bluecalm

Why ? Discards doesn't help him at all. Against 6-2-0-5 I am happy to play a diamond and let him finesse the spades. Maybe he will fall for it. Let's say: AKJxxx Ax - KJTxx is what I am counting for. 7-2-0-4 is another story as here diamond could be fatal but it's so strange to bid 2C with 7 spades. Bidding 3S with that is insane. He has to have 6spades. Maybe he didn't bid 3C because that would be game forcing for them and he is just shy of that hence his choice of 2C and 3S.

Trumps seem to be least of my problems here. I need 10th trick and I can't get it by finessing clubs because I will lack communication to play 3rd one from dummy if hearts are 0-3. Even finessing Qxx of hearts starting with an 8 won't help with that as they will always be able to ruff 3rd club as long as my K of hearts is in dummy. So I play 4♥ to the K. If hearts are 2-1 I have additional entry and I can finesse spades twice. If they don't behave I draw trumps and try finessing J♣.

Meh, usually partner reopens anyway and negative double allows you to double them when the trump stuck is in the opener's hand.

I feel that 4S right of the bat is the best play. Then I double 5H of course, to show who the boss is. Srsly, it will make line one time out of 5 anyway and all the juicy spazzes we induce will be a nice bonus.

He could be 3-3-3-4. I don't dispute that fragment might be better use for the bid. 5c as cuebid just seems natural to me. I feel it's very difficult to decide what is more useful.

I think cue-bid setting diamonds as trumps. Something like: Axxx xx AKJxxx x

Thanks !

3NT. We don't have great defence. On a bad day they make it (7 diamonds tricks + AQ spades in dummy or something) and getting 800 seems far away. 3NT should be safe on the other hand, their diamond are useless in defense so it will be 11 tricks most of the time.

Ok, so I managed to deal hands from .lin file, cool. Few problems: -I can't figure out how to use rented GIB's as opponents. So far I've been using old bbo client and there is this option but in web client I only see "Pass throughout" and "Controlled by host". How do I use GIBs I just rented for the purpose ? -I would be really cool if I could choose a line (NS/WE) to sit on from given .lin file without closing and reopening the table. Anyway, this is really cool :) I think the hassle to find all those options might be too much for average user though. Something like a button: "compare yourself to Helgemo" where GIBs automatically bid as opponents would be great :)

I consider myself rather literate computer user but I unable to figure out how to do this. I click on Import LIN file, "Import LIN file" window pops up. Now my options are "select" and "create hand folder". With the latter I just add more folders, when I click select nothing happens. When I click "Show" next to it I get the message that the folder is empty. How do I move .lin files there from my hard drive ? I also tried drag and dropping .lin files. What I got in response "are you sure you want to leave BBO" dialong box. EDIT: ok, Chrome automatically blocked a pop-up when you can select a file and I didn't notice it because there is only small icon in top right corner telling me about it :)

Right. I think he is 6-3-0-4 then. Bidding 2C with that is strange. 3S is impossible.

Interesting why declarer is playing a heart. It doesn't look like they are ruffing, unless they are 6-3-0-4. More likely declarer is 6-1-2-4 and want us to help him with black suits. For example: AKJxxx Ax x KQTx. Both club and spade is fatal here. So... I take it and play a diamond. I can't see how that one could lose.

In partnership bidding allow inputting .lin files and choosing line for pair to bid. For example you could download .lin files from Spingold final, choose the line Helgemo-Helness played on and bid the hands and then compare to what happened at the table. This paired with rented GIB bidding for opponents would be really cool. Please..... :) You could also monetize by selling packs of say 500 hands bid by elite pairs and adding options like: "review hands where different contract happend" etc.

2D but reverse is close imo. Then: 1H - 1N 2D - 2H 2S - pass 1H - 1N 2S - 3S 4S

I like: 2N - ? 3S = minors 3N = to play 4C/D = slam try in that suit Now, 5-4's and 5-5 in majors are bid via Smolen. Slam tries in one major are bid via transfer and 2nd major. After stayman you can bid 3N with both majors and then use 4C/4D as slam tries in H/S. You can use transfers if you prefer right siding and then maybe 4C as puppet to slam try or w/e. Stayman and then 4m is 4M-5m SI. 4H/4S are free, may be used for w/e.

While you can still open 1NT with 5M-3-3-2 15-17 when playing Gazilli you can't do that the other way around, at least not comfortably and not without some other gadget to sort ranges out. So, one of the points of Gazilli is being able to open 1M with 5M-3-3-2 and 15-17hcp which elite pairs playing it takes advantage of (all Italian pairs religiously open 1M with that shape).

While you can still open 1NT with 5M-3-3-2 15-17 when playing Gazilli you can't do that the other way around, at least not comfortably and not without some other gadget to sort ranges out. So, one of the points of Gazilli is being able to open 1M with 5M-3-3-2 and 15-17hcp which elite pairs playing it takes advantage of (all Italian pairs religiously open 1M with that shape).

Now when we know LHO and RHO are good, is it possible that LHO would realize that playing a club with Qxx of diamonds is suicide because we are going to hook having Tx/Jx so they wouldn't play a club holding Qxx of diamonds ?

I think 3N as both majors goes well with stayman promising 4M because then 4C/4D after 3N are slam tries in H/S. I think it doesn't work in Adam's version as being able to make a slam try in openers major seems to be very important.

Yeah the point is to open 1M and not 1NT on 5M-(3-3-2)'s or at least have a choice to do so. If you utilize standard 15-17 NT range 15 becomes borderline because then you are forced to game opposite 8hcp which might not be your cup of tea.

Hard to imagine plausible reasoning for other lead. Diamonds are out in absence of overcall, a heart might work but we need much more here than in spades.

What happens if opener has both majors ? 2N - 3C ? - ? how to bid: a)slam try in partner's major b)slam try in our minor here ?

This annoys me because I didn't quote anything out of context and from what I saw nor did other posters. Also you are in fact are claiming that this is good system because of the numbers presented in the tables. Here is the quote: "However you slice these numbers, there can be little doubt that the Fantunes bidding system generates a net IMP gain for its proponents". This quote ends the chapter with the reasoning in question. Your reasoning is incorrect and the numbers don't show anything. Instead of owning up to it you start criticizing posters for fair assessment of the little chapter about Fantunes stats. Still it might be a good system and this might a good book (I am a little disappointed by it because I hoped for more details but apparently I am not target audience as it turns out the book is more of an overview than description of serious/pro level system).

5S for me. Imo cuebidding here shows better hand. I am not sure if we are makign 5S even 50% of the time but the pot odds are there in this colours and once in a blue moon they make 5C anyway. Additional bonus is that if we bid quickly and confidently they might be tempted to go for a save.

I don't like it. I don't want relays to 3NT, I want a bid to show minors so partner can bid 3NT if he doesn't like minors. Why not use 4C/4D as natural slam tries ? This is bad. They double 3S often enough to hurt you. Added precision will never be worth it and you can't play 3NT opposite hand with minors which sucks. While 3S as transfer to 3N is bad this is very very bad, you can't even play 4NT now. So if opener is 4-4-3-2 you are in 5-3 or 4-3 5m instead of NT game. This is what happens when some crazy tinkerer start writing systems forgetting about how bridge scoring works.