benlessard

ok Except if east has 4 diamonds...

If you try for D33 you can squeeze East but not West. And only D+H. The clubs squeeze is a mirage because you only have a H entry. xx Qx -- -- -- Ax x x Wheiter You play trump from dummy or you are in hand the club threat is a mirage. Th Cashing the 2 aces and running trumps is the better line. Edited you have a small shot for a trump squeeze VS west if he has the Diamonds, the clubs and the K of H, wich is very small % The hand is more interesting on a club lead.

use bbrowser or make a sim and youll see that responder is more likely to have 5 or 6H rather than 4 and its not that close. You may like to rebid 2H with any 6 card H suit but i prefer to rebid 1Nt with 6 lousy h. No what im saying is that partner is unlikely to have a doubleton S or clud and 3 diamonds. Therefore 3523,3433, are the more frequent shapes. than 2533,3532 (with this shape he might be tempted to pass 1s if holding marginal values)

At imps ill bid 3Nt because its a hand where it might make and even 2 might fail. (it like a 5 or 7 hand) At MP il bid 2Nt because if we go down the undertrick will be important. Also that 2Nt dont expose the trap pass as clearly as 3Nt do. Obvious 2S by partner.

There is 3 style that i know here. The first is that 2M shows a minimum, some play up to 15 but some up to 14. 2m might be 3m&6M with 15-17 3M shows a very good suit playable facing a stiff, almost GF The 2nd 2M shows 6 cards up to 16. 2m is always 4 or balanced (if you play 1Nt forcing) and you never bid 2m with 6M and 3m. 3M show a very good suit. With a bad suit 6M and 17 pts you open 1H followed by 2NT. the 3rd 2M is minimum 3M dont show a good suit but show 6 and 15-17 You rarely open 1Nt or rebid 2NT with 6M Some have no problem opening 1Nt with 6M if they feel their hand is Too strong to open 1M followed by 2M, Suit not good enough for 1M ...3M Too weak for 1M followeed by 2Nt I play the first, at imps im fairly convinced the first is the best way. At MP im not so sure. The idea behind this method is that medium hand with a 6M & bad suit play badly vs a stiff trump but tend do to ok vs a preference (xx). So if partner pass 2m hes probably got a stiff in your Major or got a garbage hand with fairly long in your m (afraid to give false preference) in both case 2m (even in a 3-3 fit) should play fine compared to 3M in a 6-1 with bad trumps

At imps im pretty sure its more likely 2m will go down than 1Nt will fail unless holding a perfect suit oriented hand. 1- partner is favorite to have 5 or 6H here. 2- LHO didnt overcall 1H. and RHO will be reticent to lead H in partner suits against a 1Nt contract wich often need a passive lead. (where blowing a trick is more likely to be costly than losing a vital tempo) 3- bidding 2C will help the defense a lot. Both for lead and for the rest of the hand. 4- partner shouldnt be averse to raise to 2D with xx in spades and 3D to an honor. As for MP, lets just say that years of bridge give me faith in 1NT. I should say bad not terrible.

1- i pass instead of 1H, if you like to respond that light why not play a strong or forcing club ? 2- 2S instead of 1 S unless you frequently respond with 4 pts. 3- 2D is ugly even if partner is 100% sure to be at least 54. In my book with 4144 you open with 1D and rebid 1S so you might be in a 4-2 fit. 4- Passing 3C is gross. Responder 2D rebid show either a full D fit or club weakness. In both case 3C cannot be a better contract than 3D. Even without that its would never cross my mind to play it NF its natural for sure, but its forcing.

If you play 9-10 coded and J denies and strong Kings. A ten is top of nothing or AJT or KJT. So since a T is already strong by nature why not used it with QJT9 or AQJT. That way a Q lead is not super strong unless its QJ98 , QJ9xx or AQJx. Ex 1Nt----3Nt. Partner lead the Q of S dummy come down with 9xx in S. So the lead can only come from QJT, QJx, KQx, AQJ(xx) . So you can discourage (and declarer should win with the A) . When you ll take hand youll have to guess if partner got AQJx or not. If you dont thing he has it then you wont continue in that suit because you know patner cannot have QJTx or longer nor AQJT.

