peachy

I thought it showed solid six-carder or longer and not a whole lot of extras. Certainly true of a minor opening, but I thought it was the same with a major. At least it is a useful agreement, even if it were not "expert standard". I don't know what expert standard would be. Surely 1s-1NT-2NT shows 18-19 and balanced so that meaning is out for the 3NT bid.

Responder has six+ spades and invitational hand. If he were gameforcing, he would have bid the 4th suit first and then rebid spades. Opener's hand has grown big (compared to many hands that he COULD have in this auction) and opener has to make a move somehow, not just bid 4S. I will bid 4H.

3D natural. Shows suit, shows shape, and has doubts about 3NT or NT in general. We are not going to attempt to set diamonds as trump...after three other suits have been bid. What other reason is there to bid 3D [natural/ish] than "I don't like my hand for NT = translate that as 'I have heart singleton' " and what other reason is there to bid 3D instead of 3NT than "I don't think we should be in NT unless you want to be there knowing I have singleton heart". If the agreement is 4th suit forcing, my question is "Forcing to what?". Gameforce was already established first round of bidding. Who knows, maybe I'm confused, but the auction seems easy to me and 3D Natural the only sensible meaning.

No, responder cannot Pass, 3H is forcing one round. No, it does not matter what form of scoring. No, it does not matter if responder was a passed hand. I would just barely understand Pass if a passed-hand responder is an "operator" and had stretched to bid 3C for some reason and then chickened out and passed. However, he should stand ready to apologize if a bad score resulted from his undisciplined action.

Wrongsiding happens now and then, regardless of what method is used. It is not often that we end up in NT after opener reverses, showing a suit oriented hand, and responder bids the weakness showing 2NT. As an aside, I think this responder is much too strong to use a weakness showing bid. He has a side ace, a side doubleton, and 4-card support for partner who has shown a strong hand. Even responder's Jack can be upgraded to its full value in filling up the heart suit.

SAYC is explicit that after we open 1NT and opponent doubles, all conventional responses are "on". It is also explicit that after an opponent bids (overcall instead of double), all conventional responses are "off" http://web2.acbl.org/documentlibrary/play/...gle%20pages.pdf

To say they were not damaged by the bidding makes no sense. They *were* damaged because they should not have been defending 4H. When East passes (he was the last to pass) the contract would be 3D. When East bids 3H, and the 3H bid is ruled illegal (using UI) the contract becomes 3D. There is no path to 4H after the 3H bid is cancelled and all considerations as to what score to be assigned, are based on the contract being 3D. This case cannot consider "how bad the defense was" against an illegal contract. After the infraction during the auction is remedied, the subsequent illegal call(s) cease to exist. They are certainly not reinstated for the purpose of penalizing the NOS for their bad defense.

East has UI from West and the UI message is clear = West has extra values. Pass by East is a LA because he is not allowed to use the knowledge that West has extras. The contract should be ruled to be 3D making at least three, for both sides. Whatever happened at defending 4H is irrelevant because the 3H bid will be cancelled because it is illegal.

This would be a unanimous vote except someone must have misclicked on the Pass.

Why would he bid 3H over 2NT? If you don't bid 2H now, partner may not want to look for a heart contract if he has four hearts when you have bypassed 2H - IMO bypassing 2H denies holding four hearts. After the forcing 2D bid, 2H cannot show extras (nor does it deny extras either). It is the equivalent in strength of 1C-1D-1H, without interference from opponents.

Difficult to rate bids at this point when my 3S bid the round before was wrong.

There is nothing to interpret. Opener shows singleton or void in diamonds. If 3D does not show that, then opener is not playing Jacoby 2NT. There are other systems which many say are better than Jacoby 2NT but if Jacoby 2NT is agreed, then one should not go modifying it in the middle of an auction :)

Good. Well, I can only tell you what I play. Playing Jacoby Transfers, AFAIK (and so stated in many writeups) Rdbl by responder *is* a re-transfer to the suit he was originally transferring to. Your system is different from standard, AFAIK. I don't have an opinion what is better, only what is standard.

