Quantumcat

Recently I was told to always support your partner if he might have five of the suit and you have 3, or you never get to find out if he is planning on going the game or beyond. If he knows you can have 3 for the bid, if he is planning to go to game he can go via NT and give you a choice. 7 card fits in partscores is not a bad thing if he wasn't planning to go further. 2S for me.

Opener's jump shift, 2nd suit lower than 1st, is anything gameforcing (19+ hcp where the fit with reponder doesn't help, 19+TP with fit) BUT since a reverse shows any 16+ you don't need to jump reverse to show 19+, waste of a bid. A jump in a suit that would be a reverse at the lower level is a splinter, e.g. 1♦-1♠-3♥ shows game forcing hand, spade support and shortage in hearts. But, 1♦-1♠-2♥ is just a normal reverse, 16+ two suited. Reverses: A normal change of suit where the second suit is lower than the first e.g. 1♥-1♠-2♣ is 11-18 pts. Responder can say 2N for 10-12 bal, repeat his suit or jump repeat it, or make a simple preference or jump preference for opener's suit. (or pass the 2nd suit if he prefers that and there can't be a game opposite even 18pts) If one of your suits is longer you must bid that first. (Not a good idea to manufacture reverses unless you like angry partners and ending in 4-3 or 5-2 fits)If they are equal length 5-5, one is M one is m, you open M first. If both M or both m you can choose to reverse or not. If they are 6-6, one M one m, open m first. Repeating any of your suits shows more cards than 5-4: repeating lower suit means they are of unequal length, repeating higher suit means they are of equal length (if m followed by M, then rebid of M shows 6-6 cause with 5-5 you would have opened M first) <--this paragraph is likely to be wrong pls let me know Splinters: If you want to splinter in a suit lower than your first, you have to do it a level higher otherwise it is the gameforcing 2 suited hand. To save space, if you are two suited and were planning to reverse, you can still reverse then show support for responder, implying shortage in the other suit e.g. 1♦-1♠-2♥-2NT-3♠. If you have 9 cards in diamonds and hearts, and three or four spades, you can't have more than 1 card in clubs. whereas if you weren't two suited you'd need to go 1♥-1♠-4♣. If you said 3♣ that would be 2 suited & GF. If you are forced to change suit at the 3-level anyway, you don't have to have more than a normal reverse since responder has shown 10 pts already (16+10=26): e.g. 1♠-2♥-3♣: maybe you only had 14 pts to begin with but you also have heart fit which has improved your hand enough. I hope this helps... but if anything is wrong let me know so I can change it, probably a lot is wrong :)

My partner made me play weak NT with him (which I stuffed up the first time we played, raised him happily to game with my 9 balanced points+3T9's and a T), he had 11 pts). He said he was going to rebid 1NT but didn't because of a bad experience a few hands ago when he had a singleton diamond and said he was balanced, in 3NT down 4. Thanks everyone for your advice.

What does the 2N show?

[hv=n=sk842h9dak65ckqj3&s=sajt5hq853dq7c972]133|200|Dlr:E NS vul[/hv] We severely stuffed up this hand tonight. Can you please tell me how the bidding should go? One thing first, we are real beginners, please remember that with your reply!! Someone had taught me a few days ago about reverses, jump shifts, and splinters by both opener and responder, so at the start of the session I communicated what I had learnt to my partner, who didn't like it, but I convinced him that I was positive that what I had learnt was correct and he very reluctantly agreed to do what I asked. I passed, he opened a club, one of my hearts had gotten lost among my diamonds so I said 1S, he thought to himself (this is what he told me afterwards) "hmm, I'd like 3H to be a splinter but from what I understand, that will mean two suited and game forcing, so I'll say 2D" I found my heart, then, "if I say 2H he'll think I have five spades, better not do that, (we don't have 4th suit forcing) I'll give preference to his clubs" so I bid 3C, (I guess we have enough for game with his reverse and I have a heart stop, I should have said 3NT) he said 3H which I alerted as first round control, I said 3S for mine (forgetting to realise we obviously didn't have diamond control) he said 4S (I alerted as 2nd round control), I realised then we didn't have 1st *or* 2nd round control of diamonds (wondered what partner was doing bidding diamonds without the A, K or Q!!). I hurriedly tried to sign off 5C hoping partner wouldn't go 1 down, then he bids 5S, I wonder what the heck could he be asking??? and say 6C, all out. You are probably laughing your head off right now. But we got doubled and went for either 1400 or 800 (dont remember which ... I forgot lebensohl on another hand and we went for the other penalty)

Defensive Bridge Play Complete, by Bill Root. http://www.marchand.be/gestion/photos/Rdbpc.gif This is the book I was thinking of, it's perhaps a bit late now. As a beginner player reading this made defence actually make sense ... everything is put so clearly and concisely.

