peachy

Feelings should not be a reason why a TD rules one way or another. Investigate, establish the necessary facts, then make a ruling in accordance with the laws.

I prefer some shape in a mixed raise. This is a good single raise of an overcall, a combo of both offense and defense, I cuebid to show it.

[hv=d=n&n=sqjxhjxxdkxxcakxx&w=shdc&e=shqxxxxdaxxcqjxxx&s=sxxxhkxdj109xxxc9x]399|300|[/hv] Auction was 1C (P) 1D (3S) All Pass. North leads CA. We play UDCA and show attitude on leads. Our agreement is that against suits, if attitude is known from whatever source (bidding or dummy or the lead) then we show count, or show suit preference when obvious. Under these agreements: 1. What card should South play on the lead of CA? 2. Does South know/should he know whether North needs/expects suit preference or count? 2. What card should North lead to trick 2? You have the benefit of both hands but I hope for answers on theory applied to this hand. TIA

I see two votes for "Just Unlucky". Wow! I would have expected zero votes for that option.

You could post a convention card, the BBO Basic or the BBO 2/1. Or modify one of those and add and remove stuff you want/don't want. It takes a while to find friends and compatible partners to play with, everybody has been in your shoes :(

How about "draw, fin club" or whatever the suit is where the finesse will be taken. That is 14 characters including the spaces and the comma. Anyone who has played more than a month will understand this simple claim. Still 24 more characters left.

If need 40+ characters to explain the line, then perhaps premature to claim.

Funny :) Plain old "pay attention" is enough. I think Gerben is right, but in a club environment I am going to allow Nigel to remove the Dbl and tell him to pay attention please :)

Some people have agreement on what 2M, Pass, and XX are. 2NT is NEVER an option without consulting partner! Mine are that whenever I have a 4-card major, I bid it because "partner asked, I tell". Whenever I don't have a 4-card major, I pass unless my clubs are 5-cards long or an excellent 4-card suit, in which case I Rdbl. Rdbl encourages partner to leave it in with Hx or better in clubs and normal responding values, or finish it up with a bid if he had garbage stayman. Not saying this is best or standard or universal or anything, just that this is my agreement with at least two partners with whom 1NT is 15-17. If 1NT is 12-14, I haven't thought about what is best and in fact, have to make an agreement ASAP :wacko:

Sorry if only Han should have answered, but try Hardy orange, page 43, example 34A. In my opinion Hardy is not the definite book on anything. I don't think that there is a definitely book on bidding anyway. If we have to quote Hardy, forget the yellow book and use the green book instead. But on this question, both of them say 2S promises 3-card support. Agree with hanp that there really is no need to find a book that says that. It is common bridge logic IMO.

The spade Axx solidifies opener's hand as reverse even if it hadn't been a reverse originally (IMO, it is anyway). Supporting spades can wait til next round. East gets the blame.

It really can't. When in GF auction, supporting spades with a doubleton is very unwise. For me and anyone I play 2/1 with, antisystemic as well.

The event website answers all your questions. The commentators posted the links to the website so often that I am surprised you missed it completely and never did find it in the Vugraph Schedule page either. Oh well.

With J10x, play the J that also shows the ten. If you encourage with the spot card, partner will think you have the Q. With Jx, play the spot. If you play the J, partner will think you have J10x or a singleton. With J62, play the 6. If you play the two, partner will think you have a doubleton or you have the queen or king Finally, do not revert to standard signals when you have agreed on UDCA. What is the point of that?

My preference about overcalls is "reasonable range and appropriate suit length and quality" that depends on position, vulnerability, level, which suit is ours, etc. etc. and my preference about advancing overcalls is new suits are constructive by passed hand and forcing one round by unpassed hand, while over a double a new suit is an attempt to escape - and knowing where the escape is. Some people play an overcalling style where overcalls are very sound and new suit is a signoff with singleton or fewer in support of the overcall. I have trouble finding benefits of this style, and having agreed to play this style with a new partner, all I see is disaster as result, in the form of missing major suit fits, not having any descriptive forcing calls available, stopping at the wrong level, having to use a lot of bidding room to investigate because have to cuebid first, etc. etc. Maybe I am biased or just too old to learn new tricks. Please comment on what style you prefer, and what you think a common style in the US is nowadays.

1S for me. 1NT shows about 9-10 or good 8.

This would be a first seat 1C for me, but a second seat 3C. What to open with this, depends on the style agreed.

I would have thought the exact opposite. I mean, when playing 4-card majors, then all raises promise 4-card support except very rarely when all other bids are clearly worse.

With regard to ACBL reg, the term used is not "signals", it is "carding strategies".

Yeah, thanks for correcting me there. I should've used "what do you play". "play" covers all of "lead", "discard", and "follow suit"

I agree alerting should not happen at the contest. Consulting one's own convention card should not happen either! I have a strong feeling this wasn't well enough known among some, either. This is of course just a "fun contest" but the rules were known ahead of time and for it to be fun and fair for everybody , the rules should be followed and anyne who sees them not followed, should say something. A pair who breaks them while knowing what the rules are, is c****ing.

What is unclear about it? I am asking what "you" and other forum readers do and for those who care to answer, to vote. It is unclear because you has more than one definition. Definition 1 would mean you are asking what I do in my partnerships, definition 2 could be taken as either asking what is standard or what people think is best. If I wanted to know "what is standard" or "what do you think is standard", I might have asked that question. Then again, some folks play different things with different partners so they could feel unable to answer the simple question I asked. Then again, if folks want to answer a different question than what I asked, go right ahead. Or if you want to argue about semantics, fine too :rolleyes: I still find my question easy to understand even if it had been composed by someone other than me!

This "2NT usually used as an asking bid" IMO is not true. It is usually played as natural just like bids normally are in 2/1 so 2NT denies 3-card support for opener's major, tends to deny extra length in the 2x suit, and shows ability to play NT as strain because it has the unbids stopped, but it also leaves open the possibility of slam and of other strains. Next round will reveal, or will continue to describe because neither side has limited their hand yet, except that opener has virtually denied 15-17 NT hand. Anything beyond this about the 2NT bid requires detailed agreements that are not standard and not understood by a pickup.

What is unclear about it? I am asking what "you" and other forum readers do and for those who care to answer, to vote.

My question is out of interest in how common one or the other is. This is yet another thing where I thought I knew what the standard is... If you care to provide reasons why your chosen method is superior, please do!