thebiker

There has been some animated discussion/argument in my circle of players regarding the optimum line on the hand below:- Contract; 7NT by South South opened 1NT and N/S rejected a spade fit and went for the match points. Lead; 5C S AK53 H KQ93 D A5 C AQ9 S QJ72 H A108 D QJ C KJ86 When you play on spades you will discover that West has a singleton. Both opponents turn up with 3 clubs. What is the "best line" to make 7NT Thank you in advance for your comments/answers regards Brian Keable "thebiker"

Children - please behave! thebiker

Why is it necessary for people to be so critical of posters who describe methods that may be a bit old. Surely if there are more modern treatments available, people could describe those, state the +'s ans -'s and leave the main audience the chance to make their own decison Most of us read the Forums for information - not to follow pointless wrangles Brian Keable alias "thebiker"

I have a friend who wants to play nvul that a 1NT overcall is either a bal 15-17 or an unspecified weak jump overcall . ie a "Comic" NT overcall or "Gardener" overcall as it is known in the UK He wants to know the responding structure that he should use. Very few Brits appear to play this now - so few people know which set of responses to use, apert from the obvious 2C response "Are you comic? or are you genuine?" Is there any one out there who does know a set of suitable responses and has practical knowledge of this convention? Thanks in advance for your replies Brian Keable Alias "thebiker"

I have a friend who wants to play nvul that a 1NT overcall is either a bal 15-17 or an unspecified weak jump overcall . ie a "Comic" NT overcall or "Gardener" overcall as it is known in the UK He wants to know the responding structure that he should use. Very few Brits appear to play this now - so few people know which set of responses to use, apert from the obvious 2C response "Are you comic? or are you genuine?" Is there any one out there who does know a set of suitable responses and has practical knowledge of this convention? Thanks in advance for your replies Brian Keable Alias "thebiker"

Once upon a time in England someone (maybe Terence Reese) proposed that to pep up a strong 2C opener, players should also incorporate a Weak 2D option within the bid, to make things a little bit more difficult for the opponents. Does anyone still play this style? and what is/was the recommended responding structure? thanks in advance for your replies regards thebiker Brian Keable

In the only partnership in which I play the Multi we play that a 2S response shows non serious / serious interest in hearts. Continuations are as follows 2D 2S 3C Shows a Weak 2H's Now 3D shows "non serious" interest in hearts (which opener converts to 3H) and 3H shows "serious" interest in hearts (which opener can convert to 4H with a suitable hand) We are threrefore able to both attempt to confuse the opposition, and make game tries. We also benefit after "serious" sequences of right siding the final contract so that the stronger hand plays any heart games we reach. regards Brian Keable alias thebiker

How do most players handle responding to 2NT openers when they have game or better values with 3Major1OtherMajor4/5Minors shape? Does anyone have specific methods for handling these distributions? thanks in advance for your answers regards thebiker

"North did fine too. For a slam to make, he needs more then two tricks from partner. And running clubs won't be enough, so it was certanly reasonable to bid just 4 Heart. He had no tool avaiable to ask for all kings he needs" Assuming that N is worth a 3H rebid, perhaps he could have had the appropriate tools to bid the slam: 2C 2D 3H Solid suit asks initially about Aces so 3S No Ace but I have something else ie 1 or 2 Kings 3NT Ace of S 4C Ace of C 4D Ace of Diamonds For the actual hand bidding would go 2C 2D 3H 3S No Ace 3NT Ok tell me about Kings OPtions 4C K of Clubs . 4D K of Diamonds 4H K of Spades (must have one K for the 2D bid) 4S K of Spades & K of Diamonds 4NT 5C K of Clubs & K of Spades 5D K of diamonds & K Of clubs So for this hand 2C 2D 3H 3S 3NT 5D 6H Bingo! regards thebiker

jdonn Posted on May 3 2009, 01:52 PM "5NT is so obvious, there is no other viable alternative" It is clearly obvious to you but what does it mean ?? Not everyone is blessed with the ability to see into your mind regards thebiker

What is a 5NT response supposed to mean? Trump ask for spades? (An explanation would be helpful to those of us who view the forum in search of new ideas and wisdom) Don't quite see the point if thats is the case. How does that help avoid a grand slam if some inmportant card is missing Why not find a slower bid ? regards thebiker

This question is not directly related to the Dealer program per se but I hope some one may have an answer Now we can set up partnership bidding via the web and have constraints for all four players, it is possible to set up constrainsts for a dealer (W) whilst N & S bid the hands. I want to get W to open a Multi 2D and let NS practice their defence to this convention ( I can set up W to deal the various options in a multi) How can I get a Robot in the West seat to open 2D when it sees a weak 2 in H or S or some other component of a multi bid? Do we need changes in both BBO web software and GIB software to acheive this? thanks in advance Brian Keable alias thebiker

Bizarre! :blink:

Apologies I dont seem to have read the question very well It is possible to set the Dealer as E or W or NS but only by going to the opponents bidding section of the options If this is not done the default dealer order is NESW if hands are generated by the software or input via a file I should have RTFM but its is that obvious I would still like to be able to define hands for E and W within BBO rather than importing hands via LIN Files regards Brian Keable alias thebiker

