mtvesuvius

This is why you need to make takeout doubles directly over 2D. In Philly I played a very simple defense that seemed to work very well: X - Takeout of Spades (or a Strong Hand -- Effectively a Double and Correct) 2H - Takeout of Hearts 2S - Natural 2N - 15+ - 18 BAL 3C/D/H - Natural 4m - Leaping Michaels However, I think Csaba's defense is probably better.

Seems a simple 7N from North should do the trick if you're in doubt. If this has been discussed, or if you have an agreement here that 4N is Blackwood, I guess I'd use it as a safety net.

I strongly prefer to play this as cwiggins described. My general style is that I don't rebid 1NT on a stiff in partner's suit, and my 1D-1M-non-1N rebids are unbalanced. True, we lose when partner has a <Invitational hand with (3)4 Spades, however, the gain of knowing partner is unbalanced is very big IMO. If responder is GF, they can now find out almost exact shape. A small additional benefit is that often on this auction, the opponents will lead Spades, regardless of whether 1N denied a 4 card spade suit. This has helped me make a countless number of otherwise hopeless 1N contracts. I don't play that 1S promises Diamonds... It simply is an unbalanced hand. I just don't see the advantage of rebidding 1S with all hands with 4S, we also wrongside 1NT sometimes then.

Just saw this post here, thanks everyone, Philly was fun, we had a tough loss in the qualifier, failing to Q for the Knockout stage by 1/2 a VP. Anyway, I am going to try to come back and read the forums and post a bit -- Maybe if I had done that sooner I would have done better in Philly :P ... or gone insane.

OK, so I bid 2♣ and the auction continued: (1♣)-X-(P)-2♣ (2♦)-2♠-(3♦)-? How about now?

My dad plays bridge, however never really began playing seriously until I started. His family were always card players though. I learned to play poker when I was 3, Gin and Hearts at 4, and bridge when I was 5. My mother probably hasn't touched a playing card in over 15 years... She has never been a card player, and her family doesn't play. I believe that you have to be raised in a card playing environment in order to really become interested in bridge. This doesn't mean the parents have to play bridge. As long as they are involved playing hearts or spades or canasta or whatever else, it's often enough to get the kids interested in playing cards of any kind. My dad, and his father, and his grandfather (and so on) all used to take trips out to a summer home of an aunt and spent weekends together playing cards/talking etc... Of course this very rarely happens anymore, especially with the kids. Usually at family gatherings, the kids go off and watch TV or play video games etc and don't spend any time playing cards or anything else. Not that I think this is a bad thing, but IMO the future of youth and junior bridge will be in online bridge.

All NV at IMPs: AKTxx J98xx ------- Kxx LHO deals: (1♣)-X-(P)-? What's your plan?

I'm with Fluffy here... I don't think this is a pass of 3N. Either 4♦ or 4N, but since I think 4♦ is more distrubutionally oriented, I'm bidding 4N.

eeeeeeeeeeasy pass.

Well I see the automatic transfer bid is the choice of the majority which looks IMO suicidal as our defense rates to really suck. I would try anything that might keep the opps out of 4♠ and that includes giving them plenty of leeway to play in 3♠. The best choice of call for that looks like 2NT which leaves the minors open to them but eliminates 2♠ as an option. Then it looks like we have a winner: 2♠ :) I don't think I'll try it though, just a plain old 4♥ seems good here

2♣ - 2♦ 3♠ - 4♣ 4N - 5♦ 6♦ - 6N 7♠ - P

obv pass

3♦ for sure. 2♦ is LOL

... as long as it's optional.

Something where all members of BBO that are currently behaving well could be entered into would be a nice idea. It's just a whole new problem of moderating though. Just think of all the possible problems with "banning" from the premier club. Consider the problems with banning people already, I just don't think it's worthwhile.

I agree with this. Some hands just look right for bidding it, so I guess one's preferred style comes with experience. This entirely. Don't look for hands where you should overcall 4-card suits. When you get one, it will be pretty obvious that you need to bid but you don't have the perfect hand for it (and do not think i mean balanced opening hands unsuitable for double. i mean generally unbalanced but not always, generally concentrated values in the suit but not always, and most often a vulnerability that makes the bid not too dangerous). A lot of it is very situational, eg who the opponents are, what the state of the event is, what you hope to accomplish, etc. A litmus test i sometimes use is "how will i feel if partner makes a weak jump raise in this suit? What if he raises to 4?" This for sure. I've found that 4 card overcalls are good when partner is a passed hand, or when you have one of those "problem hands", i.e. AKxx xx xx AJxxx and RHO opens 1H. There are other hand types, like a 4441 or similar where it is very effective to overcall even when partner is unpassed. One of my favorite examples was playing in a local tournament a few months back, and I held AJTx Kx x Qxxxxx and my RHO opened 1D. I bid 1S, which partner raised to 2, and I made an overtrick. Partner had a 3451 7 count, and everyone else played in 2C doubled... My LHO had AKJTx♣ and nothing else. Granted this was a lucky case, but in general, with a weak 5 card suit and a strong 4 card suit, I usually go for the 4 carder.

I think this is a horrible idea, why would anyone want to pay money to access a "club" instead of play in the main club? What's the point? Also, what if I wanted to kibitz people in the "elite" bridge club? Would I have to pay money to do that too? It doesn't make sense to make any part of BBO a real pay site until they absolutely have to.

Wow, some tough choices here, but I think overall Henri (Ritong) is my best bet. My top 5: 1. Ritong 2. Fred 3. Uday 4. Reisig 5. Gerben EDITED (Roland won't be playing.) some others came close, but I'll try this =)

1C*-P-5N B) *16+ HCP

[hv=d=s&v=b&s=s954hdakq84cj9853]133|100|Scoring: IMP You deal: 1♦-(P)-1♠-(2♥) X*-(3♥)-P-(4♥) ?[/hv] *Support Your call? EDIT: What about at MPs?

Here is a hand from the LM pairs that I messed up pretty badly on, I was wondering what everyone's thoughts (other than "you total ****ing idiot") are. First of all, would you bid over 2N with this hand? Secondly, if you don't, what do you lead against 3N? [hv=d=n&v=n&s=sakjt643hk42d63c9]133|100|Scoring: MP 2N by RHO, your bid. Let's say you pass... Your lead after: (2N)-(3C)-(3D)-(3N)-AP Regular Stayman.[/hv]

Another interesting aspect is like #2 of Adam's post. I play a 13-15NT with a couple people, which is a very interesting range. Not only is it between weak and strong, but it offers some advantages offensively, the biggest being if you are willing to pass 11 and 12 HCP balanced hands, since now the 1D opening is always unbalanced. The disruptive aspect of it is also nice of course. Another one is the "very light" 1M opening. It seems to have an amazing pre-emptive effect on the opponents, and also a very interesting psychological effect on them also. Just the fact that we *could* open 1M light is enough to get them to overbid very often, and overcall hands that people normally never would. They feel they are getting cheated, and therefore overcompensate. All in all, I think that messing with the opponents is a very small part of the advantages of most systems, but there are clearly some that disrupt more than others.

I play a lot of Artificial Systems, and my main reason is that I like having much more defined auctions, and better communications with partner. The other aspect of it is that I enjoy playing more complicated stuff, it makes the game more interesting, and adds a lot of theory and other things to think about. I've found that I have a limit to what I can remember, so I'm trying to limit myself, but I mostly play precision of some sort.

The first is clearly penalty for me. The second I think is just cards without any clear direction, partner often passes though...

Count me in =)