wank

i'm normally relatively conservative with openers (pass the vast majority of balanced 11s and happily downgrade some 12s) but i'd open this, so i'm a bit surprised by the responses to date.

best tell the acbl to rip up the SAYC booklet then. no more going along to an event and agreeing to play that without going through it line by line to agree every part. bridge is a game. it's not illegal to be bad at it and it's not illegal to be ignorant about finer bidding issues.

if south wants to double, which is not ideal, but yes, would still be the preferred option for expert players, he has to be prepared to pass 2C and hope for the best. north almost always 5 cards for 2C here, so it's not a big problem. south's poor bid was 2NT which should show a hand too strong to overcall 1NT directly, i.e. something like 19-21. north hasn't shown any values, so as it was, south de facto jump overcalled in NT on a 13 count. It's obviously stupid to jump overcall constructively on a hand weaker than a simple overcall. what north should do is interesting, but probably a little more advanced. the standard of bidding in english clubs is very low. other countries do more to promulgate a useful standard system which helps.

the auction's not ridiculous in itself. passing the redouble then making a free bid show an invitational hand, i.e. one too strong to bid x clubs originally (2 not showing values and 3 being a pre-empt). people occasionally psyche the redouble - i did it a couple of weeks ago.

they have agreed to play it as showing the majors, because they agreed to play micheals and objectively that includes 2C here being majors. that east didn't know what he was agreeing to doesn't matter. it's akin to my signing a contract for a loan without reading the small print. what happens when i don't pay and it goes to court? the contract is enforced as it is objectively written, not as i thought it was in my ignorance.

rkcb is just a different version of blackwood. it doesn't tell you if you have any tricks or not. blackwood in any form doesn't tell you if you can make slam. it just tells if you if you'll be going off at trick 1.

showing 2 of the top 3 honours is pointless. showing weak suits isn't pointless, but is a bad idea - it just helps the opps find the right lead. if you want to play 2 lots of transfer breaks, just have 1 amorphous weak and 1 amorphous strong. you can also play 2NT as a supermax with 3 if you like. the 1NT opener is more likely to have tenaces/secondary honours to protect so having opener play it is quite important. by only having 2 breaks you'll always have room for a retransfer. personally i don't like to break with weak hands. when 2nd/6th hand has the sort of hand which could act, he'll be unable to do so safely as responder is unlimited and in prime position to extract a penalty. you'll peforce get to play 2M with a 9 card fit on minimal values. this argument particularly applies when your suit is spades, because you can compete to 3S over 3H slowly if necessary.

devoting one of your lowest openers (1d) to a very small set of hands is, one would think quite clearly, very inefficient.

as i'm on his ignore list, perhaps someone else can direct this query to the novice/beginner section. it doesn't even have much to do with natural bidding.

i'd never bid here. partner will hang you too often - he can't play you for as little as this. there's a line for how low you can go and this is well over it. pass then 2nt doesn't show a hand too weak for 2NT directly. it's normally a 2254 10 count or so. it's a fallacy that you should never let the opponents play. sometimes it's just their hand and bidding helps them in the play to make some overs. unless you think you've got enough to actually do something productive, you should keep your gob shut. holding 3 the opps are much more likely to be closer to 25 than 20, game try or no game try.

set 4: http://webutil.bridgebase.com/v2/tview.php?t=ARDCHALLENGE:26ff76b6.aade.11e6.8e99.0cc47a39aeb4-1479178179&u=wank wank by 35 v toast1 (37-2)

west has a great hand once east shows a strong hand. still, east has plenty of aces so could have safely doubled again in the expectation of getting a penalty (if west doesn't have red cards, it seems rather far-fetched to think 4C is making).

splinter. it's not hard to imagine a slam. x akxxx xxxx aqx is an entirely boring hand where slam is good. change the q of c to the king and it's cold.

yes

they, or elements thereof, are popular with good players

http://webutil.bridgebase.com/v2/tview.php?t=ARDCHALLENGE:c21872ba.a758.11e6.8e99.0cc47a39aeb4-1478791033&u=wank set 4 me 47 wackojack 13

http://webutil.bridgebase.com/v2/tview.php?t=ARDCHALLENGE:e2452189.a470.11e6.8e99.0cc47a39aeb4-1478471542&u=wank wank by 9 in set 1 v wackojack

what trouble do you think you're going to get into by responding? people who worry about this stuff are used to playing with bad players who double game because they've got 15 points opposite a response or who jump to 3NT on a flat 19 count. taking 1NT as an example, if partner has let's say 18-19 balanced, you'll end up in 3S, which is not going to be a problem (i.e. if it goes off, the opps are making something). if partner has an unbalanced game force, we'll end up in 4S, which will often make - you do have 4 card support and a ruffing value. the 4th spade makes it essentially impossible for them to nail you for a fat penalty in partscore. where you want to be opposite this minimum and pretty much balanced game force? [hv=pc=n&n=sakj65ha5d32cak32]133|100[/hv]

1nt. Passing just makes it too easy for them. If you're lucky you'll catch lho with something likeca 3433 16 count and rho with like a 1345 9 count and they'll be in trouble.

this is obviously a wind-up. i've not seen philg recently.

if you can make game opposite a 3333 +1 random card in a sidesuit, you've got a GF. that hand is miles away. opening the actual hand 2C is sporting enough. it's 23 with a stiff king. it's not a radical position to say this is a 1 opener lol (assuming you don't want to call it balanced).

north has far too much for a splinter, unless he thinks he's got enough for a 2nd go, which would be my choice. i'm having a great deal of difficulty finding any hands where 5 is in danger. mrace's 5-7 is also far more than i'd have. i'd have no more than a 4 count (and it wouldn't be an ace). a splinter says we aren't making slam unless you've got a perfect holding in the splinter suit. this is the kind of hand opening hand splinters are for:- [hv=pc=n&n=sakqhakj543da43c2]133|100[/hv] as for this alternate hand with akj aqxxx kqjx k that's being quoted, it's not a game force in hearts, is it? it's either a 1 heart opener or a balanced hand of whatever range you choose.

yes weak

wank +18 v nekthen

wank v barmar. wank +24. i've no idea how people are linking the results.