rbforster

"standard" 2/1 I think is to have 2♥ 5+, 2♦ 3+ but usually 4, and 2♣ 3+. You can debate which minor to bid with 3433 (better one, probably). If you're going to get into fancier treatments like bidding 2♣ on a doubleton, you should also give specific meanings to 2 other more obvious ways to show balanced hands: 1♠-3N 1♠-1N(f)-2X-3N the latter could probably include 3433 since opener will have a chance to show his hearts if he has them.

It sort of depends on what other 3 level bids would be. Hardy suggests 5/5 minors and a max PH for 2N, noting that a balanced max PH should bid 1N(semiforcing) to avoid hanging partner if he opened a little light. If you've got a weak 2♦ available in 1st/2nd and want to handle the equivalent passed club hand, you might consider: P-1♠-? 1N semiforcing, including maximum balanced hands without support (which will bid again unless passed, usually 2N) 2♣ natural, 6+ or 5+ and a good suit, ~8-12 2♦ Drury 2♥ 5 cards and a max PH 2N 5/5 minors max PH 3X fit jump in support of spades 3♠ very good passed hand, worth at least opening strength in support of spades

Not to discourage creativity, but I'm not sure what problems this solves relative to "natural". If you don't want to lose the "both majors" hands below 1N (assuming you mean 4-4), you can always start with hearts and have opener's rebid (1♦-1♥-1♠) show any (often balanced) hand with 4 spades. If I were going to change what I played over a normal 1♦ opener, I would play Viking's style - 1♥ as natural or GF relay, others mostly natural. In those methods I can see the advantage of making the cheapest forcing bid do some extra work. In competition it's not too bad since opener knows to raise/show hearts with a minimum and can rely on responder taking some other call with a GF hand.

Perhaps the "obvious to bid round 1" people will explain their initial bid and plan in an uncontested auction (unless they're all playing 3♣ as a weak jump shift which I think is pretty rare). 1NT seems like the least awful non-psych choice, although if partner passes I'm not sure we'll be in a good place (I guess maybe NV it'll be an ok sac against their partial). 1♦-1N-2N will force you to at least 4♣ if you play transfers there and can't get out in 3♣. Opposite a random balanced hand, I don't think I'm willing to bid some number of diamonds playing inverted minors. Passing the first time, I'm would double 2♦ for lead since I expect to defend against the opponent's spade partial. I can see bidding 3♣ though to try to bury their spade fit (known to me, if not yet to them).

I think 12-14 or 18-19 would be typical (planning to bid again with the big hand).

Similarly in my custom version of TOSR: 1♣-1♥ 16+; 4+♠ unbalanced (long spades or S+minor) 1♠-2♠ relay; ♠>♦ with high (♥) shortness 2N-3♣ relay; 6♠ and a ♥ void 3♦-3N relay; 6052 shape with 7 QP (see above post for details) At this point opener has various options, such as bidding 4M for RKC in either of responder's long suits, but for simplicity I show the denial cuebidding route. Note that excluding the heart suit, there are only 18 QPs and opener knows they hold 14/18 (missing AQ or KK or KQQ) making small slam likely and the grand worth investigating. 4♣-4♠ denial ask; 1-2 AKQ honors in ♠♦, none of AKQ in ♣ At this point, opener knows that the 7 QP are solely in ♠♦, and missing only 8 there and holding the Q♦ himself, he knows the AK♦K♠ exactly. Checking on the J♠ is possible but not decisive, so we conclude with: 7♦ As an aside, knowing all of partner's AKQ honors at or below our cheapest game (4♠) seems a little overkill when we're going to bid the grand anyway. Maybe we should make a few extra bids to get our money's worth... after all relay players measure their enjoyment by bids made/$ card fee, right? ;)

