Tcyk

I don't understand 4NT as an ace asking bid of any kind after cue bidding has started and continued. I learned that 4NT in this auction is Declarer Interrogative and asks that cue bidding continue or sign off in five of the agreed suit. 4NT has to be one of the most misused bids in duplicate bridge.

I have to look at the meanings of the bids. 2♠ is a non-specific rebid, does not promise 6+ ♠s and is a minimum hand. It denies a 5-card minor suit and 3-card ♥ support. 2NT over 2♠ is natural and shows something in the minors. It also denies 6+ ♥s and shows poor support (if any) for ♠s. 3♣ is the better minor and denies 6+ ♠s 3♠ shows 2-card ♠ support. With a singleton spade I would rebid 3NT instead of 3♠ and with a ♠ void I would raise ♣s with four (partner may only have three), bid 4♦ with 4 ♦s and less than 4 ♣ or rebid 4♥ (sigh) 4♥ probably shows Hx of ♥s and a weak 5-card ♠ suit. you are left with the decision of wether to pass or bid 4♠, to play.

Your partner opens 1S in second seat and the next opponent bids 2C. As West, you see the following: Deal No. 21: Vulnerable: North-South ♠ K 8 3 ♥ A Q J 9 8 6 4 ♦ A 7 ♣ 4 Pass 1S 2C ? What is your call? You play negative doubles, preemptive raises in competition, strong jump shifts in competition, Lebenshol, cue bid is limit raise or better, splinter bids. You do not play negative free bids.

I am from the old school. After we open 1NT, doubles are for penalty. It is true that we hold 23 to 25 HCP but both hands are balanced. Even if we have an 8-card major suit fit, game in that suit may be difficult. With no major-suit fit, opener is either 4-4 in the minors or has a 5-card minor suit. We probably do have a major suit fit but we can expect unfriendly distribution in the suit. What do I do? I double for values. The double tells my partner that we have the majority of the points and that I don't have a suit I can bid at the 3-level. We both know that points don't tell the story when there are distributional hands at the table. The opponents could easily take nine or more tricks in a minor suit. Partner's double of 3C should show 4-4 in the minors. Double of 3D should show five diamonds or 4-4 in the minors. I will pass any subsequent call that comes back to me.

I think John Montgomery has it right in his book on the Revision Club System. First of all, it is going to make a difference if you are a passed hand or not. Since Revision Club employs negative free bids, jumps to 3 or 4 in a minor suit takes on a different meaning than might be expressed by those not playing negative free bids. I am not a lover of Bergen raises. Heart support can be shown in a number of ways. We can pass because partner is virtually forced to keep the bidding open. We can make a negative double and return to hearts. We can bid 2♠ to show a limit raise of better. We can bid 3♠ as a splinter bid. We can make a preemptive raise of hearts. Three of a minor suit by an unpassed hand is natural and shows 12+ HCP and four of a minor is a fit jump. Three of a minor by a passed hand is a fit jump shift, denying heart support and showing about 11 HCP with strength concentrated in the suit bid.

I agree 100%

This type of bidding after partner preempts seems to be pretty common. If you play RONF you can make some kind of a bid that sounds like a game try and then sign off in partner's suit. I long hesitation before signing off does sound very suspicious and should not be permitted. This type of bidding is done because opponents know a direct raise is weak. I don't know what can or should be done about it. The greatest bid I ever saw was made by Dennis Dawson after I opened 3S. Dennis replied 3NT and all passed. My shape was 7222 with AKQ of spades, favorable vulnerability, and no outside honor. Dennis had 3325 shape with 5 clubs to the queen which was his only honor. His intention was to bid 4S if the opponents doubled. I don't know why, but the opponents played two rounds of clubs establishing Dennis' queen and led a third round. We took 10 tricks, the opponents had game and perhaps slam in hearts or diamonds. A double game swing is hard to overcome in a seven board Swiss teams match. Was 3NT a psyche? I always thought it was ... and a very successful one at that. We would have had a good board even if Dennis took zero tricks.

It is interesting that some would play this system. A very old method that I played in the 60's was similar and I don't know if it even had a name. We could respond 1♥ to 1♣ with 4+ hearts but a 1♠ response promised 5+ spades. A 1♦ response was alerted as temporizing, could have 4 spades. The 1♦ response was also made with balanced hands with 6 or 7 HCP. A direct response of 1NT showed 8-10 HCP. There really weren't many disadvantages to using this system.

