kayin801

Pass, I don't see why 5♠ is making with spades likely offside and a club lead coming through us, and I'm sure we're getting a plus for 5♣. Partner must have something in clubs, either length or strength, for his X since this looks like a FP situation to me, so I'm guessing they're already playing in the wrong round suit. FWIW, I don't think this is obvious and I could be convinced 5♠ is right, especially since partner is probably leading a spade now (gross). I don't think 5♦ is good because I don't expect the auction to go past 5♠ and I don't see a reason to give them extra info before the contract is played. Also, if 4♦ last round was a non-strong slam try I might have bid that, not because I'm interested in slam but because that's the lead I want against their contract instead of a spade.

♥Q looks best to me, seems like the best way to stop entries to dummy. My initial reaction was a ♣ of course, but any clubs we're getting probably aren't going anywhere.

Righty probably has 2 or less spades since he would probably raise with 3, and partner couldn't make a negative X to show hearts and couldn't raise diamonds, so I'm inclined to let them play in the wrong major suit fit. I echo mikeh's last paragraph about split range michaels. The downside is when partner can compete in clubs I'd love to show the clubs, and his spade values are working. I almost wish I could show this hand with 3♣ to increase the chances of keeping the opponents out of the auction (but I don't feel 3♣ really shows this)

X, if not now, when? If partner bids 5♣, then I'd probably pull to 5♦.

4♣, sometimes I have extra length for this bid, sometimes I have extra strength. This could work very poorly.

That might be a questionable 1♠ overcall in 3rd seat white, let alone in 2nd seat red. North has a normal raise to 2♠ if west passes, but if 1NT is to be believed it definitely feels like we're gonna play in 2♠X if we bid it. I can at least entertain that North didn't listen to the auction and paid for it (even with 5 spades in South's hand this could go for 500), but South's hand doesn't always have to be balanced.

[hv=pc=n&s=sakt9872h8dkjcj32&w=sj43haq753da64c96&n=sq5hkj6dq98cakqt7&e=s6ht942dt7532c854&d=s&v=n&b=15&a=1sp4n(Blackwood)p5d(1%20ace)p6nppdppp]399|300[/hv] Weak club game (duh). Before bidding 4NT North sighed roughly 904328049283 times. West's X of 6NT did not ask for a spade lead (it had no agreement). A spade lead did, however, deliver -1680 to E/W ATB please.

I'm, of course, more interested in the general case, but against the actual opponent I would judge him to: - Always play the 2 from J92 to the first trick - Play the 9 from J92 at least 80% of the time to the 2nd trick - Always play the 2 and then 9 from 92 doubleton Not sure how that affects calculations and how to play... At the table I hooked and went down, but I guess in the general situation hooking is right?

"So what did your alert of 2♦ mean?" "Oh it showed a good raise of hearts with 4+ spades as well, it's completely artificial" "Oh, that's a cool convention, I'll try it sometime" "Sorry, we came up with it, it's copyrighted and only we can use it"

I confess I would try to pitch one club from dummy and ruff another. Should work whenever clubs are 4-2 or better and spades are 3-2 or 4=1 (if we start trumps from hand)

Consider this suit in a NT contract in which you need 4 tricks: AK87 Q106 Due to problems with entries to dummy (but starting in dummy), your best options seem to be a first round hook of the 10 or to unblock the 10 en route to leading up to the K8. Suppose you choose the latter line (or someone starts out by playing the first trick and leaves you to clean up) and it goes: ACE, five, ten, two seven, nine, QUEEN, three six, four, ? Assume the opponents are playing their spots completely randomly, what card do you play if i) no other information is known ii) another side suit is known to be 4=2

4NT as 2 suits? I don't think much of my jacks but with the A and K and partner probably having a balanced hand lacking massive club values we've gotta have great play for slam. With a bad 2 suiter I might have just tried the major after partner's pass, so I think pulling partner's 5♥ to 5♠ is forcing and shows the pointed suits.

How many zeroes do I need to put on the check I send you for our extra 20 MP?

Just an FYI, not sure if putting us in first was a typo after board 2, but I think we reached 3NT there, making it highly unlikely we were in first.

I would play, and I voted. I assume the week before Christmas is not an option because the organizer can't make it? The dates before Christmas are best IMO. Random semantics post: maybe "Holidays Swiss Teams" is more appropriate? :P

1♣, this is a normal 1NT in the "BBO expert" world where your sole objective is to play every single hand.

Good points, but I will add one thing on discussion of the hands is that quite often people already know what their mistakes were, decline to share them, and only discuss them with their partners. I know not everyone wants to share what dumb thing they did on board X, but if it's a quick toss-up it makes for less discussion than other topics anyway. I also think that this set was a series of high-level decisions that were really, "take your best shot" and there were fewer hands that were "bid constructively to the right game or slam," so my reaction to a lot of them were "phew" or "$*"

2 comments here: Our auction on 11 was 1♠(limited)-X-4♠-AP. I'm not sure I agree with partner's choice of 4♠ here in a bidding contest (I feel better about it IRL though still not my choice), but I wonder how that affects the defense. Odds are there's a club lead from AK if West has it, but if he doesn't, then he probably leads from hearts? Not sure if that affects anything here, but it lets our side retain control and make easily on a 3-2 trump break. Secondly, another script change happened at our table on board 12: 1♣(16+)-4♥-6♣-6♥! and then my partner found the heroic raise to 7♣. I'm not sure if we'd find 7NT if West passed, but this did deviate from the script. Edit: Thoughts on what 6♣ should mean in an auction like this?

I think this auction should be equivalent to 2♥-X-3♥-X, fwiw. I think it's a 4♣ bid over the original X, since we don't have that much interest in defending.

Sometimes partner has diamonds too and can preempt? Sometimes opener has a 3316 17 count and the auction goes 1♣-1♦-X-4♦ or he has 4315 and responder bid 1♥? If we pass or X they'll find any major suit fit they had anyway. I don't really think we're getting a plus score on this but some times we can get a better minus than we would, and I think 1♦ is the best way to help us muddle their auction with partner's help while providing the least risk to us.

Also for the poster before him: Because systemically over our 10-13 NT this is how my partner and I bid this hand? It's not like this is the SAYC or 2/1 section. You can assume the bidding up through 3NT is correct since I didn't give you any other options as to how it might be bid. We don't have transfers available and 2♥ is NF, if you must know.

Lies

Bridge improves my poker because now I no longer play poker.

1♦. If I were a passed hand, easy X

3♠ or pass, if we were white I might entertain 1♠