rogerclee

South catered to nothing by continuing spades, so obviously he is getting a lot of blame! North cannot have AKxx (not that you're beating it anyway!), he would play the king and then low from that holding to make the position clearer. Also east is known to have the DA from the play, so declarer has 4-5 points in spades (probably 5) and 7 points in the minors. Hmmmmm!

why are you posting information about the hands? is the contest over or something?

I can't tell from this post if you know but 3C is forcing (not that this should necessarily prevent anyone from passing, it is a serious option IMO).

MP all red KJ5x QT8x 9xx Tx 1C 1D X P 2D P 2S P 3C P ? At the table my LHO hitched over my double, so if this matters to you, give two answers.

Pass, it's possible RHO just owned us and we're cold for 3N, but I don't see how we're getting there other than me just bidding 3N. That is way too big a position to take to me, so we are stuck with solo-ing to the 4 level or just defending (if we double partner is very likely just gonna bid 4m). I will just try to go plus against 3S, which seems way more likely than making 4m.

http://img175.imageshack.us/img175/8194/bridgebase.jpg

There you go

With soda and ice. LOL

Yeah this is a really good scheme IMO. Not standard by any stretch though; that would be x = takeout, 3D/3H/3S natural and forcing.

Just because it is somewhat normal to open 1D and rebid 2C with 1444 does not mean that 2C is expected to be 4-4 or better. There is only one shape with 44 minors that opens 1D and rebids 2C and it is not always the case that the player will choose to do this. Meanwhile 2254, 1354, 0454, 0364, etc all open 1D and rebid 2C 100% of the time, and all of these shapes are 5+D and 4+C. It is definitely wrong to "expect" 4-4, that is a rare anomaly and should not be catered to.

Bump, need a host now if possible!

I thought someone posted that flannery was hugely popular among natural pairs at the recent US team trials. I think it's a very good convention 1) 2D P 4M AP, good luck opponents! 2) 1H P 1N AP, 1N = 0-4 spades, good luck opponents! 3) Opener can show exact shape (usually) and min/max, good luck opponents! 4) It is preemptive, shows values, and is very specific, so it is pretty dangerous to come in over (flannery opener's partner is in a great position to judge what to do, particularly whether to double). Of course it's not great when partner opens 2D and you are like 2146, and when the opponents declare it's pretty lol-horrible because you told them exactly how to play the hand, but overall I like it.

Pass, your side has at most 25 points, you have terrible major spot cards, this is a misfit, and having a club void on this auction is not good. In standard 2N shows 18-19, just reverse with this kind of hand and play partner's 2N/3C/3D are nonforcing. I might try 2D at IMPs but this is matchpoints and so I would just pass, this kind of hand (where it's not clear what we have or if it's safe to attack clubs) is very hard to defend.

lol? 1) Why? It is normal to start with double with an invitational hand with 3-4 in the majors (but agree it's not that likely partner has 3 spades). 2) Why?! It's normal to start with double with a hand with 5+ hearts that is strong enough to make a negative double but too weak to bid 2H. Two general points 1) You cannot shoot for a top on every hand, I would say that passing with a hand like this is about as far as shooting gets. I would say it is about a big a position to take as overcalling 6D on void Axx AQxx AKQxxx, maybe bigger. 2) So the table feel told you that partner had a bunch of stuff. Whose table actions told you this, your opponents?! Since I fail to see how an opponent's table action can tell you partner has only 4 hearts and values but a fast double by partner would indicate that he does indeed have only 4 hearts and values, I am guessing this table feel was from reading your partner's tempo, which is of course a big no no.

Pass was unbelievably retarded, now I guess I would win with the queen and play club club if partner encourages, and go back to spades if partner discourages.

Pretty sure it's 25 Edit: Oh I guess this year it was different since there were only 65 teams (so they started with the round of ~64). Maybe you need two match wins to get an overall award; pretty harsh! In years where there is a first-day round with most of the top teams getting a BYE, you get 25 for making the round of 32. It looks like for making R32 this year all you got was a match win, apparently 5 (did this recently go up?)

But there are no really good pairs who pass it. It's true that I don't think many top pairs typically pass holding a bad 10-11 6322 with a 6 card major, but that is not my point. Maybe the EV on opening 1M/2M vs pass is positive, but I bet it isn't huge, and all I was saying was that for succeeding at whatever level vuroth wants to succeed at, worrying about what this hand should be opened is not a hugely constructive use of his time, since it all amounts to about the same thing, and every style is playable as long as you follow that style. There are a lot of obstacles in becoming a "really good" player, but worrying about weak two style isn't one of them, because despite what you might read on BBF, the world will not explode if you open a hand like QTxxxx Ax Qxx Qx with 2S first seat at all red. I wanna add though that I'm not advocating anything but opening 1S with the hand in the OP (I think it's pretty obvious), just that all this talk about it being crazy to pass or open 2S is totally unwarranted, if your definition of crazy is "hugely -EV".

You know, you can succeed playing a style where this is a pass, a 1S opener, or a 2S opener. People here talk all the time like it's crazy to do anything but open 1M on a bad 10-11 and 6322 shape, but in reality there are good pairs that open 2M on these (gasp, even with bad suits and vulnerable!), and in the end it doesn't matter that much, and it's up to you what kind of style you want to play.

One time I was playing in a bracket 1 KO against someone who came to the table dressed in a wizard robe and hat. I thought it was a little strange but anyway he seemed pleasant enough and we started the set The first hand out of the box he was in 3N and had to guess KJx opp ATx for 3 tricks. He claimed on a hook through my partner and we put the hands back into the board. A little strange, but okay. The next board he is on another queen guess to make 4S and he actually started levitating in his chair! He was trying to look into my hand! I called the director but he instantly stopped levitating and there was no proof (his partner obviously didn't notice), and I sat there while he picked off my queen. Grrrrrrrrrrrrr. We lost the match by a lot, and to this day I still think it is really unethical to use wizard or other psychic powers at the bridge table, because IMO it is just not in the spirit of the game.

http://wowbox.yatta.com.tw/mtg/images/largejpg/04XXX/04693.JPG

I play that opposite a third seat opener we are never in a forcing pass for any reason, so I would just pass 4S. If I bid 4C and we were in a FP then I would definitely just double 4S, but in that case I wouldn't agree with the previous action and would have just bid 4H.

I don't know about other people but I just haven't played against that many people who jump to 5m red at matchpoints without having it. I wouldn't double because I am not loaded at all in the minors and I'm worried that RHO is 3-9 or 4-8 and we will only get 200 or 500 against that kind of hand often, so in the end I would bid 5H (definitely not good enough to try anything stronger, especially with the extremely likely bad breaks).

Two comments: 1) Actually I think the best way to inflate your PR is to have a good partnership with a weaker player. I guess you could extend this to just say "have a good partnership with anyone"; iif the partnership is more than the sum of its parts, then this is obviously good for the PR (and your bridge in general). 2) The linearity is quite a problem when you are comparing the finals of the blues (DOD around 14) and a 299er game (DOD around -10). However I think for comparing something like a sectional pair game to the first day of the life master pairs (difference of about 7 DOD), it's reasonably accurate, or at least about as accurate as you're going to get.

In a national pair game! There are many good players who could play 100 sessions at an average club and never go below 46.56.

Perry is ranked as a World International Master by the WBF, currently #258 in the world. Tough standards! lol