Simplicity

[hv=d=s&v=n&n=sajxhakxxdaxxxcq9&s=sqt986hxxdkqxxcjx]133|200|Scoring: IMP 2♠*-(P)-2NT**-(4C) P-(P)-4♠-AP T1:♣A9xJ T2:♣xQKx T3:♦9?[/hv] *5 Spades and 4+ minor **Enquiry Plan the play Hidden:

Er was 2♠ forcing?!

I think as others have commented the only vaguely debatable call is the xx. Redouble with any 9+ with support doesn't seem a sensible agreement, but while i think 1♠ is better i can well see myself redoubling on this hand. If you were to switch the black suits I would call this an obvious redouble and you would still be scoring poorly against people in clubs.

The thing is here that we don't know if grand is better than 50% because our methods or perhaps the way in which i went about the auction dont let us. To me it's more a question of if I bid grand will it be a good decision >50% of the time? And given that the odds of winning the match are not in our favour with all things being equal, there may be some equity in bidding a slightly dodge grand when it's a close decision. So maybe playing a higher risk strategy and bidding a 40% grand is okay? What I'm really polling is whether people think this is a good spot to chance your arm in 7 with or without the conditions? Personally i would have stopped in 6 against unknowns.

Thanks for the replies, it was somewhat unfortunate we had this has hand outside of a regular partnership and didnt even have 3♠ available as the minors. I decided to bid the grand opposite the ♣K on the basis that the opposition were experts and my team were definately underdogs. I was certain the other table would be in at least 6 and would always be finding 7 opposite the ♣KQ when my hand was relayed out. I wouldn't have bid the grand against weaker opposition, and kinda wanted to see if people thought the grand was reasonable. The play was also pretty interesting:[hv=n=satxhakqxdaxxckxx&s=skxhxdkqjt9cat8xx]133|200|lead ♦x[/hv]

[hv=d=w&v=n&s=sk8h3dkqjt9cat872]133|100|Scoring: IMP[/hv] You are playing a 24 board cup match against expert opposition. You are in a new partnership with very few agreements beyond standard. Partner opens 2NT(20-22) in second seat. The opposition are playing a strong club relay system at the other table, and your uncontested auction proceeds: 2NT-4♦ 4♥*-4NT 1st/2nd and suitable hand 5♦*-? 0/3 Feel free to comment on the auction so far and do you want to/ how will you try for grand?

I believe he's using an odd acronym for serious error or wild or gambling. The ebu laws are quite clear on this: 90.4.2 Illegal method, fielding of psyche, deviation or misbid If a contestant uses a method that is not permitted, or is adjudged to have fielded a psyche, deviation or misbid then the deal should be completed. If he attains a score of A– or less then the score stands. Otherwise he gets A– and his opponents get A+. and 90.4.5 Effect of 'wild or gambling' action Non-offending opponents in #90.4.2 whose actions on the board are wild or gambling are not entitled to an adjustment (see #12.1.3 (:) and ©). ‘Wild or gambling action’ is action markedly worse than bad bridge, and does not include defensive errors in a contract the non-offenders should not have been defending. So obviously if the director felt your 5♠ bid was sufficiently bad you would have scored the table result of -500 and NS would have received an ajusted score.

I think you have either misread or misunderstood the question. My question is not about any UI issues created by the hesistation of my partner they are obvious. But rather is LHO jumping in with a desire to confirm a BIT, or indeed his manner not conveying UI to his partner?

Playing in a club game in ebu-land against weak opponents you deal and have the following auction: 1♥-(1♠)-2♥-(2♠) P-P-? Partner takes a moment to consider his options and has been thinking for perhaps 5-10 seconds when your LHO turns to you says 'I believe we can confirm there has been a hesitation?'. At the table i didn't really give a monkeys the opponents were weak and LHO clearly had a bee in his bonnet about hesistations and possible UI without really understanding what might be happening. However i just wondered if his question was legal or appropriate? If a slow 3♥ had been bid, wouldn't my RHO have had an inference to not compete to 3♠?