I recall that Terrence Reese devised a system where minor suit opening bids transferred to the corresponding major suit. It was done, at least partially, in fun as a complaint about all the new artificial bidding systems. I am trying to remember what he called the system. It seems like it was "Black" something or another. I ask this question because I have been playing around with "Crimson Death" which uses this same method. Many aspects of the system remind me of Moscito.

I guess that if 2C is not artificial, it could be psyched. Beware of Precision 2C openings :)

I started playing 'noon-time' bridge in 1957. Before that in college and in the army, I played hearts and pinochle. I also played 'rook' with my parents. When I moved to Dallas in 1969, one of the 'noon-time' players was head and shoulders better than any of the other players. Yes, he played duplicate and convinced me I should take lessons from Harry Weiss. I liked bridge so much that I quit playing tournament chess and have been playing bridge ever since.

Crimson Death opens this hand 1NT.

All depends on your system. If I were playing Crimson Death, the hand is too weak to open 1S showing 15+ HCP and 4+ diamonds but would be opened 1NT, promising no 4-card major and perhaps 4-5 either way in the minors. Those playing Moscito would open the hand 1S

Thomas Andrew has found a number of hands where no one can make any contract according to double dummy analysis. I believe they have a common theme based on the fact that the opponent gets to make the opening lead. I no longer have the site bookmarked because of crashes and new computers but I will when I leave this site. Search for thomaso to find the site. There are a lot of interesting things there including hands where your best results occur when playing in a 4-2 or 3-3 trump fit. He also has a free bridge dealer program.

I ran an extensive study of NT ranges using BRidgeBRowser. It seems that the weaker the range the better the results. I saw another article/blog that stated that the side that bid NT first tended to get the best results. This is in keeping with the low NY ranges. They bid NT first. I saw someones profile yesterday that said 1NT was 15+ HCP and 2C was balanced 21-23 HCP. I wondered if this really meant that he would open 1NT with 24+ HCP. I may be wrong but I believe Romex used 1NT as its strong forcing opening bid.

I have always used the 'T' ... and that is what is used in 'portable bridge notation', 'deep finesse', and as I recall, even in BBO's own .lin files.

That is very interesting Wayne. The decreasing number of tricks with increasing responder strength in spades is probably telling us that we should be playing in the 4-3 spade fit. I suppose you could run the simulation again with a spade contract instead of no trump. I don't have dealer. When I want to do a simulation, I cheat and look at what happened in the real world by running BridgeBrowser. I have not done so yet as I have just read your comments.

I do not like making splinters with a wide open side suit. If Responder has 2 good cards, We have five level safety. If they have 3, We belong in slam. I'm going to pattern out my hand. 1S-2S;3C-any;4C-any;4H or 5H -?? Is my initial plan. This is the same problem. If I rebid 3C and then bid the club suit again, my partner, being smarter than me, will figure out that I am 6-5 in the black suits. Another picture I don't want to paint.

3C can't be right because this is some kind of a game try. Obviously most of the replies assume it is a help-suit game try. If I were to rebid 3C and follow this with 4D. My partner would figure out that I had better than a game try. He would also figure that this was a residual bid and therefore I was short in hearts. This is not the picture I want to paint. A splinter bid is better but it is a well known fact that a splinter bid in a void is not good practice. Partner will not discount the value of an ace in that suit. In my opinion, the only acceptable rebid is 4S.

I kind of agree with Drtodd, a system that is fun to play. There are a lot of new systems out there, some of which I have studied. I would have to have a regular partner for any of them. How about MULTOS, or Janus, or Diamond Major, or Revision?. Revision could be played in any ACBL tournament. With a few changes, Diamond Major could also be played with no problems. I would hate to alert a MULTOS opening bid and have to explain its multiple possible meanings to the opponents but I would still like to try playing it. The Janus 1D opening reminds me of the complex diamond opening bid used in Oliver Clarke's Precision Club. I also tend to like Polish Club because I find it difficult to bid against. I've played it a few times and it seems like at least 65 percent of the hands were opened 1C, maybe even more. It's like Precision and the 1D opening.

When I'm bored, I'll go to BQ and bid a few hands ... just to increase my feelings of humility. The only hands I tried with a partner were never finished. ... and I made some dumb mistakes because I wasn't familiar with the system.

these resistor codes? It shows your age. When I learned the resistor code it was ... behind victory garden walls. People today don't know what victory gardens are.