I support Cardsharps request: I have tried to practice competitive bidding on BBO using partnership bidding Partner and I wanted to practice our defence to the Multi 2D I used DMPRO to generate a number of hands where West would open a multi 2D and set up a range of hands for North and South DMPRO allowed me to make West the dealer for all the hands (I could have chosen the normal NESW option for dealer) I then exported the deals as a LIN File and imported this file into BBO and ran Partnership Bidding with a third party to bid the West and East hands Unfortuneately the BBO software had revamped the dealer for all the boards and now I had a string of hands where the dealer order was NEWS not all West as I had hoped We did managed to have a practice of sorts but only used on quarter of the original hands, I would have appreciated an option to make one hand the dealer throughout the session. ON a slightly different tack it would have been super if I could have used BBO for the whole process: (a) Set up West as dealer throughout and define the requirements for the Multi 2D or some other set of options in the same ways as hands for North and South can be genarated. (:) Set West to always open 2D (or whatever) This way partner and I could have done some practice without the aid of a third party - though this would not have been very good for our practice without someone bidding for East and West and attempting to screw up our defence! best regards Brian Keable (alias thebiker)

All Thank you for your replies and interest in this subject regards Brian Keable alais "thebiker"

Many players play that 1Ma 2NT is a good raise to 3Ma or beyond, others play that 1Ma 2NT is a game force in the major Does anyone play that 1S 2NT shows either of the above and that 1H 2S is the equivalent sequence for hearts? Do you know of any top pairs that play along these lines? What would be the disadvantages of playing 1H 2S as a good heart raise? (apart from allowing the oppo an easier passage into the auction by doubling to show spades) There would be some advantage in playing this way If you play that 1Ma 2NT asks opener to describe their hand via 3C, 3D etc playing 1H 2S would make more space available below 4H's than playing simple 1H 2NT thank you in advance for your thoughts and observations Brian Keable alias "thebiker"

I cannot see how responding 1S helps when playing an Acol style system If partner rebids a minor you still have the same problem Partner rebids 1NT, rasing hearts only shows 3 hearts , and jumping directly to game now historically shows a good hand, a delayed game raise. Ditto if pard rebids 2NT Acol works best by making limit bids, if you don't raise hearts immediately then you deny four hearts or end up promising a big hand that you havent got regards Brian Keable alias thebiker

You play that a 2C opener shows Bal 23+ or a GF Hand Your normal responding structure is that 2D is a negative, other bids show positive values If you played such a ssytem how would you deal with intervention ie 2C (X) implying clubs ? How would/do you as responder utilise your new options Pass XX 2D If you normally playing a different responding struction to simple 2D negative etc how would you cope with the double of 2C? thanks in advance regards Brian Keable alias thebiker

Say opponents open 1D Precison style (zilch to 15) with a minimum of zero diamonds. Partner doubles which shows (a) 12-15 balanced or (:P 19+ balanced or © Some good hand Third hand passes What should be responders philosophy when he holds considerable diamond length and values? Should he always pass and try for a penalty? Bid notrumps at an appropriate level? or attempt to explore the possibility of playing game or slam in diamonds? thanks in advance for any thoughts or suggestions regards Brian Keable alias thebiker

In parts of England (land of the weak no trump opener 12-14) it is becoming very popular to play a 1NT rebid as a balanced 15-18, using a 2C club checkback to determine openers range plus distributional features. Do you beleive that it is a sound method to play such a wide range rebid? Traditionally Acol has used a 15-17 rebid of 1NT and an 18-19 2NT rebid after a response at the one level. If you decided to play a 15-18 1NT rebid what would be your minimum point count requirement to emply the 2C checkback? Some of the local practioneers of Checkback appear to only require 7 points to put their toy into action. What are your views on this? thanks in advance for your input regards Brian Keable alias thebiker

Suppose your partnership plays weak no trumps (12-14) and the opponents overcall with a DONT 2H overcall showing hearts and spades. (a) How should the partnership play Double and 2S by responder? (:) What to you do in your partnerships/s © Would your answer to (a) be different if your general partnership style after overcalls of 1NT was to play a form of Rubensohl, so that the default agreements available to you other than Double or 2S were as follows: 1NT (2H) ? 2NT Transfer to 3C 3C Transfer to 3D 3D Ask for heart stop 3H Ask for spade stop 3S Values for game no major suit stops (or poor stops) 3NT Prepared to play in 3NT therefore probably having both majors stopped thank you in advance for any advice/suggestions/ideas regards Brian Keable (thebiker)

Thank you all for your replies You have given me much to think about as well as confirming some of my own thoughts/views of bidding in this area. regards thebiker Brian Keable

Partner opense 2NT (bal 21-22say) and you hold the following hands Hand A S AJTxxx H xx D Kxx C Kx Hand B S AJTxxx H x D Kxx C Kxx Hand C S AJTxxx H xxx D Kx C Kx Hand D S AJTxxxx H Void D Kxx C Kxx All of these hands could produce a slam or grand slam opposite the right 2NT opening, but might fail in 5 or even 4 level contracts (1) What methods are normally available to use to attempt to find the right contract (2) What specific methods do you use and why? (3) Do you think it important/practical to play methods that attempt to cover the majority of such situations? (4) Do you beleive it to be important to always right side the contract ie so that in these examples the hands final contracts (NT or Spades) should be played by opener ? (5) Do you have similar technology for similar minor suit responding hands? Thanks in advance for your feedback thebiker regards Brian Keable

Double can be played as two-way Penalty or Takeout If the Multi hand passes the chances are that he has W2S, and double is takeout of spades If opener runs (to hearts), double likely to be takeout of hearts The opponents will "tell" second hand what is going on thebiker regards Brian Keable