I think there are a few factors to this deal like how good the opponents are, what the state of the match is, the form of scoring and the vulnerability. I have to say non-vul at imps and rubber id probably just put a heart on the table straight after winning the ♠K. LHO isn't in practice going to fly ace and play a diamond here, so that looks like a 50% make while playing clubs just looks like 1 off. At mps or vul im not going 3 off when i had 6 cashers it just doesnt seem worth it.

i think 1♥ and 3♦ now are automatic. I'll be pretty pleased if we play in 4♥ or 3NT, 5♦ might not be so hot but we ain't down yet

LHO was indeed 1273, so the squeeze came in no problem

[hv=d=s&v=n&n=st854haj98d7cakq8&s=sa962hkqt74d42c93]133|200|Scoring: MP P-(P)-1♣-(3♦) x-(P)-4♦-(P) 4♥-AP[/hv] You play in 4♥ at MPs and west leads ♦A and switches to a trump ♥2 Hearts are 2-2 Plan the play, perhaps this should be in B/I forum?

1♠-2♣ 3♣-3♥ 3♠-4♠ Looks rather normal to me.

I'm in for 7♦, and to add to the list: ♠A and less than 3 hearts or all the spade leads chances with a heart ruff entry

That won't work very well if RHO is 5233, and also needlessly surrenders an overtrick when he's 5134 or 5143. Once the first club finesse works you can take another club finesse in complete safety. doh, so we can - what a plank!

Add to that we can be fairly sure LHO isnt looking at ♥AK himself, i think playing to the 9 is infact the better theoretical line. ♥T onside or ♥AK onside looks about 66%, with a 5-3 break as well thats around 55%. Getting the clubs right is basically 50% without any info. However if you would expect yourself to get the guess correct when the club honours are split 60% of the time or more chucking the heart would be the best practical line.

I'd play ♠K and run the ♣Q, assuming this holds finesse in trumps, draw them all and play ace and another club. Running the queen is necessary when RHO is 5242 with the ♣K and still picks up 5143 as he can only return a diamond.

You were correct to think stiff ♥A is way more likely than ♥AJxx playing human opponents. Playing the Ace in the second case might look a bit flash on the actual layout but will look rediculous when the KQ are in the dummy. As for the play problem things have gone great - at other tables West has probably led his suit spades and booked declarer for a spade loser and 1 or 2 hearts. Meanwhile after we ruff a club we only have the 1 or 2 heart losers - looks a good score to me!

At the risk of trolling i think you might want to consinder playing in your 12 card fit rather than your 3-0 ;) Otherwise totally agree

Well for starters it looks like everyone else will be in 3NT making 11 or 12 tricks depending on the club queen, so id best try making 12 or 13 else im pretty sunk anyways. The only hope I see is to win the ♦K overtake the ♠T with the Jack, ruff a diamond with the Ace, cash a club, overtake the ♠Q with the King pray trumps are 3-3 and then take the club finesse. Oh trumps are 5-1? - looks like its another bottom, but i'd surely be investigating the bidding not the play

Think X is clear

Regarding the maths of your line: You will make: 1. When diamonds are 2-2 2. When diamonds are 3-1, and the long trump hand has at least 3 spades (he wont be able to ruff as you discard your losers) 3. When East has 3 diamonds, 2 spades and there is a club trick 4. When West has 4 diamonds and 4 spades (setting up a long spade to discard 1♥, 2♣ 5. When East has 4 diamonds and spades are 4-3 So our probabilities are: 1. P(♦ 2-2) = 40.69% 2. P( ♦3-1 & long hand has 3♠) = 49.74 x 73.22 = 36.41% 3. P(East 3♦, 2♠ and not ♣AK) = 24.87 x 20.89 x 73.33 = 3.81% 4. P( West 4 ♦ and 4♠) = 4.78 x 21.13 = 1.01% 5. P( East 4 ♦ and ♠4-3) = 4.78 x 56.35 = 2.69% Total = 1+2+3+4+5 = 84.61%

I agree with you. You can pay off to stiff queen of clubs and otherwise not lose (if south wanted to finesse for the queen before he can still do so). However I don't think my point about the carding was addressed, that your first card should be count which would make untangling the hearts easy. What kind of count do you play? My first card was indeed standard count so South should have beeen able to devine the position. I think at trick 3 he just thought if i duck maybe declarer wont know what's going on in the hearts and that i have 5, so he'll finesse into my now stiff ♣Q

I was North on this one. At the table I hopped the ♣A as I was worried that if South held ♣Q and took this trick he would be faced with giving declarer his ninth trick in ♥'s or blocking the suit - say declarer has Axx Kx AKQJx KTx.