard either. 1♣ 1♥ 4♥ 4NT 5♦ 7♥ 4NT = keycard 5♦ = 0/3, but if you play 3014 then bid would be 5♣ Seems like a much more normal and realistic auction. Assume partner has an A in clubs and bid accordingly. If they show 2 stop at 6. If they show 1, stop at 5. Since they have shown 3, 7♥ is a trivial bid. As others have said, the main mistake is bidding diamonds first. bid higher of equal length first.

3NT looks like the par contract and I'm happy to be there. Finessing J of hearts seems fairly normal.. If it loses I make 10 tricks. If it wins I make 10 or possibly 11. Only way King wins is AJ tight in RHO and that seems anti-percentage. 4♥ will likely get 11 tricks, so hopefully its Jxx of hearts onside. Too bad I couldn't make north bid 3NT on his Txxx ;P

I voted 2N. 3♣ seems like another good bid, I guess I'm worried it might put partner into a weird situation where he decides to pass which I really don't want to see. pass seems pretty ludicrous and 3♥ seems to completely rule out 3NT which seems like a bad idea imo. Who said partner can't have something like AQxx x Jxx AKxxx. 5 clubs will be very unhappy whereas 3NT will be great.