Since I usually play a strong club system, I would open 2C. Otherwise, I would open 1C. I never preempt with an opening hand even in third position. As mentioned earlier, it doesn't take much for this hand to make 3NT. If the opponents get into the auction, as they well might, my suit is certainly good enough to rebid. I often see people open 4H or 4S with an opening hand. Every time I see it happen, I hope they miss a slam. I can understand the bid in third seat but it still doesn't feel right to me. Perhaps one is all it can make.

I agree with Mike. If opener doesn't use 4D (kickback), I am not going to ask him about key cards. If I really thought the hand belonged in slam, and wasn't playing a strong club system, I could use 4D, Redwood, to ask about key cards which would let me stop in 5C but would completely give up any chance of finding a spade fit.

A good system does almost all of these. My favorite system followed the lines described by Bose in his book, "Relay Club." Transfers are invitational or drop-dead, never forcing to game. All forcing sequences begin with Stayman and are followed by a 2nd asking bid. Opening bidder's exact shape can be determined without going past 3NT. The system is a little complex but not as complex as Scanian. Once the logic of the system is understood, it is rather easy to remember. It seemed like our biggest problems occurred when we held a 4-card major and a longer minor suit and invitational strength. Some hands with 5431 shape were handled as described below. We experimented with canape transfers. They were fun but eliminated our ability to show a longer major and shorter minor suit with invitational strength hands. We corrected this by using a rebid of 2NT after a major suit transfer to show a 5-card major and a minor suit. Rebids of 3C and 3D instead of 2NT showed a 4-card major and a longer minor suit. That only left 5332-shape hands with invitational strength to present us with a problem. Playing IMPs we treated them as forcing. Playing MPs we guessed. Bridge will never be an exact science. The method described by Bose was primarily for weak no trump hands but can work for stronger hands as well. His book showed many examples where a shapely 8- or 9-count was able to reach game after a weak no trump opening bid. The treatment is intended to be used when playing IMPs. I have forgotten how he showed 4441-shapes but I seem to recall that he bid a suit and jumped to 3NT after the rebid. This showed a singleton in the first suit bid. On a bad day, the singleton was in his only 4- or 5-card suit. Then, he toughed it out in no trump. On a good day, a fit was disclosed and knowledge of the singleton sometimes even permitted finding a minor suit game on inviatational values. One of his most interesting methods was how to show 5431 hands with a 5-card minor and invitational strength. I have not seen the method used since I left the Boston area in 1979 but I had a lot of success with it. 1NT - 3C showed 4=3=1=5 or 3=4=1=5 shape. 1NT - 3D showed 4=3=5=1 or 3=4=5=1 shape. 1NT - 3H showed 4=1=5=3 or 4=1=3=5 shape. 1NT - 3S showed 1=4=5=3 or 1=4=3=5 shape. With the first two sequences, opening bidder bids a 4-card major knowing that he might be playing in a Moysian fit, takes a shot at 3NT or escapes to the minor suit. He can also bid the suit of the singleton to ask for the 4-card major. With the other two sequences, opening bidder can raise the major, perhaps knowing it is a Moysian fit, take a shot at 3NT, or escape to his minor suit knowing responder will with have at least three cards in the suit and on a good day, five. The 2S response carried double or is it triple duty. It is the McKendrick/Russian 2S bid that asks for opening bidders strength. He rebids 2NT with less than a maximum hand and 3C with a maximum hand. If opener rebids 2NT, responder passes with an invitational strength hand, bids 3C with a weak hand and clubs, or bids 3NT with an invitational strength hand and 1=4=4=4 shape. If opener rebids 3C, responder passes with a weak hand and clubs just as if he had transferred to clubs, bids 3D with 1=4=4=4 shape, and bids 3NT with a hand with which responder wished to invite to 3NT. 2NT by responder transferred to diamonds. When we first started using canape transfers, a subsequent major suit rebid by responder promised five cards in the major and four cards in diamonds. We gave up this treatment in favor of the 2NT rebid after the transfer to promise a 5-card major and a second suit. 4C response to 1NT was Gerber. 4D and 4H were Texas transfers. We assigned no meaning to higher responses except 4NT was quantitative. The method permitted opening 1NT with a weak 5-card major and 5332 shape but did not permit opening any hand with 5422-type shape since these shapes could not be described without going past 3NT. It did permit opening with 6322 and 7222 shapes where the long suit is clubs and the short suits contained tenace holdings. These hands are rare and definitely show a very weak club suit. One advantage of permitting opening with a weak 5-card major is that a major suit opening guarantees a good suit or a shapely hand unsuitable for no trump. This can be an important factor when deciding to go on or compete in an auction. No one ever said Bridge was an esy game.