Quantumcat

Does anybody play the double as takeout of hearts? If not, why not? Esp. interested in answers from people who would double a 2♦ transfer for takeout of hearts, rather than showing diamonds. Also, do most people play a double of a Bergen raise as takeout of the bid major, or showing the suit the raise was made with?

Not sure if you understood what Antrax said. Maybe I didn't either, but my interpretation was that takeout doubler still had a takeout double later on, and because he bid spades rather than a lower suit, he must be OK to be in grand in any suit lower than spades, and probably wouldn't mind getting raised if responder had spades either. The guaranteed '5-3' fit he mentioned is diamonds, the '4-3' fit spades.

Not 100% sure how new minor forcing works, but avoiding this problem could be as simple as giving it a chance to bid its hearts below the four level and officially rejecting them, making the robot relieved to have been able to bid all of its hand. Sort of the same way you bid RKCB when you don't really care about the response rather than jumping to slam, to prevent the robot from bidding on to the seven level.

It's not okay for north to open 1♠ and bid 4♦, because you should try to tell the truth about relative suit lengths whenever you can. Bidding a higher ranked suit then a lower ranked suit always shows either equal length, or more of the higher suit than the lower one. The only reason people are saying it is okay to open 1♠ (after weakening the hand), is because they don't expect a chance to show any of their diamonds, and they'd rather show five cards with their opening than three. Even if they do get the opportunity to show their diamonds, they'll only ever be able to show four, and if they get really lucky, maybe five. But they'll definitely never be able to show the sixth.

However you can have your partner log in with the web version, and reserve a seat in your name while you are logged in, this will send you an invitation and you can play with them on the iPad version (you are talking about a Partnership Bidding Table, right?).

Wow I never knew about categories. I'll have to try that. I was going to add that a good reason to make someone a friend is so you can see when they log in. This may be people worth kibitzing, or people you want to play with, or people you like to chat to during vugraphs.

I am surprised hands with aces get downgraded. If dummy has xx xxx QJxxxxx x wouldn't you love to hold Axx Axx Axx Axxx? Duck the lead a few times, lose a diamond, if not unlucky (lead having five or more cards, AND holding the ♦K, OR diamonds 3-0 and opponent smart enough to duck), win the return and claim lots of tricks - 3NT on a combined 19 count. Conversely holding KJx KQx xxx AQxx, you can never make it, even though you can easily have two stoppers in every suit - they can even have led a four card suit (two long tricks in their suit, two diamond stoppers, plus the other ace, or two aces if their suit was clubs)

If you have no discussed system, it seems like 4♦ pass or correct is the most straightforward sensible meaning that partner is likely to get right (he is also guessing the meaning, and will go for the simplest most obvious one). Edit (response to Phil below:) According to Steve, 4♦ is pass/correct.

He says he has a gambling 3NT, so I assumed his partner could have a similar hand. If he is actually not allowed to have a singleton ace or king, I will bid 4♦ (to protect the ♥K) - it is very unlikely partner has a singleton spade, and you won't be able to make 11 tricks. If, however, the 4♦ bid is overcalled very confidently and firmly with 4♠, and if perhaps the other opponent sits up and starts resorting their hand - I might consider 5♦. If you bid 5♦ right now then you must have looked at the hand record and/or are hoping an opponent might lead away from their ♥A?

I would bid it this way: 1♥ 2♥(1) 3♣(2) 4♣(3) 4♠(4) 5♣(5) 5♠(6) 6♥(7) 7♥(8) 1. 8-10 raise 2. Long suit game try, or better. Here it is to see if responder will claim to any values in the side suits 3. Interested in game, no values in any suit except clubs 4. KC 5. 0 (as expected) 6. What is your holding in clubs (don't care about asking for the queen, we have a ten card fit) 7. KQ 8. He's shown only 5HCP in clubs, so must have the Q of trumps as well. But would he acceot the game invite with just Jxx Qxx xxxx KQx? Probably not. More likely is he has a five card club suit (will ruff once and the small one will be good for the other discard I want). Dummy comes down, he has the jack, that's as good as a five card suit :-)

I would bid 4♣ followed by 5♦ over the expected 4♦. Pard might have the king of spades and a singleton heart, so we want him declarer (don't want it to go spade through the ace, spade, heart). Singleton spade and two or more hearts is less likely (with which we want me to be declarer). I think we should be in game: for game to go down, pard must have a bad hand, and the opponents have to find the right lead, and the aces be badly situated.

