badderzboy

I would agree with Ben's posts on Squeezes - superb for us BILlies and the best bridge post overall. I also remember the 'funniest bridge stories' chain which had me in tears of laughter at one point. I would also add a special award for Slothy's posts which allows bring a smile to my face. Steve

[hv=d=w&v=n&n=sq1065hk10daj5ckj83&w=sa3hqj75dq8ca10762&e=skjh6dk97642cq954&s=s98742ha98432d103c]399|300|Scoring: IMP[/hv] In our bidding W....N....E....S 1♣...p...2♣...? I was South and bid 3♣ Michaels showing 5/5+ in majors. My partner bid 4♠ and played it well to make? (1)Was I too light (in hindsight I think I was) and what difference would it make if opps were Vul and we N/V? (2) Would u dbl with North's hand over 1♣ - I personally won't given the clubs, HCP and shape and what do I do over a 1♥ response! (3) If North Dbls for takeout if S/W pass over 2♣ what do u bid? Steve

It was a dark night, wet & winbdy night here in North East England and this hand brightened my day a tad! Dealer was North and yes our bidding went 2NT - p - look three times, count on fingers once / twice 7NT ... Some pairs bid 2NT-4NT... or 2NT-5NT... The only thing I can think of is pairs who open 1♣ 16+ - how would that auction go..

[hv=d=n&n=skqj10haq4d1084cakq&s=sa95hkdakqj72cj43]133|200|[/hv] 6 out of 16 didn't bid it... How do u miss 7NT?

Hi Wayne, This is one of me faux pas too but there are two ways of doing this :- You can either stopper show or stopper ask - I personally prefer to ask rather than show. You also promise to play at the 4 level if no stopper available. You probably already do it with Fourth suit forcing as a NT rebid promises a stopper in that suit but assuming the bidding is 1♣-3♣-? If stopper showing then 3♦ shows a stopper in Diamonds and asks partner to effectively show the lowest of the majors they can stop. If they show ♥ and you can stop spades you bit 3NT overwise 4 or 5♣ 3♥ shows a stopper in Diamonds but asks about Hearts and so on. If stopper asking 3♦ normally shows stoppers in the majors and ask partner about ♦ then partner bids 3NT and is protected per se from that suit lead. Steve

I would read it as that showing better than minimum and the other 2 suits, I would also be interested to know what 2♦ in that position would show? Steve

Fair point Free but my thinking is that 3♣ gives us more bidding space and describes the 5-5 nature of the hand and I can finish describing my hand in the next bid? If partner bids 3♥ I can bid 3 ♠ to show 3♠'s and 3-5-0-5 shape or 4♦ showing 1st round control and 3 ♠'s if he bids 3♠ showing 3-5-0-5? From a BIL'lie viewpoint I'm interested in expert opinion and what the responses should mean after FSF on these hands?

♠A643 ♥ Q3 ♦ A95 ♣ AQ83 ♠ KQ5 ♥ KJ642 ♦ ♣ KT976 1♥ - 1♠(1) 2♣(2) - 2♦(3) 3♣(4) - 3♦(5) 3♠(6) - 4NT (7) 5♦(8) - 6♣(9) (1) I believe you must bid spades first here yes if partner bids 2♥ he denies 4 cards in a minor and therefore must have 6 ♥ so 4♥ is a potential bid... (2) Now shows 5-4 at least with 11-14 HCPs. (3) Fourth Suit forcing (4) 5-5 or better now.. (5) Fourth suit again / stopper asking ! tell me more do u have a stop etc. (6) 2/3 spades delayed support so 3-5-0-5 or 2-5-1-5 dist'n? ♦! (7) RKCB ask in spades I know where A♦ is... (8) 1 KC (9) 6 C is the limit so thank you v.much? I'd be likely to bid this in ACOL or SAYC the same way, being a BIL'lie not sure about 3♦ here but that's what I would intend with the bid

I must admit I would bid 3♦ over the DBL & RDBL to tell partner I have good points but no long suit of my own and what's his best suit or to bid NT which I would hope he would bid given his hand over the 3♦ bid? Steve

I would prefer a 3♠ splinter, allowing ptr at least the potential to cue-bid the A♣ but any thoughts on Jacoby 2NT?

