benlessard

Ill upgrade only the first hand & we play sound responses (i have no problem passing a 3334 with AJ. What i don't understand is those who frequently upgrade for 2Nt openings AND have weakish responses.

Romanet book on all the squeeze is the best book i have read. It was in french & it was close to 500 pages. I suppose there is a lot of shorter version of the book. I dont recall the exact title. But try to find the biggest romanet book on squeeze and you will be very satisfied.

4C , 3C , 2C , 5C , pass from best to worst.

I understand that leading high to show negative attitude make sense, but the mix of 3/5 and 4th from 6 make no sense to me. applying 10-12 rules & giving count is impossible if you play 4th from 6 cards. (unless partner know its a 6 card suit) Also leading top from 5 card holding interferred with 9-10 coded or top of inner sequences. EX leading T from T9643, and T from KT98x. Also im far from convinced that continuing suit is good enough after a doubleton lead is a good thing.

In imps 2D is probably the best bid but In MP i prefer a 3S 3 card raise.

6H or pass :) . Either I put then on a guess by bidding 6H, (they make 7 but they dont bid it or they bid 7 and go down or they bid 6 and go down) or what i like to do against trustworthy opps is pass & let them used all the the science they want. and if they bid/stop in 6 with confidence ill sac at 7H. The two thing i dont like is useless preempt like 4H or taking another bid after you make the opponents guess.

Could some1 explain me the rationale behing leading low from a doubleton ? Is it like an attitude lead vs suits ?

Lets do an abstract experiment. You (A) have a hand between 1 (weakest) & 6 (strongest) and same for partner (B,1-6). opps are competing at 5C and you have diamonds (so no possible slam try in a new suit). With total combined of 2-5 you want to play 5Cx. With 5-6-7-8 you want to play 5D and with 9-12 you want to play 6D. RHO just bid 5C and now its your turn... standard FP = you X with 12 and pass with 34 and bid 5D with 56 method 2 = you X with 34 and pass with 126 and bid 5D with 5. with method 2 you pass and pull after partner X to show 6. If partner manage to bid 5D and you have the hand with strenght 6 then you can easily bid 6D. Having 4 strenght group (12,34,5,6) instead of 3 (12,34,56) is a small edge that you get by playing methot 2. With no misunderstanding there is no downside for playing method 2. If you have a new suit available (you have H so over 5C you can bid 5D to show a slam try). I suggest fast= weak slow=strong. X with 34 (partner can bid 5D to invite & you are going to accept with 4) bid 5H with 5 pass with 1267. (partner can bid 5D to invite to check if you have 2 or 1) if he bid 5D or 5H and you have 56 you will bid slam. and if he X then pass & pull to 5H = 6 pass & pull to 5D = 7

I understand that 2S show a D tol, but Its IMPs not MP. I want to make my contract not play in a fit at 1 level too high. 3-3 fit in D is going to be quite rare(read my other post) plus its not sure its going to go down + some hands they will compete. Playing 2D in 43 isnt likely to go down as much as playing 3S or 4S remember partner with 15/16 pts and 2/3 trumps will make another move after your 2S. The biggest problem with 2D is that you will missed some magical games based on a double fit. But there is no comparaison between the number of times you will get poisoned in 3S/2Nt/3D/3Cx compared to 2D.

For me splinters is first a way to check for wasted values & secondly to count losers and 3rd a way to show a control. My splinters then to worked best when your I hold enough trumps to ruff everything that is possible to ruff & when there is no establishable long suit. They tend to not work the way i like when I have another short or long 2nd suit. I dont care that much about controls because wasted values will get it right most of the time= If partner doesnt have waste then you probably dont have 2 quick loser anyway if partner has waste then even with all keycards but no establishable 2nd suit and few extras slam will be unlikely. The tough cases for splinters IMHO is when the hcp facing the singleton are not waste because you can pitch losers. axx x vs xxx AKQ T vs AKJx etc

I have controls in 3 suits so i simply ask for aces

Of course if X tend to show a balanced then 4H is ok. But i assumed that 1C---(1D)---1S isnt forcing or show a precise hand. For example lets say 1C---(3D)---X(gf)---(4D) ??? here bidding 4H with only 5 is a bit dangerous and a flexible forcing pass is better.

you said 3S is the only bid to agree H or is it at least slammish ? If its at least slammish south cant stop before 6H (4 keycard +a supported K +doubleton). If its not slammish then you just spotted a problem with your methods.

Playing FP standard methods Pass is clearcut X suggest penalty 4H suggest good suit pass followed by 4H = doubt about contract (slammish or 2 place to play but since the opening is limited (13-16) slammish is out of the way then its H+ other suit).

R vs W partner entered the auction because he expect to make something. So 3nt is clearcut. IMHO W vs R its would be a complete different story where 3H could be inv for sacrifice and X would show the goodish hands .

Disagree even if X is 100% penalty i still think 5C is reasonnable. X maybe be better but not by much. The X is likely to bring only 100 pts. Im not really afraid of X and they make it, im more afraid that we make 6C and get only 200/500.

