peachy

I agree with the principle that after we have made a penalty Dbl the subsequent doubles are penalty. The "sand in the wheels" in the OP case is that the first double was not penalty; he called it Standard (which it is not) and showing strength.

This is what the SAYC system includes. 2S-3H: 3H is 5+ hearts and forcing for one round 2S-2NT: 2NT is asking partner to show a feature if he has a maximum range weak two. Minimum weak two will rebid spades. Feature is a side king or side ace. Other agreements are possible. What one might call "standard" is that new suits are forcing and if you play with a pickup good player, assume this unless you had specifically agreed them as nonforcing.

Your partner thought it unacceptable for what reason? Because he would not have bid it? Or because he does not want his partner to make gambling actions? I don't see the merits of 4S, but having opened 1NT, your partner is not in charge of the auction after that. You gambled with 4S and won, if they would have made 3NT. Your 4S might have lost when they don't make 3NT or when 4S goes for more than their making game.

Has he announced he is no longer going to participate? If so, it will be a loss to these forums.

Results can be skewed for many reasons, like at one table there is a revoke, and an unmakeable game is scored as making because of the transfer of one or more tricks. What happens or happened at other tables has nothing to do with a ruling that is based on laws. There is nothing in the laws that allow considering what the field is doing.

2H was forcing one round so opener had to bid something; 3D showed nothing extra although slight extras are possible. 3H is trying to improve the contract showing a 6th heart. I suppose it would be possible for responder to pass 3D with only the promised 10HCP and misfit in diamonds, but this carries serious chance of missing game if opener has anything extras, Kx hearts for example (he has already denied 3-card support).

Why is that, Frances? You are of course not obligated to answer, this is a question out of curiosity.

"Negative Free Bids" is a nfb if in "Standard" the bid would show 10+ HCP or so. This is a simplified statement, but works to help understand when a bid is nfb. It does not apply on the 1-level.

In SAYC, yes. OP said they play 1430.

Neither of the hands you presented is strong enough to bid 3C. But that is all water under the bridge now and does not affect the answer to your question. 6H is to play. As to opening 1C: Yuck. I know some (even some experts) recommend 1C with 5-5 in blacks. I don't buy it.

If the 5C bidder responder knows something about the laws, then he was acting illegally and showed poor ethics. The hesitation by opener showed doubt and in this auction the only doubt possible is that he has some extras that he is thinking of showing. But if the 5C bidder is blissfully ignorant about what the law tells him to do/not do when partner hesitates, then that is all there is - he didn't know. But after this, he knows better, particularly if a TD explained it to him.

Clearly, yes.

I am surprised you even needed to ask. It is penalty, he had a trap pass and now, after re-opening double by opener, our side has the pleasure of defending 2SX instead of 1SX.

Nice! Good reasoning. Playing SAYC with a pickup assume 4NT is always RKC, no matter how little logic there is behind it being a RKC.

3H is just cooperating and making the most descriptive bid responder can make, perhaps with Qx hearts. The aspect of "forcing" was already there when opener bid 2S. Now, responder is not the one who makes a forcing call and there is no need to, either, because opener already had established gameforce.

After 1S-2D-3C, the partnership is in a gameforcing auction because opener showed extras by the 3C bid. Responder has lots of room to show various types of hands and room to engage in RKC the next round after a fit is established (if there is one). Therefore, the logical conclusion for me is that it must be a general slam invite. Opener responds to it by Pass, jump to slam, or respond keycards on the way - with the last bid suit = clubs, as trumps for the RKC purpose only. Any bid other than Pass from opener is accepting the slam invite. But I think, if this was a random BBO pickup, it is safest to assume that 4NT was not a natural slam invite and that 3C did not promise extras afterall and that 4NT is "always" RKC...

Yes. They also say one should be careful when the hesitation could benefit one's own side; see TimG's quote of the relevant law. Let's say the bidding goes 1S(P)2S(P) and now opener takes a long time and then passes with a rock bottom minimum 6-3-3-2 hand. Opener could have known [i'd go as far as "should have known"] that this hesitation might prevent opponent from balancing. It is not legal to break tempo in this situation with that hand because there is no bridge reason to do so and it could obviously work to my benefit.

There was MI given to NS when East explained West's second double as penalty (blood) when in fact it became established that EW did not have an agreement what the second double means. One must not go guessing unless there is prior experience with this partner that supports such a guess. If there was damage to NS from this MI, then TD needs to redress the damage by adjusting the score. So the only question is: Was there damage from the MI?

Bidding 1S with 1 point is legal. If they routinely or even with some frequency respond to 1C with a hand this weak then the call needs an alert because that is then their system and not a psych. ACBL Alert regulation tells to alert calls that are "highly unusual or unxpected". If systemic, then this would IMO clearly fit that definition.

Well, they definition isn't unclear, but I agree a lot of people do not know what a HSGT is. Most people without gadgets use natural (long suit) game tries as was the case in the OP and mistakenly call them HSGT. HSGT is asking partner if he can stop three quick losers in the suit. When opener has KQxx in the suit as in the OP case, opener does not need partner's help in THAT suit. Typical holding for opener who uses HSGT is Qxx, Jxx or even xxx or xxxx. Responder accepts HSGT only if he can give a positive answer to the question asked, and the acceptance or rejection has nothing to do with minimums or maximums or anything else than the suit being asked. Positive response is void, singleton, doubleton, Kx (or longer) Ax (or longer), KQx, even QJx. If there is room below three of the agreed suit, responder can sometimes make a "counter offer" in another suit, suggesting values there AND denying the asked-for holding in the HSGT suit at the same time.

How do I print an ACBL style convention card I have created (or even the SAYC card that is shown in the new utility) ? Thanks for advice.

Little off topic since tis thread is about forgetting agreements, not about psychs. A psych is a "deliberate and gross deviation from partnership agreement". A system forget is never a psych because if one does not know what the agreement is, one cannot deliberately (with intention) grossly deviate from it.

I almost don't want to play if I don't have Drury. Well, that was an exaggeration but you get my point. It is a very useful tool to have.

3S is not a choice at all because it is non-forcing. This hand wants to be in game so just bid 4H [splinter] and get it over with. Partner needs to know you have good hand with spade support and now he gets to know you have singleton in their suit. Lovely. 3H would be too ambiguous - what is partner supposed to do over 3H, asuming opponent passes? Somebody else mentioned there are too many bids reserved for raising partner in your scenarios, and I agree.

I think there are very few who would disagree - remembering that this is about "serious" events. In ACBL, the General Conditions of Contest, applicable to all events, address this concern. Knowing one's system is one of the conditions and the TD is empowered to adjust score if there is damage or to issue PP if no damage. The "no damage" IMO is never a case, the enjoyment of the game is disrupted to many folks like yourself in this respect. http://www.acbl.org/assets/documents/play/...l-AllEvents.pdf I am sure that in 0-299 or Flight C or perhaps even Flight B, the regulation is applied in a relaxed manner; the ACBL afterall does NOT want to scare away newcomers or relative beginners. But I have no first hand knowledge of this, how typical a PP is, even at the highest level of ACBL events. It is worth noting that the document does not tie "frequency" of "not knowing one's system" into it at all.