benlessard

2C would be forcing since XX is forcing until at least 2S. So 3C show extreme distribution.

I agree that controls will do good on most hands. But the slams im looking to bid are those where Q and J are key cards. Kxx xxx QJxx Qxx AQxxx AKQJ Kx Ax What make slam good or not good is the J of H, J of clubs (if hand is played by south) J of D to discard the losing clubs. That the kind of slam where you need sharper methods that I find interesting.

I agree but since opener is much better placed to describe his hand why dont you play 1Nt as 6+ unlimited relay. Its clear that its more efficient for opener to describe his hand then for responder to describe his since opener already have an headstart. Make your opening always unbalanced in 1st & 2nd seat so that way when you open 1M you dont want to play 1Nt anyway. The advantage of unbalanced opening in competition & in defense and in relay auction far outweigh the disadvantage of 1Nt with a 5M this is obvious the 1st week after playing my sytem. (Even in Mp) (for this you might have to use 1C for some balanced hand or play a wide range 1Nt) Dont be afraid to use relay with the responder (6+) and play that the 2 level isnt forcing. The modern hype is to use 2C as a general GF and not as a pure 2-1, why not use 1S or 1Nt instead ? This single step is a big help. When its goes 1H-----2D (GF) 3D----- the fact that responder conveyed information is a bad thing, since opener already made a description with his opening why responder just dont become captain instead of describing ? 1H------1S (relay 6+) 1Nt (clubs)-------2D (art GF) ??? 2H=?6?4 no void 2S=3514 2Nt=2524 3C=?5?5 3D=1534 much more precision and at a lower level the only problem is that trumps isnt set. It also free up the 1Nt and 2 level bid for probable misfit hands 1H-----??? 1S=relay 1Nt single usiter 6-10 2C= NF C + other suit (with shortness in opener suit) 2D=NF D+S 2H= NF S+H tolerance with 10-11 2S= NF S (H shortness) 10-11 The main profit of allowing opener to describe his hand to the full are in slam zone. But playing transfer after a NF bid is a small slam zone. Send me a couple of unbidabble hand that start with a unbalanced 1M opening and ill give you examples.

Cue-bid that are A or K are a shortcut. If you try to show at first A followed be K and Q then cuebids are less effective then spiral. When partner make a cue in my singleton i have no idea if its the A or if its the K. ABCDE, cue-bids = A= ive got A may or may not have B B= ive got B & dont have A but may have C C= i dont have A or B but have C & may have D. D= i dont have ABC but i have D etc... Denials A= i dont have A B= i have A but not B C = i have A & B but not C D= i have ABC but not D The difference is that cue-bids are denying a lot of card at the same time but never manage to show 2 card at once. Denials cue are the opposite they show multiple card at once but only deny 1 card at the time. If we check what is happening with regular cue and 2 players. A-----B D-----F G----- The 1st player has A ,D & G doesnt have C but might have E The 2nd has B and F but not E but might have C The 1st player dont know if partner got C & the 2nd player dont know if partner has E So neither is placed to make a clear decision. Playing Denials B-------C D-------E H-------I K B= ive got A but not B C= do you have C ? D= No E = do you have D H= yes and ive got E too but i dont have F I = do you have G ? K = i have G but not H Its longer but there is no confusion. the 1st player has A,D,E,G. and denied B,C,F,H So player 2 is well placed to make a decision. When you have a lot of card denials is a bit faster and with no unknown. The same thing for controls A=2 K=1 its a shortcut that dont work too well for unbalanced hands. 2 K but 1 in my singleton isnt the same thing has 1 ace. Spiral & denials are the same but spiral is focussed on a specific card and not on a control + the order of the cards are based on lenght. If 5431 then K of H is before K of D because its probably more important and more probable. Just curious how responder know 4H isnt to play ? How do you set trumps ?

With normal opponents what do you think is more likely ? 1 - that you will bid and make game that you wouldnt have been able to reach if you had overcall 1S ? (When X and bid 2S will win Imps over a simple 1S overcall) 2- That you go down in 2S while you had a plus score in 1S or by defending a contract ? (Where a simple overcall and defending will win Imps over a X and 2S) I agree that there is a limit to trusting the opponents but bridge is all about probability and inference. Each time the opps psych or respond with 3 pts there are risking on their side even if you do nothing about it so you dont really need to punish them/expose the psych every time. Of course if the opps play limited opening or LOB or system that allow them to steal with little risk its a complete different story.

