bluecalm

It reminds me of discussion with one good player I recently had what is the minimum hand with 4-4-2-3 shape which we double with in this situation. I am quite convinced that about any 13 is a double here while he says it's marginal at best and he probably would pass many 13's here. For example those hands: AQxx AQxx Jx xxx AQxx AQxx xx Jxx AQxx AQxx xx Qxx They all looks like easy double to me. Thoughts ?

I will think about it. As it is it lays on my hard drive for almost 2 years now. I am amateur programmer and task of putting together nice front end scares me a bit and code itself probably would need some restructuring too (it's not even proper db, I just use huge list of bridge hand objects which is fast (imports 250k hands under a minute from lin files) but probably not good solution for a site. Anyway, thanks for interest I will make available one way or the other soon. You could try downloading a file I attached to see that Italians indeed bid 2S with stiff sometimes (and sometimes choose 2N).

I created it myself. I've written it for myself in Python and the source is kinda messy but I could make it available on github if there is interest. It has no interface and you need to know a bit of Python to use it (there is bunch of functions you can invoke from command prompt to read hands from .lin files, filter for players/sequencies etc. and create lins out of it). I've also written tools for cleaning lin files (removing all the junk which is usually stored in them), downloading .lins of chosen players/chosen periods from vugraph archives page etc. etc. I have my doubts if any non-programmer could use it and I don't have much motivation now to make nice interface for it that's why I didn't publish it anywhere.

This is a problem with Gazilli, it doesn't come up too often though. As 2N is free bid here you can use it for hands without 5hearts and with 0-1 spades. Believe it or not, they more or less do :) Here are their efforts recorded on vugraph: http://www.qfpost.com/file/d?g=SAXYWnYlG (filtered for 0-1 spades, 0-4 hearts, 0-5 minors and 0-7hcp) Also I have about 32k hands played by Versace/Bocchi/Sementa and only 7 of them ended up in this situation.

It is restricted choice situation but what restricted choice does is change probabilities (specifically cut probability of holding with 2 equal cards in half). If those probabilities were far away to begin with (which they seem to be in this case) restricted choice won't change the correct decision. In the classic example of AKTxx to xxxx suit initial holding of J/Q/QJ are more or less equally probable (1/3, 1/3, 1/3) so seeing J gives us: 1/3 - 1/6 (1/6 = 1/3*1/2) or 66%-33% for stiff J. Here if your estimation was say 60% for AJT and 20% for AJ/AT each it still gives 30-20 or 60-40 for LHO holding AJT after applying restricted choice.

I had long discussion about this with one internet pd and we agreed that it's penalty if they are bidding spades and t/o if they are bidding hearts. At 3 level, say: 1/2S - p - 3S - p p - d We agreed to play it as t/o. I am not convinced either way. My first instinct was "always penalty" but I have my doubts now and I am quite happy with our agreement as it surely has to be very rare scenario that we are happy to play on 5 level but weren't happy to double 3 level preempt. (or 2 level, or 1 level opening).

I agree with you in principle but here cost is low and invites could still be useful if we have "pass with junk and trump stiff partner" kind of hand. The system I described is designed to make 2M wide ranging with compulsory raises with support and good raise available (3D) to reduce the very problem you describe. Also even with slammish hands it's useful to know what kind of hand opener has which 3D/3H transfer allows you to while 3M as forcing don't. While it's great idea in precision you can't do that in polish club because 1D is 5+cards there (or 4 in rare cases of 4-4-4-1 or 5-4 minors). You could put (3-4)-1-5 hands in 1C but adding (1-4)-3-5 would ruin the system. So what do I bid with Axx KQxx KJxx xx ?

So how do you find 4-4 fits if responder has GF values ? Btw, the most standard way to play in my country is 5+NF but people vary if passing with singleton is acceptable.

We play that in Poland a lot (as it's part of standard pc) and I think it sucks :) Imo the best option for 2M responses is NF but responder only pass with 2 cards (he raises with 3, bid 3D with very good raise and bid something natural with stiff be it 2S/2N/3C). That means you have to pass with weak hand and 6carder (without club support) but you are no better off if you play it as forcing. This way you may have quite wide range 2M knowing partner won't pass with support thus you won't miss many games. As to stronger hands with 6+carder I like: 2C - 3D = 6+hearts, invite+ 2C - 3H = 6+spades, invite+ Which removes hands with 6+cards from 2C-2D making it possible to find majors 5-3.

