gszeszycki

heart K there is no guarantee that dia is the opps running suit it could easily be clubs and a club lead might be giving up the ship. A heart lead holds the most promise but a low heart might sadly lose a trick to stiff J or T in dummy. The heart K will at least smother any single honor in dummy (much more likely there than in p hand) and allow us to contine with a small heart (assuming we hold the trick and it still seems like a good idea) with little or no loss in tempo. It is indeed possible to construct a small number of cases where leading the K can limit our heart winners but they are far fewer than the number of cases opps can score 5c 2h and 2d after a low heart lead.

Signals are useful ONLY when both partners know they are signals. When E cashed the A9 and N followed this could be merely cashing tricks (since the N hand was hidden) the A9 at that point was only a hint that E had something of interest in a higher remaining side suit the 9A would indicate nothing or some interest in lower ranking suit) Once E cashed the dia 8 (both players would have a complete dia count at that point because N would show out) the play of the A98 in retrospect was a strong indication of where E had "stuff" (in this case their last card). The last 2 dia plays were meaningless. This method is useful in any NT or suit contract where P is known to be out of trumps. If P still has trumps you have to cash tricks from the top in order to keep p from ruffing a winner.

I would choose 1d for the following reasons 1. There is a reasonable minority of hands where opener has to raise to 2h with 3 card support and this hand would hate that. 2. I would avoid 1n because if p can bid 1h I would much prefer to be in the 44 heart fit (yes even 2345 opposite 6789). 3. I have nothing in my hand that need protection from the opening lead. My 1d bid greatly increases the probability that opener (and the stronger hand) will become declarer. 4. I do not consider it to be a huge distortion to show a 4 card dia suit with 3 decent ones since we normally avoid the minors like a plague anyway. Let the fireworks begin:)

We didn't get to the optimal contract on these hands: AKQxx xxx xxx 10x Jx AQ10x AKJ109 Jx Our auction was: 1D - 1S 2H - 2S (forcing) 3D - 4D 5D, all pass. Some might open 1NT with the south hand, but also then it is not clear how to get to 4S. How do you think the auction should proceed after the reverse? the reverse is a tad light but hardly worst bidding ever. The following sequence makes the bidding simple 1d normal 1s normal 2h reverse a tad light but ok 3s supposed to show 6 but AKQxx easily as good as Axxxxx and allows opener to more easily choose btn 3s and 3n. There is no strong reason to bid dia atm if opener cannot bid either 3s or 3n they will follow with 4d (which we raise to 5) or 5d which we pass. 4s simple we upgrade support like QJ being as good as xxx but we sometimes forget to upgrade suits with superb quality (like the spades in N hand) If S were to bid 4c over our 3s bid (which opener might do with either Jx or xxx) I would follow with 5d which denies a control but shows the double fit and a good enough spade suit to consider slam.

Dealer: West Vul: Eeast-West Scoring: IMP ♠ K ♥ 8xx ♦ QJxxx ♣ KJ8x [3♠]-4♥-[4♠]-??? i am curious how many would x if they held X 8xx QJxxx KJ8x the reason i ask if that this is essentially what you have. 5h is an insurance bid at imps---while it is true that 4s may be going down it wont often go down more than 1 (vul opps see the vulnerability too) so the X is not worth while and could easily backfire since p range for 4h is HUGE. If you do not wish to bid 5h at least pass since x seems to serve little purpose here.

Dealer: North Vul: ???? Scoring: MP ♠ KQJx ♥ ♦ KQJx ♣ AKxxx ♠ ♥ Axxx ♦ ATxxxxx ♣ xx kind of Standard American; 5542 1♣-(1♠)-DBL-(2♠) 3NT the neg x is not a bad start the real problem is that south never appreciates how strong N has to be to bid 3n. S does not promise much with the neg X and has a whole kit and kaboodle of potential. How about expressing slam interest now with 4d The neg x may have been necessary to discover a 44 heart fit but now it will perform an extra service because we have limited the power of our hand by not bidding 2d N will become aware of how distributional we must be to be interested in slam (not to mention slam interest with a suit missing the KQJ). While it is difficult to reach a grand here N should not have too many problems arriving in 6d. In fact it would hardly be horrid for N to just bid 6d outright though that would eliminate any chance to find 7 in a practiced partnership (some would say that makes it horrid). a plausible bidding sequence after 4d 4h cue bid aggreeing to slam search 4s cue bid 5c cue bid 5d cant keep due bidding with lousy trumps suit 5h shows 1st round control 5s shows 1st round control 7d (surely S did not start a slam search with 7 dia to the J) 7d should be at worst 5050 if S is 0463 (ruffing finesse against the spade A.)

