el mister

Picked this fine collection up last night at the club. MPs, playing 2/1. [hv=pc=n&s=s86532hd765c86543&d=w&v=n&b=12&a=p1s2s4s5hdp]133|200[/hv] Are you sitting in, or getting to your feet and throwing down 5 spades? Is it a close decision?

I don't know abar that Helene. She didn't read the thread, stated the obvious, and started waffling on about posting in the beginner's forum where someone can tell me what a splinter is :lol: If that's well-articulated and well meant, I'd hate to see clumsy and patronising. Nonetheless, your advice to keep a friendly tone is well-taken and I apologise for any tin-eared comments from me - we can of course disagree on a friendly basis.

As the OP I can only say that I appreciate anyone taking the time to post an answer, but yours was surprisingly worthless. Like it stood out. This is quite unusual for this site IME, which is almost all signal, no noise. Disrupting this extremely rare internet phenomenon with 'practical' bridge advice would be a tragedy.

Thks for the replies, v helpful. It was MPs strong NT [pard is also a beginner, so advanced treatments were not available at the table]. What actually happened was that I played in 6♥ through a rudimentary bidding sequence that I won't detain you with, making on a spade lead. Partner showed up with ♠AKT ♥T43 ♦AK54 ♣986 The heart slam could be defeated had W led their singleton diamond, as E has the ♥A and can give them a ruff, whereas the diamond slam is cold. So I was wondering if a well-oiled 2/1 partnership should find 6♦ by showing the double fit, or if we're always going to get locked into hearts through cue-bidding.

Picked this one up last night at the club and was uncertain on the best way of proceeding. Vanilla 2/1 system. [hv=pc=n&s=s5hkq965dqjt73cat&d=w&v=0&b=8&a=p1dp1hp2hp]133|200[/hv] This is possibly very routine, but I'd appreciate advice as I wasn't sure on the definition of 3♦ here. It seems miles too weak for my hand, but I want to show the double fit, and need some space to hear about diamond controls, and I'm not sure how you go about that here.

Yes, lost 3.5 : 6.5. I edited my post a few pages back to add all the links.

el mister 5.5 v 4.5 crazyforhoop Cheers crazyforhoop - came down to Gib ploughing 7N v 7♦ in that last board. That's me done.

I've set-up the challenge crazy4hoop - thks for agreeing to play it. It's late here now but I can play it any evening from tomorrow.

Results for me (just to put them in one place, edited to include all games) Lost v Frank0 1.5 : 8.5 Lost v Gordontd 4.5 : 5.5 Lost v ovnclymz 3 : 7 Lost v Diana_eva 2.5 : 7.5 Lost v Gerardo 4 : 6 Win v Gqc6 6 : 4 Tie with Kftiz 5 : 5 Win v Karappe 7 : 3 Lost v Phoenix214 3.5 : 6.5 Win v crazy4hoop 5.5 : 4.5 Played boards against phoenix214 and waiting for him to complete. Can challenge crazy4hoop to play over the weekend if he is OK to play (as I said upthread I mistakenly let our challenge expire after he had played his boards, so accept that is on me). Some right shoeings there. Despite that, I've enjoyed the format as I've not played BaM before, so plenty to learn!

Hi crazy4hoop - sry, don't know what happened there, I've not played it. I've been travelling so have only been squeezing a set in here and there, but I'm home now and thought I was good to play the outstanding challenges today - I have challenges from diana_eva and gqc6 that are still live, and thought I accepted yours at the same time. Anyhow, if you've played it and I let it expire after accepting than I am happy to take a penalty. I've played Gordon_td, ovnclymyz, and frank. Will play diana, gqc6, and geraldo today, and then issue the remaining challenges.

Thks Broze, enjoyed. Good luck in the next round.

Broze and I have gotten rolling on our match. I've played the first set and we'll play some more this evening.

X could be OK as values but liable to misinterpretation if you've not discussed what doubling Landy means (nor are sure if it is even Landy!) - pard might take it as E stepping out and you laying down a pure penalty. At least if W then shows the fit you are both aware of the spade problem for 3N. Absent clear agreements, I think 3♦ gets the message across. Game-going hand, single suited, gives you a shot at showing stops in the majors. I wouldn't criticize 3N too harshly, either - it's obv a punt but not crazy to expect a stop from partner with a lead through your singleton. If you're playing a simple system then pard has to tolerate the occasional agricultural bid.

Thks Diana - I was waiting for Gordon to accept our final set and it's still sitting there. Gordon is up by plenty from the first three, ca. 50 imps, so he would be going through if he was online. Can the comish advise what to do?

Blasting slam in a suit contract over a 1NT opening sounds wrong / lazy for a reg partnership, when it's prob the tightest defined opening and follow ups of your system. I think of blasting when an invite is going to be wishy-washy, or there's critical information leakage, or there are no tools available in a casual partnership, that sort of thing.

el mister 24 - 27 gordontd http://webutil.bridgebase.com/v2/tview.php?t=ARDCHALLENGE:4160f628.bfdf.11e6.b596.0cc47a39aeb4-1481487627&u=el%20mister Challenge issued for last one.

24 pt slam, MPs, and pard's first bid is over 4H? Nae blame. 3S with that poorly holding seems right to get to game, and wrong to get to slam. So is the winning MP bid long term IMHO.

Reet then, that's us done. el mister 57 - 18 diana_eva http://webutil.bridgebase.com/v2/tview.php?t=ARDCHALLENGE:59013cbd.bd4e.11e6.b596.0cc47a39aeb4-1481205487&u=el%20mister

el mister 45 - 31 elwood913 http://webutil.bridgebase.com/v2/tview.php?t=ARDCHALLENGE:e785b43d.bbdf.11e6.b596.0cc47a39aeb4-1481048101&u=el%20mister Some doubles getting lashed around there! Thanks for the game. Challenge issued to Diana and will play asap.

Good game Broze - cagey affair!

el mister 42 - 30 sfi http://webutil.bridgebase.com/v2/tview.php?t=ARDCHALLENGE:e058738f.b9a6.11e6.b596.0cc47a39aeb4-1480803706&u=el%20mister

Yes please

You have the 5 - ♣AQJ52 in hand I had this hand in a recent game and was basically wondering how to interpret the play of the ten from LHO.

Playing in a speculative 3NT contract, you need to bring in five tricks from a not-altogether solid club suit. All you have to go on is that RHO has opened the bidding with 1H, and received a weak raise from his partner to 2, which he put up to 3. A heart was led and you won it in hand - you have three outside entries to dummy. ♣876 ♣AQJxx First pass goes 6-x-J-10. What should you play next?

The bot showed up with something similar, for a making 3N: XX X AQXXX QXXXX So I was wondering about the bid in retrospect. Have to say I didn't think it was all that wild, so maybe I need to re-calibrate. Thanks all.