benlessard

Its an acute form that is resisting to vulneracillin and to vulnerabiotic.

3♣ is right on for values. Partner know its imps and know we are red.

For me 3S doesnt show extras but tend to deny a club fit. But anyway 4D seems clear.

The 4th club allow for a 1H response but i have no problem with pass.

WTP pass for me. 6H + 5D = 11 tricks.

Pass 1Nt on this is a severe case of Machtpointretis. I need the J of D ot 10-9 of D for 1D.

Agree 100%

If you have the philosophy that a 3rd seat W preempt can be anything then 3D is enough otherwise i bid 4. Partner could easily be 4261 and bidding 4D is the only way to bury the H fit.

I knew that most wont play forcing pass here but for me i see no reason why it isnt FP. My "balancing"X at 4H says that im ready to play 4♥X if partner had a zero count with 4333, so im also ready to play 5♥X too. For me 5Nt is pick a slam and pass & pull is the strongest slam try, so pass followed by 5Nt is describing my hand pretty well.

perfect 3S for me. 3S might be the last plus or they might not compete over 3S anyway. a 3S bid R vs W is a mixed raise. So with extras partner will gladly bid 4. 4S -1 vs 3S making or 4SX-2 vs 3S-1 are likely bad result imo. By passing its possible they find a cheap save but its not too likely imo.

Well if i had 6-7 diamonds AK and a S stopper i would have bid 2Nt (wich of course doesnt show 18-19). Partner 2nd X at the 3 level is at least giving me the option the option to pass the X a fair amount of times. Will he X with a singleton spades ? No. Will he X with Qxx in diamonds ? I hope not. The critical holding is ♦Qx and ♠xx. With minimal strenght i think partner should play it safe and bid 4D. With maximum strenght (very unlikely considering the bidding) i guess X is ok. From my point of view 1D----(1S)----X------(2S) the 2S could be quite wide ranging. From 3 pts and 4 trumps to a good 8-9. So over my 3D the overcaller is maybe tempted to bid 3S without enough security. 3S in that postion is quite a good pressure bid. I have no problem if the X is specially designed to find a stopper (if you play a artificial 2nt for example), if so partner can easily X with a stiff spades and D support wich mean i cant rarely pass the X. But without this agreement a X at 3S after our side made 3 naturals bids is clearly keeping the penalty in the picture.

The problem i have with 4441 hand is that when it lead to 7 card fit you are ruffing with the wrong hand. A thing im curious is 3451 (12-14) vs 4324 (12-14) I think the number of times 4H is making but 4S goes down is ridiculously low. My guess is that the difference between the wrong moysian and the right moysian is slightly under half a trick. Its a far guess so i can be wrong by a lot.

Im surprised by amount of player that are afraid of 3S making, the 2nd X show game aspiration, I did bid 3D freely so with Qx of D and xx of ♠ partner wont X unless he is sure 3S goes down. Opps wont bid 3S red with cheese so partner X in these position tend to show a stiff diamonds, but by the look of my hand its unlikely. I think partner most probable holding is xx in [D] and xx in ♠. So i have a hard timse seeing how 3S or 3Nt can make. Of course if we have the agreement that X tend to ask for a stopper is a different story. Also if we had solid-semi solid diamonds and a spades stopper would you bid 3D or 2Nt ? For my 3D partner shoulndt play me for a S stopper too often.

Romex use 1Nt openings for the unbalanced 18-22 hands. So the 1Nt rebid is quite wide. Im not saying i like it but its playable. We play wide ranging Nt (10-14) & 12-15 and wide ranging rebid after a strong 1C (15-18 or 16-19) Im convinced that with a proper structure the upside can be higher then the downside. Where we are winning the most is when NV the 10-14 range is a killer. 1D---1M----1Nt (is showing 6 diamonds) 1H---1S-----1Nt (is showing clubs) etc. Where we are losing the most is when 1C---1D----1Nt (16-19) and responder with 7 pts make an invitation.

Being in 5H = good bridge. Opps can easily have a stiff D and theyre going only 1 down wich not not give you a good mp result anyway.