i like my club suit

Following up on Adam's comment, I did an analysis for a 5cM 1♥ opening (I think Bergen is most effective in hearts anyway). Conditional on opener having a normal 1♥ hand (fewer spades than hearts, no longer minor), I found the following probabilities for responder's hand types: shape: prob: 3♥ 29.5% 4♥ 15.5% 6+♠, <3♥ 5.5% 6+m, <3♥ 5.2% for each minor 7+m, <3♥ 1.2% for each minor Unconditioned on opener's HCPs (which shouldn't matter too much in precision, especially with light openings), I used the following ranges for responder's strength: strength range prob weak 0-4 9.3% constr 5-8 28.6% invite 9-11 27.1% (weaker hands will be slightly more likely in practice due to opener's slightly above average strength needed to open, although perhaps this effect is offset by the first opponent passing since we're assuming an uncontested auction) I didn't take into account the joint distribution of points and shape, but approximated with independent distributions and found the following results: Bergen Methods: 2H const w/ 3 8.4% 3C const bergen 4.4% 3D inv bergen 4.2% 3H preempt 1.4% Natural Methods with Weak Jump Shifts: 2H const 3+ 12.9% 3m WJS 6+ 2.0% <3H, weak or constr, each minor 3m WJS 7+ 0.5% <3H, weak or constr, each minor 3H inv with 4 4.2% In conclusion, it seems that the preemptive Bergen hand is about 50% more common than 7 card minor weak jump shifts even with the expanded strength range (0-8) allowed by precision. However, the WJSs become somewhat more than twice as common as the preemptive Bergen hand if you only require a 6 card suit to make the weak jump. At this point I defer to those more experienced with weak jumps as to whether my assumptions were reasonable, what typical WJS styles are, etc. Feedback is welcome.

Right, although i didn't realize I gave the wrong answer until Hog pointed out the issue with opener's balancing double. In any case takeout doubles are my preference as well, although playing a weaker NT (13-15 vs 15-17) does make it a little more risky for opener to balance back into the auction than with a stronger one.

Ah, I forget some people like to reopen opposite partner's potentially broke pass while forcing to the 3 level Vul. [hv=d=n&v=n&s=sxxxxhxxxdjxxcqxx]133|100|Scoring: IMP 1NT*-(2♠)-P-(P) X**-P-? * 13-15 ** takeout[/hv] For them, they get to play a 4-3 fit (breaking badly) where partner's 4333 bust with xxxx in the overcaller's trump suit can't cause sufficient trouble on defense. Instead of passing out their partial, thank partner for your choice between serving up game with 0-1 doubled overtricks or going down two doubled in your bad minor fit. The point is there are always holes in your methods. Aside from playing the almost magically good Inverted Weasel System to solve all your bidding problems (fast pass = takeout, slow pass = broke, slow X = serious penalty, fast X = suggested penalty), if the perfect treatment for takeout vs penalty hasn't been invented yet, it's because it doesn't exist. So saying you should play the other way just means you pay off to not being able to handle some hands instead of others. In this case, Ken wants negative doubles (I agree), so OP's hand isn't a problem. Then my hand is a problem (invitational strength, with a strong desire to penalize rather than play NT), unless the 1N hand always reopens. Then your problem hand is when you're broke and they've got the balance of power and you're too weak to sit for the double and instead get clobbered running to some bad fit. You just chase the problems around.

[hv=d=n&v=n&s=skt98xxhdajxcqxxx]133|100|Scoring: IMP 1N*-(2♠)-? *13-15[/hv]

A couple of comments - 1. sometimes you can open a heavy weak 2♥ with 6 good hearts and a bare minimum opener. If you can handle this ok (overlapping you min openers with your max preempts), this means that 1♥-1♠/NT-2♥ shows a little extra (which is nice since that auction can normally can have a pretty wide range by opener). This also means you can feel free to rebid your diamonds with a min 6-4, which is more descriptive. 2. The NT rebid on this auction is quite rare (12-14 bal typically 2533 or some 35(32)'s), so one option is to use the 1N rebid to show diamonds (3+, but almost always 4+). This frees up some space, as well as given your side a cheap 2♣ artificial force (in contrast to a 3♣ 4th suit bid over a natural 2♦ rebid by opener).

If by 13+ points you also mean game forcing, then that's allowed GCC (since any artificial game forcing response is allowed). Most of the other meaning people are discussing (balanced invite or various strong) are allowed under the ACBL MidChart.

Pass at these colors. I don't think they're running 6 spades and the A♥ before going down at least 3. If they were NV, I'd double and bid 3♥ I think in the given methods.

