Little Kid

I'm not quite sure what exactly you mean by downgrade. Are you referring to considering a hand is worth less than its value in hcps? Or is it certain situations, auctions and seats in which given holding might not pull their full weight? Or both? Regarding hcps: 4333s, stiff honour(s), lack of intermediates, queens and jacks rather than ace and kings, lack of filling honours in your long suit... I probably wouldn't downgrade a hand for any single one of these on reasons but might do so with a combination (eg. I wouldn't think of QJx QJx QJx QJxx as an opening hand). Situational: singleton K/Q/J in suits that the opponent left of you has shown a LOT of strength in is good reason to assume the holding won't be worth what it usually is. A 1NT overcall behind you, especially holding a lot of finessable honours like queens and kings. Holdings like xxx in a suit bid by your RHO means your p will have the missing honours if they need to be finessed, so that is bad. Basically whenever you have good reason to assume you or your partner's honours will be under the enemy honours is not a good sign. I tend to be quite optimistic though and very rarely downgrade a hand, I think it doesn't very happen you can be sure a given hand is worth less. You definitely don't want to be missing games just because you 'may' have your stiff king dropped. But then again I'm not an expert either so I may be wrong :)

3NT looks like a 'to play' bid so I'll play him for kings, queens and jacks rather than aces so a pass from me. With two aces, what is the point of consuming all that space and making life tough on partner if he is thinking of slam?

EDIT: Nevermind, I thought the contract was 6♠ lol

I assume different vulnerabilities and seat will also affect this significantly. Would you open stronger hands 2♠ r/w in 2nd seat than in 1st seat? Under which other conditions (if any) would you open a solid suit with 2♠? Finally, what would be the minimum for you to open 2♠ in 1st seat r/w with a 6-3-3-2 shape. EDIT: Scoring is IMPs if it affects your answer.

I was as surprised as you were to win the trick!

[hv=d=e&v=b&n=sq86h6dtxxxcqtxxx&w=saxxxhq94djxxckxx&e=sxxxhak732dakqxcx&s=skjthjt85d73caj93]399|300|Scoring: XIMP[/hv] This was the full hand. I disliked a club because I didn't think it was going anywhere anyway. A diamond lead might give up tempo and give declarer a free hook into partner's diamond holding, so that was out too. So to me it looked like choice between the majors. I eventually decided to go for a trump because I feared the opponents might cross ruff and that the winners in the other suits would give us enough tempo for a switch if necessary. For some random reason (don't ask why :(), I ended up putting the ♥T on the table. This went to the Queen and the ♥9 was ducked to my Jack. I played my King of spades next for -1, relieved my poor lead wouldn't cost us a game swing. Other than the lead problem, I posted this hand because I was wondering if there is any merit in leading the T from JT8x in trumps when the opponents have an 8/9-card fit and you desperately need a passive lead. If all other suits look like they will hand declarer the contract or you need to lead a trump to cut down ruffs, would you ever consider it? Or is it better to just lead an honest J of trumps in that situation and hope things go ok whilst keeping partner informed of what is going on?

[hv=d=e&v=b&s=skjthjt85d73caj93]133|100|Scoring: XIMP 1♥-1♠ 3♦-4♥ [/hv] You are South and the opponents bid to 4♥ without interference from your side (they are playing ACOL). 3♦ shows at least 5-4 and GF. The opponents are +- intermediate club players, what do you lead and why?

1♣ followed by 1NT. I don't feel particularly exstatic about upgrading this hand to 1NT with two ♣ losers before I can set up my source of tricks. With so few controls in the majors, I wouldn't be surprised at all to end in 3NT with 4 major losers and a ♣ loser. The diamond honours aren't pulling their full weight either so I will open 1♣ all day long. I wouldn't ever dream of rebidding 2♦, I have a balanced hand so why lie about it. Being worried about major suit stoppers in 1NT seems a little pessimistic. If partner does raise, he will have the values to stop them cashing too many majors.

I'll play the Q♥ and see what happens. Looks like LHO has 4 spades, so even if he does have Kxx♥ I'm not to worried as my spade Ace won't get ruffed.

[hv=d=n&v=n&n=sakj8hkj65dj54ct9&s=s9hq432dkq6ca8632]133|200|Scoring: IMP 1♣-(P)-1♥-(1♠) 2♥-(P)-4♥-AP[/hv] You end up in the slightly precarious contract of 4♥. LHO leads the ♠3 playing 3/5 leads, what now? I will post continuations later if necessary.

