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This is a possible interpretation. You'd want to make sure partner wouldn't take it as a (presumably void) splinter for diamonds, though, with 2-0-7-4 shape or some such. Another possibility to throw into the works is a hand that was going to rebid 3♥ (inv) over partner's 2♣ response but decided to upgrade opposite the 2♦ response. (I see now that whereagles has suggested the same thing.) Andy

Laugh.

There was no re-entry to dummy because he'd pitched a diamond on the previous trick, so "give declarer a losing option" and/or "capitalize on declarer's error" might be better names for it, as he had to commit now. This is rather a cute discard version of the standard falsecard: A10xx J9xx x KQ8x Play the 9 under the K to give declarer a losing option. Good declarers would suspect something's up when you pitch the ♦10 though, as it's unusual for anyone to pitch a card in a vital suit in this sort of situation. Andy

Your general plan sounds fine, but please be a bit more specific. How do you play on spades? Andy

Playing matchpoints with both vul, you hold, in 4th seat: 652 Q95 A753 AJ10. P 1S P 1N (forcing) 2H P P ? What now? Andy

Red vs white at matchpoints, you hold (in 2nd seat): AK86 76 A72 9754. RHO opens a 12-14 1NT, and the bidding proceeds (with 2D a transfer) 1N P 2D P 2H ? Do you act? Andy

I seem to have hit "post new topic" twice. If some admin could delete one of them, that would be great. Thanks, Andy

Both vul, matchpoints. [hv=d=s&v=b&n=s105hak95d65cj10983&s=sq974h6dkj9842ca5]133|200|Scoring: MP[/hv] You (south) deal: 1D 1H 1N 2H 3D end You receive the ♥Q opening lead. Plan the play. Feel free to comment on the bidding as well. Andy

Where does one find this speech? Regarding point 1, I don't know much about the state of things. Have "mind sports" essentially been rejected from the winter olympics (there were demonstration games in 2002 but then nothing in 2006)? While the proposed zone change you mention does sound awfully silly (unless there's something else going on, such as some Olympics committee wanting sports to have 5 zones), getting into the Olympics would presumably be great for bridge, so I can see why they're persisting. Andy

It's a pretty good slam. You're not so likely to get a heart lead, and even if you do, the ♥K might be onside (or you might well bring in trumps). That said, it'd be a poorish slam if clubs & hearts were swapped. Andy

2N-3H;3S-4H shows both majors, not a slam try. The generic slam try here is: 2N-3H;3S-4S (as opposed to using texas). I agree that this is what the West hand is worth. Andy

And we have the algebraist vs geometer distinction :) . Not to come down on one side or the other, but there are many purposes for complex numbers, not one "whole purpose of the exercise," unless you mean understanding them in order to better understand Hawking's lecture. In that case, he takes a rather geometric viewpoint. Andy

Came across this: http://www.otb-games.com/abridged/index.html mentioned on page 12 of Verona Bulletin #7. Seems to be a variant of minibridge in which, in turn, players are given the choice to contract for 10 tricks (they choose trump suit/notrump after seeing dummy) before moving on to the HCP announcing stage should nobody "play" instead of "pass." Then normal minibridge rules, but one also announces the length of one's longest suit (but not what it/they is/are) after the contract has been chosen, and one has to choose between trying for 7 tricks and trying for 10 tricks (scoring is also somewhat "simplified" and there's no distinction between major & minor suits). They've also done away with the normal suits and honor cards, instead using blue, red, yellow, and green cards, and numbering cards 2-14 (with dots on 11-14 indicating their HCP). Perhaps something like this is necessary if you're going to convince someone to buy your product instead of using a deck of cards. Andy

If you're going to play this style, you should probably swap 1♠ and DBL: DBL = 4+♠, 1 RF 1♠ = shows unbid minor, negative 1NT = balanced natural, non-forcing This gives you the extra room where it's useful (1♠ by opener over DBL now can be 3 card supp, or possibly instead various hands that have no good bid, e.g. bal hands with no stopper). Andy (Personally, I like DBL = 4♠ and 1♠ = 5+♠ because I don't think the "unbid minor, negative" hand type comes up often enough, and I like the definition in competitive auctions.)

