Quantumcat

That's exactly what she had. Five bad diamonds, three good spades and four good hearts.

At our club's once-a-month teams night the other night, an auction begins 1NT (me) (X) XX. My RHO asks me what the redouble is, I explain to her either clubs, or two suits not clubs. She turns to my partner and asks, "So, can I make a double over that?". It's frowned upon as unfriendly in my club to call the director for anything other than insufficient bids and other straightforward matters, so neither of us calls the director. Anyway, after some umming and ahing she bids 2♦ over which her partner bids 2♠ with a minimum penalty double and diamond support, and they end up in 4♠, making. If this had happened at a proper event instead of a small club teams night, what would the director do, assuming we called him over?

Perhaps someone should write some bridge phrasebooks? It could contain a large selection of conventions, and you can dog-ear or stick a bookmark in all the ones you are likely to be asked, so you can either explain, or just show the page of the book to your opponent, when they ask.

You can solve the lebensohl problem (not knowing what partner is going to bid) by playing transfers over reverses. Now you know what partner is going to do and can take appropriate action - completing the transfer if you don't mind if pard signs off and staying out of their way if they are stronger, and bidding something else if you are strong enough for game even if pard wants to sign off. And pard knows now you have extra values if he actually had a gameforce, rather than you just had good shape and not being certain about your values as would happen if you didn't bid 3♣ over 2NT Lebensohl.

A related question, what is the right rebid after 1♠ 2♦ (GF) with: ♠KQT952 ♥AJ54 ♦- ♣T87? I thought I might be denying four hearts with a 2♠ bid, so I bid 2♥, then the auction continued 3♦ 3♠ 3NT. Two off when partner only had a flimsy club stopper, and jack doubleton spade, with four spades cold (losing 3 aces). Partner says I may have just been bidding 3♠ because I don't have a club stopper and there is no room to ask. That makes sense. But, if partner has a really good diamond suit and a bad four card heart suit, might he not bid 3♦ instead of 3♥ after 1♠ 2♦ 2♠? Then if I bid 3♥, might I not just have some heart values and no club values to bid 3NT with? For example, with ♠KQJ65 ♥AQJ ♦75 ♣876, the auction might go 1♠ 2♦ 2♠ 3♦ 3♥ ? when partner has: ♠- ♥T763 ♦AQJT653 ♣KJ? If the right rebid for me with that hand is 2NT instead of 2♠, what if you take one or two of the small diamonds and make them small clubs?

If you place the weaker pair against the stronger pair, it's possible for them to get crushed and no matter how many imps you get at your table, they can't make up for the several 1100s and games being allowed to make at the other table. If their better pair is better than you, and their weaker pair is still better than your weaker pair, you can at least get a small loss by playing the strong/strong and weak/weak. But of course you can gamble that all the cards are not on the side of your weaker pair, then if you have all the decisions and play as well as you possibly can, you might even win (your weaker pair has no opportunity to exercise their bad judgement, and the pair stronger than you that you're playing against doesn't have the chance to make brilliant decisions, so you're simply pitched against their weaker pair). Of course psychological factors are important too. There is a woman that I come across in local country congresses on a regular basis, who has the most horrible, irritating, annoying, grating accent/voice you can possibly imagine (I think she has picked up all the horrible bits of accents from around the globe, leaving behind the nice sounds), so that whenever she opens her mouth I have a most desperate urge to punch her in the face. Makes it hard to concentrate. So I try to never play against her if I can help it.

The good thing about passing is you have limited your hand. Now you can go nuts when the opponents start bidding, not worrying about getting hung by partner. Conversely if you open 1♠, there are a few things that can go wrong: 1. The auction gets too high too quickly and you never get to introduce your clubs. 2. Pard doubles them in something and you haven't yet introduced your clubs - what to do? Pard may have several trump tricks when you can't make anything if you decide to take it out, or perhaps he is counting on you for a couple of defensive tricks for your opening, they make, and you had a ten card club fit all along that you could have made 5♣ in. 3. Pard insists on bidding lots and lots of red suits, holding a 13-count he assumes we can make game and trying to get out in a black suit partscore is impossible. Either you guess to pass him in a red-suit partscore or continue bidding your hand - if you pass him in a partscore he may have had a 20-count all along and you miss something, or you meekly continue bidding and end up lots down - and if you got doubled, this could have been avoided by passing, and they may open or reply 1♠ or reply 2♣, warning you out of getting into a horrible penalty. Some example auctions of passing making it easy to show your hand, giving pard plenty of info so he won't do anything stupid: P (1NT) P (2♦) 2♥ P (1♦) P (1♥) 1NT P (1♥) P (2NT) 3♥

