bid_em_up

I would have bid 4S over 2S.

While you would hold declarer to 1 trick on your given defense, once partner led the club Q, it is no longer possible. The club Q is not an unreasonable start for the defense and once it has been led, the best you can down is hold declarer to two tricks for +1100. Partner should continue with the club 9 at trick 2.

The Shoobster lives in Gloucester ON (as obtained from public information such as ACBL Masterpoint listings.)

I am fairly certain that clicking on "View New Posts" (top Right of page) will show you all posts since your last visit. Doing so produces the following: Bridge Base Forums -> Posts since your last visit with all post since the last time I came to BBO forum page. So, if you (or Ken) were taking a leave of absence from the forums, upon your return, by clicking this, you should get all new posts, regardless of whether or not you had read part of a thread or not. BBO Forums do not "automatically" mark all posts as read dependent on idle time or logging out of forums, you are doing that yourself when you select "Mark All Posts As Read".

Given this condition, 2D seems obvious, although pass isn't unreasonable.

Huh? View new posts should show you any new posts (to any thread, existing or otherwise) since the last time you visited BBO forums. So even though the "new" posts become "old" posts in a time sense, they are still "new" posts to you. You have not seen them or read them yet.

for some of us that is very difficult to achieve. Not sure if matt is implying that he has no friends or that noone has a mind like his. :)

Because, I feel certain that if any useful information could be gained via 2N (ogust, feature, whatever), JB would have notated what they were playing in her original post. If bidding 2N can gain anything useful, then sure 2N is fine, but I dont read the post that way. In the post as given, I am forced to assume there is no meaning agreed to a bid of 2N, which makes bidding it totally useless. You bid 2N, and partner bids 3x. What is it? Feature? Good hand, bad suit? Heck, is it even forcing to this partner? What? God forbid it goes 2N all pass. ;) You still dont have any more "useful" information. So I think your choices become 3N or 4S. Of the two, I'm simply bidding 4S.

Technically, no. If you are scrolling down the list of tables with your cursor on the Table Host name, the table description will appear for each table as you move through the list. But if you scroll thru the list too fast, the description for each table will not appear long enough for anyone to actually be able to read it. ;)

4♠. Because it makes. :) Given that partner is a conservative bidder, their suit will not be J9xxxx, it will be more along the lines of KQ109xx or AQJxxx. Conservative bidders are also slightly less likely (imo) to have 3 cards in the other major (in this case, hearts), as they tend not to open preemptively when holding 3 cards in the other major. So its likely you have 1 spade loser, 1 heart loser, and by taking a double finesse in clubs, no more than 1 club loser (and pitches for any other losers that partner may have). I think the general rule I have seen is, after a weak two bid by partner, you should bid game when the total of your HCP + the number of your trumps >= 17. This is a fair approximation and even more so in this case where the hand is so rich in controls and contains a good 5 card suit that can possibly be established for pitches. 3N is also worth considering but would prefer some semblance of a second heart stop.

How does one even see the table description? When I am scanning through the table listings, I don't see any table descriptions, just host name and player names. If you hover your mouse over either the host name (on the left, not at the table) or over the "# Kibitzers" column, you should get a window showing the table description. This window will show you, the Hosts Profile, the table type, any comments/table description added by the host (if there were any), and what chat options are allowed at the table.

Without knowing anything about anything, :P I find it odd that I saw more than one commentator directing vugraph viewers to the other site providing running scores by providing direct link to that location, and yet my interpretation of this statement makes me think that they should not be doing so. Seems to me that is a lot more "advertising" for the other site (when multiplied by number of users watching) than any post here would ever be. jmoo.

Well, I would agree with you except I logged out and back in after this scenario occured, and it still said intermediate for me, and matt logged out and back in, and it still said advanced for him, and we asked the guy what the setting really was and it was advanced. It apparently has something to do with Temporary Internet Files and caching, but we just thought it was odd as several of the kibitzers also had intermediate, and several others had advanced as well.

This happens to be someone I play with on occasion. Matt was playing with him, he made comment that the guys skill level said advanced, i say it shows intermediate so we asked kibbers, and got varying responses, some said Advanced, some said intermediate. Both matt and I have screen shots showing different skill level.

If you spent less time screwing around calling the director, you would have more time to smoke your cig after the opps finished fkng themselves with their poor bidding. :rolleyes: (I'm assuming this was a club game)

Yes, that is what I meant, just something that I can view myhands with on the web, without having BBO installed on my machine. Thanks.

I want to be able use/access the .Lin Viewer without actually having to keep BBO installed on my PC (at work) but can't seem to figure out which program it actually is. Any suggestions?

You should be able to do this in BBO TV now. Although the wording is not intuitive, select "I want to play in a pickup game", there you have the options available to enter your partner and your opponents names.

Control Panel, Internet Options, Delete Files Check delete all offline content and then OK. Should fix it.

Yes. It's obviously a matter of taste. Everyone can get it his own way. The table descriptions are there to be used. That does not help, I do in fact put it in the table description. What do you think the first thing a new player says is? "Reset Score Please" Nobody reads table descriptions.