Playing Standard American You hold Dealer: North Vul: Both Scoring: MP ♠ ♥ Q109xxx ♦ xx ♣ Qxxxx Too much animosity for such a simple question. I would bid 1n w/o hesiation not becasue I am convinced it is always better but for the following reasons. 1. if P has 5 spades 1s will probably be a very poor mp score so bidding will rarely make the result much worse and could be spectacularly better. 2. I am much happier knowing p has 6+ spades if they rebid 2/3 spades even if we end up 1/2 levels higher. 3. Anything other than pass or spades from p gives a chance to improve or spectacularly improve our mp score. While the chances of p rebidding spades or pass are high (i would not be shocked to find the odds as high as 65% if someone runs a sim) remember we are in a poor spot to begin with and a bit worse wont make much difference. 4. At MP opps seem particularly aggresive in keeping people from playing 1n. This concept makes spade rebids by p as probably the only really damaging result vs pass.

X this should show extra values and is by far the most flexible. This allows p to rebid 2h with minimum (even if they have only 5) as maybe our last makeable spot. 2s should be saved for hands with unbalanced distribution. Our hand is much better on defense than offense. responder did not neg x but chose 1h probably beacuse they dont have 4 spades or their 5+ hearts are vastly superior to their 4 tiny spades. Missing a 44 spade fit not so important since we wont have game if p is minimum. if P has some extra values they can hazard a 2s bid and then we can strongly consider 4s as a contract.

J10xxxx Kxx A AQx AQxxx QJx KJxxx - Starting with the south hand, the bidding goes: 1S - (3C) - 4C - (5C) 5D - (p) - 5H - (p) 6H - (p) - 6S - all pass It is extremely unlikely the 3c bidder has 4 hearts so going over hands the 5c bidder might have we conclude: note dia Q may or may not be present makes no difference. 1. Kx Axxx xxxx xxx 2. x Axxx xxxxx xxx 3. Kx xxxx xxxx xxx 4. x xxxx xxxxx xxx 5. Kx Axxx xxx xxxx 6. x Axxx xxx xxxx 7 Kx xxxx xxx xxxx 8 x xxxx xxxx xxxx hands 1 and 5 seem to be the only 2 candidates for a 5c bid (since it would take little from p to set 6s) the others either look like clear cut 6c bids since there seems to be few ways to beat 6c more than 1400 (this is especially true of hands 6/7/8). Using this thinking i would take the spade finesse vs playing for the drop.

AQJ10x Qx Qxx QJx 1D - (1NT*) - Dbl - (2C) 3D - (p) - ?? 1NT showed 5+ clubs and a 4-card major, my double was penalty. What do you bid over 3D? By the way, do you think 3D is forcing? failure to bid 2s right away has put us into a much greater guessing position. P 3d bid which probably shows long dia and minimal type hand has at least assured us somewhat that we didnt miss an ice cold spade game/slam (unless p comes up with stiff K (yes the spades we didnt bid are that good). a 3h or 3s bid now seems to show that major and clubs stopped and worry about other major (if our penalty x was not based on club stuff it was probably wrong). This means arriving in 4s seems difficult at best. I feel at this point a jump to 4s would be splinter in support of dia. 3N seems a ton easier to make than 5d at this point so that's where i go. The fact the opps have at most 4 heart runners off the top is a form of stopper to me.

Dealer: North Vul: E/W Scoring: IMP ♠ A2 ♥ A ♦ K1043 ♣ AQ10543 Partner opens 1♦, we bid 2♣, and partner shows 12-14 with 2NT. What do you think the various continuations would mean and which do you choose Assuming we are not playing inverted minors (where i would merely bid 2d with a strong hand with dia and not temporize with 2c) I would bid 4d this should show obvious slam interest in a minor just not sure as to where. If opener bids 4n we hould take that as a sign off and assume they have lots of major suit cards. If they cue bid (4h or 4s) then leap to 6c and let them decide which suit. Dont waste time looking for 7 since its almost impossible for opener to have the right stuff.

