Jlall

Who cares? Forums is not 100% USA... I know that. I was replying to this: The information I provided is pertinent, so you can stick your "who cares". :angry: I don't hate anybody - I just can't abide people who don't read, or read and don't comprehend, what I write before they reply to it. The anti american/anti acbl sentiment is very strong here, people like Free will often attack you if you mention anything about the ACBL, even in reply to a direct question/comment. It's pretty funny, don't worry about it. As to the original question, imo the best advantages of KI are realized by playing the 1S response as 0-4 spades, and 1N as 5+ spades. Immediately knowing that partner has 5 spades is very useful (and imo the main benefit of flannery), and since partner has bid 1S you have room to sort out 4-4 spade fits still. A common wait to play is that 1H-1S-1N shows 4 spades, and other bids are natural and as you would bid over a forcing NT. That is simple, and an improvement over natural, but imo you can do much better by playing transfers over 1S. So 1H-1S- 1N=balanced or clubs 2C=diamonds 2D=6+hearts 2H=4S 5+H NF The biggest advantage of this is that you can show your side suit and then bid again, eg 1H 1S 2C 2D 2H showing 6-4, or 1H 1S 2C 2D 2S showing something like a 3541 17 count, basically you get to have your cake (showing the 2nd suit) and eat it to (not risk getting passed in 2 of the minor opposite certain death hands). Occasionally partner can also pass your transfer when you hit his long suit and he has a weak hand which is nice. