rogerclee

This is a game force.

Thanks everyone! CLEE->CHINA NOW.

Me too. I agree, except 3+ spades.

3♥ seems clear on values. I want to be in 5m on a wide range of partner's hands, and if partner has an invitational hand with spades, this is clearly our best start.

Give me QJTxx of spades instead and I would balance.

LOL

Not that I'm going to be in Beijing anytime soon, but I thought I'd have a look: The blog you were looking for was not found. Try: http://teenagechowhound.blogspot.com/2007/...al-chinese.html

Looking forward to it, though I won't be there for another few days.

I pass, white at matchpoints is still bridge.

3♥, this is not a minimum.

Matchpoints, Red vs White, Third Seat ♠Qxxx ♥Q ♦Jxxxx ♣Axx 2♣ - 2♦ 2♥ - 2♠ 3♣ - 3♦ 3♥ - 4♣ 5♠ - 6♣ 7♣ - ? 2♠ was Kokish, 6♣ showed 1 or 4 keycards outside of spades. This field is quite good.

clubbbbbbb

Double.

But what if partner has ♠Axxx ♥void ♦KTx ♣AKxxxx A mere 14-count, and a grand is very good!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JLALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL

Open a major more aggressively than a minor, rule of 20 only applies if your hand is relatively pure. But something tells me from your recent series of posts that you seem to be very fixated on wanting to follow lots of bridge rules which involve points and things you can count up to and subtract from. Bidding judgment and hand evaluation are much more valuable, and I suggest you stop preoccupying yourself with these sorts of things and just learn to play bridge well, which takes time and is not easy.

Pass.

In my opinion, having a void in spades is very different from having one.

Okay, was the purpose of this post to get input from other players, or to tell us what we should have done? FWIW I think pass is extremely poor.

Which pair? Surprising they play that as non-forcing, or for that matter that they play it as natural. David Rowntree - Dougin Walker

This hand is from a Challenge the Champs bidding contest. I decided to use the "normal" 1♣ then 3♣ sequence for a zero (I was surprised by this score!). Partner has ♠Qxx ♥K9x ♦Q9xxxx ♣x. Of the two pairs in the challenge, one plays strong club, so they had a huge system gain: 1♣-1♦; 2♣-2♦ to the top spot. Elahmady and Sadek was the other pair, playing a fairly natural system. He opened 1♣ and rebid 2♣! This got them to 3♦, the next best spot. Kokish recommends opening 1NT (albeit with a question mark) with this hand in his BWS auction.

First Seat, Matchpoints, All Red ♠AJx ♥Tx ♦Ax ♣AKxxxx Plan?

Double and convert any number of hearts (except 4♥) to NT.

What is wrong with 1♣ - 4♣. Gerber. Saves a full round of bidding. Han, you just got served.

Wow, I disagree with everything said in this post. 1) I don't know how old fashioned your methods for overcalling are, but double has, for a long time, been takeout oriented, and overcalls can still be good (opening or better) hands. 2) On the issue of frequency, it is not worth it to have a direct cuebid show a very strong hand (though it used to be this way). There are so many other problem hands that arise when they open that it is unthinkable to a modern player to use this bid to show a hand that will come up maybe once in 400 deals, especially when doubling and cuebidding will be similarly effective. 3) Above all, it is false that points are more important than shape. "Simple and direct...partner immediately has a good handle on whether we should be in part-score, game or slam." This statement is also completely false, I don't know how you came to this conclusion.