Hanoi5

2♥. Then hearts again possibly.

West certainly has an ugly hand for intervining on the first round of bidding but it is certainly not a crime: E/W shouldn't sell out to 3♣ anyway.

Say you mix eggs, condensed milk, milk, sugar, a little whisky and avocado. You cook it for some 30'. Is this edible?

[hv=pc=n&s=saq5hq53dkt87cj32&n=sk4h87dj53cakq984&d=n&v=0&b=1&a=1cp2np3nppp]266|200[/hv] A spade is led and you win the K in dummy. How do you plan the play?

[hv=pc=n&w=sk4hj987dqt43caq3&e=sqjt732h5dakj95c4&d=s&v=b&b=7&a=1hp2h2s3hdp4d4hdppp]266|200[/hv] West's first double seems a little exaggerated, but I think the second one is really bad. East didn't 'accept' the first double but, is it correct to bid over the second one, too? Is it better to rebid spades over 3♥X?

On the first one I'd prefer to double with better diamonds. On the Second one double seems fine. On the third one I'm taling my chances with an initial pass and a later action.

1♠ is not forcing but should only be passed with hands where game is impossible, around 6-8 HCP's.

I don't want to get partner excited, I pass, too.

1- The idea of a two-type-hand bid by responder sounds great but we're not ready to get at it. I'm planning to add 1♣-1♥ for spades, 1♣-1♠ for hearts. In any case the problem remains the same: with the hand shown, is it better to ask for responder's shape (which could lead to not knowing if there's a spade fit) or to show spades (which leads to partner's 2NT to show only 2 spades after which hearts can be shown or partner showing 3-4 cards fit and Nº of controls). Of course I'm leading the witness, but showing your hand can get you to ask about the cards you need (Club Queen, Heart Ace) while the other road can get you too high too fast (1♣-1NT-2♣-3NT shows a 5-card minor and 11-13 HCP's). 2- The idea of Specific KC sounds great, too. However it does eliminate the possibility of using askings (doesn't it), which could be important. Natural bids also could help in order to choose a trump suit and keep the bidding forcing, but I guess you can't have it all. 3- My partner wants to have 4NT available as KeyCard/Aces ask, is this fine? Isn't quantitative better?

1♣-1NT 16+-balanced 8-13 Now 2♣ is transfer stayman which you can use to find out partner's 4-card suits and sometimes his whole distribution as well as placing the range in a 3-point count. You can also show your 5-card+ suit and expect partner to show support with 3 or deny it by returning to NT at which point you can bid your second (at least a 4-card) suit. Questions: 1. Is there a best approach for a 5-4 hand, with a singleton, rich in controls? I suppose a 5-5 or more is better handled by showing the higher ranking suit first, what would you do with: ♠AK9xx ♥KQxx ♦A ♣AKx 2. Say you choose to do transfer stayman, how do you tell partner 'we're playing in this suit' after knowing his distribution? Are bids after knowing partner's distribution askings or natural bids? What's better? 3. How do you play 4NT by opener after responder has settled his range in 3-points and given his whole distribution? Does it depend on the answer to the previous question?

You had 7HCP's, he expectedd 8-9. Would he have made the contract if you held the other J or Q or two J? I don't think so, he was just expecting the perfect hand from you so that 3NT could be a make.

I most certainly did. I'd double and then bid ♠ in that case.

I guess you could bid 2♠ which is forcing and then try to KC. But partner may not have 3 spades, he might just name his minor and then we might KC over that. We can also bid 2NT to ask about the nature of partner's hand and be very pessimistic in case partner shows the weakest hand and stop at 4♠ and get to 6♠ if partner shows a better hand. Finally we might just blast to 6♠ which I think is the best choice, given that there's no way to find out about all the things we need. I mean, if we could set spades as trumps and start cue-bids it would be wonderful, but I see no way to do that.

Zone 3 South America has some 10 countries and only 2 are allowed into the BB. And they're not chosen in a pegeant. There are more countries (but less people) in Zone 5 and they have only one spot.

4♠. If 4♦ were forcing I'd try that.

The suit looks a little ugly for 3♣ but then again it's a 7-carder. What I hate the most is the 4♥ bid. Or the Pass to 4♥X by East, but I guess that's second. Forget I said that, East could never know he was supported with 2 very small cards.

Erm, are we supposed to guess the hand?

4♦.

1♥ is correct. 2NT by partner is weird. I might also pass it.

I think the 'right' call is 2♣. 1NT might steal it from them though, so I'm tempted into that.

There's a wrong decision by the Director. I think the result cannot stand. An adjusted score looks correct.

1. Yes, 8 players must be there for the match to start. 2. Yes, you could have 4 people (or less than eight people) take seats and wait for the rest to show up. However, you can only do that with the browser version and people would have to come through said version and they would have to be looking for a team match: not very likely, especially since people don't use that option too much. 3. When you access the team-creating link you can have a look at non-complete matches and join, but then again it's not likely to happen. Your best shot is to find 8 people in advance, by either contacting them through BBO or a previous 'date' or just announcing it here or in the lobby of BBO and then being lucky enough that a team forms.

That's the culprit.

1♦ most of the days. But I could pass.

Yeah. I'm sure BBO hires one guy to be behind each GIB, you just happened to play with the GIB manipulated by an enemy of yours.