IMO, there is no polite way to tell someone he is a fake expert. First, you would be essentially accusing the "inflated one" of lying about his skill level [well, he probably did lie...]. Second, you would be criticizing his playing ability [probably for good reason]. If you try to phrase this politely, you will yourself come across as a patronizing jerk. I think better to be silent, leave, and never play with that person again. What is the success rate of trying to cure or to inform or to expose someone who obviously is either a) clueless, :) delusional about his own skill, or c) liar. Let it go :)

If we have 4 hearts and 2 spades we can pass, maybe partner will redouble. I play that partner's double means it is our hand and he is willing to sit if we have 4 decent hearts. With the actual hand I would bid 2S though, showing 3 spades. I think the hand is pretty good for spades. I assume you meant "partner's re-double" [not "partner's double"] To my knowledge, the auction 1NT (P) 2H (DBL) P (P) Rdbl is a re-transfer to spades by responder. The interesting question is what would 2S mean, these auctions don't happen very often.

Please add me to the list. I was unable to register to the tourney on BBO, told to contact the host.

Do you have to sign up somewhere in advance? Or just show up at tourney time?

Choices should be the same as 1NT (P) 2C (Dbl). Rdbl when you have a good club suit with tricks. In the actual auction, good heart suit with tricks. If, by your agreement, Rbl denies holding a major over Stayman, and similarly in the actual auction denies holding three card or better support in the transfer suit, then you obviously should not Rdbl but other than that, I think Rdbl is clear.

The guidelines on BBO exist. Some people just don't want to give an honest skill level. Or they truly have not read them. I know of at least one player who thought "World Class" means players who do not reside in the USA... Perhaps occasionally repeated links to the skill description in the News on BBO could be of help to those who really do not know and serve as a little reminder to those who deliberately misrepresent their skill level.

Very close to reverse, due to spade fillers for partner and controls in all suits. Put a 10-9 into the diamond or heart suit and IMO it already qualifies. 2S is the practical bid, much better than rebidding only a five card ratty minor or making a borderline reverse. Sometimes rebidding the minor is the "least lie" but not with this hand.

No. All the club TDs I have seen in action did a fine job. Amazing. My experience about club TD's is completely the opposite. Where I live (Western US), common are wrong rulings even in cases where no TD judgment of the facts is needed, just ability to read it straight from the lawbook. Common are ave/ave or ave-/ave+ because the TD is unable or unwilling to make a decision on given facts. Common are acceptance of systemic or deliberate UI, loud long discussions, habitual lateness from same players, playing TD regardless of number of tables, and the list goes on. Common is not calling the TD - why bother when he is going to either not rule "play on" or make a wrong ruling. Owning or running a bridge club, or acting as TD is not a glamorous job or hobby, I just don't like basic incompetence so I rather play online or in tournaments once in a while.

Instead of the total number of points given away it should really be the sum of the average number of platinum points given away in those events. Or more precisely for each event you enter you get the number of platinum points earned divided by the average number of platinum points earned in that event, and then you take the average over all the events you enter. I think you'll agree that this is right, or at least close to right. I thought the amount of points given out was already a function of how many people played? But if that's not the case then of course I agree. If there were a formula such as this, or something similar, then all the masterpoints a person holds could be calculated on the ratio of masterpoints available versus the masterpoints the person earned. It would then be easy to separate achievers from those who have masterpoints [or platinum, or whatever color] by "decades of attendance". The whole idea of total masterpoints, even total platinum points, is not worth much as an indication of success.

Dbl. Reopening with 3C - which I assume would be some people's choice - takes away the chance to play in 2S if partner is weak, or 2HX if partner had trap. When there was no heart raise, the trap becomes more of a live possibility.

If the style for splinters is (my preference) _either_ just game _or_ a hand that always wants to go on after opener's presumed signoff, then opener's 4NT is bad when AJxx diamonds are not working in full. With a splinter style undiscussed, 4D was risky but the worst bid was 5NT.

I would not even consider inviting, let alone bidding four.