AKJx xxx Ax AQJx Txxxx AK xx Kxxx standard system, you can use some gadgets of your choice. N is dealer, imps. 1c normal (sorry no upgrade to 2n for me with this balanced hand and no heart stopper) 1s normal 2d it rarely hurts to show p a strong hand and maybe gather some useful information. When i raise spades later P will know I am not short in hearts since i failed to bid 3h now. Not showing spade support right away should not be a problem. Note how often bidding a fragment saves a ton of bidding space so great care is needed when raising openers secondary forcing suit. We would not bid this way with a boring 19 count say with Axxx Kx KQJ KQJx. with this quack filled 19 count we would merely bid 4c to show a balanced powerhouse but not very slam worthy. 2h extra values no reason to not keep bidding low and see why opener chose to reverse. This bid does not promise any extra values. Might just be a hand with nothing else useful to bid. I am willing to treat my rotten 5 card spade suit like a 4 card suit for now else I would bid 2s. 3s now comes the raise to show 4 card support dia ace (else why waste time with 2d bid if I have spade support) and powerhouse hand. A 2s bid would show only a 3 card raise. Since a 4s bid here would show around 16-17 this 3s bid should show 18-19. Our earlier failure to jump to 4c (over 1s) now reveals a hand with lots of controls and much more slam worthy. 4c cue bid 4s cant cue in dia again no heart control even with superb spades must bid 4s and hope p can bid again. We can also hope the inability to cue bid a red sit will convey something useful. 4n the fact that p could not cue 4d and no heart contol (they are not short) should make risking blackwood safer now since we know opener doesnt have dia K at least (else easy 4d bid). 5d 1/4 5h spade Q? 5s no 6c alternative contract 44 might play better than 54 spades. Opener will know there is no reason to suggest clubs over spades unless it is to play 44 vs 54. I am not going hunting for 7 mising Qxxx spades. As is often the case going slow yields much greater accuracy in bidding and that why opps preempt because they know it. My applause to others that bid 6c vs 6s just in case it was superior at IMPS no matter how they bid it. At MP i would probably just settle for 6S on the theory that 6C will make only around 20% more often than 6s if that.

Dealer: East Vul: Both Scoring: IMP ♠ K652 ♥ A43 ♦ QJ ♣ KT53 ♠ ♥ K6 ♦ AK7532 ♣ AQ642 1d normal 1s normal 3c normal too big a position to bid 2c because auction might not die there. Especially at imps. 3h most flexible. we do not really know much about openers hand yet and this leaves some room for further exploration and has the advantage of denying 3+ dia support. There is no guarantee opener has 4+ clubs. We have seen many hands where opener has something like AQx x AKxxxx(x) AQ(x) and has to create game force with a fragment. 3h bid at least allows them to bid 3s safely. Raising to 4c here fails to recognize many of the problem hands opener might have. If I get lucky opener can bid 3n then a 4c bid will show my slam interest and a cue bid of heart ace. 3n it's either that or 4c since responder still has not promised anything beyond 6 points. 3n might be last makeable spot opposite say Axxx xxxx Qx xxx or Axxx xxxx xx Kxx. 4c now the delayed club support shows slam interest and pinpoints the earlier 3h bid as the heart A. We now know opener has at most a doubleton spade and a max of 3 hearts and therefore is much more likely to have a real club suit. 5s since we know responder has the heart A and at most 2d it is now perfecly safe to use exclusion BW with no risk. 6d 2 keys w/o club q. 7c good enough for me if 7n makes my bad.

backs of the cards are a tremendous asset to declarer and plans should be made (when possible) that allow the defenders to gather as little information as possible. the play of a trump at trick 4 was a small error since it was then you should have continued with a club. The play itself can never hurt you and since W (most likely winner of trick) has less information about trump suit it makes a dia shift less likely. If W finds the dia shift anyway play as below. I would also continue with a club now at worst I will get a free dia finesse if W finds the dia shift and if that shift is the dia T (i play J and assuming E covers) I might still have a show up squeeze vs w after going back to dummy (via trumps) and ruffing a 3rd round of clubs and running trumps to bitter end (tossing my club from dummy at trick 11 if it is still not good)

