nickf

[hv=d=w&v=n&w=skt8732h98dt96c54&e=sq65hakda732caj97]266|100|Scoring: IMP[/hv] so i'm playing a teams match and pick up the west cards - our system accomodates sick pre-empts so i could open 3 spades to show this hand but i wussed and passed - north passed and pard opened 1 club - south passed hmmm - i do like to pass with stuff like this - but i bid 1 spade - who knows ? like always pard rebid 2nt to show a good 18 to 20 or so balanced - i cant play 3 spades so the choices are pass, 3nt and 4 spades - i bid 4 spades - who knows ? north led the 5 of hearts - i won and played the queen of spades - south won the ace as north played the jack - south exited a spade it occured to me that south was lured by the need to stop the heart ruffs - i won the spade and played the 9 of diamonds which went - 9 4 2 J - south played another spade i won as north discarded her second heart i could play for that diamond break or i could give the club suit a whirl - who knows ?

3H not forcing? I don't believe that. 3H is always forcing. back to the hand. I dare anyone to say they don't want to play 7C. What's the worst answer 3H could ellicit? 4D ? Then what? You still really really want to bid 7C, dont' you? I bid 7C. I would have opened 7C if the bidding had gone pass pass to me. nickf canberra

The Summer Festival of Bridge in Canberra has a history of throwing up freak hands late in the event. This is a 17 round , 16bd Swiss between 242 teams split into two fields. This pearl came up early, in Round 7. Vul vs not Partner deals and opens 3D. He's an honest guy so his pre-empt will be sound. You're still sorting your hand into two suits and eventually discover you hold void AKT32 void AKQT9843 Before you answer, you are constrained by the system imposed upon me. 4C by you is a slam invitation requesting cue bidding Italian style (1st or 2nd round ctls). For what its worth, this is half way through the match, you are confident you are well up as your dear partner has just made 4Dx (unbeatable) on the previous board and earlier made 6Cx. Over to you. nickf canberra

I don't think there are any e-books available in the bridge market. I say this thankfully of course, as a re-seller of bridge books. For those of you wanting the Rubens booklet, try Baron Barclay or The Bridge World - I'm sure their websites are linked on the Bridge Base site. nickf sydney

If you do produce such a directory, I'd suggest there's no need to include the field with email addresses. You never know what someone could do with another 140,000 addresses. I get about 120 spam a day, mostly as a result of having my corporate email address on my store website by necessity. nickf sydney

I'd like to offer an opinion as a retailer of bridge products. A few years ago a French company produced an outstanding video of the Bermuda Bowl held in Bermuda. Lots of interesting interviews and some good shots of the players at the table. In my market (Australia) sales were a complete dud and I ended offloading excess stock at a loss. It could have been poor marketing on my part but I'd rather think it was a lack of the interest from a consumer. Here in Australia your average Joe is just not interested in international bridge or even how their national team fares. As far as I'm concerned the best books that are published each year are the World Championship books but I'm lucky to sell 40-50 annually. Product 2) A much more attractive product but stilll a small target market. The market for instructional software is much smaller than play software by a factor of probably 50-1 in terms of unit sales. Typically bridge players who want software want to play a dozen or so hands after dinner on games such as Bridge Baron without being reminded of their deficiencies. If the hands were annotated and interactive like Bridge Master, I'd have a much better chance of selling it. nickf sydney

Well put. I couldnt have expressed my feelings better. nickf sydney

My major concern about the contents of this post are: Without pointing any bones, I think you both bid the hand atrociously but you have to also consider your responsibility to the field. Conceding 1700 when, as you admit, you were always getting out for less will impact upon the board datum and everyone else's score. nick f sydney

Or do you mean the KJ is in the closed hand? This is a classic situation where it pays to know your customers. Poor players rarely underlead Aces through declarer and if they underlead an Ace through dummy's KJ they typically steal a glance at their partner in ftf bridge or try to look innocent. nick sydney

3H, wtp? nickf sinny

Everybody...repeat after me. F-U-L-L D-I-S-C-L-O-S-U-R-E write it out a hundred times. remember it, use it, live it. what does it mean? It's really really simple. Full disclosure means alerting and giving full explanations about bids that are either not natural or cannot reasonable be expected to be understood by your opponents. Like transfers or support doubles or splinters or cue bids or bergen jumps or archimedes or polish 1C openers. It doesnt matter if you play vanilla sayc or precision - just alert and explain your bids. It's not hard. It takes a bit of effort though. And you know what? If you start today, perhaps your opponents will appreciate it and start alerting too. Then what might happen? nickf sydney

Helene, pm me and I'll get you a copy. Nick The Bridge Shop www.bridgeshop.com.au

Even if 2D wasnt game forcing then 3C certainly is. But back to your question. If you and your partner's combined assets cannot make game against reasonable breaks (their opening bid plus your 3 Aces) then your partner needs to re-evaluate their hand (and probably should have passed). The 4321 scale (in isolation) is horrible for assessing the relative strength of one's hands. Aces are undervalued and Queens and Jacks are overvalued. (This is not an advertisment for Zar points either, the popularity of and discussion about continue to mystify me). nick sydney

sorry to be so vague. My acquaintance was referring to the ability to slot a BBO game. nick sydney

I'm not really a law fan but this hand says bid 4H now really really loudly. nick sydney

... on similar vein, I've been told by someone that you can slot the opponent's cards? Is that true? I've never paid much attention to this but I wonder if anyone else has picked this up? nick sydney

There's a chap in Sydney by the name of Tim Seres. He's arguably among the top 5-10 players ever. His opinion on leading doubletons is straightforward: "Even when it's right to lead a doubleton, it's usually wrong". nick sydney

ok... now dummy is high nick Sydney

I could probably dig out the whole hand if required but the Backwash Squeeze was discovered at the table by Tim Seres in 1965. Declaring 6C, the 3 card ending was: [hv=d=i&v=i&n=sq7hdck&w=shjdjc3&e=skhd97c&s=sh9d10ca]399|300|Scoring: irrelev.[/hv] At trick 11, the lead was in dummy, and declarer ruffed the S7 with the Club Ace. West was squeezed in 3 suits. nick Sydney

I was wondering how many would get the gag. Assume a 5♠ opening is the expert treatment of a two-loser hand missing both top honours, asking partner to bid 6 with either Ace or King and 7 with both. Only Justin solved this correctly, albeit at his second turn - too late methinks at the table. Ben correctly in his first post suggests that the 5♠ opener is as described but then woodenly passes as he fails to look deeper into the hand. If you hold both red Aces and partner promises 1st round control in all suits except trumps, then he has voids in ♥ and diamonds and therefore long long spades and the top club cards. nick

Matchpoints, both vulnerable. Partner deals and opens 5♠. You hold: void AJ42 AQ6 JT7653 What call do you make, and why? nick

Why do we open 1NT? Because we are suggesting to partner that we have a balanced hand more suitable for NTs than suitplay. Why do we play Stayman? So the partnership discussion (ie auction) can determine whether the hand belongs in NT or a suit contract. Swap the hearts and spades in the three example hands you cite. Say the auction proceeds 1H: 1S from partner: 1NT by you is now an underbid and 2NT from you is an overbid. Nick

2C-2D-2NT. And twice on Sundays. nf