TMorris

This may be completely obvious but at the time is wasn't to me so I would welcome advice as it is bugging me. Playing 4cM & weak NT at IMPs. Your opponents at the other table play strong NT and 5cM. On the auction P P 1♣ P 1♦ 1♥ 3♦ P 3 ♥ P 3NT All Pass You get a low heart lead Dummy ♠ KQ84 ♥ Q62 ♦ J1042 ♣ K4 Declarer ♠A65 ♥ J7 ♦ AK63 ♣AJ95 You win trick 1 with the Jack On the Ace of diamonds you get 8 on your left and 7 on your right. In principle the opponents are playing reverse attitude signals & standard count. On 2 rounds of spades your RHO discards the 8 of clubs How do you proceed from here? It seemed to me either a) take diamond finesse b) cash K of diamonds and take club finesse if Queen of diamonds doesn't fall are there alternatives and which is best?

The value to the BBO audience as a group may not be that large but for EBU members who watch on BBO it will be more significant. Personally I would rather watch players I know in an event that has some significance to English bridge than a foreign event such as a Polish event where I have no idea what the systems are and hence what the bidding means. It surely has some benefit in educating this audience regarding standards and requirements for the top level of bridge in England. To some albeit limited extent it may help in raising standards through such education.

Re the EBU I assume you only alert the 2♥ bid as 4 when you are playing support doubles. If you are not playing support doubles I can't imagine it is alertable. This seems reasonable enough as it's common to raise with 3 card support so if you guarantee 4 card support at all times many would find this unusual.

The format of the vugraph page has changed. Is there a way to change it back to the previous format? If not how do I find both tables of a match as today I only seemed to be able to find one which seems strange. Thanks for any help deucetoace

At matchpoints I would make a (takeout) double. Only 3 hearts is not ideal but they look nice enough to ruff spades with if we end up in hearts & the rest of the hand couldn't really be better. At IMPs I would double non-vul and pass vul but I am not an expert so maybe an expert would just double anyway..

Sure. I was even an interested bystander. About 12 or so years ago I was playing with someone I had never played with before (or since) in a teams event. We played against another local pair where there was - I assume - some history. My partner called one of our opponents a cheat and wouldn't withdraw it. The director threw him out of the event and told the rest of our team if we could find another team mate we could continue (no chance of that of course).

Thanks. Could you explain why 5 ♠ asks for a heart control rather than asking how good partner's spades are?

At IMPs the auction to you goes (3♥) x (p) and you have ♠ AQxxxxx ♥ xx ♦ AJx ♣ Q where do you go from here?

It seems an obvious pass. You don't have the values to make any bid & will encourage partner to bid a non-making contract if you did bid.

Plenty of "local experts" claim without showing their hands and brow beat beginners into accepting the claim - not showing your hand is close to a DP for me.

We played in the UK mixed pivot teams knockout against a team that might well have been seeded (I'm pretty sure they were all international players Camrose/Lady Milne or better) about 10 years or so ago. We were even more nobodies than we are now and when we turned up they were already having a nice glass of wine. We won every set including on one board in the last set them bidding a no play 6NT (on partners lead anyhow) when 6S was cold and our other pair stopped in 4S.

My apologies. It's held in the UK so I assumed EBU regs in error.

Thanks for all the comments. It looks like I am thinking of this re EBU rules when I perhaps I shouldn't be - I hadn't appreciated that some WBF rules were in force until just now. I will consider it further.

Re using HUMs in 2nd position I guess that is what I am asking although you have stated it much more clearly than I did. The regulations state that the WBF Systems policy will apply so maybe I should be ignoring EBU requirements. We have been given a suggested defence but I want to clarify things. Anyhow if we use their defence not only will they know their own system better than us they will know the defence we are using better as well so I'd rather use something else and perhaps slightly less complex (not that the suggested defence is especially complex).

"If you restrict the simple overcalls to 8+ points they're legal ...." Thanks that's very good to know. I hesitate to ask but would such an "overcall" be alertable? "You are playing under regulations that allow HUMs and worried about a natural defence to a forcing pass being classified as illegal?" I've never played against such a system before so want to make sure I stay inside the rules. In the auction I give 1 ♠ is an opening bid - at least some might consider it so - so perhaps comes under the minimum requirements for an opening bid. I have no idea so would rather find out in advance.

I am thinking about a 1♣ overcall as t/o - alternatively as Michaels. I'd like to play overcalls as if they have opened (1NT will certainly be 15-17) hence the question as to whether overcalling one of a suit is legal as, just looking a the auction, I might look as though I am opening on illegal values.

I am going to play against a system where a pass shows a normal 1♣ opening (and various other interesting 1-level openings). In an ideal world I would like to double this opening pass as takeout - I accept this is not allowed (although perhaps it should be - but that's another discussion). I would like to overcall this opening pass as if the opener had made a 1♣ opening. i.e. I would like the auction (P) 1♠ to show a normal 1♠ overcall. This is likely on occasion to have a point count lower than a normal opening bid. Is this legal? Any comments on whether this is a sensible defence would be welcome albeit off-topic :)

I know one person who makes t/o doubles on any opening hand of any shape whatsoever (can include 5-cards in the other major for example) so overcalls are always less than an opening bid. She describes it clearly on her convention card but assures me she has been told by an EBU director that it is not alertable. She is an experienced tournement player who has a very high ranking. Has she been misinformed?

I agree, I think it was a shame that the Club Committee voted against having no alerts for any doubles. We have had alerts for (broadly) non-t/o doubles at low levels for some time now and at the club I always get questions every time I alert my partners penalty double.

1s

We already have fake experts - you can just make them enemies and you don't have to read/listen to them.

Thanks very much for all the comments. Much appreciated.

Do you do anything different when you are playing a team that is much better than you (in a 32 board match for example)?

none of them are alertable (and I play each of them with different partners)

At the club I play at this question is irrelevant. There are enough people unable to move (or at least move very easily) that sitting NS if you can actually move is very unlikely. I play there about 5 times a month and so far this year have sat NS 3 times. (If you sit at a table where both pairs can move then you toss for seating rights but at least half the time you will either be asked to move to fill up a table where a stationary pair is sitting or your chosen table will become a swivel table). The idea of a director being able to balance the directions by having equal number of good and bad pairs in each direction is not a practical consideration.