flytoox

hehe, let's agree to disagree. In established partnership, I wont object your treatment, but in pick-up case, better to bid what you mean. I also agree we need more way to raise pd, but in the given case, I belive 3s,3d,4d,4c,4s should suffice to raise pd. fly

I think playing 2S as GF is sensible in this case. However, i am not sure if xfer is necessary after this. One question I have related to the problem raise here is what you should do with 6card Hearts and 3card sapde: 1H-1S 2H/S? WITH: S: KXX H: AJ8XXX D: KJX C: X should I rebid 2H or raise to 2s? fly

Mike, I suggest on Ron's auction (3♠ by opener) that (like you) I would bid 4♦. But unlike you I have no hope (at this point) that partner will take 4♦ as a ♠ fit. The reason is Ron defined the 2♠ bid as 4sf, not necessarily showing ♠'s, so when you know bid 4♦, this could be great hand with ♦ support. So it is not exactly clear that partner will bid 4♠ at all if he can not cue-bid 4♥. For one thing, you KNOW he can also not cue-bid in ♠ (assuming he is thinking ♦'s are trumps, not ♠'s). Now there is logic that 2♠ should not be fourth suit suit forcing. For one thing, 2♣ may have been game forcing (I play it is). So no need to create a nebulous 2♠ and certainly no need to bid 2♠ before using a strong ♦ raise. But such assumptions require a different partnership undersanding than Ron's description of 2♠ as 4sf. Now, as much as you dislike last train, I like it more and more... if nothing else if I use lttc I always win the post mortum. If we miss bidding slam, I say "how could you not accept my slam try," and if we get to a slam that goes down I can say "how could you bid on when I didn't insist..." The only secret is to use LTTC before your partner endplays you in the auction by using it himself.... :( Ben, I think in the given auction 2s-3s-4d should show control with real spade suit. If pd has super fit for diamond, he can bid 3d after 2h, why bother with 2s if you have fit for pd? fly

Ben, I think for most partnership 1S promise only 4 card, 1C-1D-X should promise both majors. second, though unlikely, i still think 3H should show a shapy offensive hand, like: S: X H: AQTXX D: X C: AQJ8XX This hand is still possible in the given context. In the given auction, do we really need so many ways to raise pd? like, 3d,3h,3s? I dont think so. 3D as an intermeidate raise and 3S as just min raise should suffice, though raising to 3 level should guarantee 4card spt. So I think 3H should be spared for what it sounds. fly

Free, if you dont mind, i would say 5S is a very bad bid. You are lucky, coz pd has all cards you need, ck, djt9. What if he didnt have it? If you think pd will have this kind card, then why not expect more, to start with 4c, showing good fit? regards fly

I consider what discribed by mike lawrence to be standard:) If say 2/1, then I imply i will play the system in mike lawrence's workbook on 2 over 1. Surely there are many different version of 2/1, but i belive this one is relatively natural, clear and logical. Actually, most of defensive bidding is independent of your system. So overcall, balanced bid are even more standard in this sense. In comparison, contested auction, which i mean we open and opps came in, is related to your system. Because you can infer sth from pd's opening bid. This is particulary true for precision. Many ppl think precision's advantage is to have 1c for strong hand and easy to bid slams. I think precision's real advantage lies in its limited bids, which helps you a lot in contested auction when you have to decid how high to go and whether you should dbl opps.

I will bid 3S. Dbl shold mean what it sounds. 3H should be reverse. Not sure what 3D should mean, maybe opener has a long club suit and asking for d stopper, maybe it shows a good raise to 3S, i prefer it to show later in the given context. 4D is easy, shows a really good hand worth raise to 4S with slam interest. 4S should be a mix bid which aims to leave opp to guess. I think 1S here only guarantees 4 cards. I belive dbl shold guarantee 44 in Majors.