@ Pirate 22: After having read just over 2 pages of this thread I still am not sure what is going on. Would it be possible to phrase the posts so that other people can read them without having to go through too much trouble to decipher them? Everything just seems a little chaotic and I think you would get more responses if you made an attempt to clarify what your views for other readers. Don't take this the wrong way, it is just some friendly advice as I doubt I am the only person who has trouble following your strain of thought ;)

I wouldn't open 2♥ in second seat at unfavourable vul without a nice suit unless I have a very good reason to. This being a flat hand doesn't exactly help. I would open some hands with 2 aces preemptively at the 2-level but not here.

What would double show?

I don't play moneybridge, but I would think that if your seating is random and therefore also the vulnerabilities you are assigned then the variance of potential scores increases (as opposed to roughly identical number of times vul/nv with fixed seats). With the extreme examples being always vul and never vul throughout a session. I don't know how the BBO software functions but if seating truly is random then there would be more variance than with fixed seats. On the topic of hcps and seats, it probably depends a lot on how BBO is programmed? Say it is designed such that throughout a sessions N, S, E and W all have an average of 10 hcps. Then changing seats randomly should also increase the variance on your average hcp range in the session. If the hands are randomly dealt however it makes no difference whatsoever where you are sitting. But to be honest, I wouldn't really mind the increased variance of my hands and I doubt the small difference there might be would influence my enjoyment. If i got 4333 4432 10 counts on every hand I would be quite annoyed though.

Oops, I thought he opened 2♠ LOL

Depends on vul for me. At NV I'm definitely not looking for game whilst at r/w I will make a move. At vul my p will probably have a decent spade suit, all I need is one diamond card. I might not end up in game every time but for now I would make a trial bid and see what partner has to say. eg. ♠KQTxxx ♥xxx ♦Kx ♣xx

At the table I played a similar sort of line trying to combine the spade and club chances. I played the ♠A, ♠ruff high, ♥ to dummy. Then ruffed another ♠ and trying the 3-3 club split next if the ♠King didn't drop. This gives up on 4-1 heart splits while gaining on the 3-3 spade distributions. 28% in exchange for 36%? I'm still not at all sure what the best line is, which is why I posted it here.

There were 2 other tables that got to 7♥. Both declarers cashed 2 hearts and then played clubs, pitching a diamond in dummy and subsequently ruffing the diamond loser. Any comments on trying to use the clubs as opposed to the spades? Any estimates on the odds?

[hv=d=n&v=n&n=saqjt83ht97da9cq7&s=s6hakqj4djtcakj52]133|200|Scoring: IMP 1♠-2♥ 3♥-4♣ 4♦-4NT 5♥-6♣ 7♥[/hv] LHO leads the K♦: where do you go from here?

Partner will most likely not not have 4♣ as he would have raised 3♣ rather than rebid 3♠ (not sure if everybody does this but I was pretty sure at this stage my p did not have 4♣). If you choose to bid 4♦, partner will bid 4♠.

Yes, it is.

[hv=d=n&v=n&s=sha93daq753cat942]133|100|Scoring: IMP[/hv] Partner opens and the bidding goes unopposed: 1♠-2♦ 2♠-3♣ 3♠-3NT 4♣-? What does partner have and what is your plan?

[hv=d=n&v=n&s=s72hqjdkjt983c982]133|100|Scoring: IMP[/hv] Partner opens and the auction goes unopposed: 1♠-1N (forcing)-2♦-? What is your next call?

Probably not correct but I'll have a go: Ruff the lead and play the diamond K, if RHO follows I'll overtake with the ace. If the diamonds aren't 4-0 I'll ruff another spade and will make it as long as a small club to the ace is not ruffed. If RHO shows out on the diamond king, I'll duck the diamond and take my chances with the club finesse in order to secure the two entries needed for the spade ruff and drawing trumps. If RHO ends up having 4 diamonds after the diamond king with some crazy shape, I'll play another diamond back to the dummy's queen and then a club to the Ace. Draw trump and hope that RHO has a king singleton or doubleton in clubs.

[hv=d=e&v=n&s=sk9hqt632dkjckt83]133|100|Scoring: XIMP[/hv] E S W N 1♦1♥2♦X P ?