Dealer: West Vul: E/W Scoring: MP ♠ AKx ♥ AJx ♦ AJ8xxx ♣ J ♠ QJTx ♥ xx ♦ K ♣ AKQ8xx 1♦ 2♣ 2♦ 2♠ 3♥ 4♣ 4♠ Pass Do not beat yourself up too badly for missing the 7 level. It depends on the singlton club J a card that is virtually impossible to identify. The real problem here is that neither side was able to easily show extra values and possibly it was because of the way the auction began. we dont always have to begin 2/1 with a long minor especially when we have extra values here a go slow approach will work wonders. 1d 1s 2h (what me wory about 4h?) if p bids 4h i can convert to 4s they have to have at least 5 spades for this bidding 3c forcing 4s now p probably has a REALLY good idea we have around 17 and are probably very short in clubs.(vs 3s which might be something like Axx AKxx AQJx xx and we didnt want to rebid 2n with our xx in clubs)(with 4 spades and short club we probably would not waste time with 2h bid just jump to 4c) It would not be out of line with such superb spades to just bid 4n and when p shows 4 just bid 7s (the problem being if p shows only 3 is best sport spades club or nt (who knows) if you do not have the courage for that then try the following. 5c showing long clubs and forcing to slam (with say 4117 and weak after 2h i bid 5c) (with intermediate hand I would have tried 3n somewhere) 6c hand LOADED with controls but still hard to imagine singlton J as enough to consider a grand even though in context it is much better than expected. The single Q of clubs might convince me to try for 7c just cant pull trigger with J. note that with better dia (AQJxx) I would have bid 5d and we might still have had a chance to bid 7) With this bidding both sides were able to show power easily and reaching slam is not too hard and with the misfit looking type distributions some caution is advised when thinking about bidding 7. I know it goes against the grain to NOt bid 2c right away when playing 2/1. Just making a case for saving our 2/1 for hands that are more single suit oriented.

Dealer: East Vul: E/W Scoring: IMP ♠ KQ95 ♥ J943 ♦ J9 ♣ AT4 1♥-1♠, 1N-2♦*, 2N-3N 2♦ is game forcing, artificial A nasty collection to lead from since we can count on P having at most around a K. opps look like favorites to collect 3 if not 4 hearts the spades are to our left again ughhh and if we get on lead we will have to lead from this collection again. It looks like we need some luck to beat this so I will try the club A hoping to find P with at worst Kxxx or with luck Qxxx with club K on our left. There is a tiny attacking clubs will mess with communication btn opps hands. This lead could also hit the jackpot if p manages to come up with Kxxxx or (Qxxxx and Kx is with lho) or (QJxxx and Kx is with either opp) There is real risk this lead can cost a trick but hand seems to favor the opps so an aggressive stance seems to be called for. Leading the club T is no safer than leading the A and risks not only missing the jackpot but cost us a trick if Kxx is with lho and P (holding Qxxx) ducks trick to the J.

1H (2C) 2S (P); 3H (P) 3S 3H is forcing, but not 3S [ 3 ] [10.34%] 3S is forcing, but not 3H [ 10 ] [34.48%] Both 3H and 3S are forcing [ 3 ] [10.34%] Neither 3H nor 3S is forcing [ 13 ] [44.83%] system is 2/1 w/o any special agreements (ie no negative free bids) w/o special agreement 2s is completely forcing to 3n or above and once that has occurred then 3h and 3s are both forcing because both are below 3n. If the 2S bidder wants to limit their hand then they have to begin with a neg x then rebid their spades at the lowest level possible. The 1H opener is just bidding their hand as best they can under the assumption that 2s created a game force. forgive me for being very surprised at the 90% that feel 3h and/or 3s are non forcing. If this is a matter of semantics neither 3h nor 3s promise extra values but both are still forcing in the sense they fully expect p to bid again.

this may turn out to be the best trap pass in history of bridge. I bring out thors hammer for this one and send a message to both opps you're going down. As an aside I would have hazarded a 3h help suit game try vs pass after the 2s bid.

assuming p has a spade stack I need p to take 4 tricks if we X or 5 tricks w/o X also assuming I get two tricks with dia AK(in order to score up the magic 200). Not impossible but unlikely. I might x with this hand if I needed a top but would not risk a decent score on such a speculative X.