I like 1M-3M as semi-preemptive, 5-8hcp 4card spt.:(

Hi, Keylime. I fancy it. How to join? And, do we all play keylime precision?:D regards flytoox

If you bid 3s or 4s after RHO's x, then u wont have this problem. xx is really meaningless in my point-of-view.

i think there is an englsih version polish club somewhere. u can just google it.

i think east cant hold ca, if he has it, then west must hold cqjxxxx, he may lead cq given pd is unlikely to gain lead and give west a d ruff. I strongly belive that west has ca, even though he leads a small c. fly

what is miles' style? hehe, i do follow mike lawrence's style, blindly:)

After partner's 2H , I will bid 2S to show S fit + D suit It's still force at least 1 round 2S is passable, so u cant bid 2s here i think. fly

Mike lawrence suggest you bif 2c and rebid 3c to show this kind hand. 3c is passable. i.e, 2/1 is NOT abosolutely game forcing. though some play 1M-3m to show this kind hand. If pd responded with 2N, then you shold not be shy to raise to 3N. fly

are Garozzo and belladona still playing? Hehe, they are always top in my mind:) How about women's top ten players? btw, who is balicki? Cany anybody tell me about him? Thanks fly

Good question. I will bid 3D with the first hand, limiting your strength and narrowing your shape. If pd bid 3N, very likely, I will pass, reluctantly. With the second hand, I will bid 3H. If pd bid 3N, I will rebid 4D, this implies slam interest, showing a good hand. If pd bid 4M, I will carry on to 6 or 7.

I thnk one reason is that playing bridge you need to find one pd and two opps. But playing chess you just need to find a pd. you can play chess at home, with your dad or mum, but you cant play chess, coz you need dad, mum and another one to play. second, bridge is a team game, without good pd you will find it very frustrating. But winnining chess is entirely your own business. What can we do? I think free online playing and perhaps offer bridge lessons in primary and high school will help a lot. One of my plan is to run a bridge lecture in univ campus after I finsish my degree:)

This brings another issue to consider. In the given deal, we are non vs vul, so you are more free to take action. But there is a dilemma. If we r vul and they r not, then we may protect as well, though much more dangerous. As what we can get from beating them may be less than a partscore by us. So now i get lost. Should we compete more vul vs not or non vs vul?:) fly

Paul, did they say 2N is conventional 4-card raise in this case? I read that book but cannt remember this point. What to do with 11-12 balanced hand? thx fly

Suppose you bid 2d and pd rebid 2h, both opp passed, now what do you bid? W N E S 1S 2C 2D P 2H P ? Does 3c show spt for s or h?

Mike, how to handle 5s4h invitational hand? if 2c-2d-2s show balanced gf hand? perhaps better to list ur whole nt structure b4 i evaluate this:) fly I use Smolen for 5-4 hands in majors. And I don't open 1 NT with 5-4 in majors. I use my 3 level responses to 1 NT as follows 3http://mnet.bg/~mfn/c.gif= Puppetstayman 3http://mnet.bg/~mfn/d.gif= 5-5 in Minors Invitational 3http://mnet.bg/~mfn/h.gif= 5-5 in Majors Invitational 3http://mnet.bg/~mfn/s.gif= 5-5 in Majors Slamforcing, even though I have been playing with this to be a Transfer to 3 NT to show a singlesuited slamtry in a specific minor. Which will leave my regular Transfer to minors for only weak or invitational hands. And all this is based on opening a 15-17 NT. I also play 10-12 NT NV and 12-14 nt VUL. I still play Smolen, Stayman, 4 suit Transfers and my 3 level responses are all GF and either 4-4-4-1 with the suit you bid being the singleton or 1-3-5-4 with the suit being bid showing singleton in Major and 5-4 in minors. As you can tell this is mostly set up for IMP's were the occasional extra 30 or 60 not going to cost you the match ;) Mike B) Perhaps I didnt make it clear. I understand you play smolen for game force with 54 major. I mean how responder hanlde 5s4h with invitational strength. For example, with S: KJXXX H: AJXX D: XX C: XX PD OPEN 1N, how to show this hand to pd? fly

play 2/1 with pickup pd, pd open 1s, RHO came in with 2c. Sitting south, you hold: S: Q8X H: AJ D: AT8XX C: AXX VUL VS NON. W N E S 1S 2C ? 1) 2D 2) 3C 3) Other Does cuebid opp's suit gurantees 4-card support? thx fly

1S is likely down two, which is better than most partscore. I doubt if you can reach 3N even if you balance in with 1N.

two clear pass. u r not going anywhere. both h and d cards lies well for them.