PhantomSac

Super sick accomplishment man, congrats and well deserved!

personally I'd definitely pass r/w and I'd definitely bid w/r. Don't ask me what id do at equal ;)

You should check your facts on that one, ritalin and adderall are banned (I don't know all of the other ADD meds but I would guess they all have something in them that is banned also). Some googling shows that amphetamines are banned by WADA = adderall, and methylphenidate is banned by WADA = ritalin, but I also know this from personal experience since I don't take adderall at WBF events lol, and someone I know (who is extremely ADD) tried to get a theraputic exemption with 2 doctors notes and was rejected. Fair enough that they are strict with one of the few things that could actually be performance enhancing in bridge though. Regarding caffeine...I remember that Lavazza was a sponsor of the world championships in veldhoven and they had espresso stands all over the place for the players and we were all freaked out that we might fail a drug test if we drank it and they told us not to worry lol. edit: And I see I had the same story mikeh had about coffee, just 5years later!

I like just bidding 4H, the opponents being white/red and bidding to only THREE spades is a huge warning sign when we have this hand. Partner having short hearts and 4 spades and wasted black values is really likely... Our hand seems really nice but give partner some 4126 opening bids and we might not even make 4H. I know I am posting this after the actual hand/result was posted but these were my thoughts before reading the results heh.

If you choose to duck a club are you doing it because it makes it more likely that you "make your contract" or are you doing it because it is the percentage play to maximize your tricks? If the former then that is again a horrendous thought process. If you are in 1N or 2N your thought process should be the same on this hand as if you are in 3N. Despite that, I did not say it is never wrong to safety play at MP, I said it is just almost always wrong and anyone who is considering doing it on this hand would be far better served to just never safety play. So if you find a hand where it is right to actually make a safety play in MP as opposed to your actual example, it still does not refute that. FWIW IMO the most common time to safety play in MP is when you are in an extremely good situation that others dont rate to be in (like they have dropped a trick or 2 already that no one would, or you bid a slam with 15 HCP or something). I can't recall making a safety play in a normal contract. For example if your example hand had dummy with AKQxxx of clubs, ducking a club would be normal in imps since while it doesnt maximize your trick expectancy, it maximizes your chance to make your contract, but in MP it would be ridiculous.

I'm not sure if this is the solution or not since it might mean guessing the shape but we can run 5 trumps, diamond to the ace, ruff a club, diamond to the king. Now if LHO is down to blank spade ace we play a spade and if he is down to Ax of spades we play a club and pitch our diamond and LHO will be endplayed. LHO will definitely have gotten me if he shifted to a low spade from Ax to begin with (not happening in real life!). If that is not the case I will know the shape (again assuming LHO did not shift to a low spade from Ax) since RHO has to give count in clubs at trick 1. And I know this is a hand from 1960 but in modern bridge LHO would have doubled with 4225 (if they don't play raptor or something) or 3235 if they are an expert so that is another way to guess the endgame.

If you would even consider safety playing on this hand, I would recommend a simple rule, never safety play at MP. That rule is probably wrong once every few years (depending on how much you play), so it won't be too far from wrong, and will prevent you from even thinking about ever making such a serious error as safety playing on this hand!

Your error is akin to thinking AJxx opp KT9x is 100 % to be picked up, so maybe you are transforming to meck! :)

Ya I just mean even if they aren't going to unblock the jack from Jx (which I doubt people would), AJx on our left is fairly significant portion of the 3-2's with the ace on our left and then we will end up needing 3-3 diamonds, I think catering to that + 4-2 diamonds trumps other considerations, especially since I don't really see what else we can cater to. Lamfords line of leading a trump and ducking it just seems insane to me though, they just play a club and we are often wrecked. In a dream world it goes trump to the king and they win the ace and now we are basically cold on 3-2 trumps barring some disaster haha. I think we want to have the tempo here. ETA: Nice posting with you again btw mike, hope all is well!

How are we cold on 3-2 trumps? Am I missing something? Assuming I am not and we are not actually cold on 3-2 trumps I think a reasonable line if a trump to the king wins is just to play ace king and ruff a diamond. Assuming the HA is on my left and they aren't doing some shenanigans that seems to ensure me on 3-2 trumps, and it seems like I have no play on 4-1 trumps. If I play play trump trump and they are able to pull 2 trumps and play a club it seems like I only have 2 trumps + 3 diamonds + 1 club + 2 spades + 1 ruff, and my entries will be severely messed up to even ruff out a suit whichever hand I take the ruff in (if I ruff in my hand I cannot ruff a diamond in my hand and also have no entry to ruff out spades and cash them, if I ruff in dummy I can no longer ruff a spade in dummy and I also can't ruff a diamond since I have no way to get back there). Sorry if this is nonsense, posting late at night and I'm a novice poster now obv :P

The nicest thing i can say about accepting is that it is absolutely hopeless

X over 2H is normal. I feel pretty strongly that passing 2S is the best choice. Of course it's possible you miss game, but your hand has no source of tricks and a very bad heart holding, even when partner has say 8 points you could easily go down in game, or you could have a hard time getting to the right game (as happened here), and it's important to remember that this is not a weak 2H, this is a hearts + minor which means things are more likely to break poorly (especially if their opener promised 5-5, I know they werent 5-5 on this hand but red/white second seat I'd guess they would not have a crappy 5-4 so 5-5 is still more likely than if they were w/r). This hand is a pretty good illustration, if you don't pass and you get to the right contract, you buy an 8 count with good spots/well fitting, a heart stopper, the opponent is 5-4-2-2 (so no bad breaks), and game is not very good considering the auction (you need either a spade hook or the 2H bidder to have Hxxxx of hearts). I wouldn't worry if they say they'd lead a high heart from HHxxx lol, you should strive to try to get to the best contracts.

Weird since 4 is much better than 5

You will play low to the ace and lose to KJx on your left, just like if you had played ace then low. Trick is correct that you lose to 1 holding to gain to two when comparing low to the 9 vs ace then low if looking at the suit in a vacuum (obv not really relevant on this hand).

For those of you who didn't post 14 years ago: http://www.bridgebase.com/forums/topic/2542-zar-points-useful-or-waste-of-energy/ http://www.bridgebase.com/forums/topic/5108-zar-points-for-opening-bids/ Time flies...