I dont really understand why most either pass or bid 2S. While 2D or X are right on for values are unpopular. The bid i hate the most is 2S, Partner could have 13+ pts and a stiff S or he could have 5D and 2S with some of those hands you will reach 3D or 3S wich might be too high. Partner may also blast to an unmakable 4S. A neg X will do the same thing then a 2S bid+ will give you the chance to play 2D (over a 2H response 2S will describe the hand perfectly, the main downside of X is that if opps compete to 3C then partner under pressure may bid 3H without S tolerance or may pass 3C with 5 or 6D. Passing is also a bit dangerous since partner with a doubleton spades will steer away from balancing. Partner could also have 5D+3C and both 2C & 2D will make. Also im not fond of balancing with minimal values when no trap pass is possible but its a matter of style. (note that if you pass and partner reopen what is your bid ? 3S ? if so then he wont reopen with a minimum) 2D will turn out badly when partner compete to 3D too light or when hes 4432 or on some rare magic hands where 4S will make but partner will pass 2D. Overall is think 2D is the least of evil. my choices from good to bad. 2D,X,pass,2S the poll choice so far pass,2S,X,2D

If you are playing better minor & weak nt a 1D opening hands show 5 or + D close to 50% of the times. For strong NT i dont know the number but i guess its close to 40%. While exact 4432 is a 18/1000 pattern but since only 12-14 hands are troublesome only 1% of all openings hand (preempt not included) will be 12-14 exact 4432. I guess a 1D opening in a Str NT/better minor setup is close to 20% of the openings(preempt excluded) so after a 1D opening my estimate is 5% of the times you will have 4432 (12-14) and 40% of the times you will have 5D or +, 55% your going to have 4 D. The fact that opponent overcall 2C and didnt make a take-out double make opener favorite to be major oriented. But far to the point where 4432 is a likely hand. Also Im not afraid to open 1C holding 4432 in 4th seat (12-14 & with more points in C then in D) since im pretty sure partner is going to make a response.

What I think is standard for those who are not fond to open 1Nt with bal 5M is With 12-14 (maybe bad 15) 1H---1Nt----2C----2H-----pass with 15 open 1nt. 1H----1NT----2C/2D----2H------2Nt = 16-17 1H----1Nt-----2Nt 18-19 1S-----1Nt------2C/2D----2S-----pass (12-bad15) With 15 open 1NT 1S----1Nt-----2m-------2S--------2Nt (16-17) 1S----1Nt-----2Nt (18-19)

easy 2D for me. X might lead us at the 3 level and pass is a bit dangerous. I really dont see how 2D could backfire.

X, pass over 4S

I think showing a weak doubleton is paying mostly be when the hand with the weak doubleton has 3 in the other M so 4M is a real possibility. Showing a weak doubleton with hope of making 5m or stopping in 4m isnt likely to pay that much.

Its the opposite i think if the tendency is to respond lighter then the need for strong forcing opening goes down. However what we could say is that since responding lighter pose no problem then maybe we should play forcing opening for multi purpose bids. But my feeling is that you have to make a choice between responding lighter or opening lighter you cant have both. Also we could say that responding lighter make the 2C a bit obsolete so in that view we could say that a forcing 1C make more sense then a forcing 2C.

Lets assume for an instant that we are on a top notch table. WTF is going on ? I have 14 pts but didnt make a take-out X with 2S and 3 aces. Maybe i did hesitate slightly and partner have his bid or maybe i bid in tempo (top notch table remember). I pass (not my bid) and partner found a really surprising reopening X (we are red and hes balacing over 2S so hes forcing us at the 3 level) & not only that but RHO found a XX !! It doesnt need a genius to know something is fishy here. How many spades do you think partner has ? with 2 he need at least 8-9 pts. With 1 S partner will need less point, but then why RHO would XX having 4 or 5S and minimal values ? Easy because hes trying to play you. He probably got subminimal values but nice trumps. Hes planning to get to 3S all along but want to avoid the X so for him the XX is a risk free bid. Case 2 lets assume that we are not on a top notch table.Some of the possiblities are 1- partner bid on my hesitation 2- partner reopen with crap because hes doesnt know what vuln is & he doesnt know that i have the right to pass the 2SX bid. He doesnt know that 3S making 3 is the same MP that 2S making 3. 3- RHO XX because he thought 2SXX would make. etc... I disagree 98% about Mikeh post except Agree but some of the passer do play terrible bridge from time to time also :) Why would partner bid agressivly red ? I did pass with 14 pts so why would i assume that partner will XX with 8 pts ? Why would i expect partner to play a completly opposite style ? What about the XX its surely a very agressive XX don't you think ? Good player will XX to psych when its risk free and in this case its pretty much risk free hehh ????? more like 20% will play in 2S Again wrong percentage+ You have to take into account those who are going to play 3m on this deal 3m is heavy favorite to make so +100 is going to be below average. The rest of the post is based on wrong assumption.

I think the chance partner pull the double are close to nil. and if he does its going to be 5H. I understand that X or pass is more likely to work then 5C but for the IMPs scale 5C seems like a safety bid. I think there is at least 19 tricks on that deal. Facing agressive opps i would X.