bid_em_up

I agree with Frances. I would expect some sort of 3-6-2-2 or 4-6-2-1 hand from partner. Some people don't like to open a weak two bid when holding 3-4 cards in the other major. Or the hand may be so weak that a weak 2 bid just isn't plausible. Doubling initially practically assures your side of finding your best fit. It isn't quite as important to hold 4 hearts with this hand, as you have extra values which will tend to compensate for only having three hearts. Bidding 2C first, then doubling 2S would also work in this case. 3D is totally misdescriptive of the hand, imo.

I don't think you are missing anything. Bridgeboy says that it isn't too hard to see the winning line. I say there isn't one. (But I've been wrong before). EDIT: And I am wrong again. Cash the diamond Ace then play spade. This leaves RHO a myriad of losing options. If he pitches a heart, the hearts are up. If he pitches a club, you can play a diamond back the K and exit with a club, endplaying him into leading into dummies heart tenace. And finally, his last option is to pitch the diamond Q, establishing the Jack in dummy. Now you lead the diamond J, and East is stuck for a discard. If he pitches a club, you overtake the J and exit a club, and he has to lead into the heart tenace, and of course, if he pitches a heart, you let the diamond J win and the hearts are good. Very pretty, and not all that easy to see.

I don't think this works. RHO simply keeps 10x of hearts and A9 of clubs. You have nothing but hearts left in dummy to exit with at this point, and must surrender 3 tricks. I'm not even certain it is makeable. If its not so hard to see the winning line, then I must be blind because as far as I can see, there isn't one.

If you are going to lead a heart, you are probably better off leading the heart A. You have 6H, declarer has at least 4. Unless declarer holds specifically KQxx(x), the odds of finding a stiff K or Q in dummy or partners hand are pretty good. Assuming you find a stiff honor in one of the hands, your second heart lead now lets you set the suit up while you still retain the spade Ace as an entry. Leading the A also wins if partner happens to hold a doubleton honor as he will unblock it under the heart A.

Fit-showing maybe? Insane otherwise. Awww. Why do you think it's insane? Your partner doubles, and you have a singleton in the suit. On the average, therefore, they have an 11 card fit. Seems pretty likely that you guys have a good diamond fit yourselves. I guess because I had this auction in my head: 1♣-(1♦)-1♥-2♠ instead of 1♣-(X)-1♥-2♠ (which is why I kept saying 2S must be some sort of fit showing jump.....its fit showing for diamonds, lol) After an X by partner, 2♠ isn't as bad as I originally thought. But 3♦ would still be better, imo. When partner doubles 1♣, and you hold a stiff club yourself, since he "usually" rates to have some club length, he should also have extra values (unless very aggressive, I know there are those who would X on 4333 12 counts anyway). If he has extras, he is bidding something over 3♦ anyway. Your objective here should be to find your best fit, which is probably in your 6 card suit. If your side does not have the values for game, there is little difference between 3D making and 3S making and 3D is less likely to be damaged by a bad trump split. If your side does have the values for game, the safer game is probably going to be 5D, not 4S for the same reasons, and again, there is relatively little difference in the two where scoring is concerned.

I was thinking that this hand: ♠AKxx ♥xx ♦AKx ♣Qxxx X'd and then bid 3♠...it didn't bid 3♠ the first time because it only has 4. I'm sure I was confused (pretty normal for me). So what do you do with this hand, then? I would be completely happy to bid 3N with this hand over 1C-(3D)

Put me down in the pass camp.

Bid what? He certainly has no clear direction.

Lefty is not pulling 2♠X unless they have had a misunderstanding. It seems like he was showing majors. I'm actually quite sure LHO has four spades, but RHO may not. And partner isn't sitting there with xxx, Jxx, or JTx. I also think Kxx would be a mistake. So partner has 4 trumps. I agree it could very well be righty bidding a 3-card suit. Tough luck for them. Why isn't he? What do you expect him to be doing on a holding such as: Jxx AQJx xxx Jxx

No votes for 3N?