There's a great book I got as a prize in a youth event last year, called something like "Bridge Defence Complete" or "The Complete Guide to Defence" (or something else with defence and complete in the title) It's a bit less than A4 in size and is fairly thick, coloured light green and white .... if you ever see it you should get it, it's excellent. I haven't seen anything decent on the web about defence, either.

This is what I was taught, hope it's useful: If you want to be invitational with three trumps, change suit then be invitational in p's suit If you're not invitational, support directly. Only change suit if you are not invitational, if you don't have proper support. i.e. changing suit then supporting non-invitationally, means you don't have proper support (this is what you did). If you want to be invitational with four trumps, be invitational directly.

I've made good use of my few months of bridge experience to do plenty of stupid things ... one I remember well was in the national open teams in january this year where on one board I revoked, not once, not twice, but THREE times as declarer! And on the same board I made an insufficient bid! My partner was barred from the auction, I was extremely lucky and chose the right game, it was as cold as a fish, but then I somehow managed to revoke and the adjusted score made us 2 down. It was so sad. It was a bit lucky though, the opponents bid slam on the same board, our teammates defended well and they went one down, so it wasn't a huge disaster. We would have beaten them because of my insufficient bid and thus lucky guess though, if I hadn't revoked.

I found out yesterday that a friend of mine had downloaded it as it got put up, and gave it to me on a CD last night. If anyone wants a copy, I've got it, but I don't know if the parts are too big to be emailled or not. By the way, I am an aussie, I wouldn't start making fun of us or the kiwis if I were you! I have plenty of material up my sleeve to give as good as I get <_< :) :)

It's great you guys got it up, but when I went to youtube to see it, there was a message saying "This video is no longer available due to copyright claim by Andy Pederson" What's that about? Is there any way to get around it, or is it on any other sites?

No one says that running isn't faster than walking, but: You have to learn to walk before you can run. If you learn to run first without ever learning walking, what do you do in a 3-legged race with someone who can only walk? You fall over ... and a pair who both only know how to walk will beat you :-)

Hi, My pards and I play that redouble is to penalise the opponents in whatever they land in and tell p that your partnership have the clear majority of the points and that we have no fit ourselves. If this gets passed, new suit by opener is just to run away. I'm fairly sure this is standard. Recently we thought we might try this approach after doubles (haven't tried it out much yet, so don't know if it works well or not, but I think it will): Raising the suit is always obstructive to opponents: 2H on anything with 3 hearts, 3H on anything with 4, 4H on anything with 5 hearts. Should have some distribution in case we get left here. 1NT, 2NT, 3NT are normal raises in the suit: 1NT is a normal 2H raise, 2NT an invitational raise and 3NT is a GF raise. Opener can sign off if they would have passed it or say something else if they want to. Anything else and you pass, then bid on your next go if you like, for example, 1♥ - X - pass - 1♠ pass - pass - 1NT - pass shows a normal 1NT response (should have stopper but might not). A 2NT response there might show 10-12, not support for hearts but didn't have the right shape to make the redouble.

I don't know if this is normal but my partners and I play it as any game forcing hand that couldn't make a jump shift. Signing off in 4 by opener is a minimum hand while saying 3 of the major is a little bit extra values (say 15 and a balancedish hand, leaving it to responder to continue), or he can cuebid or use RKCB if that's appropriate. If responder is game forcing but has a decent self-sufficient side suit he'll jump shift in that, then opener signs off in game if he is minimum balanced or in the jump shifted suit if his is pretty crappy and he has support for it and minimum balanced, or he can raise one level of either to say something similar to in the first paragraph. A single jump shift after a minor is a splinter (e.g. 1C - 2H) since you're unlikely to have room for good support for the minor as well as your own self sufficient suit, and 2NT is 10-12 bal and 3NT is 13-15 bal. This is just what my partners and I have agreed to play, I don't know if it's standard or not! It's come in useful in many hands though, feel free to adopt it :-)

