OleBerg

Capitalism.

Why did the chicken cross the Möbius-Strip?

Wrong forum. http://forums.bridgebase.com/index.php?showforum=5

Right thread said Fred.

Riding a bicycle drunk is the safest transport. The bicycle keeps the balance itself.

I think I'd bid on both hands. If North bids 4NT, South has an easy 5♣ (allthough he might feel a bit uneasy). If North passes, and South bids 4NT, I would yield to temptation as North, going to 6.

The mother of all: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CImrIKNmBo

Since a few people here knows me, or might get to, I must admit, that I have not celebrated any landslide victories in my "War on Cholestorol", but at at least I have my attention where it makes a difference.

The chance that the average Amarican will die as a result of terror: 1:5.000.000 The chance that the average American will die as a result of a cardiac disease: 1:300 I do not have the figures for Europe, but I concentrate on what I eat. Maybe you should do the same.

What in this auction would be a Cuebid? Wouldn't everything else be natural? I'm not sure I'm ready to let the auction 1S-2H-3m to be a cuebid in support of hearts and not be natural. I'm far more likely to need these calls as natural than I am to show a 16+ with 4+♥ hand. If I bid 2♠ with these hands, then we need a relay sequence ... now your system of 3♥ shows 3 and 4♥ shows 4 is not so easy. I would also think that 2NT and 3NT would be far more useful to show range than to be used artificially. Partner and I play 12-14/18+ 2NT rebid and 15-17 3NT rebid in these auctions. Making either of these artificial would put a lot of strain on opener. What alternatives are there? Cuebid is 4♣/4♦. I'm not really that experienced in 2/1, but I would prefer to put a balanced range in 2♠, rather than 3-card support, if you cant stand 2NT being 11+. (Maybe saying that all minimum hands bid 2♠.) Anyways, it was just a suggestion. The idée is very usefull in a non-2/1 context. In 2/1 others will be better judges.

I think Free's system makes sense, and it's not complicated. Well, I guess my "3 shows 3" and "4 shows 4", was to much after all. :)

Roedgroed med floede!

3♥ with 3-cardsupport. 4♥ with 4 cards and minimum. Cuebid with more than minimum. You might consider using 3NT as artificial. Might be used as a four-card raise and not minimum, in which case 4♣/♦ can be splinter.

As much as this reasoning: "Some men have beards." leads to: "So God as a bearded man holds some water."

FYP

I'm not a science-man, but my guess is, that this is being done all the time.

I'm down with gravity!

Slightly sidetracking; Some of the strong Italians did this with their 12-14 NT: 1NT - 3♥/♠ simply showed a four card suit, and asked partner to bid 3NT or 4 of their suit. Hides information about declarers hand, and inhibits a lot of lead directing interference. On a very frequent type of hands.

Crude add-on: 2♦ - ??? 4♣ = Bid the suit beneath your suit. 4♦ = Bid your suit. 4♥ = Forget about your suit. 4♠ = Forget about your suit.

Også et stort tillykke fra en "indfødt".

My advice would be: When you bid 2NT, partners suit will be set as thrumphs. 3NT is still possible as a contract though.

The problem is capitalism. Whenever this topics is described, an Indian quote springs to mind. It goes something like this: "Only when the last river runs dry, and the last fish is eaten, will the white man acknowledge, that you cannot eat money." And surely enough, the day the Earth ends in environmental disaster, there will still be people rejoicing in the fact, that they have blue numbers on the bottom line.

Que?

That might be the agreement with least strain on memory and bidding-judgement, but it is not without problems: 1) A second cuebid will gobble RKC. 2) Uncertainty about stoppers. Assume you have established fit and slaminterest with 3♠: If you bid 4♦ with a singleton club, and partner bids 4♠, you will not know whether it was because a club stopper or a heart stopper is lacking.* Now, if you move on without a heart-stopper, you might risk going down in 5 where you could have avoided it. If you stay, you might miss a stone-cold slam. Furthermore, in auctions where all stoppers are accounted for, a player coming to rest in game, sends the message: "I have exhausted my slam-potential". I have often found this usefull. Of course grand-slams should not be underestimated, but good small-slam bidding comes first. Here it looks like NS plays a well-considered system, but still they obviously need to asses their slampotential further during the cuebidding. Thus saving space in the sequences is also valuable. * Should anybody believe, that a heart-cuebid here doen't show a club-stopper, the same problem will surface, all the times you bid 4♦ because you actually lacked a club-stopper.