kayin801

I'll be bold, red card and lead ♦10 (after a tank of course). I don't really want a ruff but there is no other good lead. I have a hard time imagining where they're getting 8 tricks from.

Party hat +1. It's a sombrero :) Preemptive retribution for your snarky comment that was coming about underage drinking :D AND YES OF COURSE... *cough*

Party hat +1. Though we usually just stole pizza from nearby seminars being held. In absence of this, set up somewhere that has access to food nearby, so people can get up and get a drink/snack when they need to. A lot of students go for late night food for a break, so why not play bridge while you're at it? Go to activity fairs, and then just yell at everyone that comes by to come play, have them write their names on a mailing list, etc. You'll get at least 20 names (and I went to a small school) and you'll retain some of them. Also, word of mouth and strong-arming might be best. Tell your members to bring friends to try it out. This one worked the best for the club at my past school, as some people we addicted started playing in their dorms as well and brought more people in. Drag your roommates with you, and even if only 1 out of 10 who gets brought along stays on, you're still adding people. EDIT: Events too! We had parties centered around bridge (lame?) and made drinking games out of it. All 21 or older, of course. Incidentally these events had the highest attendance... hmmm...

I would love to have X-Y-Z here. 1♦-1♥- 1♠-2♣- 2♦-2♥- 2♠-3♦- 3♥- and now pick your game? I'm happy with 3NT though :/

If I were a passed hand I would X (just my style) but I want a bit more chunk to X unpassed, so I like 1♥.

I might get to 7S if opener rebids spades strongly... might show some sort of raise on the stiff J. Not as good as 7NT but definitely a decent contract.

I understand it's a gamble and we're banking on getting in to take 9 tricks first, but are we also worried that partner, holding a good hand that couldn't act (Ax, Qxxx, KQJxxx, x or some such) isn't gonna blast off, even if partner didn't balance? Cause that could lead to a bad score too. Or is it mandatory to pass partner's balancing 3NT?

Ah, I found the actual hand. I think my thoughts at the time were that I didn't want a spade lead, which rated to be partner's long worthless suit on the bidding. Incidentally DF says it's beatable when played in the W but it makes in the E (DD of course), and I suspect that if partner leads a spade it might make in practice when I have to find 4 pitches on the pointed suits (though declarer has to read the position) [hv=d=w&v=b&n=s9754h962d1064c876&w=sk1032h107dk953cak5&e=saj6haq53daqj8c102&s=sq8hkj84d72cqj943]399|300|(1♦)-P-(1♥)-P (1NT)-P-(3♦*)-P (3NT)-P-(4♦)-P (4NT)-P-(6♦)-X (P)-P-(6NT)-? [/hv] They bid it funny btw. That might not be completely right, but I do remember the first 4 bids clearly.

The 7 is led only 3/4 as frequently as you might think because people will want to hang on to the ♦7 to defensive beer.

[hv=d=s&v=e&n=s10xhqdakj10xxxc9xx&s=sahak8xxxxdxcaq7x]133|200|Scoring: IMP 1♣-(2♠)-3♦-(3♠) P-(P)-5♦-(P) ?[/hv] 1♣ was big, 3♦ was nat and GF, and my pass as opener was forcing (I had planned to come in with 4♥ over any "normal" action by partner, as I thought I was too good for 4♥ right away) a ) What's your bid? (try not to result :P) b ) how are you playing 6♥ in the south or 6♦ in the north on the presumed spade lead, ♠Q in hearts, low ♠ in diamonds? Hidden: RHO has 4 hearts, if you ever try to cash two top ones

[hv=d=w&s=sxhkjxxdxxxcqj10xx]133|100|(1♦)-P-(1♥)-P (1NT)-P-(3♦*)-P (3NT)-P-(4♦)-P (4NT)-P-(6♦)-X (P)-P-(6NT)-?[/hv] 3♦ was strong and forcing. So I don't remember the EXACT auction or hands (I tried to replicate it the best I could, but I think something is off), but it made me want to X 6♦ for a heart lead. Figure I'll mention that before people start calling me crazy for the X. Considering I've already Xed, what does pass of 6NT mean? What does X mean? Does scoring format make a difference? My partner and I have the following agreement: If we've made a lead directing X earlier in the auction and they bid on to slam, at IMPs a X of the final contract calls for a different lead than the one I asked for (pass asks they lead the suit I Xed), and at MP it still asks for the earlier lead, just going for a top (pass doesn't suggest to lead a different suit in this case). Is this a good agreement? Does the above situation apply to this rule (earlier X could have been made on a void)? There was a BB hand where both tables let a slam through after this kind of situation.

I like to give a courtesy bump to 2S with the north hand, known 8 card fit in the master suit and far from a useless hand, makes it harder for them to balance when opener has 7 points fewer, and we get to games when opener has hands like this. Debateable whether S is worth a jump shift, not the worst 19 count ever but it feels a little meh just on instinct. 80/20 N/S