Nobody's concerned that 3N is making our way for +600 vs. what is likely only going to be 300/500 on defense? We would have to beat 2S by 4 tricks to outscore 3N and I don't think its possible.

The problem with 2♠ is that it is an insufficient bid.

He did no such thing. Pass is the only bid that specifically declines the invitation. By taking a free bid over 3♣, 3♦ should show good values and a willingness to play 4S. It is just a further description of his hand. It is now up to responder to decide if 3N or 4S is the correct contract. I'll pick 3N for now, as I do have a club stop and a heart stop (but only if played from my side). 4S may well be defeated by the opening going thru the Kxx of hearts instead of running up to it.

Methinks Winston is considering applying for the position of Imus's replacement. Lets call the show, "Bridging the ______". Fill in the blank with your own favorite name, I can't think of a good one.

Isn't he the guy who invented blue jeans? <runs for door>

No, I'm not! ;) He got it 1/2 right, you definitely are full of something. ;)

While anything can be right or wrong, some can be more wrong than others, imo. Given the lack of stayman by responder, he is more likely to have one or both minor suits than either major, and leading the club Q is too apt to give up a natural trick in the suit along with giving up your only likely later entry. To me, this makes the club Q a poor choice of lead. If I only expected to be on lead once, the spade J is probably the best choice. Since I somewhat expect to be on lead again (via the club suit), I would lead a small spade initially at either form of scoring.

I've never understood why people have any desire for a real time video feed from a table. Is it really that exciting to watch Paul Soloway (or whomever) staring at a little piece of paste board? At best, I consider video feeds an irrelevant waste of bandwidth. More often than not, they'd be a distraction from the "real" issues like the best line of play or some comment about the bidding. I'm not real sure what your issue is. A live broadcast would be no more boring than current vugraphs already are. And could well be more entertaining. The same commentary currently being done would be done by voice instead, so I am not sure what your objection is there. Is it that exciting to watch Soloway stare at a piece of pasteboard? No. But then again, it isn't exactly exciting to stare at a computer monitor for commentary, either. And either certainly beats watching things like golf, bowling, pool, painting, or any of the other endless boring shows currently on TV. Eventually, the day will come (imo, it is almost here anyway) where bandwidth is meaningless. TV shows will be broadcast live via the internet (you can already get some reruns), and just released movies will be available (this can already be done in some cases). I don't think an additional broadcast to an audience of 10,000 people is going to break the internet. :D If you were going to have a television broadcast, you may as well consider broadcasting your own show. You might even get sponsor(s) to help cover costs (or actually make it into a money making broadcast). It wouldn't surprise me if Bill Gates or Warren Buffet were willing to have one of their companies sponsor such an event as a means of promoting bridge. You might even charge a small fee (either annually or per event) for the privilige to watch these vugraphs, thereby turning the broadcast into a money making venture. Then again, you might not if the corporate sponsorships were sufficient. Just some thoughts...

Personally, I forsee a future where BBO has streaming video or webcam broadcast for each seat on vugraph. :P

Says who? Exclusion does not have to be for support with openers suit.

Then it should be exclusion.

I think you are reading too much into this. I visited the site, it offers a daily problem. I seen no reason to infer that the OP is either promoting the site or criticizing the site. It appears to me that someone is just reposting the hand here and asking our opinions on the hands/bids. However, there are probably some "content rights" issues involved (I doubt the OP has the other sites permission to publish this elsewhere), so its still probably a good idea that you don't allow it to continue.