Question - having shown only 2 ♥s, is he obligated to play in diamonds now, and must cue if he can? Or is he allowed to bid 4NT or 5♦, saying he is not interested in slam? Presumably he has at least four diamonds, with only ♦A72 he'd have bid 4NT. So I would have just assumed he had at least four, and therefore the diamonds are running, and bid 5NT to see if he had a black king to round out 13 tricks :-) (He probably does, ♠AQ9 ♥K5 ♦AQ32 ♣AJ32 might have warranted a 5♦ bid). Edit: Oops, I cannot count to 13, the only requirement of a bridge player. Sigh. So ignore the above, I just bid 7NT.

If people aren't allowed to do free science, they'll never be able to develop anything really good. Imagine what American bridge would be like today had the Convention Chart Committee (or whatever they're called) had been formed prior to Culbertson? Bridge would probably be extinct (in America - thriving everywhere else). What if Jenner had been forbidden from playing around with cowpox, and the smallpox vaccine was never invented? Every good thing science has gven us, was possible only because scientists were allowed free rein to experiment.

If 2♦ was to play I'm sure he would double in a flash, but it's a transfer, so he probably either needs a takeout of hearts, or a penalty of hearts (probably takeout if no penalty double, not sure if with the penalty double).

I don't see how it can be an unusual notrump overcall when they have bid diamonds (we don't try and play in opponent's suits) and partner has bid clubs (if you have clubs you can raise them). And if you had one or other or both of the majors, you would have bid them the first time. Can you access the hand record? I am curious.

lol Bradley, nicely spotted. Seems to happen whenever the robot has an uncomfortable auction.

If you're not using bidding boxes, wouldn't you circle your partner's bid and say "alert"?

Don't need to worry about that in Australia, nobody tips anybody, except as a way to avoid small coins in change :) This confused the heck out of us, when we went on a round-the-world trip a few years ago. Got off at LAX and took a shuttle bus to the hotel, and the driver kept hanging around us and chatting while we were trying to carry our bags into the reception, even though there were other people on the bus who needed to get to their hotels too. It really creeped us out. A few days later my uncle explained to us how things worked there, that service people get like 50c an hour and rely on tips so everybody always gives tips. We felt guilty and very sorry for the people at the restaurants and stuff we went to before we visited my uncle!!

Tried the link but all I got was a blank hand record?

This is what I suggested originally - tell them the differences (in basic procedural rules) between bridge and 500/whist/euchre and let them experiment for themselves for a lesson or two. Learning bidding when they don't see the purpose in it will seem like unnecessary complication. They will appreciate it (like you said) when they repeatedly find themselves in a stupid contract and would like to know how to consistently get to good ones. Also telling them about HCP right at the beginning I think will still be useful, even if you don't teach bidding. When holding some random collection of cards it's hard for a beginner to tell if they have a good hand or a weak hand - if they know about HCP and that ten is average, they can start to gain an appreciation for being strong or weak.

If you are looking for information on basic transfers over 1NT, check out the above link. If you are looking for more advanced transfer information, check out this article : http://www.australianbridge.com/article_39-1_transfers.pdf

Because I reserved 4 seats when first creating the table and didn't think about it till someone had to go and a kib wanted to take their place. OK, so if we ask really politely in English a couple of times, it's still OK even though they might not understand us? That's good. Someone told me once I could get in trouble for booting people who weren't making trouble/being rude/etc. Maybe a software suggestion could be an extra option available - "Always lock seats at tables you create" (just as a default, if you wanted to unlock the seats you could). I don't usually play against randoms, only people I know, so this would be really handy for me and others who also don't play against randoms.

In the best seat, 4+ HCP, four hearts and a singleton should be enough for 4♥ (not vul, with an unpassed opponent?). In worst seat, if 5332 probably would want a couple of values (two passed opponents, vul). But in between basically every hand with five hearts not good enough for a cue-raise would bid 4♥. If you are changing GIB, consult with an expert, but I'm sure they'll say something at least a little bit similar to this.

Related question - is it acceptable to boot somebody because you were trying to reserve a table for your friends, but they sat down before you could tick "permission required to play" then "apply and close", and you ask them politely could they please leave so your friend can sit down, and they speak very little english and after a few minutes of nobody making a bid or play they are still stubbornly refusing to move? It seems rude to boot somebody but also annoying to have to wait them out for five or ten or more minutes till they get bored and move of their own accord?

Is GIB a beginner being taught to add his points to partner's and bid game if they reach 25? With 11-12 total points shouldn't he start with a cue raise?