Thanks for the input all. As most of you figured out, we play that 2C doesn't promise real clubs (2+) and is GF, and that the 2S rebid only promised 5, though if it doesn't have 6+ it's a min balanced hand with values concentrated in the blacks. We sort of discussed that in this auction opener has denied 4 cards in any other suit, though they could potentially have a weak 4 card diamond suit if their spades were good? I like what kenrexford suggested in his last post, minus the jumping to the 4 level part. It could work, probably more so in 2/1, but I'm not sure how much sense it makes in big club to put opener in charge when they're limited in strength and to basically two different hand shapes. Maybe opener can spell out their hand in an auction like this: 1M-2♣ 2M-2NT now 3 o/M shows the kind of hand opener had. Presumably if opener had hearts responder could rebid spades after the heart rebid if they had 4 (or opener could bid them, with precision the reverse doesn't carry as much weight), and if opener opened spades, unless the hearts were really really bad compared to the spades they'd bid 2♥ over 2♣. I guess the latter maybe runs into trouble when responder holds something like x, AKQx, KQxx, Kxxx and opener is 54 or 64... I might be getting too specific at this point though :D The specific auctions would then be 1♥-2♣-2♥-2NT-3♠ and 1♠-2♣-2♠-2NT-3♥ and making responder fully captain at this point. Presumably responder has shown willingness to play in NT so with the crappy min balanced hand opener can just raise 2NT. This also lets us reserve bidding the major a 3rd time for an exceptional 6 card suit (not that AQ10xxx is anything to sneeze at) or a 7-bagger. Opener could also show 3 card club support if they wanted. Maybe it seems weird to create an auction for exactly this hand for opener, but I feel like this kind of opening hand isn't so rare that it wouldn't be useful.

I was East. [hv=d=w&v=n&w=saq10xxxhxxdxxxcax&e=skxhajxdaxckj10xxx]266|100|Scoring: IMP 1♠-2♣ 2♠-2NT 3NT-4♣ 4♠-AP 1♠ limited to 15[/hv] So it's my fault IMO, but admittedly I have trouble with hands like these. Can anyone suggest an auction to get to at least SIX? (1S-2C-2S-3C-3D-3S-4S-4NT etc maybe?) I bid 2NT over 3C cause I thought it would help us get to NT more easily when it's right. That having been said, I bid on anyway, so so much for that idea. I guess I'm just trying to imagine partner's decision when they hold AQJxx, xxx, QJx, Qx and I bid 3C.

With a 4 card major could opener X first and then "retreat" to 2NT when partner replies in our shorter major (as expected) or would X promise an unbalanced hand here? 4432 I'd probably X rather than bid 2NT... or are you advocating bidding 2NT with those kinds of hands too? If we can have a balanced hand for X, does 2NT show something like a 3334 or 3235 19 count and make us lean away from the majors?

[hv=d=s&v=n&n=sxxxhq98daqxxxcxx&w=sqxxxha1054dxxcqjxx&e=sj10xhdj10xxxc10xxxx&s=sakxhkj76xxdkcakx]399|300|Scoring: MP Opps silent until end: 1♣-2♣ 2♥-3♥ 4NT-5♣ 5♦-5NT 6♥-(X by W)-AP Low spade lead[/hv] 1♣ was strong, 2♣ was artificial showing a unbalanced positive with no 5 card major, and the remainder of the auction was natural/1430. I went down 1 when I unblocked the diamond K, lead a high heart (ducked), hooked the heart 8, and tried to pitch both my losers on my top diamonds. I thought that line was right without any additional info (makes if hearts aren't 4-0 and diamonds 5-2 and no ruff). W Xed though, and I assumed he was sane. Clearly I can make by leading to the heart 8 instead of first leading a high one (cashing a high heart first fails on this lie, I think), and then ruffing a club (only need to cash one diamond honor then). After the X should I have done this, or am I overthinking it?

Did you reference LYCOS... TWICE?!

Board 9 of a 12 board TM, down a healthy 26 IMPs... [hv=d=e&v=n&s=sqha1084dqj53cak82]133|100|Scoring: IMP (P)-1♦-(2♠)-X- (4♠)-?[/hv] Opps are known to be aggressive.

I feel like I try harder offline rather than online, which I think helps my concentration. As Jlall said, it's way easier to get distracted and I frequently find myself doing something else at the same time when I'm playing online. I also mostly play with friends as both partners and opponents online so if I do some goofy/dumb stuff (which happens a lot) I feel like there's a more forgiving atmosphere. Also, I can do all that goofy/dumb stuff and matmat can't jump over the table to strangle me when I continuously ignore his signals ;P

1♦-(P)-1♥-(P)- 1NT-(X)-P-(2♠)- X The 1NT rebid shows a weak NT. Is this auction even possible? What does X mean and what's a typical hand for it? Is this different: 1♦-(P)-1♠-(P)- 1NT-(X)-P-(2♥)- X

[hv=d=e&v=n&n=sak752haq83dj10c97&s=sq8h107dkq98732cak]133|200|Scoring: IMP East opens 1♣ (3+ suit, presumably)[/hv] How do we bid to 6D/6NT? Even worse, can we get it played from the North?

What is 5H now in this auction (or in an auction like this)? No more controls but just scattered values too good to sign off?

Isn't our side missing a club control?

This might be a touch cooked, but... 1♦ (2+, big club style) - 1♥ 3♦ (good max, 7 card suit or great 6) - 3♠ (forcing, stopper ask/diamond slam try) 3NT - 6NT (partner bid 3♦ missing the AK of diamonds and clubs?! He's gotta have controls in both majors and likely one ace, I can't construct a hand that would rebid 3♦ where 6♦/6NT won't have a chance) Maybe try 4♦ after 3NT instead, then exclusion etc... I'm also unsure whether I'd open that a big club or not, but I can describe my hand by rebidding 3♦ so I'm content with that. My standard auction is the same as Helene's.

I was gonna lead a spade, I'd rather let them make the decisions :/ and hopefully by the time they figure out the hands it's too late. I hope no one at your table thought leading a minor was standout.