Hanoi5

Economic Left/Right: -2.88 Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -2.87

What is handle?

When do you consider a hand to be one-suited even though you actually have a side suit? Yesterday I blew a beautiful opportunity for a top by choosing to play in the 'other suit' with: ♠Axxx ♥KQJ98xx ♦x ♣x My partner opened 1NT and we reached 6♠ which went down on a heart ruff. I should have just transfered and played in hearts but where would the losing spades go if partner didn't have a fit? Maybe it's just a bad slam? So from 6-4's on the 4-card suit should not be mentioned? Does it depend on the quality of the suit?

Double and then clubs over spades. When partner bids diamonds I'll raise that.

I checked and found a 4333 in one of the sample hands. Would this be normal? Isn't the whole interest of a goulash tourney to find freak hands and not balanced ones? I made some of my own and edited the ones I thought were too 'normal', I'll show you the file when the tourney is done (by tomorrow).

I need to make a goulash tourney so I need goulash hands. When these are dealt at the table we don't get the right hands all the time so we figured it would be better to try the program. I was trying some constraints but I get too many 5431 hands, what would you recommend?

Partner should have known this before bidding 4♦.

I think it would be another type of bridge. It is similar to MPs with pick-up slips or travelers: it is usual to see crazier results at the end of the tourney when you use travelers, probably more normal results if you use pick-up slips. I think current score is fine for some internet matches but in RL they would make for a very different kind of bridge.

I found these guys: http://www.qp010.com/index.asp And I bought something from them. They haven't contacted me for a little while and I was wondering...does anyone know them? They claim to have made business with Australia, Danmark, Jordan, and Holland (sic).

Hope you had a good one, Happy Birthday.

4♠, partner shouldn't be expecting 3 or a good supporting hand.

I vote for 3♦, I don't want to let them play.

Doubling a part-score at imp's is always some sort of taboo. Here you were unlucky, say partner's double means 'I can double one of those 2 suits' he doesn't quite have a 2♥ double, in any case a borderline-one. Then North knows his/her partner holds hearts and not spades and should be careful before doubling. I say 45% South, 45% North and 10% of general bad luck.

I'll need a visa, tickets and stay for my wife and me, and will do many stanzas... :)

♦8

I like ego bridge.

5♣.

I ended up fourth in the mixed pairs tourney and although I made quite a few mistakes I think the worst of all sessions had to be the third. First, please assign the blame for this terrible defense: [hv=d=s&v=e&n=sq72hq64dkqj83c53&w=sk943hktd2cakt982&e=sajt6h87d9754cj76&s=s85haj9532dat6cq4]399|300|Scoring: MP Bidding: 1♥ 2♣ 3♣ Pa 4♥ All Pass Playing upside-down signals and leading the King from AK to show a singleton but the otherwise the Ace, West leads the ♣King on which East plays the 7. ♣A on which East plays the ♣J and ♣T. Declarer ruffs and tosses a spade, letting the ♥Q to West's ♥K who then continues with another club...[/hv] How would you play 6♥ on the ♥9 lead: ♠AKQxx ♥J64 ♦Kxx ♣xx ♠Void ♥AKT82 ♦Qxx ♣AQJTx All white you hold: ♠QJ7x ♥Kxx ♦986 ♣AJx What's your bid if: 1♥ Pa Pa X (I bet you didn't like 1NT) Pa 2♥ 3♣ Pa Pa X Pa ??? I hope this one gets some answers for they are sort of interesting.

Maybe it can be used to show a 1=3=5=4 pattern (also 2254?) with maximum HCP, but is NM forcing to game? Maybe you could also agree to use it to show 3♠ support with club cue-bid, club singleton or club suit, again with Max HCP. I don't have any agreement though and I prefer to play checkback (or 2-way checkback) than NMF.

5♥ 6NT 4♠ 2♦ 4NT 3♣ According to Justin my only good answer was the easy last one.

I like The Hog's approach.

What a nightmare of a session. I made every mistake i could to land 48%. Like: [hv=e=st98xhkqxdxxcqxxx&s=sakxht8xda8xcj9xx]266|200|[/hv] After 1NT-3NT I led my ♠T won by declarer's J (and getting an odd number of cards signal from partner). He now proceded to play ♦K and a small ♦ to the Ace at the table. ♥10, ♥J, ♥A and a small heart to my queen. I should have played? ♠AK8xxx ♥Ax ♦Axx ♣AT ♠x ♥Kxxxx ♦KQJx ♣xxx What contract would you like to play and how do you propose to get there after South opens 2♥ (♥ and a minor)? And how would you play it on a club lead? I faced this: ♠T9 ♥A ♦ATxx ♣AQJTxx ♠K8x ♥Qxx ♦KQJ ♣xxxx I got to 3NT after passing, my partner opening 1♣ and RHO preempting in spades. The ♠J lead was allowed to hold, a ♠ to the Ace followed and a heart to the Ace at the table. Sometimes i get some image of a hand and then I will play only on it without thinking about other clues. ♠QJxxx ♥QJxx ♦Jxx ♣x This one should have been easy: 1♣-1♠ 2♣-???

♠KQT9xxx ♥x ♦T98 ♣Q8 I bid 4♠ but could have gotten a much better result (100% instead of 70%) if I had just passed. RHO was void in his partner's 8-card diamond suit and held an outside king and AK fifth in clubs (his partner held the Q). I bet not many opened South Hand with 3NT but we could have gotten a great top if I had just passed. Well I played this: ♠KJxx ♥Jx ♦KJ ♣KJ8xx ♠ATx ♥KTx ♦Q9xx ♣Axx Just as the doctor ordered (♦K from the table at trick 2) and went dutifully down. Clubs were Q9xx-T and I could make the contract without touching diamonds by guessing them right but I see that's not very clever. Finally: ♠Kxxx ♥Kxx ♦T8 ♣AQ9x I didn't know which cue bid to use so I messed it up. The suit on my left is better for if I had had it I would have bid it on my first turn I guess.

This.

I think it's some sort of 'I can't believe they preempted at the 5-level and you are fourth in hand and didn't do anything' double.