1. With the hand I gave, there's no question that 3NT is the right contract, so why not bid it straight away via the usual mechanism of 2N+3N? Why should I have to bid 3♦, in robot-like fashion, if that only serves the purpose of pointing opps to a club lead (not to mention giving pard a headache if he has no rebid)? 2. In my book "broke with a minor" PASSES. If you're thinking of 5-7 hcp and a long suit, bidding 3♠ is also ok since pard is likely to pull onto his suit. Bit risky, but certainly not reckless. 3. Got what it deserved?? Are you suggesting one should never play 4♠ with 22 hcp and ruffing values? At imps!!?? Actually, are you suggesting that, when one opens 1NT and pard competes, one should be very careful because it might be THEIR hand? 4. Sorry, but this is just results-merchandising. Face it, sometimes normal actions lead to disaster. Sometimes you're just fixed. Check this out: a friend once had something like (all red) x AK KQJTxx AQJx RHO opened 4♠. Now, a pretty normal 5♦bid, right? Wrong. LHO has all the 7 remaining diamonds and you go -1700 down with no fault at all. 1) Do you honestly believe that opposite Kxx Kx A109xxx xx that there is no question 3N is the right contract? You do not even know that you have a certain heart stopper and even if it is a stop, it is quite probable that it is the only stop in the suit that you have. How can you NOT have a question that 3N might not be the right contract? 2) You might try reading another book then. A good place to start is the "Lebenshol Convention Complete" by Ron Anderson, if you haven't already done so. If you have, try reading and rereading it again, until you get the point about "With a suit and a game forcing hand, you bid the suit at the 3 level", otherwise you bid 2N. The original hand in question, certainly is willing to play 3D if allowed to do so, but should be pass if 3H comes back around to him. The NT opener doesn't know which hand type it is over 2N so should pass 3H. If partner was going to bid 2N followed by 3N, he can still do so over 3H. Bidding 3S here is presumptious and undisciplined. 3) Yes, it got what it deserved. The 1N opener (who has limited his hand) has NO business competing over 3H opposite a 2N leb call. His partners hand is an unknown. I am not suggesting that one should be careful because it might be their hand, however, I am suggesting that you attempt to trust your partners bidding and judgement and attempt to play bridge. If you had bid 3D initially, then 3S (over 3H) is appropriate since you are in an absolutely forcing auction, otherwise, 3S is simply a bad call. 4) No, it is not. You had a game forcing bid available on your suggested hand of Kxx Kx A10xxxx xx. That bid is 3D. If you do not understand why you should be making a game forcing bid immediately when you have one, as opposed to making a bid that shows nothing about your hand, then feel free to do as you wish, but that still does not make it correct. 5) What the heck does this have to do with the hand in question? Your example is a opening 4 level preempt where you have no available mechanism to assist you in your judgements. So you go for 1700 by making a normal call, big deal. Stuff happens. In the current example though, you go for the number by NOT adhering to the methods that you are employing. When partner did not make a g/f call over 2H, you have no business bidding 3S. It's that simple.

Note: I got the original hand slightly wrong. I was 6313. I opened 3♠, probably too pushy. 3♠ was down 1 on the lie fo the cards. RHO held x xx K10xxx K1098x, so he may or may not have balanced over 2♠ (he's at unfavorable) although I strongly suspect this particular RHO would have. 3♦ (9 card fit) makes their way. The other table opened 1♠ and partner responded 2♥ on Ax J9xxx J9x AJx (after failing to open). My hand rebid 2♠ which ended the auction and made. Personally, I like the 3♠ opening better than 2S. Especially if you are playing some style where partner is prone to opening 11-12 counts in 1st seat (I don't know if you are or not). You already have 2 passes to you, LHO is quite apt to have a good hand, and opening 2S doesn't prevent a decent partnership from having a normal lebenshol auction. If you are going to preempt, personally, I think you should put the maximum pressure on immediately. While you may feel "bad" about the fact you might have bought the contract for 2S for a push board, but instead you lost a few imps, for every time this occurs, you will also have a time that the opponents could have been cold for 4H or 5M and unable to act over 3S, or you may have forced them into an unmakeable 3N or 4m/5m. One result does not make 3S a bad choice of calls. However, I would open this particular hand 1♠. I have a good suit, 2 probable defensive tricks (maybe more if opponents end up in hearts or clubs, and I can support/tolerate two of the other three suits should partner bid either of them, and I have an easy rebid of 2♠ should he bid 2♦ instead. I also have the boss suit, so as long as partner has some spade tolerance, we should be able to buy the contract for 2-3 spades anyway. jmoo