Jlall

low to the 9 wins vs: Jx(3), Jxx(3), AJx(3) onside, and stiff J(1), AJ(1), for 11 combos. The other option of low to the king then low to the queen wins against: Jx(3), Axx(3) onside and AJ(1), Axxx(1), J(1), xxx(1) onside for 10 combos. Note that: A ) You should start with low and not the ten because you pick up stiff J onside that way. B ) If you do start with low to the king, then the queen is the best play now by far since they should duck Axx offside, but never Ax.

Hate 4S, woulda bid 6S to begin with. I guess I was walking the dog, so now I bid 6S since that was my plan it seems? Don't understand roger's 5H bid, is partner supposed to bid 6S with the SK?

Ok, imo it should be natural NF, but I do not think that is a standard view.

Can I infer from your questions that 2H is nat? If so I'd def pass and be happy I play that agreement (that's how I play also). If 2H can be like 5323 10 count with no heart stopper then obv I can't pass heh.

Takeout Xs are much more common by experts now at all levels, but you still see both at the 2 level. At the very least you must play t/o Xs at the 3 level since otherwise you're screwed, at the 2 level you can get by a lot of the time playing penalty Xs if you play leb or something like that so you have some way to check for 4 of the other major etc.

What club spot did they lead and return phil? Do they play 3/5th? Seems like we would usually know at this point if clubs were 6-3 or 5-4 by now. If they both really led low every time I guess it's AJ9x and QT8xx.

What will you do if LHO wins ♠A and plays a heart? RHO has the AJ of clubs at least, seems like we can safely place LHO with both the SA and the HK.

In my experience, it is much more common to have the auction 2N-3D-3H-3N-4m. I don't think this is just because the 2N bidder is more likely to have a super hand, it's because after a 2N opener responder often has to transfer and bid 3N with some unbal hands that can produce a slam pretty easily. After a 1N opener responders transfer and 3N is much more limited to a balanced or pretty semi-balanced hand (since they could bid 3m without bypassing 3N), and probably is limited to a bit less slam potential. So for me to bid 2N-3D-3H-3N-4C I wouldn't need such a super exceptional hand, for me to bid 1N-2D-2H-3N-4C I would need something like freds example hand pretty much every time. Still it's a possible auction.

Bidding 4H on stiff H seems normal in the 2nd auction. 3H then 4D suggests hearts that are quite good, otherwise responder would usually just bid 3D over 2N.

I'm with you I just never vote on the polls

I pretty much always neg X with 3-4 and an invitational hand. If the auction goes say 1S 2D X 3D p p 3S, imo that's what I am showing. The usual reason for supporting immediately is to avoid getting preempted before I get to raise, but with a hand like this I'm not particularly worried about that.

Yes? Because we have 3 small trumps and 4333 and the DA and an 11 count with 3 QT..seems quite "defensive" and "minimum" also... I'd really want partner to never bid 5S if I have this hand.

We have AK A and no offense, seems like the easiest X ever. Much prefer a neg X the round before to a 3D bid also.

www.addictinggames.com

Lol, that's like when we're in a 2 % contract and get our first 8 things and then we lose the last hook and go down. It always feels super unlucky then but...it's not. You caught a very good dummy on this auction, and you caught a favorable lead, and you caught them playing the ace (presumably meaning they had no CJ, so you won that finesse, and also that they somehow did not read their partner's count)... Well done, so you lost by 22 instead of 11 or something? That is 2 VPs instead of 5. Unless you're playing win/loss, this is not a binary thing and doing dumb things to try to win in a hopeless situation just causes you to dig yourself into more of a hole. Also, imagine if your opponents had revoked or gone for a number at the other table, so you were actually winning small. All it takes is for your teammates to have one good result. Maybe the other guys also missed game. It's resulting to say "well I was right about the score..." it was probably more likely your teammates had 1 good result in than that you make this slam. And again, throwing away 3 VPs is not good even if there is 0 % your teammates can have a good board. Lastly, why does no one ever seem to take into account that partner also knows the state of the match. Partner will also be wanting to stretch to a thin slam, which makes his range of hands to bid 4S even weaker. He is desperately telling you "even with this state of the match, my hand is now SO BAD, please don't stretch" but you didn't listen. Bridge is a partnership/team game, it's not just on you to do something desperate and try to pull it out.

