benlessard

1Nt-------2C 2S--------??? do you prefer to use 4C as ace asking and 4Nt as quant 4C as splinter and 4Nt as quant 4C as splinter and 4Nt ace asking 1NT------2H 2S--------??? Same question (note here that 4H transfer followed by 4Nt is available but assume it show a H void) Also what is "standard" ?

1D-----(1H)--------X--------(P) ??? Kxx Q Axxxx KJxx What is your bid ? and what is your follow up if opps compete further. edited This is MP all white.

I agree with Ken 100%. An unbalanced 1D is often 5 anyway and i dont mind raising with 3 if i can ruff with the 3 trumps hand. The drawback of opening 1C with 4441 if bigger than the advantage of the 5th diamond. I also prefer to treat 3352 as a balanced hand allowing some nice gadget after 1D----1M...

i hate 2S but hate it less than West pass, wich is still a better bid than his X. Sometimes you make 3 bad bids and still get a good results, but not here.

Leading from 3 low is just too rare. When you do it its because your looking for a safe lead and have all the reamining values in your hand wich mean dont expect partner to take the hand too often. If you feel partner got some values dont lead from 3 low. Ps leading a doubleton is much more frequent than leading form 3 low (both in suit or in NT) its not close at all.

(1C)------3S-------(X)--------all pass [hv=d=e&v=e&n=skthkjxxxdajtxxcq&s=sq9876xxhxd876cjx]133|200|Scoring: IMP[/hv] West lead a low clubs won by east A, after long thought he return a low D east play the Q

minus 200 vs no game is a likely result when partner does have a stiff clubs. Partner can be near a 5431 shape with some scattered values or he can have crap with a stiff club and the ace of diamond. Bidding 3C is safe, it allow possibly 3 nt on our side, it place us well for sacrifice at 5C and make life a bit more difficult for the opps than 2C. What more do you want ? Why risk a near bottom -200 just to make life a bit harder to opps.

4,5,6 are a joke. I prefer 3 to 2 because i believe my hand is perfect for 3 in the style i play. we are liberal on outside strenght and suit requirement.

East responsive X is too risky for me. Full of quacks and the K is in a 5th long suit = no defensive values whatsoever. Having QJT is good against balanced hands not against 1M---3M. If you like to double at the 3 level without defensive values its your choice but its much better to play them to show some goodies because parnter will often pass to get the magic 200. Partner has a king extra and the contract is cold so surely X is a bit dubious. I would just bid 4D.

P,2C,3C,3C or P,P,3C,3C for me

From best to worst Diamond, Heart Club spades and it seems clearcut for me. when i lead into the weak hand im more afraid to lose a tempo than to blow a trick. Im usually fond of passive lead vs underleading honnors but here passivity is worse.

I agree. IMHO LHO is too weak to reopen its just too dangerous. I play that double show a strong Nt hand but since RHO didnt pass ive assume that they reopen with less pts more shape (4441,come to mind). Im also not sure if we were white or red but if the X show a strong nt RHO must pass and be happy to get +100 even if +110 is possible.

I of course bid 4S. Its was just to show to someone that its obvious. and Ive double. LHO know that -200 is a bad score so he will always have good hand for the double and he should have a good hearts for the pass and balance. [hv=d=n&v=b&n=sjxxhxxdjtxxcakqj&w=sakxxhqtxxdkqxcxx&e=sqxhk87dxxxcxxxxx&s=stxxxhajxxdaxxctx]399|300|Scoring: MP[/hv] Rho did well to bid 2H (i would have been tempted by 2C) . Considering the state of the tourney i still agree with my double but its not 100% clear.

W vs W (3C)------X--------(Pass)--------??? AQ9xx Txxx K Txx I think its obvious do you ? ------------------------------------------------------------------------- W vs Red, (maybe its R vs R) 1C------(P)--------1H--------(P) 1NT-----(P)--------(P)-------X pass-----(2H)------??? Txxx AJxx Axx Tx Partner 1Nt rebid is always balanced 12-14. Bidding 2H seems painful and youre against a strong pair. In the 2nd case youre estimate is 50%-52 and might feel the need to swing a bit because its will be won in the 60% with 6 board to play.

