rogerclee

I don't know about you personally but I have talked to so many BI players who 1) always want a bid to be kickback even if it's ridiculous to be that (eg: 4H P 4S) 2) waste a lot of energy thinking about whether a bid is kickback instead of thinking about how many tricks they can take on the hand 3) waste a lot of energy when their partner bids 4N, thinking if they just forgot they play kickback (and for a BI partner, it makes it worse that the answer is "probably") 3) actually forget a bid is kickback I don't get it, it is just not that important. The above does not only apply to only BI players either, heh. I suspect kickback loses imps/matchpoints for the average partnership that plays it.

1) I think opening 1NT is extremely poor with the north hand, and I open 1N about as much as anyone. You have the textbook hand for not doing it with 5-4 in the minors heh, since your hand is so great for playing in the minors and so bad for playing in a major or NT, and you can even open 1D and bid 2C as opposed to the other way. 2) You absolutely cannot pass 2H with this, you had the easiest double ever assuming 2C was the majors. Even if you don't want to double, you have to bid 2N, even 3D is better than pass. 3) Having failed to describe your hand adequately at your first two opportunities, you had no idea what to do on your third turn of bidding. This was not shocking. South had a tough bidding problem given his (IMO bad) methods, I don't really object to what he did.

All BI players should take kickback off their convention cards. Just saying.

You cannot bid 3D with this shape ever, you had an easy double of 2S. Now we have no bid that describes our hand other than 4C I guess, which precludes defending 3Sx.

If I could specifically show a superaccept with 3 trumps, I guess I would do that sometimes, but it is pretty rare. Also, for non-BI players, it is pretty good to play that 2M+1 is always your superaccept.

At MP, not really sure why 2C would be better than 1N. Anyway I don't play precision but I would always open 1C if I did.

I once saw AQ AKQxxxxxx A A on BBO, think it was a team game where han and jjbrr both held it.

I think the actual hand is close and interesting, I would lead a heart also. However, when commentating about double dummy lead simulations vs NT: 1) The results usually favor unusual leads. Making unexpected leads is hard on partnership defense, particularly if the lead is unreadable (here could be from HT9x) and/or you don't play some kind of smith. Your double dummy computer is always shifting back to clubs when it's right. In real life, partner often just plays you to have led from HT9x since he has nothing better to play for. 2) When underleading an honor blows a trick, it is likely to have the same effect double dummy as single dummy. The HT on this hand can be dangerous sometimes single dummy when it was never a problem double dummy. This can happen when partner has Qx sometimes, or just when declarer's hearts were Axx opp QJxx and the normal line would have been to play on another suit and pitch 2 hearts from hand and hope the heart hook is onside, instead of just solving the suit at trick 1 for him for 3 tricks.

Even though it seems stupid to go a freely bid down 3, it's not like partner was passing 2H (imo), and even if he did, sounds like we might have gone down 1 in 2H anyway lol, so lose 3 or 5 is not a huge deal. On a better day partner would have the same hand, but LHO wouldn't be able to resist sticking in 3S with QT9xx x AK AT9xx. Unsurprisingly, preempting tends to be ineffective when partner has AKJxx in your void.

forget it lol

All Vul MP xxx AQJ8xx KQx x 1H P 2C 2S 3H 3S P P ?

MrAce, nobody can stop you from having a nonstandard (and clearly inferior IMO) view of an auction, but many people have been quite clear that in standard bridge, partner is likely to have a strong 3136 or something similar. There is a big difference between thinking what a double should be on an auction and bidding as if everyone thinks it is that way. If your only point is that we should pass a penalty double of 4H with this hand, then I think everyone agrees with you.

I understand not blindly bidding 4S over 4H, but we have six spades lol.

oh double post

I have always thought that the people who are too smart to make support doubles on routine hands are losing lots of hands for no reason. There is a big difference between not thinking support doubles are mandatory (I agree) and not doing it with a doubleton diamond, Hxx of hearts, and a good offensive side suit. At matchpoints I see the concern of -200 but I would double with the north hand without thinking twice about it. Unlucky, with this set of hands I see no reason we couldn't have either pushed them to 3D or possibly gone -100 into their 110. Shockingly, making vul support doubles with min balanced hands when your partner has a 4333 min is losing bridge.

I've tried bidding 2H on hands like this for awhile and it just seems ineffective, so put me down for 3H. Pass seems very strange to me, not sure why I would want to play a style where a hand with 7 reasonable hearts and a spade void should pass.

I would bid 4D. FWIW I really don't think it's easy to double someone on this auction, most people are glad to have pushed you to 4m, so -100 into their 140 is a very likely occurrence.

1) 3H seems right to me, slam can be really good opposite some extras (but not enough to bid over 3N) and the stiff ace of hearts. 2) I'm just having trouble constructing hands where this matters at all unless my opponents have gone totally insane. I guess a diamond in case they hook into my partner's stiff K and then we get a diamond ruff, but honestly I'm very eagerly awaiting the full hand lol. 3) 2S seems normal to me, I don't think we have the right hand for a responsive double since we don't have a very good hand and have bad defense for 2Dx. Pass is totally bizarre, and I don't like 3C when we might just have a totally normal 2S contract available to us, especially since it sounds like partner may have doubled with 3 hearts, in which case he could easily be 4342.

[hv=pc=n&s=sq62hdc&w=skj98hdc&n=st54hdc&e=sa73hdc]399|300[/hv]

If we are discussing difficulty of accomplishment, I would say winning the NA swiss is comparable to being something like 5th in the Reisinger. That is, I think it's about as likely that 6 clees will win the NA swiss as it is likely that 6 clees will be in the top 5 of the Reisinger. However, the NA swiss is also a more random event. 4 good but not top players having a good run can win the NA swiss or at least get into the high overalls. 4 good but not top players have no chance of winning the Reisinger, so to me, being 5th in the Reisinger is a much better indicator of skill than winning the NA swiss, since the Reisinger is a lower variance event. However, people remember who wins national events, even the less prestigious ones. Not many people remember who was 4th (or even 2nd) in the Reisinger in 2009.

I think saving is really weird, aren't we expecting to give partner a spade ruff about half the time? I guess it's right to save opposite the set of hands that contain 8 clubs missing the ace and out since we can prob only beat them on spade, spade ruff, club, and a heart trick or another spade ruff/promo, but that's not what I consider to be the "average" hand for a first seat w/r 4C opener, even if it is the textbook hand. That said it could be a double game swing opp Qxx x x KQxxxxxx lol.

I also like 3H but fwiw I think fred has said in the past that he thinks most min balanced hands with 4 hearts should pass on this auction, barring any method to specifically show that handtype, which gnasher and csaba like. Might have been only at IMPs though.

I don't get giving up a natural 3D bid in order to usually wrongside the contract.

BTW part of the reason I am just bidding 4H is to maximize pressure on them to save in 5D. I don't want anyone to be able to suggest it without actually doing it.

I have found that in general it is a good policy to preempt with suits that "look like" preempts. QJT9xxxx looks pretty preemptive to me! Also in general people are definitely psychologically averse to defending 4mx, you will see them pull with (34)33 random 8-10's that would pass 4Mx in a shot and collect their number.