brianshark

Hand evaluation and competitive bidding decisions can be improved by study. Visualisation and counting can be improved by discipline and practice. The jury's still out for me but I'm starting to question whether there really is "insurmountable natural talent that no untalented person can overcome by hard work". Maybe it's just a defeatist attitude proventing people who aren't initially conditioned to be successful from deliberately improving themself? Anyway, by far my biggest problem these days is concentration. Quitting a trick before I've "absorbed" the spots that were played, making a bidding decision or a card playing decision before forcing myself to consider the alternatives/risks/etc and things like that. It's something I'm working on and it is improving. I'm slowing my game down deliberately to make myself concentrate more on every decision. I'm hoping tht while I'll slow down for the time being, I'll eventually train myself to make the same analysis except quicker and I'll be a better player because of it.

Double shows extra values. Pass now.

Agree with Tor Helness.

That is the way I learned it. I'm going to treat this as a maximum (3♠).

I might have lied with the south hand and shown it as a doubleton support. But 2♠ is fine. North's jump to game is too pushy.

Double for me would probably just be lead-directing. I'm going to pass and double 3♠ if it comes round to me. If 4♠ comes round to me, I'm not sure what I'll do. Probably pass. :) Edit: After a 3♠ limit raise, I'll probably double.

I think I would win the heart Ace and play the heart J. The plan being to try and ruff 2 hearts and then draw trump, pitching the club on the spade as soon as entry problems force me to. I don't think I can afford even a single round of trump before exiting in hearts or else risk entry problems.

I'm not fond of West's double on that auction.

Definitely 4♥. I don't see much merit to 3NT to be honest.

Natural, GF, very good suit.

Pass then. Pass now.

Agree with those who believe 3♠ sets trumps and 4♥ is a cue. 3♠ doesn't need to be solid, it can have a single loser and just needs to be good enough to say "spades are trump".

[hv=d=e&v=e&n=st2h82d76543ckt72&w=sk83ht94d8cq98653&e=saq6hq3dakjt92caj&s=sj9754hakj765dqc4]399|300|Scoring: IMP[/hv] My partner bid 4♥. It was not a success. He ended up going down 4 doubled. The other table opened 1♦ and south elected to overcall in hearts and rebid spades. But EW ended up playing in 4♦ making. He got a lot of criticism for 4♥ by some people, but there were lots of varying opinions on what he should do. So I posted here to see what y'all think.

Double provides no pre-emption in itself. It's obviously desiged as a safe bid to get 4-4 Major shapes into play so that pard in 4th seat can pre-empt the strong hand. If you want to have other bids also show higher more shapely both major pre-empts (say 3H showing 5+5+) which also pre-empt responder then fine. It'll work wonders on this hand, but on other hands where a single-suit pre-empt is needed, it'll be found wanting. We elected to use a fairly simple defence to strong openings. It works fine. There is nothing wrong with the methods. This hand is simply a judgement call. Tally so far: Dbl - 3 4H - 3 ?H - 2 (said they would bid but did not specify level) 3H - 1 Pass - 1

Teams, favourable vulnerability, RHO deals and opens 2♣ which is a typical strong opening. You hold: ♠J9754 ♥AKJ765 ♦Q ♣4 Double would show both majors 4+4+. 2/4NT would show both minors. The rest of your bids would be natural. What's your call?

Would you make a direct seat t/o double with the diamond K?

You don't always want to draw trump. You do when you have game and you want to kill them to protect your good score. But when you just have 3/4 trump tricks, pard has enough tricks to bring your total to 7 or 8 and the deal is a bit of a misfit, then you simply want to take your tricks and take your trump tricks when you get them.

1♥ clearcut. 2♥ now. There must be a part 3, right?

I bid 5♠. I don't know what's right. But I don't like 4NT because I'm not sure I can place the contract once I know about pard's keycards... I also need pard to have a pretty good hand. My second choice is just pass. But I disagree with opening this 2♦ in the first place, obviously.

Sorry, I meant to say that only 25% of the field are only in game! ;)

Edited after Justin's quote for clarity.

I could have sworn I read that in a book somewhere.

It's not a judgement situation. Either systemically he must rebid 1♠ with a 4 card ♠ suit and 1NT denies such, or he must bid 1NT with a balanced hand and 1♠ would show an unbalanced hand (5-4 or 4441). Anyway I pass.

I'm passing. We will probably knock it tbh and I don't think we'll have much more than a partial. Agree with Jlall.

No way I'm going to 7 with a possible club loser, regardless of the prospects in hearts. I'm just going to pass.