General rule is when there is interference you are allowed to bid one higher than you would have without it. So a single raise becomes a raise at the 3-level (1♠ 2♠----->1♠ 3♥ 3♠), and an invitational hand just bids game (1♠ 3♠------>1♠ 3♥ 4♠). 4♥ is for when you would have gameforced anyway. It may be important for pard to know this. When you are pre-empted, you generally find a sensible spot and play there. The more heavily you get pre-empted, the more you lean to the side of caution and don't bother looking for slam. This is cause pard has many less options about what to bid, and can make a certain bid with a large variety of hands, so you never quite know what you're going to get in dummy. So when you look for slam, you're going to be way more solid than if you hadn't got pre-empted. For instance, a balancedish 16 would have investigated slam after a gameforce by partner, but after 1♠ 3♥ 4♥ it would just bid game and be grateful it has extras. Sometimes you miss out on slam because you both have a few extras but neither of you had lots. That's life, that's why people pre-empt. Way better to occasionally miss out on those slams than to be minus one in 5♠ on a regular basis. So anyway, the sorts of hands that would be investigating slam after the 4♥ bid will be fairly sure of making five even opposite a weird random hand from partner: either be quite solid on HCP or with lots of controls possibly with a nice side suit. With the nice amount of HCP you might blackwood (knowing there are no holes {i.e queens and kings in your suits} that the opponents can get three tricks with if you are missing two aces), and with the large amount of controls/side suit you might show a control, then if pard has the one you said you didn't have, he will jump to slam.

I would have bid 2♥ first, then if it went 1♠ 2♥ 2♠ P P ? I would make a takeout double, and correct 3♣ to 3♦ and partner would get the idea. Partner probably won't jump in clubs because they didn't bid 3♣ or double themselves, if they do jump it will be on long suit and not a strong hand, so it would be safe to leave them there.

I would go: 1♣(1) (2♠) 3♥(2) (P) 4♦(3) 4NT(4) 6♣ 1. 15+ balanced, or natural 14+ hcp, not 5+♣/4+♥ or 5+♦/4+♣ unless of good reversing strength, and not 5+♣/4+♠ unless 21+ hcp 2. Cue-raise, would like a 3NT bid if opener is balanced with stopper. 3/4. RKCB, 2 without queen If there had been 4♠ showing 0 or 3, opener would ask for responder's diamond holding with 5♣, an ask in the lowest side suit (not signoff if responder has three or more keycards). With a response of 5♥ (doubleton or queen), opener will ask which with 5♠, after 5NT (doubleton) opener bids 7♣, and after 6♣/6♦, showing queen third or longer/queen doubleton, opener can bid 7NT. If responder had bid 5♦ (Jxx or worse/longer), opener can ask in hearts with 5♥, if opener bids 5♠ showing nothing, opener can bid 6NT, if he bids 5NT showing doubleton or queen, opener bids 6♦ asking which, if responder bids 6♥ (doubleton) opener can bid 6NT, if responder bids 6♠ (queen third or longer) opener can bid 7NT, if responder bids 6NT (queen doubleton), opener can pass.

The only problem is when your partner has a lot of spades - they'd love to bid 4♠, but are they going to find a good dummy with four or five spades, or a bad hand without many spades? These hands are very different to each other!

As well as the results being posted on the net, here in Aus in between rounds a caddy comes round and gives everyone a small printout with official scores and any useful information (datums, pair rankings against datums, VPs, teammate performance, overall team ranking, next opponent number) that you check against your personal scoresheet to make sure the official scores are correct and any issues can be raised right away rather than at the end of the event. Is this the sort of thing you are talking about? Nowadays there isn't any need to score up with your teammates and confirm the result with the losing team and hand in a score - the score up you do with your teammates after a round is just for an approximate score and/or to promote team spirit and/or to assuage curiosity about whether they defended right on such and such a board or bid the slam on some other board.

When deciding what to do with AKQ8 opposite 765, the only holdings where it matters what you do (in all other, either the play is obvious, or there is nothing you can do), are: xxx JT9 9xxx JT Txxx J9 Jxxx T9 A priori, a 3-3 break is 35.5% and a 2-4 break is 24.25%. If we assume it has to be one or the other, adjusting so they remain in the same proportion but add to 100%, we have 3-3 break 59.4% and 2-4 break 40.6%. So we have xxx JT9 = 59.4% 9xxx JT = 13.5% Txxx J9 = 13.5% Jxxx T9 = 13.5%. Edit: there are some rounding issues so this only adds to 99.9%. Add (0.01/3)% to each of the 13.5% if you are concerned. We divide the 2-4 break in thirds because as soon as it doesn't split in any of these ways, we would be ceasing this analysis, we'd either know how to play it or wouldn't be able to. Now we work out the percentage chance of RHO playing any combination of his cards. First round J (JT9) 19.8% T (JT9) 19.8% 9 (JT9) 19.8% J (JT) 6.75% T (JT) 6.75% J (J9) 0% ---> cards are not equal so he does not have free choice 9 (J9) 13.5% T (T9) 6.75% 9 (T9) 6.75% Second round J then 9 (JT9) 9.9% J then T (JT9) 9.9% T then 9 (JT9) 9.9% T then J (JT9) 9.9% 9 then J (JT9) 9.9% 9 then T (JT9) 9.9% All the doubletons remain the same percentage as the 1st round, since they have no choice what to play next: J then T (JT) 6.75% T then J (JT) 6.75% 9 then J (J9) 13.5% T then 9 (T9) 6.75% 9 then T (T9) 6.75% Now we are in a position to determine RHO's most likely holdings given his play. He has played T then J: the ratio JT9:JT = 9.9:6.75, or around 3:2 So, it is better to play for 3-3, assuming your opponents don't religiously give count and don't give suit preference. More interesting is 9 then J. Then the ratio JT9:J9 is 9.9:13.5 or around 3:4, so you would finesse. I worked all this out for myself, and don't know of any standard approach to this particular problem, so if there is a mistake in my analysis, or the standard approach is to finesse, please let me know.

