bluecalm

Double dummy sim barely prefers Qs to Jd (I excluded 11+ with 5 cd major and any hand with 6+ major) but it solves some problems for declarer. I am still in Jd camp.

Both vulnerable and we play polish club where 1/1 is constructive (at least 7hcp). 1C* - pass - 1S - 1NT** *=polish, most of the time 12-14bal **= opponent explained as: "as normal 1NT but 9-11" He in fact had that. It was 500 due to some lucky breaks for him :)

[hv=pc=n&w=sj97h954dj953caj2&e=sakt432haq2d642c6&d=n&v=e&b=9&a=1n(%3F)d2cpp2sp2nppp]266|200[/hv] NS are Brink-Drijver. W is Helgemo. 1NT was probably 9-12 but maybe 10-13 or maybe 12-14 (cc of Brink-Drijver from Bermuda Bowl says 9-12). 2♣ = clubs. First trick: 5♣, 6♣, K♣, A♣. We play J♠ and see a 5 on the left. Well ? How strong 1NT have to be to make it a finesse ? Or maybe it's finesse (or drop) regardless of the range ? I have some thoughts but I am not sure if I am doing it correctly. The difference between getting it right and wrong is 4 tricks so 450 points.

[hv=d=n&v=0&b=1&a=1spp2h2s3d]133|100[/hv] [hv=d=n&v=0&b=1&a=pp1h2s3d]133|100[/hv] Does it promise a fit: -in your partnership ? -for most people in your area ? Which do you think is the best agreement ?

Meanwhile when I am wondering if partner is obliged to reopen with 18-19 there are players who double with 12-14 :-) And I thought I am aggressive reopener...

Thanks. English is not my native language and I always appreciate people who teach me something about it :)

There are two things which I think are interesting: -At the table N doubled which I think is wrong but which is considered "obvious" by many people in my country -We were debating with a friend if after reopening double N should bid 5H or 4N followed by 5H (showing stronger hand) and if this hand qualifies for this bidding (assuming the agreement) or if it is too weak. I don't have an opinion about 2nd. I polled two friends (both world champions in various junior categories) and one likes 5H and one prefers 4N -> 5H.

I should've asked follow up question too: If you pass, what do you bid when partner reopens ?

[hv=pc=n&n=sk8ht98632dkq98c8&d=e&v=n&b=2&a=p1c4s]133|200[/hv] 1♣ - 2+, including 11-13,18-19 and 22-23 bal

I like bidding 3N with 18-19 bal but then imo we should bid 2N with 6+clubs even if we are always bidding 3N after. The reason is that they might bid 4S and then partner needs that information. I am not buying arguments about leaking info to them as it doesn't matter. They are leading a spade no matter what and either we have 9 tricks or we don't. The layout of clubs will be apparent anyway once we play to trick 2.

Or 6clubs - 5 hearts I believe.

Sorry I assumed you do play that I thought people in Netherlands generally do and I assumed too much. Traditionally everybody played NFB's. Now transfer became popular but standard are still nfb's. Nobody heard about 2D being forcing with diamonds here :) I always thought opening 2N with those hands is a price you pay for the rest of the system (no way to bid that in standard, awkward in precision). My guess is that you play something better than American Standard and have some way to bid strong hand with clubs after 1/1. You are not up to bridge lingo. "Short" means "possibly 2" in this context. I am unable to understand it. Nobody is suggesting 2N should be forcing to 3C or w/e. It's just 18-19 balanced. How does it not work ? Partner just raises to 3N barring some extreme hand. I like the suggestion that 3N should be 18-19 and 2N should promise 6+clubs. I think saying which hand type you have (6clubs or 18-19 balanced) is very important. In fact it's so important in competition that many elite partnership (all Italian pairs) removed 18-19 balanced from their 1C opening altogether. We don't have that in standard so let's at least have some agreements like: dbl = strong hands which doesn't fit elsewhere 2N = clubs + stopper 3S = clubs + shortness 3N = 18-19bal or w/e to allow us to compete in clubs if necessary.