Unless you play keycard at a low level its near impossible to stop at the 4 level. QJx is enough to cue-bid and south hand isnt minimum after the 2H response.

K of S, low S to A and low D is better indeed.

simply play 2H-2S as weak and use 2D for your constructive need is probably better. It might wrongside H contract (i assume you need 2H for a natural bid) but it allow more sequence when constructive and less sequence when preemptive wich is a sufficient compensation for wrongsiding.

I dont see why this can be better than attitude. Example that if fairly frequent is see all the time partner lead a low card dummy come up with Kx or Qx , and you have Jxx. Depending of the hand you might want to encourage or discourage.

Youre right, I didnt notice that the final position is 100%, and I dont really care next time ill get a similar problem you can bet that ill play low D at trick 2. I never have enough time to know that if after trumps broke 3-2 I can deal with a 0-5 break in a 100% way. My method is to try to apply proper technique as much as i can and find the best line possible that put me in a good position if bad breaks appears, looking for the perfect line or spending half an hour per books problems is a good exercice. But in practice and when i read book my goal is to find problems themes quickly and try to find the best possible line in 10-15 mins. Here perfect approach you would need to spend close to 10 mins to calculate if the problem is 100% if the trumps broke (before you know the 0-5 split) and you would spend another 10 mins to find a line against 4-1 trumps and 4-1 diamonds. Or would you play diamonds at trick 2 knowing that it almost never cost anything and is a possible way to help you deal with a 5-0 diamonds break ?

Ive returned the J of D, hoping partner got Ax or QXX and declarer misguess. Declarer won on dummy and play spades, to get full mark you have to hop with the spade ace and returned diamonds. Partner managed to make his D queen. Declarer did make a mistake by ducking a H to his Jx and winning the D in dummy is probably inferior to winning in hand but he probably felt that i had more chance of playing the J from QJx(x) than from Jx(xx)

If West has 3 trumps and a D void hell ruff a loser and you ll manage to ruff the 5 th diamond. If East has 3 trumps and a diamond void hell ruff a winner but youll be able to finesse in diamonds and ruff the 5th diamonds. Only when the guy has a void and 2 trumps it might cost the contract. Its a frequent theme that you can delay trumps to run a side suit if you can afford a trump losers. Unless im wrong the position i would like to have is HIDDEN

But its still proper technique. Sometimes you have a high trump in hand and you could play low D to dummy 3 times, ruff the 4th diamond with a master trumps and ruff the 5 diamond with a low trump. Also sometimes its far from obvious for west to have 3 baby and refrain from ruffing (especially when you have a reason for wanting to go to dummy) My point is that quite often when you can afford to lose 1 trump because of of possible 4-1 trumps split and you can play the side suit first because if it get ruffed it will be by the long trumps.

I like to play that over the double bid at the 2 level arent forcing 4-10, while bid at the 1 and 3 level are forcing. So passing and bidding show 0-3 pts and long diamonds.

at imp proper technique is to win in hand and play diamond at trick 2. Very common safety play. having pull 3 trumps and play D you have to strip the right suit. For that you have to keep control of the 2 side suit as much as possible that why you have to play trumps before ruffing a club or a H. Having enough entries to hand you would just have to strip clubs and succeed unless East would have 2155 shape. In that case since you have a club endplay vs east but youll need some guessing anyway and its unlikely youll play him for the 13 th clubs. In similar postion East proper defense is to discard from his short suit. If on the 3 rd spades RHO discard a H and on the 4th spades he discard a H. You play AH and H ruff and its over. If he discards clubs you strip clubs. If he discard 1 of each you strip clubs.

not sure i understand your point. Over 4H i would have signoff at 4S but it doesnt mean that 4H is a good bid. Both hand are worth only 1 slam try. Over my 4D (obvious bid imo). 4S = best bid 4H = overbid (maybe not big mistake but surely a mistake) 4Nt = gross overbid. that is what i meant.