Jlall

SQ, QJTx of a major is just too good to pass up. Sure a club will be right if we can run 5 on them, but that is so unlikely when they don't bid stayman (likely to have minor length, unlikely to have that many hearts to run). A much more likely scenario is that they are in a marginal game and we just have to avoid giving them tricks to beat them. QJTx will very rarely give away a trick and will be a good start on setting up some tricks for us. This is the type of hand where we do NOT want to put all of our eggs in one basket because we have such an appealing choice elsewhere.

Getting past the 4 level was souths fault, don't get me wrong, but norths final 6S bid is from outer space. 6S was definitely the worst bid in the auction. The hand has no keycards and very minimum HCP and bad trumps and the stiff D is not great anymore etc etc. Also it is criminal to not jump shift with the south hand. South has a power house, and a hand worth a GF and can easily show it over 1H. If you don't jump shift with a great 18 count that is totally prime with a great suit and 2 honors in partners suit then when? It isn't really the risk that partner passes 1S when it's wrong (small but possible), it's more the point that you can never show a hand this good after just bidding 1S. This can manifest itself by missing slam, or by getting too high overbidding later to try to catch up (which is exactly what happened here). If the auction had started 1D 1H 2S south would not feel the pressure to overbid later as he has shown his values.

BTW how does 5N not ask for the queen of trumps? First step = queen ask, Second step = king ask... that helps you not get to 7 off the queen of trumps. Also, transferring is a very bad bid, just start with stayman. Oh maybe you play puppet stayman and can't bid smolen after bidding stayman? Too bad. Another reason not to play puppet stayman.

Owen online = totally random. He probably doubled because he thought no one else would bid 7 (like if he had the DA) so it is basically free. IF he is trying to play mindgames and not be totally random, he probably has the SQ and thinks you will assume he wouldn't double with the SQ (level 2 thinking). Level 2 is the type of level guys like this are generally on. I would thus play him for the SQ because it's either 50/50 or he's trying to level me and it's 100/0 if you believe I can out mindgame him.

That's nice but they led the D5 playing third and fifth so diamonds are not 5-1 unless they falsecarded the lead. Anyways say you win and pull trumps and lead a diamond. It's all a mind game. What do you do if LHO: 1) plays the 7 or 8 2) plays the 3 If he plays the 7 or 8 and you take it at face value then diamonds are 3-3 so you can just ruff them out. However if he has falsecarded with Q853 or Q753 then oops! If he will always falsecard then when he plays the 3 he has 53 doubleton or 8753 and you can take a ruffing finesse. If he is defending optimally he will use a mixed strategy and sometimes falsecard and sometimes not falsecard in which case you will always play for Qxxx and cannot exploit him. He will also play randomly with 8753. Qxxx is far more likely than xxxx, xxx or xx because you have restricted choice on RHO's play at trick 1, and restricted choice on LHOs second play, and it is very very very standard to lead from an honor on this auction, and even if he chose not to lead from an honor you have restricted choice on his lead (he had no spade honor either, so why a diamond?). In practice if they played the 7 or the 8 on the 2nd round and they were a random I would play for 3-3. If there was any inclination that they were remotely competent I would hook. This is not a falsecard that most people make that often though (and they will often think hey if I play the 3 he won't know if I have xx or not! even if they are thinking about stuff like this). edit: forgot to mention Qxx on left but in that case you will never go wrong since a higher spot will show up and you will either hook or ruff them out, so it's irrelevant if that's the holding.

double post

No you should not be penalized, but I typically say that my partners preempts when I am a passed hand are a wider range on both ends than usual.

RGB LOL. My experience in the 90's when I participated that you had a lot of haughty Flight B players that mostly exchanged insults. Very little good bridge was discussed. And this compares how with the insults of some of the prominant posters on these forums? LOL Sorry Justin I don't get the joke. Rudeness and insults are just not acceptable. Perhaps you should read the terms of service sometime. Dude, serious question. Do you call your mom and cry that the mean mean people are mean to you on the forums? Does she tell you how the mean moderators must be in collusion with the mean mean posters for not doing anything to stop this outrageous behavior towards you? Do you tell her how even though half your posts are defending the honor of yourself or the forums and calling for the moderators to do something or asking the mean people to read the terms of service, nothing happens? Maybe you will never get it. There is a reason most, as you say, "regular forum posters" do not like your posts. You are generally making trollish posts, or are up in arms about something, or are being a contrarian for the sake of it, or are promoting your pet methods, whatever. You just need to relax. Remember those movies where the socially inept kid is getting bullied, and his parents say "just ignore it and it will stop?" That is actually how it works! Just lighten up, laugh at yourself a little, stop trying to report people to the hall monitor and telling them to read the student handbook page 16 section 3. It is not pure chance that people don't like you. It is your own doing. It is easily fixable. Your favorite insult to me is to call me "antisocial" but you frequently drive people away, whereas anyone who knows me can tell you whether or not I have friends, and whether or not I am actually antisocial. If you really care this much about the forums and how people treat you, look at yourself not others. Seriously. These things are generally self moderating. Hopefully this post did not hurt your feelings, we can go back to trolling/insulting each other now (yes that's right, you are frequently insulting to me too!) but I can see that you really care so maybe this will help you. GL.

:) Now there are 2 4 of diamonds in the deck...

Why would this sequence be any different from: (4♠) - dbl - (pass) - 4N (pass) - 5♦ - (pass) - 5♥ which is stronger than a direct 5♥? LOL

RGB LOL. My experience in the 90's when I participated that you had a lot of haughty Flight B players that mostly exchanged insults. Very little good bridge was discussed. And this compares how with the insults of some of the prominant posters on these forums? LOL

Bidding 3N with this hand is absolutely silly.

Bidding 3N with this hand would be very bad.

Yeah pass is right if youre up 35 with 2 boards to go.

Why wouldn't 2C be natural?

Your partner should bid 3D with this hand. Why not 2♥? 2H then 3D is forcing and I wouldn't want to force.

Gnasher, I agree with you but surely you don't expect most people to try to not take advantage of the situation? If you do that is where I disagree with you. Some people like to argue that since they can't expect their random opps to give them the same courtesy, they won't ask in a situation like this unless they know their opps would so that it's equal. IMO that is wrong, because of the reason gnasher has stated.

Your partner should bid 3D with this hand.

*******BRIDGE IS A VERY EASY GAME!********* WHEN YOU HAVE A 5 CARD MAJOR AND A SOLID OPENING HAND AND CAN BID AT THE ONE LEVEL DO SO! YOU WILL FIND YOUR GAMES, AND COMPETE EFFECTIVELY TO YOUR PARTIALS. YOU ARE MAKING BRIDGE TOO HARD IF YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO HERE!

How is this a bidding problem, WOW

Forcing is standard, I like to play it as NF with 2D art (like NF) though.

4N-5D-5H means he had clubs and hearts (despite the wire you have given me) so I pass. Seems like a crapshoot over the direct 5H raise. He could have xx AQxx xx KQxxx easily or he could have x Axxxx AQxx Jxx just as easily. I'm going to pass beause: 1) They might get a spade ruff vs 6H 2) If partner has a spade void he can bid 5H VERY aggressively 3) If spades are 7-4-1-1 around the table it might be hard to ruff spades in dummy 4) I always give partner lots of room in this type of situation.

Why did the opps not bid more than 1D then?

LOL

Do you ever preempt when you know it's the opponents hand? Why do you do so? Obviously so they have less room, and thus bid less accurately. The most obvious thing to say is that if we pass, LHO is probably going to raise clubs. He has the option of bidding 2C, or 3C, or cuebidding 2H followed by raising clubs. If we bid 2H LHO can make a competitive 3C bid or pass (or if he has a GF, risk never showing clubs or driving past 3N). His ranges will be wider, his hand will be less defined, it will be harder for them to sort out all relevant issues. LOL @ the "why bid when we have a 9 card fit and they have more points than us??" camp. LOL @ the ZOMG we're gonna buy it in 1H X camp.