Agree but i say better is what my X show & i surely dont expect partner to have an entry. Each month if not each week i see a "B" player say "yeah but i had 19 pts how could i pass ?" Clearly for me the X by north hand and see they make 2 overtrick or that we go down 2 in 2S is a clear sign that its a "B player bid" The main reason to take action over 1Nt in imps is "they are making 1Nt and we make something." more often then 1Nt go down and we make nothing. Partscore bidding in imps is taking the action that is more likely to give you a plus score whatever plus. So taking direct action over 1Nt mean you have some chance to make 2S facing 2 trumps or that you have fair chance to make 2m (while expecting 1Nt to make) Remember bidding isnt over yet and partner would have or will raise to 2S with 3S and any ruffing power. 2- "Its possible we can make a game so a small plus in 1Nt going down isnt enough" If opps frequently psych or respond light to steal then its make sense to X or to make a 1Nt natural overcall because game is possible. So unless some1 else can find another intelligent reason to bid over 1Nt why the F%^* would i want to bid over 1Nt with a 6322 or a 53(32) & 18-19 pts. Taking action after opps bid and respond and endup in 1nt with a balanced hand rarely make sense .

How can it be take-out if so on what suits ? Opps rate to have a 7 card fit in H so prtner cant be short in H nor does he want to play in H. So either hes got D maybe even C (wich he can bid 2C & 2D) but he doesnt have both minors for sure. So hes got a big balanced hand. I would never X with only 18-19. Those who think its impossible to have 20-22 and make an overcall would you X and bid 2S with AKQJx Axx QXX KQ ? After (1X)----P-----(1Y)------??? its not balancing and expect partner to be broke when you have 18 + So why would you want to X 1Nt with 18-19 pts ? Why would you want to X and bid a new suit with 20-22 pts and a balanced hand ? Im not saying i expect to get rich by defending 1Nt just that why be sure to get a minus when you might get a +. If they make an overtrick then partner made a mistake not you.

This is the core of my system. 1M is unbalanced 12-14 or 18-22 1C--1D--1M is unbalanced 15-17 or 22+ So 1H---1S (relay) 1Nt= 4C 2C=4D 2D=6H 2H=5H+4S (12-14) the rest is GF with 5H+4S ex 2NT = 4522 (18-22) 1S---1Nt (relay) 2C= 4D 2D= 4H 2H= 6S 2S= 5S + 4C (12-14) 2Nt= 5224 18-22 3C = 5??5 18-22 etc...

Where is my 9 of S ?

3D waiting for next round of bidding

Why would i want to pull ? partner got a 2nt opening with 53 in the Majors.If they make it then its -180 so what.

Whatever method you like from opener point of view 1M--2M is much more encouraging then 1M--1Nt. So if you play 1Nt forcing then from an uncontested bidding point of view its surely make sense to use 1Nt-- followed by a M preference to show a weaker hand with possibly 3 trumps. So its only a range agreement wheiter you called the 2M raise constructive raise or not. Some like to respond quite light so for them 4-6, 7-9 for the direct raise look ok. Me i prefer a 5-7 and 8-10 so for me this hand is a clear 1Nt. Not playing 1Nt forcing some also prefer to responding 1Nt with subminimum weakish hand instead of raising. The problem with that is that often 1Nt will go down & 2S make or that 1Nt will be a bad MP contract. This is something i dont recommend. For the rest I agree with pclayton post.

Good vs good. It doesnt matter if he play J or T from JTx because he know ill always take the restrictive choice finesse if he play x followed by J/T and he also know im always going to take the finesse even if he tries to outsmarted me with Jx. good vs he think im weak. Play for the drop make sense because hes flashing his " doubleton" therefore hes got 3. Nothing suck more then to get a bad score because declarer dont know restrictive choice. Therefore flashing the doubleton is a possibility to give the bad declarer (who says restrictive what ???) a losing option. Luckily im no longer a junior so I can always finesse ;) So if im 90% sure of my table assessment. (RHO is a good player and think im weak) ill play for the drop.

clear pass even if partner isnt a passed hand

I think that whatever the authorities choose they should try their very best to say clearly what is allowed and what isnt allowed there is just too much grey area right now. My very basic view on this is to be very permissive in the open highest bracket KO and to be very selective in the others brackets, some complex systems just shouldnt be played in the sunday swiss or in the non-top brackets. Remember the majority are there for the fun of it (that doesnt make them weaker players or less competive in any way) To be liberal when it comes to home-made written defense (less bureaucracy for written defense) but with a possible Imps penalty if the defense may prove innapropriate on a board. So that the directors job is simply to wait for a director call and check if the suggested defense make any sense. I don't mind playing a non-optimum written defense facing a completly wild convention or system as long as i have some protection if the defense may prove to be inneficient. And the bridge federations should have a registry on there website for home-made convention & defenses against these convention, a kind of wiki for bridge conventions. If some day we want to play/play against multi or more destructive stuff then there should at least be official defense on the bridge federation website.