Imps vul/vul pass (1D) X (3D) 3H all pass north deal Kx QJxxx JTxx Kx AJxx Axxx Q Axxx 100% N south saw N pass and unless S is X just because they paid their entry fee they should have reasonable values. The lack of power in diamonds opposite a virtual guarantee short dia suit make the jump to game mandatory at IMPS and I like my odds even at MP.

white vs red the infamous license to steal position in first chair. Opinions about alternatives first:) 2s accurate suit point count but this hand would be a decent 2s bid r/w has little merit w/r because it is way too good. 1s some find this close to opening bid but I feel it gives poor (anti acid addicted) partner a totally wrong idea of our potential defense in any competitive or slam oriented auction. I mean would you really want the excuse but P i told you I had the worst hand I could in context:)))) 3S has some solid merit in setting suit preemting a significant amount and warning p about a serious lack of defense. AT MP I think this would merit consideration as top spot but sigh this is IMPS and here it strikes me as trying to stop on a dime (3s vs 4s) at the slight risk that the preemtion was not sufficient. 3s will win mostly tiny amount of imps (vs a 4s opener) but lose big when we miss game or opps bid a game they would never arrive at over 4s. my favorite 4s Trump suit decent enough to play opposite even 1. Huge amount of preemption and warns p about our defensive liability if opps do bid. Severly limits our power just like 3s but who knows maybe p will hit with a nice club fit and 4s will make when it can never be bid if we open 3s This is how I like to use my license to steal by giving p a pretty fair evaluation of my hand in a playable spot with some (virtually impossible to evaluate) upside potential.

Dealer: East Vul: E/W Scoring: MP ♠ A1063 ♥ 8764 ♦ A54 ♣ J9 You've had this sequence: 1♣ (various) 1♦-2♦ (hearts / a hand that would open 2♣ in a normal system) 2♥-2NT (5+ without a 5-card suit / 23+ balanced) 3♥-4♠ (4 spades / support, but a bad hand in context) Jdonn making excellent points. Your system has given you a huge edge over the field as long as you use the information properly. 2n shows 23+ (ie could be very strong) 4s said i have support but just about the worst hand imaginable for my previous bidding (ie i would be shocked to see even a reasonable 23 hit the table) KQJx KQJx Qxx AKQ or worse. Take advantage of your system information and stop at a nice safe 4 level contract just in case a really gross 23 hits the table and the most you can make is 4 (like KQJx AQx KQJ KQx)

MP is a curious game especially when it comes to deciding how to SAFELY try for an overtrick like this hand. Our mathematicians have shown us that playing a top club going back to dummy in dia and taking club finesse is roughly 58% while playing for the squeeze is roughly 60% thus making the squeeze not only more aesthetically pleasing but a superior LOP (or so it seems). In a strong field where everyone knows squeeze play (like the readers of this forum :rolleyes: ) choosing which LOP is still dependent on the sccore you need. If you merely want average than do the squeeze since most will do that but if you need a good score then you go against the field and cash a top club and take the finesse. Against an average field where maybe up to 60% of field never studied squeeze play if you want average go with the finesse (what the field will do and some of them wont cash one top club first to pick up stiff club Q) but if you need a top go for the squeeze. This theme comes up frequently at MP and is rarely a consideration at IMPS. This hand at IMPS go for the squeeze even though its only 2% better (assuming strong defense) casinos make vast fortunes on that mere 2% why not you. Plus winning an uptrick on a finesse gets a shrug while winning it with a squeeze warrants at least a momentary self pat on the back and we can all use those.

So many garbage points make game in hearts unlikely unless p has at least 4 of them so we start with a simple bid of 2d making it easy for p to bid the necessary 2h/3h for us to bid game. At least by bidding 2d we (by overbidding a tad) show our power and bid our longest and strongest suit (usually not a bad thing).