wank

i'd lead a spade for the same reasons as gnasher. why try to cash a club? it seems very unlikely that's going anywhere if dummy has a singleton, but if dummy has a void it could be rather damaging.

Assuming you open all weak NTs with a major 1M (no strong club, no canape), does that give opener too many hand types for 1M-2C GF relay to work?

if i don't bid 4c now, when will i ever bid 4c? if partner has 9 top ones and no club fit, that's just sad.

yes, sad but true, bbo is full of clueless arseholes. i only play with people i know. i think bbo should introduce the option to rate partners, much like customers can rate hotels on comparison sites - a score for their ability and a score for their manner.

as far as i'm aware they do, unless it's a function of the rest of their sytem. for example if you played a 4cM majors first approach it would be pointless

it would be bizarre to play it as anything but natural. normally they've not even shown many clubs. there's only any issue because it's 4+.

you're mistaken. ebu regulations pertain to individual bids or, at most, pairs of bids, e.g. stayman and the 2D response to stayman. there's, rightly, no concept of system.

you can play 2/1 with a forcing NT. you can play it without. perhaps in your area it's normal to play it as forcing, but in other areas it's not. the authorities dictate what's unusual for alerting purposes. in the acbl which seems to be your area, it's forcing. online there's no such authority unless it's in one of those ACBL tournaments, so it's obviously a very grey area. if you run a tournament you could write your own rules or specify that ACBL alerting rules apply. without specific rules, you'll be often be in this position where one player's idea of what's normal, and perforce what should be alerted, is different to another's. of course as a director you must be sure not to let your own bridge cultural history bias your judgment.

this is all rubbish. we're not worried about partner jumping to 4h. the worry is partner removing 3nt to 4h on a later round (2s-p-p-x-p-2nt-p-3nt-p-4h). double followed by 3nt should show tolerance for hearts. we don't have it. we also don't want partner bidding lebensohl because if he has anything in spades it'll be wrong-sided (think jx or 10xx).

FYP. you will often make game here. partner can easily have a 14 or 15 count.

i agree with lamford - you can't make anyone play quickly by doing so yourself. as for this colour coup business, if you have some variety of disability and partake in a game/sport with those who are not, you should expect to be handicapped and perforce on occasion lose. what next? bonus matchpoints if you bring along an IQ test certificate to show you're not as clever as FrancisHinden or DBurn?

4c. we have a great hand. we don't need much at all to make game. oh i see 1c is 4+. obv that makes it a little more tricky. still, i don't want to defend 2s when it's often a 9 card fit. double then i suppose. hopefully we can still scramble into clubs.

what a tosser

it sounds like he's not bidding 4M enough then. you bid it a lot, even if you might miss slam on occasion. if opener has significant extra shape that's just sad (he'll often upgrade to 1c). a good rule of thumb is bid game if you can't make slam opposite 5431. on occasion you'll even get to slam anyway - if opener has a lot of extra shape, so do the opps, then 4th hand bids, and opener on the way to 5h shows something and responder reevaluates.

but he's just wrong. the main advantage of precision for example is those lovely 1M 4M auctions where 4th hand is just taking it hard. obviously, the wider you make your 1M openings the less you can just bid game in response.

I gave up and stopped reading at this, "I don't believe that playing limited openings is an end in itself."

double. what else would one even consider? there's no reason to think we can even make game

you're right. i was too busy sulking about the original pass.

no i don't protect, but why didn't i double 1d which is considerably safer?

which cards did west have in with his spade suit? diamonds one presumes.

rather off-topic, but considering this system has only ever been played by one serious pair, and who have been shown to be cheating like troopers, it probably indicates it's theoretically rather unsound.

too many people on here love trying to invent their own facts so they can demonstrate their brilliance by giving a different ruling.

that's not most people's definition of a 'feature'.

whilst we can have a slam with a non-gf opposite a simple rebid, it's massively odds against and for the 1 time you get to slam there'll be more times when you turn them off a club lead and thereby go off in a game you would have made.

4c should be this now. obv it would be stupid to play it as a splinter