Jlall

Cliffs: I play like an animal every hand and I pu**y out on 2 boards and both times it was wrong LOL. FML

Very strong preference for 2N, I'm fine calling Jxx a stopper. Even if they can run the suit they often will fail to (LHO not leading from AQ at MP). I think there are far far far more layouts where we need to declare when we have a stopper. Kxx in dummy with AQ on our left, and Axx in dummy with KQ on our left being the most obvious. Yes opposite either of those if RHO has Hx it plays better from partner's side, but given their vulnerable overcall I think that is way less likely. Even when partner has Ax LHO might choose to underlead the heart, or not lead the heart at all. Meanwhile I think our prospects in any contract other than NT when we have no stopper are quite bleak. Our hand is just garbage for anything else.

Im fine with saying there is no standard for what 4N means, or even that standard is that it's keycard, but I cannot imagine any reasonable definition of "standard" where 3S and 4D are not forcing bids.

1C-2C is in the realm of possibility/normality, passing it with a prime 12 and a club fit is not. In general an opening bid opposite an opening bid is game, but even if 12 is marginal it should be invited. Here it's not marginal because it is completely prime and has Jxx of clubs. South obviously felt a little weak for 1C 3C which is fine, but if he did he should open 1N (my choice). 1C 2C is too weak of a sequence, and is usually 11-15.

FIRST IN USA... lol I was tilted because I messed up one hand at the end but we were really far out of 2nd and even farther out of first so it didn't matter. There is another one today, goin for the 75 obv :( edit: I will say it's pretty fun to play a session where you're shooting for 75. My general MP style is very much to go for Ave+ when playing with good players, so it's fun to just go all out.

Definitely take the finesse, it's not close.

Haha these were my thoughts exactly fwiw. One of the benefits of penalty Xs is not to "get them" it's that you can X and then bid 2M to show a strong hand so you can find some games while still stopping in 2 if partner is very weak.

Edit: How do you play 1S 1N : 2C 2S : 2N? If you open 1S (which is fine obv) you have to pass 2S in this auction with 15 in my strong opinion. You might miss some 15 opp 9 or 15 opp 10 games that way, but in general bidding 2N will just get you too high. Playing some form of bart as many do would solve this (where partner can show a "bad" 2S bid or a "good" 2S bid).

You think accepting an invite after 1N is overbidding? lol

If I had the heart jack passing might be reasonable.

lol

When partner shows no feature, I play him for a good suit and not much else. I don't see the problem in 2S 2N 3S 3N on this hand type playing feature. As I said, it depends on your preempting style. The more likely you are to preempt with none of the top honors in your suit, and no feature, the more likely you are to have problems playing feature. If I preempted with such a hand, I would undoubtedly be 6-4, maybe something like QJT9xx x QJTx xx. With this hand I would pull 3N after a 2N-3N sequence. If partner just wanted to play 3N he could bid 2S-3N, so this pull is obvious to me even though it might not always work. Again I don't see much problem there. It seems like ogust is most useful if you are often bad/bad, since in feature partner won't know your hand and suit are both bad if you have no feature. If you don't frequently have bad/bad then ogust seems like a waste, and feature works well since partner can make an assumption that you have a good suit if you have no feature, or at least some kind of 6-4 or 6-5 that you will pull 3N with. FWIW I was a lifetime ogust player until a couple of years ago, but I also used to preempt much more aggressively. Probably white/red first seat I should still play ogust. My experience with feature has been very positive.

Pretty sure BWS is that 2D is forcing to suit agreement, so 2N is forcing.

Your partner would have rescued you from 2D X <_<

There are many sub-forums that can be viewed as their own forum. I would think "this forum" refers to the sub-forum, and "these forums" refer to BBF. Of course on BBF everyone posts on every forum because everyone is advanced/expert but...

I gotta admit it tilts me when people say "fora" it's like they're trying to sound smart when really they sound pretty dumb.

5S? Isn't that a grand slam try in hearts? Not after they have made a penalty double. lol touche. I thought they doubled 6C and not 5H. Why is XX a poll option heh

yeah declare, nice analysis kfay

5S? Isn't that a grand slam try in hearts? 5N sounds like grand slam force in rubber bridge, not sure if they bid 5N pick a slam

A 0=5 spade break occurs about 2% of the time; a 6=1 heart break about 4%. Whilst West wouldn't always lead his six-card suit, I think he'd probably do so more than half of the time. Maybe what was funny about the hand was that somebody went down with trumps 3-2, and in the other room they bid and made seven? Unless they play rusinow, it also requires LHO to have falsecarded his honor card lead. I think this happens very infrequently, maybe I'm naive. Of course if your opps are completely perfect, then RHO would always drop the jack, so the fact that he didn't drop the jack means LHO has falsecarded his lead... Anyways back to the real world. I think it is correct to make the overtrick here, even if RHO has JT9xx of trumps sometimes we just can never make (he needs the right shape) and when he does have the right shape we need to guess it (not 100 %) and sometimes he would have split when we led off the dummy (non zero chance). Against that, sometimes if trumps are 3-2 the other guys will find the grand and our overtrick won't matter, but it's still so unlikely we gain anything other than dropping a trick that I find it hard to safety play in this situation. I think 1N-6N is a significantly normal auction (34-36 HCP and 4333...) that I don't think them playing 7 sometimes is enough of a factor.

Yes everything (including 3S) is forcing, and 4N is quant. However if you have not discussed this auction be aware that 99 % of people at least would take it as keycard. If you're ever playing with jdonn though, he'll know whats up!

Yeah true if you want another raise you can use 3D, never thought of that. That's even more of an argument to have 3C as natural. If you have a suit it is clubs not diamonds. I would still probably take 3D as a fit jump, maybe Qxxx x KJxxx xxx or something, I don't really see the need to have more raises than limit raise, mixed raise, and preemptive raise.

You cannot jumpshift on the north hand. What do you do with a 6-5 18 count? How do you differentiate the 2? It is not possible in standard bidding. Yes obv if you play a special system (ie strong club) where jump shifting shows 5-5 NF with good playing strength you can do it, but in standard bidding this hand type will always be a problem. This hand is just a symptom of the real problem, having a 2H bid that is such a wide range of hands (11-18, could be 5-4, 5-5, 6-5 (with a lower HCP max)). That range is too wide, and no matter what you do to try and work around it something will go wrong. If you jumpshift with this you will get too high on misfits, and you will not have any way to show a stronger hand when you actually have it (unless you drive to the 5 level which obviously has problems). If you raise with a 5 count you will find some games but find yourself in numerous bad games since partner won't know you have 5 as you have to invite with 9. If you just jump to game with 9 you will get too high sometimes. Etc etc. The point is the range is too wide, and that will cause problems. Of course when you post 2 hands we can easily tell you how to get to game (jumpshift or raise), but you have to think about the net affect of these actions on your entire system and your entire range of hands, not just on one hand.

Yes, in this sequence it's easy because of the difference in levels. You can have up to four cue-bids below three of the suit, for example: 1♣ pass 1♥ 1♠ pass With two cue-bids available below three of the suit, I think that the lower should be a high-card raise and the higher a mixed raise. If there are three, I play that the lowest is a high-card raise with three trumps, the middle a high-card raise with four trumps, and the highest a mixed raise. If there are four, I'd play the first three as above, and the fourth as a splinter. I like to play 2C and 3C as clubs in this auction, maybe not best since 2H doesn't allow much wiggle room below 2S. I think at least 3C should show clubs.

If partner has solid minors and a spade void it'll make 7 so you don't need all of that