If you try with specifics card (and not with number of controls) its an illusion. It is as hard or tougher for responder to show the possible KJ♠,Q&J♦,Q&J♣ then to opener to show his cards. Its because either you ask for all the cards (without skipping) wich will worked better only when your searching for 3 cards or less. So the most common & probably best method is to ask for specific card wich mean that you will need to jump to bypass the cards you have to ask for the cards you dont have (spiral scan,denials cue-bids) wich in the long run = losing the same space Lets put the strong hand as the captain (with the real hand i had where 6S was making because LHO had the K of clubs and S were 3-2) [hv=n=skxxhxxxdqjxxcqxx&s=saqxxxhakqjdkxcax]133|200|Scoring: MP[/hv] You know partner is 3343. you bid 3C to confirm S as trumps. 3D (1 or 4 keycard)-----??? 3H would ask for Q of trumps 3S = ?K of H 3Nt= ?K of D 4C = ?K of C 4C ? -----4D (i dont have the K of clubs) 4H = ? QH 4S would be to play 4Nt = ? QD 4nt ? ----- 5H QD+QC but no JS. Like you see its about the same space. Facing a weakish hand asking for controls (A=2 & K=1 or A=3 & K=1 or whatever) will probably save space but only when captain is balanced so that all controls are working. Give the strong hand a 6421 and the K of clubs might be an idle card. Modern consensus seems to show that the unbalanced hand should describe and not the balanced hand. This is because in the balanced hand there is more slot for honnor cards. In a 6421 you cant have 2 honnors in clubs. + in an unbalanced hand there is a probabilty of distribution. In my example the strong hand has 2D and 2C but since the hand is known to have the KD and not the KC its twice as likely the hand is missing the AD then missing the AC. Kx , Ax will be twice as likely then AK , xx. There are also several other reason why its better to have the unbalanced hand revealling no matter how strenght is divided.

The extra strenght is suggesting the % of them going down to go up, but also that the sacrifice will be cheaper. IMHO we cannot say they completly cancel each other but they cancel each other do to a certain part. If you think of making 4S on that deal it mean you have clearly taken the hesitation of your partner into account. Had partner made a tempo pass you would bid 4S as a sac and nothing else. (plus its a bit inconsequent to expect to make 4S sometimes and not being able to bid 3S over 3H) So the more important remaining cause for hesitation can only be for extra shape wich can only suggest bidding 4S. I consider the appeal would have less then 5% of success but it isnt an AWM. Its going to take some serious new argument to change my view on this 1.

In MP its hard to tell because most high complexity system are designed for IMPs.

Pass is surely LA. The slow tempo suggest extra lenght in spades or shortness in H or solid 2nd suit or extra strenght. The extra strenght might suggest that 4H is going down but its also suggest that the sacrifice will be cheap. Therefore the hesitation is inviting a 4S bid. IMHO its not clear enough to give an AWM but at the same time if i have done the appeal i wouldnt be suprised to get it back AWM.

As south i could go either way but i would never bid 4S with north hand.

your options, 4S= sign off 4Nt ask for Q of H 5H ask for a club control. 5S ask for extras. 5C would ask for Q of D 5D would ask for Q of C so ive removed them from the options If you ask for the Q♥. 5C=no 5D= yes but no DQ and now , 5H is still asking for a club controls but 5S is to play now. Opener is not allowed to bid after the signoff unless mass amount of extra strenght.

4nt-----5♥ 5♠------6♣ i dont have the balls to bid 7 pass--- me neither 5H is 100% cue-bid. If you had 7H and decided to pass then stick your H suit up your $#^% and forget about them. In imps ill be very satisfied to be in 6C. 7C need D43 & Clubs 3-1 so there is no need to be in 7C.

We play low requirement preempt (sound much better then crappy preempt !). So quite often responder want to play in his suit instead of opener suit so we play a transfer lebensohl type. 2H---??? 2S all inv hands 2Nt--Clubs GF or to play 3C -- D Gf or to play 3D-- H+S Gf 3H preempt 3S S GF no H tolerance However we havent play that for long enough so that i can make a judgement of the method.

Not for me. Ill bid 3H almost everytime i would have raise 1H to 2H if RHO would have passed. 5 trumps & a stiff is enough to make a move even without hcp. This doesnt set any forcing pass so if partner X 4C he is on his own. If they bid 5C and partner X and they make it ill apologize. PS with 5 trumps and 5332 shape ill pass and bid 3H after the X. So the 4H bid in the auction show 5 trumps and a stiff wich is a hand i would clearly bid 3H before the X

by GF we mean 9 tricks if the opener is in the M and 10 tricks if the opener have minors. Our 1S opening is 12-14 or 18-22. so 1C followed by 1S is 15-17 or GF. ♠AQxxx ♥KQJx ♦AK ♣Ax ♠AQxxx ♥AKQJ ♦Kx ♣Ax ♠AQJxx ♥AKJT ♦Kx ♣AJ the 1 & 2 are strong enough for the GF type the 3rd hand is borderline. ♠Jxx give good play for game for 1 & 2 ♥Qxxx is givng good play for game in 3. IMHO opening 1S with these hands is slighty more dangerous then going overboard by GForcing