bid_em_up

Yes 2♠ is clear cut I think.

Better than Shubi's? Or just because its a different year now? B)

Put me down for 5N also.

3♠

What he said. The fact that I was separately having a discussion with someone about a hand from last night where I bid 2S showing specifically hearts and diamonds is of course irrelevant. But as MFA says, running the S10 is a safer way of dealing with the singleton CK than my approach. I'm not so sure that "what he said" is accurate. Of course a defender may pitch a diamond from 1-5-2-5, if he wants to convince you that he has diamonds. :) Given that you have placed LHO with diamonds (which is correct), when you play the club Q from dummy, it is covered by the K. Now what?

Frances, serious question: Why are you inferring LHO has diamonds and not clubs?

[hv=n=saj9xxhxxda10xcaxx&s=sk10xxhxxxdk9xcqjx]133|200|Nobody vul. Imp scoring (team game) Dealer North 1♠-(2♠*)-4♠ all pass *michaels[/hv] The opponents start with three rounds of hearts. You brilliantly ruff the 3rd round in hand, play a spade to the K, and successfully finesse the spade J. On the this trick, LHO pitches a small diamond, and on the next spade he pitches a heart. Take it from there.

For those of you ducking the spade, surely LHO (who is advertised to be a multi-time national & world champ) can find the continuation of the spade Q at trick 2. They've seen this play before and that dummy is extremely short of entries. If you needed a 2nd spade trick, you could simply have won the 1st spade and later established a second trick. If, for some reason, LHO does in fact, give you an entry to dummy to take the heart finesse.....you had best not take it. The king is likely stiff in LHO's hand.

How so? Partner's expecting a three-suiter, yes? So if he has five diamonds and four clubs you'd expect him to say 5♦, not 4NT. You might, but I wouldn't. If partner was 3-1-5-4 (or 2-2-5-4), he should bid 4N offering both minor suits, not a unilateral 5D. jmoo.

Same here. I'm surprised at the votes for natural if we have a xx available as a runout. Some of like to use xx as 'you have made a mistake' Some of the others like to use xx as part of a conventional run-out scheme, allowing them to show both single-suiters and two-suiters after the double. Why not combine it all? Runout structure: Pass forces XX, no 5 card suit, either intending to play 1N xx'd (unlikely after NT overcall, but entirely possible over 1N opening) or intending to run to cheapest 4 card suit after XX, will usually have at least two 4 card suits. 2C = Stayman 2D = transfer hearts 2H = transfer spades XX forces 2C which is either then going to be passed or corrected to 2D (5+ card minor suit). If playing 4 way transfers over 1N, they would be off. No sense playing the three level when the 2 level will suffice. This frees up the 2S and 2N bids for other uses (ie, 2S = 5C/4D, 2N = 5D/4C, or some other assigned meaning). This lets you "right side" the major suit contracts in most cases, along with 2C (if that is the 5 card minor) and still allows you to escape into 2m. jmoo.

Transfer to hearts.

3N. I do have stops in 3 of the 4 suits. If they double, I can always run to 4S.

What do you do if everyone doesn't have a laptop?

The recorder (to the best of my knowledge) will not necessarily take action on the basis of one report. It is the job of the recorder to identify a player who has had multiple transgressions reported, usually by multiple players. I can't directly say someone is "unethical", or that they are "cheating". But if I, and you, and 15 other people all file reports that something funny is going on, now the Recorder has multiple reports from different people, which can prompt an investigation. If and when the recorder decides that a formal investigation needs to take place, the "other" side will be able to present their case. Feel free to read about the process here: http://www.acbl.org/play/recorder.html

What does the level of the event have to do with anything? There appears to be some presumption by several people that just because it is a "National" event that the players are all of a certain "calibre". While this may be true in your particular area of the world, the great part about an ACBL National tournament is pretty much anybody can enter any event (except for those that have certain requirements to be eligible for the event). So they may or may not "know better". Given that the scenario is given as "assume it is a LOL", they probably do not know any better. If you know for a fact that your RHO is of expert calibre and should know better, then call the director, file the recorder form, whatever you see fit. But for grandma who is just in the game so she can tell all her friends back home, "I played in the Nationals and guess who my opponents were?", you just shrug your shoulders and move on. There is absolutely nothing to be gained by attempting to "educate" your RHO.

I am a mother pheasant plucker. I pluck mother pheasants. I am the most pleasant mother pheasant plucker, In the whole mother pheasant plucking world.

[hv=s=sjxxhxxdaqxxckxxx]133|100|[/hv] Assuming a soundish opening style and not playing Bergen raises, do you treat this hand as a 3 card limit raise or as a simple raise to 2S?

Assuming this was against the pair who inquired if you still psyched, this would definitely be the hand to do it on. You can even argue that is not a psyche but a tactical bid, infuriating them even further. :) You could try 3D first, followed by 4C, followed by 4H. You could try 2N followed by 3N followed by 4C followed by 4H. You could try 3N followed by 4C after the double. You could try 4N (RKC) directly. None of these should work, but the great part about it is everyone at the table will know what you are doing. Now the opp who hates psyches will become even more irritated and likely decide he is going to double you for penalties no matter what, instead of paying attention to whats really going on at the table. Or you could pass and see how high they end up before deciding what to do. You will bid 6H over 6C. I think you pass if the they stop in 5C though. Or, you can bid 6H directly giving them the last guess. I think bidding 5H just assures that the hand with the heart void will commit to slam, which we can be reasonably sure is making.

Partner converted our reopening X to a penalty double of 1D. This, in and of itself, creates a forcing auction for at least one more round, he is simply giving us the opportunity to double 1H for penalties if we can. We have 4 hearts, so we double. If he doesnt want to defend 1H doubled, he can still pull.

And if trumps are 3-0?

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One partner of mine would always play the lowest winning card in his hand (when running a long suit) to indicate that the contract was making (or good), so from AKQ982, he would play the AKQ, followed by the two (assuming the suit is now good). Another means of doing so could be simply a matter of asking a question regarding partners family, the weather, news topic, etc. would indicate you thought that was a reasonable board. "How are your roses doing?" could indicate things look rosy right about now. "How's Little John doing, I bet that IMP is growing every day" This works especially well if the opponents do not know your partner, since they may or may not have kids. B) "Sure has been sunny lately". Anything like this applied discretely could let partner know, without insulting the opponents. Personally, I haven't really done anything to this effect, but I really can't see any harm in it either. But I'm sure somebody will object.

At the club level, many games are shuffle & play, and others may have predealt hands along with hand records, this is usually dependent on the size of the club and the director. Sectional Level and higher tournaments will have predealt hands for (almost) all pairs games. Swiss teams and K/O's are usually shuffle & play at the Sectional, Regional, and even National levels. It is only when you get into the more "elite" team events that the boards are duplicated (or at least, that has been my experience), and even in those, the early round robins may still be shuffle & play.