[hv=d=s&v=b&n=sqj1087hakq873dca10&w=s4hj96daq9852c642&e=s965h102dkj74c8753&s=sak32h54d1063ckqj9]399|300|[/hv] How do you bid this hand to slam. (i) Playing weak NT 12-14 no interference (ii) Weak NT but 2♦ bid over 1NT (iii) Not playing weak NT? i.e. 1♣ - 2♦(Weak Jump overcall)? Many Thanks Steve

Any Europeans with access to Sky Sports 3 Saturday at 08:00 (UK Time) or Sky Sports Extra at 13:00 UK Time can watch an hour long programme on the Olympiad with involvement from Z.Mahmood/Sabine Auken & D.Burn. I haven't seen the programme but is an hour long.

I'm proud of this one cos' I'm a BILlie and it was my first 'deliberate' squeeze against fellow BILlies!!!... http://bridgebase.lunarpages.com/cgi-bin/h...00&p=2004-11-14 6N making [hv=d=n&v=b&n=s985h109764dj963c10&w=s72hqj3dak104ckq73&e=sakq3hak5d82ca842&s=sj1064h82dq75cj965]399|300|Scoring: IMP Bidding p-2NT-p-5NT p-6NT- all pass[/hv]

wonderful city apparently but the bridge convention is found at :- http://www.bridgebum.com/copenhagen.php

sorry missed the SAYC bit..

Dealer: West Vul: None Scoring: IMP ♠ AKxxx ♥ Kxxx ♦ KQx ♣ x ♠ xx ♥ AQxxx ♦ Jxx ♣ AKQ Unfortunately I don't play some of the 'better' conventions but what does West & East know from the bidding about each other's hands. As it's ACOL then 1S 4+ spades if 4 then 16+ balanced or else likely to be 4 (7- losers) 2H East has 5 Hearts and 10+ pts (8- losers) 4C splinter West has 5+ Spades 4+ Hearts 3- Diamonds and a low card Club so must have no more than 5/6 losers and most likely 5 given the slam interest as he can bid 4H as signoff? West has show his shape and a good hand so East needs to take charge For the splinter / slam try where are openers points He has at least 12 pts outside Hearts for the slam try as well so assuming he has the King Hearts it could be KQJ S KQ D JH minimum so... I think 4H is an underbid here and as we know 3 of the losers and we can cover them - 1 Club loser covered by A Club & 2 Heart losers so where are the other two obviously spades and diamonds and we can cover the spade loser if it exists so Diamonds are the issue a 5C bid by East lays it on the line I have a good hand but no Diamond / spade control and West happily bids 6H? I'm likely to be wrong but would appreciate where the flaws are in my thinking! Steve

For once I solved an FREE BIL challenge today and was asked if I was sure I was a BILlie! How can you tell you've reached BIL graduation and what should we BILlies aspire to be able to do to get there (Counting / bidding / defence / declarer play etc? Thanks Steve

I'm a BILlie so I'll suggest the answer and reasoning. We need to count our winners - 1 ♥ 1♠ 4♦ and 3♣ can be established once Ace of clubs is knocked out. We also have lots of potential Heart & spade losers! First question I would ask is what leads the opps play if 3'rds & 5ths then we have a problem :-) but assuming it is fourth highest as then West has xxx2 in spades so they break 4/4! and as we can afford the 3 spade losers and the A clubs. We cannot afford a heart switch before we lose the Ace of clubs so take the A spades on first round. Play clubs until opps take the A or three rounds of clubs whichever comes first - If opps take A clubs then after opps cash spades and we have been throwing diamonds from N and hearts/spades from South and we take the remaining tricks on top. i.e A ♠ A♥ KQJ(T)♣ AKQJ ♦. Steve

I would like to agree with Wayne, more BILlies would benefit from asking questions about bidding / play etc from their peers and fellow BILlies because it invokes ideas into other situations we are yet to come across. I play in a live Beginners/Intermediate class as one of the strongest players yet I ask more questions on bidding / play than others - the reason I ask is I don't mind looking foolish, it gets the opinion of stronger players on what they would do and it also helps me focus on the weaker part(s) of my game (OK all of it :-) ). So fellow BILlies post here - ask many questions and you'll be amazed how much it helps your game and learning - most posters don't bite! Steve