Are you sure the plus is so sure with Jxx of diamonds and minimum hand ? :) Passing this double is huge blunder. You rarely see mistake that big (in terms of EV imps) in bidding barring total brain farts and system forgets.

Imo: -3N shows long clubs + stopper and partne is strongly advised to not remove it. We would bid 2N with 18-19. -pass after 4S is forcing as we showed a lot of points -we have easy bid after 4S but what that bid is I do not know (5C/4N/6C) -I guess you don't play nfb's because then 2D would be perfect -I don't like 2C, partner could have 2 clubs. Bidding 3C or 3D is madness. What else ? You bid 2N with 18=19, right ? Or maybe if you bid 3N with 18-19 then 2N should show long clubs. One or the other, playing both as potentially being balanced hands is very bad. Even without it bidding this 18-19 balanced in competition is a nightmare because many bids (most doubles, 3N if we are at 3level) doesn't show clubs now which hurts.

Interesting, do you think it's better to have this than just "bid a slam with diamond control ?". I intuitively prefer the latter but no strong opinion. As to the hand I feel pass is perfect. Even if we flop Kxx Kxxxxx Axx x which is too much to hope for with perfect values and much more than partner needs to accept our try imo, the slam is still about 50%.

I like this. Now the players will tell/show operators the score after every hand instead of having them to guess in cases of claims/too fast play. Of course players should be able to look/verify after the match is over. Bridge will be more pleasant to watch now :)

Why ? Hands with hearts will now have all freed splinter bids available for enhanced precision !

I like 3♠. I hope it shows strong one suiter (I could've doubled or bid 3NT with 18-19 balanced). If partner bids 3NT now I can probably pass or maybe raise to 4N. If partner doesn't bid 3NT then the slam should should be very good. If I bid 4C instead I won't be able to stop in NT barring some very good non-standard methods available.

Link to results/rules/hands ?

I believe they are hurting humanity by promoting it !

I agree. In this case though if he accepts my game try with 4S I will be happy to bid rkcb and bid the slam if we are no missing two any and maybe invite a grand if we have all of them.

Yeah, the hand is too strong for 4H. Let's say partner has AKxx Kxx Axxx xx slam is laydown and he has clear 4S bid. Imo it will be difficult to stop at game level here. I start with 3C which might come in handy if we need input from partner. He will now xx of clubs is perfect and xxx is bad. It sounds like you misread our hand. It's 6-1-2-4, not 5-1-2-4 :-) We are cold for 12 tricks opposite many hand which will not even think about moving after 4H.

This is expert forum so let's assume we play some decent system. Of course this too strong for 3D so I bid w/e there is to show strong hand be it 2H, 2N or 3C. I object calling a system without a way to show very common hand type "standard", let's call it "american traditional system" ATS from now on. Anyway, now I pass. What else ? But in ATS the openings are in range of 11-22 and we are ignoring 16-22 part altogether in most sequences if we don't have 5-5 or 5-4 strong enough to force to game opposite mere 1/1 response. It's not "some hole" it's just ancient, terrible and difficult to play system which has no business being discussed in expert forum unless for historical reasons.

Yeah ok. I can see that, especially at imps where maybe 2C if 4S doesn't make anyway isn't a disaster. Right, my hand wasn't a good try. I just can't imagine anybody bidding 3S with 5 spades and I think everything ranging from 8-4 to 18hcp and 6-5 is more likely than that. Back to reality though. There are only two shapes: 6-2-0-5 and 7-2-0-4 which are remotely likely. I didn't appreciate the latter possibility at first. I can see my mistake now. I think I would play a spade now. It would hurt if partner insert a jack from Jxx thinking we have ATx/KTx and are looking for relatively safe return.

True that but who bids 2C with 7-2-0-4 ? I mean, I have no idea but nobody in Poland does that and I've never seen something like that by a good player. We are risking playing in some 4-3/4-4 2C paritial having 8-9 spades on the side. Seems ridiculous :)