bid_em_up

Pass = Your 5♣ bid didnt do anything for me, and I have nothing useful to say. What else could it mean? Last time I checked, pass = pass in this position (I dont consider this to be a forcing pass situation). Double = If you have a real 5♣ bid (missing the A♣), then I would expect to beat 5♠ on my holdings (strictly penalty). If you were goofing around and taking flyer at a red/red sac, then we're probably intercoursely challenged again. 5N = My best guess would be pick a slam, and I have a bunch of red cards with a spade stop, some club tolerance along with more values than you are probably expecting me to have considering my original pass over 2S. I really have no clue what 5N would/should actually be. 6♣ = Cant tell who is making what. Willing to take our chances in 6♣. Hopefully it makes or opps bid 6♠.

Just type in anything like apoidhfaw for the reply, then preview post, then go down and you can edit it as desired, including truncating the quoted portion. I think the question might really be asking, how do you edit in the middle of the quote, then get normal text, then another quote, followed by normal text, and so on, which I still havent figured out how to do unless you add the {QUOTE] and{/QUOTE} symbols before and after each quoted section.

In a random partnership or against weaker opponents, it "tends" to be good practice to bid one more. If nothing more, it takes up bidding room that opps could use otherwise. In my established partnerships, bidding the same values twice is a crime punishable by no less than holding yarboroughs for the next ten hands. :huh:

4H is a slight overbid, but the quality of the heart suit compensates somewhat. Whether pard opened 3H or 4H, most people (but not all) treat it as a preemptive bid that promises ZERO defensive tricks outside of hearts (The hand may have outside defensive tricks, but you cant count on any). Assume partner has his 8th heart to go along with your two. You have 10 combined hearts between your two hands. The most you can ever take is one heart trick. Now, which one of your two kings did you think was taking three more tricks to set 4S? EDIT: Apologies, when I originally wrote this I thought the Original Poster was the hand that doubled. My mistake, I see now that the Original Poster held the hand that opened 4♥. Sorry. Now, which one of your partners two kings did HE/SHE think was taking three more tricks to set 4S?

Sure, if I was Superman and had xray vision.... Yea, and I could win the lottery tomorrow Tell you what, if we're playing together and you make this contract.....it will be the last time we play together. Just as soon as I grow another two feet taller so I can peek into RHO's hand, I will. I could have, but my other PC is on the fritz so I cant kib hands while playing anymore. take your pick. ;) (edit) One additional one: You would have made it since you always misplay the hands anyway.....

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The best part about simply overcalling 2D with this hand, is when opps keep bidding hearts :P

Have to X here to protect partner, I think. Partner is (almost) marked with a big hand containing spades since he did not take any action over 2S. If he bids 3C, I will convert to 3D, he should get the message that I was just attempting to protect his hand in passout and not get carried away.

Personally, I think you have had a reasonable auction to a decent contract, and if you are posting this because 6♥ went down due to spade K offside, bad heart break, bad spade break, etc., you are simply second guessing yourself. That said, I think 3H is an underbid. (1C)-2C-(p)-4H is more appropriate, imo. And I dont know that I would take another call after this, but if I did, it would go 4S-5D-5H-?. Holding 4 good trumps, and Qx of spades, I could not fault partner for bidding 6H at this point, even if it went down. On your actual auction, why 4C over 3H instead of 3S? (The 4C bid should deny 1st round spade control) and when you continue with 4S over 4D, partner is probably expecting a holding like: KJ10xxx KQJxx x A You have cuebid twice here on what are known to be "weakish" trumps (partner is holding the A and the 10), he is entitled to expect better values in your hand.

I'll take your word for it, although I never knew it to be GCC legal. I thought it was blacklisted almost immediately.

Probably got it from the same website I did!! :lol:

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A burglar broke into a house one night. He shone his flashlight around, looking for valuables, and when he picked up a CD player to place in his sack, a strange, disembodied voice echoed from the dark saying, "Jesus is watching you". He nearly jumped out of his skin, clicked his flashlight off and froze. When he heard nothing more after a bit, he shook his head, promised himself a vacation after the next big score, then clicked the light back on and began searching for more valuables. Just as he pulled the stereo out so he could disconnect the wires, clear as a bell he heard, "Jesus is watching you". Totally rattled, he shone his light around frantically, looking for the source of the voice. Finally, in the corner of the room, his flashlight beam came to rest on a parrot. "Did you say that?", he hissed at the parrot. "Yes," the parrot confessed, then squawked, "I'm just trying to warn you." The burglar relaxed. "Warn me, huh? Who do you think you are any way?" "Moses," replied the bird. "Moses" the burglar laughed. "What kind of stupid people would name a parrot 'Moses'?" The bird promptly answered: "The same kind of people that would name a Rottweiler 'Jesus'!"

