andy_h

5♦ I have 1. If partner is EKC-ing then I'd say it's likely he has the other 3 of them to have immediately taken control.

4♥

Interesting, why would you not bid last train? I wonder. Don't we need partner to have too many 'right' cards to make a slam? Assuming partner has a singleton in ♣, we need partner to hold ♦AKQ, ♥A and ♠A to make this a great slam. And if partner did hold all these cards, he hopefully will make a move over 4♥. Similarly, with a club void and relevant keycards, partner can make a move over 4♥. Obviously, there are hands like ♠AQxx ♥AJxx ♦AKJx ♣x where slam is good but even the absence of ♥J would reduce this to ~50% slam We need to pull 3 suits without a loser and I suspect this is against odds. Isn't this the whole point of 4♦ being last train? So we put a bit of pressure off partner and if partner has a minimum ish for his splinter then he can sign off.

No I'm not passing and it's not close. Lots of upsides to 2♠ as opposed to pass which is pretty much only catering for partner to have say something like a 3145 (albeit unlikely as RHO could've overcalled 1♥ or Lefty could've x'd) or maybe 3334 or 3244 (ok slowly talking myself into a pass) but that's getting a bit unlikely give RHO's silence with shortage in diamonds. Besides, partner might have 6 or maybe 7 clubs and with invitational values he can invite after our 2♠.

Hmm downgrading AKAKA and even after partner made a bit of a cooperation..

1. Close but I pass. 2. Double, although it's true we could be helping them in the play in 4♥ but 3♥ could be their limit and we might make 4m or on a good day we have a save in 5m! 3. Pass

Agree with gnasher. 3♦ can definitely still be a nice pure 4-6.

Agree with Justin.

My auction would've gone 3♠-4♠. Edit: Oh, I had thought we were favourable as this isn't a 2nd r/w 3♠ opening for me.

Agree with han.

Yes I would double. I would've opened 1NT.

1. 5♥, give them a guess. I have ok prospects of potentially beating a slam. 2. 4♥, might buy it there but unlikely. I'm ready to push to 5 though. 3. 4♣, though tempted with 5.

Slightly depends on partner's style of openings. Generally I wouldn't GF as this hand is aceless with a stray jack. If my hand was Kxx KQxx Jx Kxxx then I would as we have a known fit. I'll start off with 1NT and I'm still allowed to re-evaluate depending on partner's rebid.

I don't like it. Some m+OM hands can still double and over 1♥ partner has failed to overcall 1♠ so during then at best we'd only have a 4-4♠ fit. Not worth giving up a natural 2m I reckon.

I would double for flexibility as it still enables me to bid 3NT over partner's 3♦ response. Over a 3M response I will raise to game.

You are South, dealer at unfavourable, holding: [hv=d=s&v=n&s=sxxhakj9xdqxcakqx]133|100|Scoring: IMP[/hv] You open 1♥ and auction goes: 1♥ - (Pass) - Pass - (2♠) (6+♠, int-ish) (Opponents are now silent throughout) You now decide to double and partner bids 2NT, scrambling or aka 2 places to play. Rightly or wrongly, you bid 3♣ and this is passed back to partner who bumps it to 4♣. Your bid. Partner is a very good player but you are not sure how far he would go with responding light, albeit unfavourable.

I would have responded 1♥ rather than 1♦.

I open because it's NV and I have 44 in the majors. 2, 3) I agree with gnasher.

Agree with Fluffy.

With these cards my style is 2♠ for the game. But 2♣ if the hand was xxx x KQx AK109xx.

Assuming XX = support, then I agree with 4♥ and an easy pass now. We (our partnership) haven't shown the majority of the strength so this is definitely not a forcing pass auction.

Playing with/against pickups on BBO, I'd say a fair amount of time you can distinguish the relatively ok players by what's written in their profiles.

Make sure you have the settings turned on, to log deals when playing (in the Windows client). If you're using the web client, that doesn't save the deals in a file.

I'd usually go for a light walk in the mornings to get me more alive. Or if I'm sitting out for the morning set I'd do something to keep me stress-free like shopping or talk to people, just doing things to get my mind off so my mind won't trigger the bridge-atmosphere type feeling. When I do get that couped up feeling, somehow my body sometimes accumulates that until the end of the last session for the day so it would hit me in one strike and I won't feel it during mid-sessions. Usually then I'd just do something fun and relaxing at the end of the day to calm my night down.

I'd pass.