This comment reveals an amazing ignorance about basic bidding theory. Jumpshifts are gf. Reverses, as played by most, are not. Indeed, I know of no-one who plays that 2♠ after 1N is gf. I know of no competent player who, in a std approach, plays 3♣ as less than gf. Mike, Do you agree that partner must have a minor suit fit after the 1N call? Shouldn't your objective after 1N be to find your best fit? And reveal the fit you have with either minor immediately, rather than hiding it with 2S? Do you agree that the given hand is worth a game force after 1N knowing that you have a fit in at least one, if not both minors? Assuming you do, why are you insisting on making a bid (2S) that, according to your own words, is not game forcing? And it does absolutely nothing to help partner evaluate his hand for a minor suit game/slam. I'm sorry, but anybody that bids 2S here reveals an amazing ignorance of basic bidding theory. The scissors cut both ways. After the 1N rebid, I would expect the 2S rebid to be used explicitly for either 4-5, or 4-6 hands of reverse strength, or 5-6 hands, and not some hand where you are already known to have a fit with game forcing values and yet for whatever reason are refusing to show it. I also think that 2S is more of the masterminding bid, than the natural GF bid of 3C, but what the heck, to each their own. EDIT: If I remember correctly, earlier in the thread you stated you preferred 2S because the jump shift to 3C might be made on a 3 card suit. While I somewhat understand this sentiment, I think you are making a mistake trying to use the reverse to prevent this possibility, instead of just bidding what you actually have. If you have jump shifted into a 3 card suit, the later auction should reveal that possibility, but I don't believe partner should be catering to that fact in his response after the 3C jumpshift. He should be treating it as a suit and natural, unless you have specific agreements otherwise. jmoo.

I'm assuming robber bridge is where we steal the opponents blind? :ph34r:

JB, I was about to tell you this very same thing, but then Robert beat me to it. You appear to be trying/wanting to learn. I assume that is why you post hands in the forums to hear from other players asking what they would do. You are aware of the fact that there are some really good players posting here. As an improving/advancing player who probably wants to move up in the "class", you really should bid your hand correctly regardless of what you think partner "might" do. Yes, you may get bad results from being passed in a reverse. You are likely getting results as bad or worse by jumping to game so doing this isnt helping your game at all, anway. Then again, maybe partner will surprise you and actually know what a reverse is and bid accordingly. If you aspire to find better partners, you must take into consideration that if any of them have seen you bid this way, they may be less likely to be willing to play with you. If good players see you bidding in this manner, they will assume you are a poor player. Good players (as a general rule) do not enjoy playing with poor players. It really is a detriment to your long-term game or "advancement" to bid in this manner especially if you have ambitions of ever becoming a "good" player yourself.

Q9 on your right doesn't work also?

Mike, the good news is that Art really isn't as close-minded as he initially appears to be. The bad news is that he is also a lawyer. I believe this is the same ArtK78 that I knew from another site and its hard to believe there would be two of them showing the exact same attitudes using the same ID. It is practically impossible to convince him that his position might be mistaken. :P I am uncertain what type of lawyer he is, but this seems to be a trait amongst the bridge playing lawyers that I know (I do not mean this in a bad way.) In many cases, they appear to be naturally ingrained to take a position and defend it to the bitter end. This is a good thing for the trial lawyers client (or the prosecution depending on your position). It is a great trait for lawyer to have. Unfortunately, it's not always such a good thing when discussing a bridge hand. I don't think he really meant he would take someone to committee each and everytime they bid 4H over a 3H bid, even though his initial wording made it appear that way. A closer reading of his later statements lead me to believe that what he really means is that, "If there was a hesitation before the 3H bid, he thinks it is grounds for an appeal or to call the director." I can somewhat agree with this, and you probably can too. It doesn't matter what you were thinking about (passing 2N, bidding 3H), the non-offending side does not know what you were thinking about and is fully entitled to call the director. The fact still remains that there was a hesitation. So, Since the time to call the director is at the point of the hesitation, the hand bidding 4H needs to have a logical and justifiable bridge reason for continuing on to 4H. I can understand this sentiment and it isn't a totally unreasonable position to have. But since the director should be standing right there at the table, and if the responding hand still bids 4H, responder should be able to show some logical and justifiable reason for doing so. "Oh, I felt like taking a shot at it." won't cut it. If this is the reason given, and the director were to let the result stand, I can see how it could end up being appealed, and how the committee might possibly rule against the hesitating side. I believe this is what Art is actually arguing for, and could be convinced in this scenario he might even be right. After the hesitation, you will need a real good argument for going ahead and bidding 4H. Yes, we agree that there are hands that could do so without the hesitation, but in most cases, after the hesitation, pass would probably be a logical alternative as well, which then makes the 4H call a lot less "attractive" or "reasonable". But, an in-tempo, 1N-2D-2H-2N-3H-4H sequence? No way. Any competent director or committee would laugh you out of the room if you tried to appeal this on the basis that 3H is a sign-off therefore you are not allowed to make another call.