A couple had two little boys, ages 8 and 10, who were excessively mischievous. They were always getting into trouble and their parents knew that, if any mischief occurred in their town, their sons were probably involved. They boys' mother heard that a clergyman in town had been successful in disciplining children, so she asked if he would speak with her boys. The clergyman agreed, but asked to see them individually. So the mother sent her 8-year-old first, in the morning, with the older boy to see the clergyman in the afternoon. The clergyman, a huge man with a booming voice, sat the younger boy down and asked him sternly, "Where is God?". They boy's mouth dropped open, but he made no response, sitting there with his mouth hanging open, wide-eyed. So the clergyman repeated the question in an even sterner tone, "Where is God!!?" Again the boy made no attempt to answer. So the clergyman raised his voice even more and shook his finger in the boy's face and bellowed, "WHERE IS GOD!?" The boy screamed and bolted from the room, ran directly home and dove into his closet, slamming the door behind him. When his older brother found him in the closet, he asked, "What happened?" The younger brother, gasping for breath, replied, "We are in BIG trouble this time, dude. God is missing - and they think WE did it!"

Dont worry Shirley, surely I wont call you.

Isn't that completely normal? Or am I just being a silly American? I guess it just depends on your multi defense.....but 2N in the direct seat (which should require good stops in both majors, since openers suit is unknown) just seems to be much less likely to occur than a hand containing both minor suits. And if you have 15-18 with both majors well stopped, maybe you should be waiting to see what develops instead of leaping in....... But hey, to each their own. [edit] PS. Most of the multi-defenses I have seen usually have 2N as being 17-19, 18-20, not 15-18 when it is given as an option for a balanced natural overcall. Not saying that none of them do, only that I dont think balanced 15-18 is a good choice.

In most cases, when dummy has a stiff, you will give a suit preference signal. Yes, this only applies in suit contracts. In No Trump contracts, partner may still need to know your count, to decide when to continue the suit, or find something else. Personally, I have always preferred CAS (Count, Attitude, Suit preference) in terms of defensive carding priority. Count is always your first obligation unless partners lead specifically asked for attitude. I just find it much easier to defend when I can get an acurrate count on the hand early. Count is also not necessary when your likely count in the suit is already known. Partner opens 1H and you bid 3H (preemptive, weak hand with 4 hearts) and opps bid to 4S. Partner leads the AH. Dummy shows up with three small hearts. The card you play here should be suit preference, as you are already known to hold 4 hearts, there is no reason to give count.

Actually, I think you should consider bidding 6♣ :P Partner has no more than 3 spades. He most likely has a stiff heart, and he doesnt have 4♦ either. That leaves at worst 3-1-3-6.... (I would never actually do this at the table, but.....i wont be surprised if it works)

2N is natural in this position? egads.....

I'm not so certain that 4♠ is all that much better than 5♦. Assume the defense starts with 3 rounds of clubs, you really cant afford to ruff in the long ♠ hand (unless you want to play for 3-3 spades), so you pitch from dummy and you're back in the same position you would be in if you were in 5♦ (having to guess the ♦ suit for no losers). And you will still lose 4♠ any time spades are 5-4-3-1 (or even worse 6-4-3-0) around the table. 5♦ only depends on picking up the ♦ suit. Since it is IMPs, not MP, my vote would go for being in 5♦. Thats easy enough to do. 1N 2N 3D (non-super accept) 3S 4H 5D

I find it odd that suction would be "allowed" against a strong club opening, but "disallowed" against a natural 15-17 NT opening. (At least it was the last time I checked.....it may have since changed).

I find this to be an interesting play problem. Taking a quick assesment of winners, I find that I have 1 heart in the bag, and 5 possible diamonds tricks, and then probably 1 trick in the black suits in the end position. Alternatively, if the diamonds dont break, I can score 1 ♥, 3♦, 2♠, and 1♣ (or possibly 2♣ and 1 ♠) if I get really lucky. My first step is to cash the AQ♦ to see if they break. Do they split 3-2 or not? Can I tell which hand holds the diamond J?

Is there a problem with this? It is almost mandantory that North reopens in this position, in order to cater to a trap pass by South. Since he can tolerate whatever South bids, he should X.

I'm the dummy that voted for pass.....I didnt read the whole question and thought I was being asked what my opening bid was. :blink: Ignore it, and change to 2N. Get both suits in play. For all you know you have a good diamond sacrifice over the opponents likely black suit contracts but you will never find it if you dont show both suits, unless of course, you intend to bid diamonds freely on your next turn. Personally, I dont like that style of bidding, as it becomes a one-man show style, instead of involving partner to make rational decisions at the table.

For what its worth, I took a non-scientific poll of 31 "stars" from a variety of countries, asking the question, "Do your regular personal partnerships (meaning non-client) play some form of lebensohl over 1NT interference?" Out of the 31, the responses were, 22 said yes (about 5 said some variation), and from 9, I received no response at all, and not a single no. This, to me, is enough to suggest that leb is widely used by top partnerships, at least in some form. (The 5 that said some variation use either rubensohl or transfersohl) Yes, there may be some here and there that I did not run into that do not play leb or at least some variation of it. But I am reasonably certain that they are few and far between and if they dont, I would guess its because they have other ways of handling interference. The only one who gave a hint of some that may not play it, was Charlie Weed, who said that most of his partnerships do, but the Cayne style doesnt (meaning Jimmy Cayne). I didnt ask jec what he did instead of leb.