I play precision and feel that with sometimes light and limited openers there's less value to showing a WJS than in showing the much more common preemptive raises of partner's major. As such, I play 1H-3m as 4+ card forward-going raises (with 2 strength ranges in the cheaper of the two) 1H-3H 4 cards preemptive 1H-1N-2X-3m as invitational with a long minor I use some relays to compress the SJS hands into the cheapest jump bid over partner's major: 1H-2S any SJS hand, could be a very strong 1-suiter or a game force with a good suit and 4+ support 1H-2N Jacoby In spades, things are treated symmetrically by shifting everything up one bid.

With equal length in the reds, I would pass and XX again to offer partner his choice of reds :rolleyes:. Here we have a clear 2♦ rescue over 2♣, showing both reds with longer diamonds.

Why am I annoyed? They bid my 2 longest suits... perhaps they will get to play there. If partner wants to double with his spade shortness, then I'll probably bid 3N.

I think I'd play East for the Q♠. Apparently West underlead his K♦ instead of a trump. With Qxx♠, K♦, A♣, he might well have doubled. This makes me more inclined to put the Q with East, or at least West with Qx (since trump would otherwise be a safer exit than diamonds). I'm going to lead up to the K♠. If the T appears, I'll play the K and hook for the Q on the way back. If it doesn't, I'll play for the drop (which is the normal play with this trump holding).

The only winning holding for the hook is J / Txxx when the J falls. Holdings where falsecards don't cost are Jx, Jxx, JTx, JTxx behind (although some of these assume partner would have covered the Q, hence declarer must have the AK). You'll also lose to half the JT tight cases behind when you play for the hook. I think it's clearly restricted choice, but in this case there are lots of potential falsecards from 3-2 splits that make it unattractive hook if you think the falsecards are sufficiently likely.

Remember to consider your club holding. With 3 and 7 for preempter, partner will find a balancing double (or bid) with 1-2 clubs whenever he's got a reasonable hand. So it seems like much of the time passing won't end the auction. For the bidders, make sure you're only considering game-making hands that wouldn't have balanced.

Add another from a sectional the other day: P-(1♣)-? void void K98xxx KQT98xx

The responsive double shows the minors, since you (almost always) promise 4 spades for your double of 1♥. If he had 4 spades, I'd expect him to bid some number of spades. I think it's a choice between pass and 5♣ myself. While I think it's likely we're making 5♣, we're probably also setting this 2 so pass might be better at these colors.

Obviously the suggested line is best, but he says you'll go down on a 4-2 break and specifically gives these hands (which is incorrect). There are lots of permutations based on how West defends, but one theme is that you draw 0-1 trumps before playing 3 rounds of diamonds (threatening to reverse dummy taking 2 ruffs in hand if hearts are continued). When West pitches, you draw the 2nd round of trump (keeping a higher one in dummy), to avoid ruffs by the East. If West keeps a club and ruffs either the 4th or 5th round, you can overruff, return to the A♣, and draw trump. Now if West pitches 2 rounds of clubs on the run of the diamonds before ruffing the 5th one, you'll have your choice of either overruffing and taking the club hook, or discarding from dummy and endplaying West (into drawing your trumps and allowing the club hook or conceding a ruff and discard).

Here's a sample hand from Larry Cohen's column in the month's Bridge Bulletin. This was intended to demonstrate good trump control technique - e.g. the below hand can be ensured against the 4-2 spade break by pitching two clubs on hearts (and potentially taking the 4th round heart tap in the short hand). [hv=n=skq9hxxxdkxxc8xxx&w=s8xxxhqj9xxd9xcqx&e=sxxhakt8dxxxckt9x&s=sajt7hxdaqjtxcajx]399|300|4♠ by South Q♥ lead, ♥ continued[/hv] Can the hand still be made after ruffing the 2nd trick? Drawing 3 rounds of trump will fail since you'll lose control of the hand when trumps don't break and they ruff in and run hearts. However, it seems like various complicated continuations might let the hand be made, at least double dummy, even after ruffing the 2nd heart trick. What do the experts think?

An inverted 2♦ raise isn't out of the question. Partner will focus on his major stoppers, often bidding 2N (which is probably better than you bidding it). He's unlikely to insist on diamonds without 5, so this seems relatively safe. You won't get to clubs easily, but you probably won't bidding 2N either. Alternative - open light enough that partner's troubling invitational hand is forced to have more strength/honors and hence be better suited to NT ;).