We play that in Poland a lot (as it's part of standard pc) and I think it sucks :) Imo the best option for 2M responses is NF but responder only pass with 2 cards (he raises with 3, bid 3D with very good raise and bid something natural with stiff be it 2S/2N/3C). That means you have to pass with weak hand and 6carder but you are no better off if you play it as forcing. This way you may play 2M as quite wide range knowing partner won't pass with support thus you won't miss many games. As to stronger hands with 6+carder I like: 2C - 3D = 6+hearts, invite+ 2C - 3H = 6+spades, invite+ Which removes hands with 6+cards from 2C-2D making it possible to find majors 5-3.

I don't know. Spade void isn't the end of the world yet (partner needs to have no diamonds/heart stopper nor Ac or declarer needs to have Ks providing vital discard). I am not sure though, it seems close to me and I have trouble being objective here knowing the full hand :) It seems that I managed to create close poll finally. Btw, notice how awesome it is that I can link to random hand from some tournament in small Polish town and have all info there while you can't find anything like that even for Vanderbilt final in ACBL land.. :)

Full hand: http://www.pzbs.pl/wyniki/turnieje/2012/gpp/04starachowice/scav017.html When polled I've lead a club. My friend managed to convince me that spade is better but I don't know how much I am influenced by knowing the whole hand. His argument is that it's quite likely that club gives up a trick but for it to be necessary to open clubs on 1st lead one of the following have to happen: a)partner doesn't have As AND partner doesn't have diamond/heart stopper AND partner doesn't have Aof clubs (because in those cases we will be able to open clubs later) b)there is spade void and hearts needs only one tempo to develop again without heart/diamond stopper in partner's hand c)there is a spade void and Kx in declarer spade will provide vital club discards Those seems unlikely comparing to just blowing a trick by club lead. Thanks all for insights :)

[hv=pc=n&w=st97632haj3dckt97&d=n&v=0&b=1&a=pp1d1s2h3d4d4s5dppp]133|200[/hv] 2H was negative free bid (could be 7pc and five hearts or w/e) Imps, pick-up partnership. Your lead ? If you have any comments on bidding please share :)

Yes, it's the same country - Poland. We don't announce anything (which sucks) we don't alert NFB's or transfers over 1NT (because everybody plays that). If you bid 2D as forcing and don't alert you can run into trouble so be careful if you ever play here ;)

I keep forgetting there are people out there who play 2D as forcing :) In my country 2D as NFB is natural and non-alertable. Everybody plays that :)

Partner would bid 3H with that hand.

Imo it's interesting problem. It's common choice: to double or to bid 5card major directly when you can end up playing 5-1 support. Then after dbl partner often faces common dillema too: to bid 3card fit or not. For example recently I had: 1H 2C 2D dbl 2H ? How often should some 3-2-2-6 bid 2S here ?

The problem is rather untypical. I was W and I asked about 2NT (it was alerted) when it was my turn. It was explained as "club preempt". I passed and 2NT bidder bid 3H which was raised to 4. I called TD because I felt 4H was difficult to reach without UI. TD basically ignored me :) Full hand: http://www.pzbs.pl/wyniki/turnieje/2012/gpp/03lodz/ldgppp006.html

Btw I need that as a panel for UI problem so please vote even if you are not interested in discussing this position :)

Ok guys, thanks. I've learnt something today. I am in 3D camp now. I bid 3N, people wanted to bid various thing which pass being considered serious option. 3N was down one (it would be final contract after 3D too), 2S went for 800.

[hv=pc=n&n=shakqj6dq4cqjt953&d=e&v=e&b=6&a=pp1d2np3cp]133|200[/hv] Casual partnership. No special agreements. Your bid ? EDIT: it's matchpoints

100% E. I mean it's 6 spades, 6-4 distribution and 7pc.

In my private panel with some quite good young players nobody bid 3D :) yeah, I am surprised I opened 1N with that;

I agree with this. Still, hands where we don't have convenient bid after 1m - dbl - rdbl are even more rare. I play only vs diamonds 4+ (or 5+ or 4-4-4-1 or 4-5minors) my all life and I already encountered several hands when I wanted to pass 1D redoubled. The situation is different after 1M, especially after 1S because then we often have several possible places to play and want to offer a choice to partner. Also I think that after rdbl you should be very aggressive and bid routinely 2S with any 5 spades or good four. People redouble too much and it pays off to jump to their throat with garbage when they can't profitably double you. For example: KTxxx xx xxx xxx is easy 2S imo. I wouldn't ever pass with any hand with half decent suit. The only other meaning of pass than penalty which makes sense imo is 3-3 in majors exactly without 5 clubs (with 3-2 we are not comfortable anyway if partner bids our 2 card major so it's better to bid 3 card major ourselves hoping they can't double that).

[hv=pc=n&s=sjt7hakdaqt52ck92&d=s&v=b&b=7&a=1n2sdp]133|200[/hv] 2♠ = 5spades-4+minor double = negative LHO is very good. RHO is a client. Our decision ?