Hi there, singleton leads might turn out badly if you forget what you're trying to achieve with them. Gennerally you want to get a ruff, and for that to happen: a) you have to still have trumps when partner gets the lead B) partner has to be able to get the lead So either you want partner to have the ace and declarer doesn't get the opportunity to draw trumps, or you want your partnership to have trump control so partner can get the lead in another suit before trumps can be drawn. If partner bids the suit it's fine, he could easily have the ace. Otherwise you want to have a weak hand so that partner has plenty of high cards to get his entry with later, and having trump control helps, or you can just hope that partner has it. (the weaker you are the more likely this is) If partner recognises your lead as singleton (usually it is obvious) if he doesn't have the ace he can still give you a suit preference to tell you where his entry is, for if you get in first. It's usually bad to lead a singleton in their suit because you are helping them to set up their winners but if you think partner will have the ace and you haven't anything better then go for it (for example he might have bid notrumps after they said that suit) It's true that usually it is bad to lead a singleton trump but if the auction screams for leading trumps don't let rules get in the way of your judgement! You will probably be giving up the chance of a trick against a sure one.

I learned june last year, at the ripe old age of 19! I played 500 in high school (friends taught me) and on Market Day (where all the clubs and societies of the university try to gain members) on my first day at university, the keeper of the Bridge stall looked so depressed since the two stalls on either side had about 20 people crowding around each of them and his was empty so I went and talked to him. And I ended up playing bridge, but didn't go to any meetings of ANUBC until 2nd term.

I usually avoid playing with any pick up pards that call themselves Advanced or better (unless I know them in person that is) because they are more often than not either unfriendly or rude ... fellow Beginners/Intermediates are always more fun to play with! Plus, the last few times I played on BBO, every partner I played with made some really simple errors that even I knew were wrong, me being an absolute beginner, and them supposedly Experts ... self-ratings are meaningless. I do agree though that you can't have fun playing when your ratings are determined by your boards, everyone is too serious. I got to have a go on OKbridge (aptly named, it really is just ok!) for the inter-collegiate championships in feb and played some games with randoms and found exactly what Arclight said ... everyone is obsessed with their ratings and won't play with new people. If BBO became rated I don't think I would continue to play there...for me BBO is a place to practice for the real world not the real world of bridge itself, as OKbridge players seem to take OKbridge to be!

Hi there, My bridge teacher taught me that XX means you don't have a fit with partner, you declare the majority of the points in the pack, so you are happy to penalise the opponents, since the other one will be forced to bid after your redouble. (If he passes, partner has the easy job of removing to another suit ... you've said you have fit for anything else). To stop the opponents telling each other about their suit, jump to 3H on a weak hand with four trumps according to that rule that says if you have nine you should be in 3 anyway, that'll probably beat the parscore battle, you'll still make and opp won't know what to lead. If they decide to bid on, they could easily get confused and end up too high anyway. If you don't have four hearts just say 2H on any crap with three trumps and short spades, stops them from at least saying 1S. If you have five spades yourself obviously don't bother unless you have your 2H bid. Since you can't say 3H as natural (inv), say 2NT instead. What about a normal 2NT that's gameforcing? bid 3NT ... 4H would be a pre-emptive hand with distribution and five trumps. Partner will just bid 4H unless he wants to leave 3NT in, or has such distribution he wants to try for slam... in the knowledge that one opp has at least 10 points.

Hi there, I'm very much a beginner (been playing about nine months) but I'll have a go at answering the question (will probably learn something from the corrections :-)) What is partner's lead? There are three diamonds besides the ones you can see. She might have Qx5 or 5 singleton, can't be doubleton because you can see 432. The declarer followed so it must be a singleton. So declarer has Q9 in diamonds. Declarer probably had 5 clubs so partner has three. Could cash diamond king and lead another diamond, maybe partner has 10xx so if declarer trumps with club ace or queen, he can't draw partner's ten any more and it's a trick for us. Is it reasonable to hope she has 10xx? I think so ... she might lead a spade if she held three low trumps. So, that makes three tricks. What about our fourth? Easy ... spade ace. Then when partner gets in maybe she can cash her spade king. But declarer might discard his spades on his JT of diamonds? Should we cash two spades before doing diamonds? No ... partner might have five (she did make a free bid after all) and declarer might only have one. He can't have none ... partner must have a couple of points to have made a free bid, and if she had 6 spades she would have bid 2♠ over 1♥. Declarer will be able to get his diamonds so we probably won't get the spade king too. But we get four tricks and that's what counts! I hope this answer is right :-)