Wow no 7...doubt I'll ever see that.

4H

Yeah this is why I deleted facebook, but no doubt I'll come back heh. It's like the forums, even when you try to stay away you somehow go back.

Lol, The Hog's last 4 posts were: -I have an inferiority complex -The word dude is vulgar Nobody responded to these, so he tried harder to get a rise out of me (and others?) about 24 hours later with: -I was off my meds This time he got a couple of responses, and his only response was: -It is pathetic and typical that I drank ALCOHOL (zomg!) He has added no bridge related content (lest there be something to actually reply content), nor replied to any of the bridge related arguments presented against his case. He just got his feelings hurt because I said he was wrong, and demonstrated why. The most personal I got ever was to say that he acts like he is an authority on australian bridge and what people play there, and that I suspect he makes things up in this regard. I believe this to be true, a quick google search turns up nothing on his name, even in his state. I know he hasn't lived in Australia in a while, but if he's such an expert on what goes on there then surely he should have SOME kind of results there. When he says something is standard in Australia, it is easily and often refuted by simply asking many Australian bridge experts about it. I'm sure it is useful to many on the forums to know that The Hog is not an expert player, is making stuff up/delusional in general about "what everyone plays in Australia," and in general not knowledgable about bridge. Saying such things is not a personal attack, and refuting his "arguements" about why 4C should be natural is what this forum is about (there is a thread on 4C here...people can debate it.) It is also completely standard for the hog to go off on vicious personal attacks on people when they say he is wrong, especially if that person is me. I will say for a moderated forum the mods did a great job in this thread, and in general on the hog, leaving up his awesome bridge content in this thread. Oh wait, his last 4 posts had no bridge content at all. I do not really care what the hog says about me, or what threads he derails, but it would be nice if there was any kind of legitimacy to which the mods operated on, frequently deleting posts for having a word like "ass" in it, or a link to a blog that has a link to a blog that they don't like, but allowing complete non bridge/spew to derail a thread. In most other forums The Hog would be temp banned already. I also hate to think what will happen if someone who is a little bit more sensitive happens to correct the hog or engage him in a debate on something bridge related. Obviously his behavior might be less vicious than it has been towards me since it won't be me, but the consistent lack of moderation on The Hog or consequences for doing things like in this thread will just reinforce to him that he can act like this to people forever and get away with it. Hog I would suggest: -If you have nothing bridge related to say, don't say anything (obviously?) -If you are too sensitive to be told you are wrong, don't post on an internet forum. -Do not act like an authority on Australian bridge. Unless you have some kind of credentials, you will not be treated as one. If you want to say "In Australia..." do not expect people to take it at face value, since you have proven to be unreliable in that area.

oh i see 3343 thx.

The argument that heart raises can be shown starting with 4th suit forcing is not logical, if you start with 4th suit forcing there is no way to specifically show club shortness and a heart raise later a lot of the time. The argument that you can "pattern out" or bid around the shortness starting with 4th suit forcing does not make sense, 4th suit forcing is not a natural bid so 1D then spades then hearts where spades = 4th suit forcing means you've shown, 1D then a GF, then a heart raise. There is no implication of club shortness.

2S is a reverse in this thread, obviously that's different than 2H here which is not a reverse.

I don't understand the 4333 discussion...the opening bid was 1D.. Fred does what you're saying apply to a 1C opener or do you open 1D sometimes with 4333? I;m a little drunk so sorry if this was answered already.

Lol obv you cannot win a bridge argument with me so you have to resort to this kind of stuff...pretty normal for you. Sad, but typical.

Why is this a peril of pre-balancing? Our hand is so good that we can expect partner to pretty much never game try even if we make game (eg the HA and the CQ). Even if you don't prebalance aggressively, I assume everyone would bid with like a 12 count and 6 clubs, or a 10 count and 7 clubs. This hand is still far better than any reasonable minimum that anyone could have, so the problem is always going to be there.