None vul, MPs, you hold Jx QJ9xx Q10 Q9xx. RHO deals: 1D P 1S P; 2S P P ? What now? Pass, double, 2NT, 3H? Andy

I'd want to bid 4S over 3S with QJxx AKJxx xx Ax after 1D-1H;2D-2S;3S-?. You're presumably getting to 4H instead of 4S opposite AKx xx AJxxxx xx. One can't do everything, of course, and 4H, though worse than 4S, isn't so bad. (You presumably do find the moysians with 3-1-6-3 shape by rebidding 4S over 4D.) Andy

Given that you bid 3♠ on hands like AK xx AJxxxx xxx, we can construct more, e.g. AK xx AJxxxx xxx QJxx AKJxx xx Ax (If you say you have a similar auction to the one you constructed above, how does this responding hand get to the moysian in spades when appropriate? I think 3S should have 3 spades and suggest the moysian. Requiring that doesn't rule out your style, just makes these hands choose a least of evils, probably 3C or 3H.) Also, the 2S bidder needn't to have 4 spades, so we can also have hands like: AQx xx AQxxxx xx Kxx AKJxx Jx xxx or AQx xx AQxxxx xx Kxx AKQ10x 10xx xx (Thinking about this particular hand more, I'll admit that I'm perhaps wrong about this one and not bidding 3S immediately probably makes you lose the spade moysian when it's good more often than it makes you miss 5-2 hearts when that's good because, at least if 3S promises 3, responder can be sure you have a 4-3 fit when you bid 3S immed, but not later, and you'll never really be sure resp has 4. There will be cases where you can suggest it on the way to 5D, but the auction will be more difficult, at the least.) Also, at matchpoints, there are many hands where 4H almost always makes at least 420 (and usually 450 if hearts are 3-3) and 5D makes 5 involving heart suits with only 3 honors. Andy

2H is very attractive on this hand, but do note that you'll never be sure of your 4-4 heart fits which can easily play a trick better on this sort of hand. We all love lead-anti-directing bids too, of course. Andy

Yes, I get the logic. When you have a 5-card major, the chance that you want to play in your major suit fit is much greater than the chance you want to play in your minor-suit fit when you have a 5-card minor. I'll explain why as well, if you like. No need to explain why, since apparently you don't get the logic as well. The main distribution is the same, yet 5m332 get a label 'balanced' but 5M332 does not. Has nothing to do with the method, the advantages,... It's about 'what is balanced and what is not'. 5332 seems not always to be balanced, there's no logic in that. Not opening 5M332's with 1NT (and why) has some logic, but this is completely irrelevant in this matter. This appears to be a silly point about semantics. Certainly one could define a term which depended on the ordered distribution as opposed to the unordered distribution. There's even some bridge logic why you'd want such a term to exist. Andy

Partner held AJ10x KQJxx Kx xx. 4S is best, but it does seem reasonable that 3S is only suggesting 3N, not 4S. Any opinions on how we could keep 4S in the picture? What would 4m mean by us now, given that we're not headed towards slam? Andy

Playing imps, you hold, in 3rd seat with both vul, KQx xx Jxxxxx Ax. Partner opens (opps silent): 1H - 1N (forcing) 2H - 3H 3S - ? What's your call? Andy

How is it "patterning out" if you might not hold four clubs? I like to play that 3♣ is a punt and is bid on lots of hands, a general "late in the auction 4SF" type bid. Note that this also allows partner lots of room to describe the forcing diamond raise and heart rebid. For you, what about AK xx AJxxxx Jxx or AK xx AJxxxx xxx? Also, I'd appreciate it if you'd add what you'd do with AQx xx AQxxxx xx (all you said was that it wasn't a 3S bid). For me, this is a 3C bid probably (I can understand 3S too, but worry about bypassing hearts with two of them). [Edit: regarding Josh's point above about this 3-2-6-2, my worry is not that we miss hearts when pard has six, it's that, having bid 3S, we now have trouble distinguishing these two hands when pard has 5 hearts -- we may want to play hearts opposite the 3-2-6-2 but not the 3-1-6-3.] Another interesting point is: does 3H promise 3, or do you bid it on honor doubleton? Andy

Since 4S makes 58% of the time, we should probably respect partner's selection of 3S vs 4S. If your simulation had claimed that when pard has 15 to a bad 16 with precisely 3 spades (more on that below), then 4S makes more than half the time, only then should we raise 3S to 4S. Another point to deal with is the fact that when we transfer, partner will superaccept with 4, so you should do separate analyses of 3 card and 4 card support and only use the 3 card support numbers. This is definitely a hand for the 1N-2C;2x-2S = shapely invite with 5 spades treatment. Not playing that, I'm torn between 2H..P and 2H..2N. I'll probably go with the latter, even at matchpoints (2S could play poorly opposite a doubleton, which is a mild extra factor to convince me to make the invite). Andy

They sort of go together, don't they? On the other hand, recently I was made to guess twice in one round whether a 9 lead had been top of nothing or had two higher against opponents playing coded 9's and 10's. Andy

3♥ would've been a fit jump, which is not an option with only 3 diamonds for us. Andy