mtvesuvius

None of 4♣/4♦/X are GF, but it wouldn't let me select none of them. The one that is the most forward going IMO is 4♦... Anyway, I agree with 3♣, and would bid 4N over the double

I'd pass with almost all my partners, however there are one or two that I'd bid 2♥ with :)

I would take 2♥ as a transfer just because 2♠ is not a unilateral action, whereas pass is always really bad when wrong. I'd have bid 1N before as well.

Over 3♠ I'd ERKC in clubs, now I am captain and hopefully will be able to stop at 6♥... Still not too confident. I admit maybe opening 2♣ this is a bit less of a problem, but any time I do that my opponents seem to bid on the 4 or 5 level before it gets back to me.

I called it Muiderberg just out of lazyness for not wanting to type out the definition a few times. I could have called it anything I want. The point is that when you have a hand that is qualified for a call in your system, and you do something else... Well, what's the point of having that call available? I was unaware of the strict Dutch regulations, however, given the OP's descriptions, this hand is a clear 2♥.

I was kibitzing/commentating the Australian Youth Butler when this auction came up: [hv=d=s&v=e&b=3&a=p1d4h4n]133|100|What should this mean?[/hv] As an additional question, what would you bid with the actual hand: [hv=pc=n&e=sa7h5dqt42cqt9754&d=s&v=e&b=3&a=p1d4h]133|200[/hv] Assume a standardish 2/1 with 15-17 NT.

That really seems like you're resulting. With the South hand it seems normal to either transfer and make a mild slam try, or just texas into spades. Showing the clubs is a fairly unnecessary diversion.

I agree they could be cut a little slack, however, unsolicited mass-mailing is still unsolicited mass-mailing whether about Viagra or Bridge Articles.

I'll ask him & Jeff about it when I see them at the regional next month... I looked at the "About us" page, and... Eric & Jeff are not the ones really behind the website, and are merely "guest writers", Eric doing the majority of the writing. It would seem Jan Van Cleeff is the person behind the site, and probably has additional publicity agents: Regardless, unsolicited emails are really bad.

As almost all my partners will tell you, I am a HUGE advocate of upgrading hands with 5, 6 and even 7 card minors into/out of 1N. As much as I like to do that, I can't find a reason to do so on this particular hand. The lack of club honours makes it very difficult to run the suit, and this seems like a comfortable 1♣ then 1N if you want to treat it as Balanced... Personally I'd probably rebid 2♣ for the next reason: Not much positional values. With more stray queens or kings I might be tempted to rebid NT, but this hand really wants to be played from partner's side IMO. All that being said, it's tough to really judge accurately how much to upgrade until you do things like this a few times. Learning hand evaluation through trial and error is IMO the best way. By opening any hand with a 5 or 6 card suit with 1N, you often give up on playing in that strain. The reason why this is so popular with minors is that 3N will usually play better than 5m. The opposite is generally true for slams, and you will miss some slams by opening those hands with 1N. It's a trade-off you choose to make, and one that I generally believe is worthwhile... Others will certainly disagree. Even if you opened 1♣, it may be tough to reach slam in clubs. This is a good example hand of why it can sometimes be bad to open 1N with the long suits... But if I had Kx Qx Axx KQxxxx I would have certainly opened 1N... Now once again 6♣ is cold, and I would miss slam. Bridge in general is a game of trade-offs, you and partner need to find and agree on which you choose to make. For me, opening 1N works much better than 1 of the suit in general.

:)

pciayton and phii is already taken :(

I call your 5 Reputation, and raise an additional 30!

Phil > Han? Seriously though, nice post.

Who would want to hack a Bridge Forum? lol

Well, you can set up hearts (if 4-2 or better) on 3-2 trump I think... Win in hand and lead a heart. Opponents win and return another trump (their best defense)... Win in dummy with the ♣T. Ruff a heart high. Club to dummy. Ruff another heart high. ♣ to dummy and claim. As for getting to 6♣, I looked at a normal reverse auction, something like: 1♣-1♥ 2♦-3♣ 3N - AP EDIT: Or Cherdano's auction above I've seen this problem a lot lately, and I think there should be a way to set clubs lower when possible... i.e. 2♠ here. Not sure how that would work for this hand, but in the past month I've seen 3 hands that missed a good 6♣ contract to play in 3N after 1♣-1M-2♦-3♣, since opener with 3oM to an honour or two feels obligated to bid 3N. It seems that using 2oM as a 3♣ bid here works really well. Opener can bid 2N now with the 3145 hand that was forced into 3N before. Opener can rebid 3♣ as a catchall/6♣, 3♦ with 6-5, 3M with 3M, etc... Basically, I'm suggesting bidding 4SF on almost all hands with club support. By reversing the meaning of 2oM and 3♣, 3♣ should become whatever 2oM was... Perhaps Artificial and showing exactly 6M is reasonable as well.

I'd like to bid 5♣ over 1♠, hopefully I can find out the necessary info then get out in hearts... Probably not possible though, and will lead to a misunderstanding/bad contract, so now comes the ugly rebid problem... I think I would choose a jump-shift into 3♦, which I play as GF. If partner raises or does something else that we don't like, we can always fall back on some number of hearts. I wanted to bid 3♣, but that loses ERKC in clubs when partner rebids 3♠... This is a bit of a contrived auction, but I think it will get us the info we need. If I had opened 2♣, I'd bid 4♦ now...

2♥ describes this hand perfectly, why are we playing Muiderberg if this hand isn't opened with 2♥? I see no reason to suppress the club suit, and would condemn 1H/3H/4H/2D lol

[hv=pc=n&s=saq76ht53da52ckq5&d=w&v=n&b=12&a=pp1c]133|200|What is your call? Scoring is MPs, you play a 14-16 NT as well, so partner "could" open some BAL 11s if they want.[/hv]

This would be an easy 2♣ for you if you removed the ♠A lol

Definitely 1♥, there is no way this is passing out, and I am sickened by the thought of partner thinking we have anything on defense.

I bid 4♥. From our hand, we can tell RHO probably has 7 solid clubs, and a heart card at the very least, this means we are (probably) not beating 3N more than one, and it may even make. I think 4♥ is odds on, and if nothing else, will be a good save. I really hate the low doubleton in clubs, but partner will have a stiff a fair amount of the time.

How about if we are collecting 500? Obv my 5N gives up on this too, but passing a hand like Csaba's seems absurd. How is partner supposed to judge whether you have a 0 count or a balanced 13?

I'd bid 5N, but I'm hyper aggressive in these auctions usually, and often when I shouldn't be.