maggieb

?!

Maybe this is a stupid question - what is 5N? I've never bid GSF in my life before, but it can be useful in this auction.

220 is 6

It's hard to say without knowing the rest of the hand, but just be aware that LHO would be unlikely to sell out to 2♠ with a small singleton spade and a good hand. In general when you are in a 9 card trump fit at the 2 level, they are splitting 2-2 extremely often. On a purely vacant spaces level, it would be right to hook, but the first consideration is worth a lot.

I know a bonafide rocket scientist who's been trying to improve his game for years and is still basically hopeless. And then I hear there are some high school dropouts who are doing quite well in bridge :P. I think it is safe to say that being smart is not necessarily enough to be a good bridge player, but it is a requirement to be a good bridge player. In my opinion you have to be smart and you have to put in the work. But even if you were a bridge prodigy I think you would never amount to much by playing against random people at the club or local sectionals. To be any good at this game you need to practice a lot, play against people better than you, and talk to people better than you and really think about what they're saying. Avoid people who are more interested in system than bridge (at least in the beginning, maybe for life), and avoid pseudo-experts whose list of accomplishments basically amount to a couple sectional and regional wins. The importance of listening to truly good players can't really be overstated in my opinion.

I think it's hard to explain how fun it is to play the second/third day of the Reisinger, or the third day of the Spingold/Vanderbilt, or the third day of a couple national events, to someone who's never done it. It isn't about masterpoints at all. Basically even bracket 1 at tough regionals (maybe Gatlinburg and a few others are exceptions) don't really compare to the level of competition that you can get in the late stages of a national event. For many people, nationals are one of the only times of the year that they can expect to play top quality bridge. I would rather get destroyed by a top-8 seed in the Spingold than win a random A/X swiss or bracket 1 KO, because in the first case it is almost certain that you will learn a lot about bridge, which is what playing is really all about anyway.

People are going to bid 6♥ with Txx of trumps and a mediumish hand and problems with bad breaks and/or clubs? I guess I don't see it.

I would have ducked the club at trick 1, but now I would play a spade to my ace and a diamond towards dummy, playing for Hxx of diamonds on the left and 3-3 hearts (and for clubs to be blocked).

Thanks Fred, I was very lucky to find the hand. When you have time, I would like to know your thoughts on raising to 2♥ vs bidding 1♠, since I would have done the latter. I would also like to know if your partner understood the meaning! I will browse the list and send you an e-mail soon. Thanks again Fred.

Was the 1♥ opener the dealer, or are we not supposed to know? Edit: First guess, A97643 963 K4 65

Yeah, but looking at your list I was conservative on the "chances". I missed some of the less likely things that can help us that are on your list.

I don't feel like you are being fair to the complete list of chances for 7♦ being a success: ♣Q doubleton club Qx of clubs dropping when partner has the J ♠A and a side entry ♠A and a spade lead Jxxx of hearts and a side entry any 5 hearts and a side entry pseudo squeeze (maybe this isn't a real reason, but i think it is) And it forces LHO to save in 7S immediately if he wants to save.

I think this is a mirage, because partner is extremely likely to have a singleton club anyway, and partner doesn't know if our red suit is in hearts or diamonds, so it's not like he can make an educated decision about whether he wants to play clubs or our red suit. If you bid 2♣ and convert 2♦ to 2♥, presumably this shows something like 2434? Or is this some other hand?

1C 1S P P 1N X P 2C What is 2C (or what should it be)?

I guess I'm weird, I would pass. It's hard for me to think of hands for partner, even with a diamond void, where I don't (heavily) expect to make 1Dxx, though they exist. If partner has stiff diamond honor or better I expect 1Dxx to play pretty well, and it's not like we cant have a 5-2 diamond fit (and you never know when your LHO has doubled on HHxx or something). Also it's not like 1Dxx is the easiest contract to defend in the world, so a defensive slipup is reasonably likely. I would expect the most common results to be making 2 or 3 into our game, with making 1 or 4 into our game the next most common results, and then making 2 3 or 4 into our biddable slam. We may even gain when the slam that we are about to bid goes down on bad breaks. Overall despite some of the above posters calling pass a crapshoot, in my mind it's actually the safe choice. Also maybe this is not that important, but could LHO have opened a weak 2D?