I play that both are 15-17 nat non- forcing and i thought it was standard. I remember reading about it long ago but dont remember where. The minimum hand where you would like to bid 2C to improve the partscore (bad 15 or less) are 4054,4063. To bid 2C with a minimum 4153 will give very little and to do it with a 4144 is terrible. However the 15-17 hands where you would like to invite for game are 4054,4063,4144(unless you always open 1C) and the more frequent 4153. So even if it seems disagreable to pass 1NT with a H void and a minimum im pretty sure its best to use 2C as a nat game try so that the 15-17 hand arent forced to jump to 3C/3D or bid 2Nt. Jumping to 3C with a 16 count 4054 is asking for trouble, same goes for bidding 2Nt with a 4153. Also note that at imps finding the best game is much more important than improving partscore and at MP 1NT might easily be a better spot than 2m anyway. PS This is taking into account that 1S isnt forcing.

[hv=d=s&v=b&n=sqxxhaxxdjxxxxxca&s=sakxxhxxxdck9xxxx]133|200|Scoring: MP[/hv] West is going to overcall or open 1H.

Ive just checked quickly but it doesnt seems like you cannot make partial deal or diagrams. But for full deals the application is great.

1D---1H 1S---1NT 2C What is the typical hand for this bid. Also is this one forcing ? 1C----1H 1S----1NT 2D

i think opening 1S with south hand is losing bridge big time. Ill bid 4S but 3S is acceptable.

The quite old sayc say that 1S----2C 2S----2Nt & 3S aint forcing. What is imo the best system to teach to beginners is 2/1 except if responder suit is repeated (and opener didnt show extras) 1S-----2C 2Y----- 3C is NF the rest is game forcing. No need to play 1 Nt forcing and 1NT is 6-10 maybe a bad 11. It give you 90% of the tools of 2/1 without 1Nt forcing.

I would like to make a series of courses that i can show with a portable and a projector. I have bridge master 2000 but never really worked with lin files. The diagrams need to be clear and have a simple next page feature. Any ideas on the best ways to do it ?

Those who hate dont because it doesnt show wich suit is longest might like to try SOFA. X = 5M + other suit. 2C = 5C(6C) + 4M or both m 2D = 5D(6D) + 4M 2M = natural. its imo a big improvement over dont. the single suit M are direct instead of delayed. While the 2 suiters with a 5M are delayed. This is a small imrovement. You now make the difference between 54,55 & 45,46 but you lose the single suit minor at the 2 level wich is a an excellent trade-off. Ps you have to bid 2D at MP is not close at all.

I think that opener 2D is a catch all bid and can show a balanced hand like AKQx xx KJxx xxx so when he rebid 3D hes showing repeating D for the first time imo.

Ruff a spades, clubs, ruff a spades, back in clubs and if they follow its over because you ruff the 4S and play clubs all the way. If they ruff the 2 nd round of clubs and dont cash the spades youll have to be a lucky.

Hand 1 i prefer 2D because doubling and rebidding 3D with only 5 is ugly. Also if partner pass 2D i think that you wont miss game too often. The 2nd double is a big blunder. Hand 2 is a pass for me, but non-vul i think 1Nt is ok. I think 2C is terrible.

Partner will not lead for 3 low clubs when dummy is sure to have 5 of them. Even holding 3 baby H and t9x of clubs and no other lead its preferable to lead a H since opener with Hx in H would be happy to rebid 3H instead of 3D and responder will be happy to rebid 3H instead of 5D with 5 good H that are playable facing xx. So with this bidding its much more likely that declarer pitch H losers on clubs than the other way around. Im sure that partner got a stiff at least 95% of the time and I agree with Gerben that returning a non-club is asking to be endplayed.

Ive gave him more then 10 seconds to finish the claim. I felt that this was too much. The hand was [hv=n=sktxxxhxxxdt9xxcq&s=sajhakqjxxdkjcakx]133|200|Scoring: MP[/hv] They lead a S and east played the Q. So put all his trumps on the table (probably thinking he had too many tricks.

IMO if you want to spice up your bridge life just play a wide weak nt range You We play 10-14 nv and 12-15 vul, with a proper responses setup its fully playable. you will often play 1nt instead of defending you will play in moysian. Youll defend against akward contracts by opps. You will also have to fight for an overtrick to beat those in 2M (MP).

Declarer start stating his claim. Put 6 card on the table then find out he has communication problem and start thinking. How much time do you allow him to finish his claim ?

Easy pass.

The problem with Cascade agreement is that you can bid 2D with 5 to 7 points. In the end what you have to compared is the difference in results between 2D and 3D with weakish 5-7 pts, and the difference between passing with 0-4 pts or bidding 3D. You also have to compared that the 2D now show 8-10 pts instead of 5-9. Agree 100% That why i think 4-7 is a bad range