Thanks barmar, I'll try that next time.

Just wondering if it is possible to have options we've selected stay there between logging off and logging back in again. For example, autoplay singleon, keyboard bidding & play, and card animation off? Thanks.

Thanks, seems fine now.

Is there a current problem with the iPad app? I've been getting the message "Connection failed" for two days (before and after installing the latest update).

I think this is standard if playing 2/1, expert or not.Example hand: ♠KQJT983 ♥AQ2 ♦4 ♣Q2 Doesn't need extras, just a good enough spade suit to play opposite a singleton or void. I think this is standard when playing Standard.

1♦ 1♥ 1♠ 2♦ 3♣ 3♦ 3♥ 3♠ 3NT 1♦ = exactly 4 spades, 8+HCP (rule has been known to be bent with a nice suit like this one) 1♥ = 10+ any shape 1♠ = less than 9 controls and not 10-11 balanced 2♦ = transfer, sign-off or gameforce 3♣ = I would rather play 3♣ than 2♥ if you have a sign-off 3♦ = I have a gameforce and I also have diamonds 3♥ = well if I have to choose one or the other 3♠ = come on I'm reeeaaaally interested in slam (♠ values) 3NT = Please leave me be Pass = Pard did not accept the transfer, meaning he has small doubleton heart at best. He probably does not have the king of spades and/or three or four diamonds, which would make him inclined to co-operate after having rejected a couple of tries already. No fit (and possibly no entry to pard's clubs) will make it hard to find 12 tricks. Probably we would not get to the slam, South would probably overcall 5♣ and play there. If it had only been a 3♥ raise though, South would bid 4♣ michaels, North might bid 5♥ (I have some heart losers - spades only logical trump suit for this bid), and South would bid 6♥ (maybe the info will allow pard to bid seven) and North quickly bids 6♠ being worried about his 5♥ bid in the first place.

I found the article. Here it is: http://www.australianbridge.com/article_39-1_transfers.pdf

A similar example on the Australian Bridge bidding forum - Hand 5 of the March-June issue. (To see it, go to http://www.australianbridge.com/ then click BF archive on top left, then March-June). 3NT got 65% of the Expert votes, and 21% of the Reader votes.

500 is "fun" bridge with some randomness added. It's quite popular amongst highschoolers here. The joker is the highest trump, and can beat any card in notrumps. Jacks are called "bowers" and become trumps of the same colour (i.e. the jack of clubs becomes a trump if the contract is spades). This makes bidding be more "spirited" (if you have some jacks your hand becomes better if you can make them trumps). There is a "kitty" of a couple of cards that declarer wins, and can swap any cards in his hand for the cards in the kitty. This makes things more random and you can't count suits so well (you don't always know how many cards are in each suit). Here is a link to the Wikipedia page. Didn't know till I had a quick skim through it that it is mostly only popular in Australia/NZ. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/500_(card_game)

Hi Ben, When I learnt at the ANU bridge club, there would be about two tables most of the time, one table would be playing and chatting and the other would have any complete beginners at it, for learning the basic rules. When there weren't any complete beginners we'd just play random hands and the more experienced members would answer questions from the less experienced, or make a short lesson if a good example hand came up. The rest of the time was chatting, laughing, and having fun. Sometimes only two of us turned up so the teacher would give us more "advanced" lessons, like Stayman, or how to give signals. Memorably on one occasion I was the only one who turned up, it was about my fifth or sixth time, and the teacher taught me about simple squeezes. lol. I spent the next four sessions going down in cold contracts because I would be trying to find squeezes. This might not help but all I wanted to say is you don't necessarily need strict lesson plans or anything, just have people play and have a good time, and whenever there is an opportunity you can sneak in quick lessons here and there. If they can already play 500 you can launch right into bridge, just explain the differences (13 cards not 10, bids start at 1 not 6, there's a dummy), and just let them play. If they can't play 500 you can teach them Whist on the first lesson and get them used to following suit and having a partner, then the next lesson quickly cover the differences and launch them into it. It's more fun learning by discovery than lectures, and even more fun if you are joking around with friends and playing a game than learning something serious. Edit: Oh yeah, and of course give them instructions on how to download the ACBL learn to play program. I learnt heaps from this as a beginner, and it was fun too. If the system you teach them is consistent with this you'll probably be fine.

The rebid is marked invitational. If he meant invitational to slam, he wouldn't be asking the question of whether 4♦ was forcing :-)

Anyone enjoying reading about that sort of thing should read www.poorbridge.com. It has loads of cool (but illegal) coups.