1H----(2S)------??? In a standard framework 2Nt to 3H = nat 3S = gf asking for a stopper or slammish raise 3Nt to play 4m = fit jump slammish or splinter slammish ( I think fit jump is slightly better) 4H (R vs W) = hoping to make game setup FP 4H (fav or equal) = preepting or tactical doesnt setup FP. There is nothing wrong with playing forcing pass when you bid a vulnerable game over a non-vulnerable partscore. With H you have no reason to bid 4H as preemptive, if the opps are making 4S they will bid it anyway, suggesting a 5H save for -500 is dumb. If you have S & they have hearts then 4S over 4H doesnt setup FP. 4S over 3H turn forcing pass ON. If you dont want forcing pass ON bid 3S and 4S after they bid game. Your partner is too heavy for her 4H bid since slam is possible. Over your X she can still bid 5D to cancel the previous mistake but with xxx as trumps i understand her pass.

In north America its clear that the IMPS field is stronger then the MP field and its not close. + add to that that irregular methods face a bigger advantage when you play 2 boards vs several opponents then when you play 13. In MP there is often new or temporary partnership (even in top events) while in teams events regular partnerships is the norm. Im not saying that its easier to win a MP event. 2000 players will give you 1000 pair & only 450 teams (they are some teams of 6) so its tougher to be first out 1000 then first out of 450. Add to that the fact that MP events are more popular and you will see that winning MP events is tougher. As for the /pro client comparaison. In a sponsored teams the client play 1/3 of the boards while in pairs he has to play all of them. And sponsor in teams are often much better player then sponsor in MP (if you have to pay for 5 players consistenly you tend to take bridge more seriously then if you pay for 1 partner occasionnally)

1st 1 is an easy pass, partner should have a balanced hand with strenght and probably no S stopper. 3Nt might work but passing is safer way to get a +. J5---AKQ2---AJ4 isnt enough to suggest a game at the 5 level. You might X thinking partner will pass most of the time and that Kxxx will work to get an extra 100 or 300 over the undoubled contract. But the problem is that +500 isnt likely and partner will bid 5H a fair amount of times. Its probably a very close decision but i prefer pass.

Modern treatment is to play that you are forcing up to 3Nt/4D. So either 4 good S and no club stopper or 5 bad spades + 4H + at least half a stopper ( a hand that you dont want to bid 3S followed by 4H)

I dont like 1D. 1Nt is better then X imo. over 2H, X is too likely to be passed & passing 2H is sick. So 3C is the only bid. I like to play GB here but in both case 3C is 100% to play. So i give 95% of the blame for the 3Nt bid and 5% for 1D opening.

Forcing pass after a vuln game (R vs W) is a good treatment imo. R vs W a 4H preempt is a lose-lose proposition unless playing in a pretty weak field. Cuebidding without slamish hand (just to turn FP on) is less then perfect imo, so 4H as a good hand make sense, in my book the 4H should say that hes a bit gambling into game and that 4H is far from being cold. I would bid 5H with 6H and a stiff spades, ill make a FP with 6H or with 5H & a stiff S and ill double with 2S & 5H. It might seems too straightfoward and simple but in practice it work fine for me. On this hand the Qx really suggest X.

MP events usually bring a weaker field then imps events, so many thing out of the ordinary will do much better in MP then in Imps. LOB and weak nt effectivness are strongly dependant on the skill of the opponents imo. We play 10-14 nt and the number of gift we get is anormal.

Not really surprising, 4441 is so close to 4432 that its only getting an edge over the 4333 but it lose vs all the hand with 5 or 6 card suit.

The way i play I would bid 4D instead of 3H (showing 6 good diamond and a S fit). A direct 4H would show a void. Otherwise 4H splinter in the correct standard bid

What is the opp nt range ? If opps are playing weak nt then 1D is probably a 15-17 balanced in wich case im happy to pass 1D. If they play strong nt then 1D is probably 12-14 bal in wich case partner rate to have some pts making game too likely to pass 1D with satisfaction. Of course sometimes opener will have an unbalanced hand or a balanced 18-19 but because of my hand and the absence of preemptive bids these are quite unlikely. So X and 1H---2Nt 1S---2D 1Nt--3Nt 2C--2D