For a bit of fun, I've been writing an Excel spreadsheet (it would be better in MS Access but I thought most people have MS Excel but not MS Access) that can score both Duplicate & Cross-Imps for 32 boards maximum. It accounts for pairs not playing a board etc and seems to work against a sample of BBO scoreboards I've played. It needs more testing of course and some comparative runs in my local club. I have set it to handle a max of 32 pairs so up to 16 tables playing the board at present due to size constraints on the file. Question 1: I've only played at a local club where we have had 16 tables once. In people's experience, is it common for more than 16 tables to play the same boards or do clubs set up sections when numbers get up higher? Once I've tested it and ran it past the TD's at our club I would probably release it as shareware somewhere tbc? Do u think TDs would be interested in this sort of automation or using Cross-IMP scoring? Steve

Could sometime show us the combined odds of each line including why playing both finesses in the minors (and minor with successful finesse not 4-1) is poorer than playing out the Hearts followed by AK 1 minor and finesse in the other? I know there is 27% chance of honour being doubleton when 5 cards out and 5.66% chance it is singleton so 32.66% chance of dropping Q in either suit? This is somewhat intriguing to me as a newish player with a statistics background? Steve

I sort of see the logic but aren't you pinning hopes by playing the J♥ that the opps are lying i.e. 8 is a passive lead. You still need the Q to be in at worst a trebleton so it drops under AK which is pretty poor odds (it must be less than 50%). given there are 7 outstanding. Whereas the finesse of Q♦ and/or Q♣ is slightly less than a 75% shot combined (needs East not to have Qxxx)? Playing for the drop of a Q is also less than 50% in each case with Clubs more likely to drop the Queen than Diamonds? I'm obviously going wrong somewhere in the analysis as the 'xperts all do something different - can you correct me please :rolleyes: Steve

♠ J ♥ AKJT9 ♦ T874 ♣ K64 ♠ AK6 ♥ 5 ♦ AKJ5 ♣ AJ953 I'm a BILlie so I'll have a go... My top tricks are AK♠, AK♥, AK♦,AK♣ so I need to create 4 extra tricks. West has lead the 8♥ so I'd be sure that East has the Q :unsure: as the 8 can't be 4th highest just passive and probably top of nothing. We can afford to lose 1 trick in the minors :rolleyes: and make four extra tricks and we can do this if only 1 finesse loses and the clubs break better than 4-1 with the Singleton being Q or 10 as we cash the King clubs first. We can be pretty certain one finesse will lose from the passive lead. We are short of entries to the north hand so we need to take the Diamond finesse first by playing the 4♦ after winning with A♥ to the Jack. If the finesse wins then cash a top diamond and if both follow cash the other preserving 10 [R-DI] as an entry. We can now play the 9 Clubs from south and cover West's card or run 9 if he doesn't. We can then make the remaining clubs after cashing KC on next round I hope? If the ♦ finesse loses then we need to play Clubs for 5 tricks. Cash K Clubs and finesse to J and then A. Anywhere near :huh:

♠AKQx ♥ KQJ10 ♦AJx ♣ xx This little hand come up with a group of friends (beginners Intermediates) playing 3 tables Aggregate Playing Regular Acol with a weak NT 12-14 with 4NT Quantative, 4♣ Gerber (only time it counts) and 2♣ and just regular stayman... Partner opens 1NT ( all NV) and RHO not suprisingly passes... What do u bid 2♣ or 4NT or 4C? You bid decide to bid 2♣ Stayman and like all good partner's they reply 2♦. Should 4NT next be RKCB ask in Diamonds or quantative? Also if you swap Hearts & clubs around in the hand and partner responds 2♥ instead what would you bid - how would you check for a spade fit? How do you get to 6N scientifically after this if partner has more than a minimum? Thanks in advance for your input as none of us could think of how to get there scientifically without just punting it? Steve

Playing aggregate bridge your Partner in first seat opens 2♣ showing 23+ If 2♦ is a bid showing 0-7 or less than a trick & a half do you bid 2♦ and follow up with a ♠ bid after partner bids or bid 2♠ directly normally promising a good suit with the following :- ♠1097xxxx ♥x ♦x ♣AQxx Partner had the following so all roads lead to 6S/6NT anyway :- ♠AKQx ♥KQxx ♦AKx ♣Kx You can get there any route with 2♣-2♦-2NT-3♥*(Tfr)-4♠(super accept)-4NT-5C(0/3)-5NT*-6S-6NT or 2♣-2♠*-3♠-4♣(cuebid)*-4♦*-4♠-6♠ or 6NT or other bidding but I would welcome advice for future hands with a long suit but light in honours? Thanks Steve