wank

i treat my hand as a balanced game force. we will often have exactly 4 losers and i have what look like 9 winners. i hear it's still possible to find a fit after showing a balanced hand, but i certainly don't want to play 4h on a 53 fit. what would i be planning to ruff in dummy, my jack of spades?

it's pretty bad. you can hope partner has the ace of diamonds, but there's no real reason for him to do so and even if he does west can have a void - the opps were under no pressure to bid 6. if he does, it will go 1 off (any more than that is very unlikely), but that will often not increase your imp score at all. you would get +200 for 6hx-1 and score up with +650 from 5h making, but 850 net is the same 13 imps as 750 net. it's very unusual for people to bid slams off 2 aces (blackwood available) so if it's happened at your table, you're almost certain to win points. on the other hand, if partner doesn't have the ace of diamonds and 6 makes, you increase the opps' score from 1430 to 1660 (2070 if they redouble). if it turns out it's a normal contract and your score up with 1430, you've generated a 230, 6 imp loss. as for the likelihood of diamonds breaking, i don't know if 75% is an accurate figure or not a priori, but that's not the point: when west declines to use blackwood, it implies he has a void diamond so the chances of taking a diamond trick are not great.

no you're comparing apples and oranges. if you assume it's a raise, rather than fluffy's interpretation, it should be a shortage of some variety. as they're playing precision , 3s is a non-descript gf raise.

yes it would be normal to make an invitational raise with your hand. 5d only makes because your partner has a far stronger hand than you should have expected. by the way, overcalling at the 2 level in a minor is normally 6 cards. bad players often overcall 2 of a minor with a 5 card suit, balanced hand and a lot of points. good players with such a hand normally double a suit for takeout, overcall 1NT (15-18 with a stop in opps' suit), double if opps opened 1NT a;ready, or pass depending on the exact shape and point count. with your partner's hand, he should double 1nt for penalties (passing would also be ok if the opps are playing 15-17 nt as most people do).

1) many people play jumps to game in competition as always to play 2) many people play that the only suit you can splinter in after an overcall is the opps'. having said that, i don't want to bid 4h. partner has an opening bid we've got 3 cards in rho's suit we have the higher ranking suits they very possibly have no great fit and it's our hand in partscore. i would content myself with a double and bidding hearts for the time being.

it's a pretty clear pass. 1h would be ok with this shape, but should have a better suit. you don't have so many points that you need to invent a bid.

your partner shouldn't have passed 3nt, but he shouldn't have been in that position as he shouldn't bid 3c. 3c isn't showing slam interest (unless you specifically agreed it as such which would be very silly) - it should just be exploring for the best game at that stage. he should jump to 4c over 2nt to show a good suit and slam interest. now with your controls you can cooperate.

i agree with mrace about 4h. having not done so, you must bid 3s on the way to help partner over 5d - looking at a void, it shouldn't be a shock to see the opps bidding on. as for the other hand doubling, it rather depends if 4h estblished a forcing pass, or if it could be more like a pre-empt. if the former i don't like the double - 3 is the wrong number of diamonds because it implies shortage in partner's hand. opposite shortage, you have no objection to partner bidding on, so i prefer a pass. if 4h didn't make a forcing pass, you have to double to show strength, but that gives opener a guess, though one which imo he should get right anyway.

when i know it doesn't matter i often play de facto equals in a random order. of course it's very difficult to know if the player in question does this, because the only place you have to play the cards out rather than claiming is pseudo-bridge on bbo.

with regards to the situation gnasher is talking about there's been a lot of pondering about how it might be done by this player. one popular theory is hacking into the ebl/wbf/organising committee or even bbo to get the hands in advance. does anyone seriously think the wbf is likely to be very computer savvy compared to some of the computer geniuses who play bridge at a high level? this would answer mrace's question as to why noone is pointing the finger at the player's partner.

they were accused of cheating many times, though perhaps not backed up with sufficient evidence for the authorities to do anything, and very possibly those complaining were at fault for doing so only amongst themselves instead of making an official submission. it's awkward to be the first person to put one's head above the parapet in such situations, so one must give kudos to the american team here.

people have known something was rotten for 10 years or so. i played against them in the german cup in bonn and rearranged all my screenmate's bidding cards on the tray before i let them push the tray through - we maxed out that match. as for the dbv, of course they've been turning a blind eye to it for years, but to be fair to them, they were in a dubious situation. banning them, even unofficially, without working out exactly what they were doing would put them in trouble legally. more damned in my eyes are the rest of the german team who were happy to play with them. compare that with the current situation in israel where one very successful player is ostracised by a large proportion of the rest of the top players there.

a lot of resulting ***** above. what you did was fine. leading the k of h would be terrible. as for switching, whilst declarer shouldn't have the heart for his bidding, that's certainly not the same thing as saying he doesn't have it - i'm going to shock some other posters here: some opponents don't bid perfectly. yes, really. partner knows it's definitely wrong to continue diamonds and shouldn't have encouraged, though it's an easy error to make.

no bid. don't feel like turning +100 into -800.

you forgot to include 7d which should score at least 7 points more than 5d.

5s too. anything might be making hand 2 is a non-question. if we go down in slam opposite ktxxxxx, educate partner what a 2nd in vul pre-empt looks like.

nm

i agree with 3nt. 3c i don't have a problem with, though i would probably bid 3nt instead of inviting. over 3h, 3nt is by far the most likely game and if you don't bid it, one way or the other, it's unlikely p will. once p moves though, you've perverted the auction too much already to carry on past 4nt and hope to recover.

9 is easier than 10. i want to play 3nt if partner has clubs covered, so i start with 2♠. 4♥ would also be acceptable. partner's not going to know which cards are useful or not for game when you've got this shape so there's no point asking him (3♥) as for checking to see if partner has akqxx diamonds (4♣), you can't do that in normal methods. if you autosplinter, and partner has a maximum with nothing in clubs and 2 or 3 hearts he'll take us past game. however, considering the system you play (in case you didn't know yet, benji 2m openings are very poor and played nowhere above club level outside france), the autosplinter should probably be redefined to ask partner for a source of tricks, as you can't have a single suiter not strong enough for a 2m opener that's good enough for slam opposite something like qxx xx akxx xxxx in which case 4♣ would be more sensible. still, the 999 times out of 1000 when partner doesn't oblige with akqxx of diamonds you've massively helped the opponents in how to defend the hand in game so i'd never do it anyway.

i won't comment as to what i would lead - it's not tricky to get hands right having seen all 4 of them but in general i very rarely lead passively when opps have a 6 card suit which looks like running based on my holding. xx of clubs over is about as bad a holding as it's possible to get.

oops ignore

partner didn't invite me to express an opinion so i don't, though of course if i had the same hand with some aces i might well give him a boost anyway. converting to 5h would be gross - 43 fits rarely play better than 71s

i think east has to bid - his ODR is huge

mrace is from turkey. even the novices are experts there.

anything except 3d is pretty out there. of course 3nt or pass could work but they must be massively anti-percentage.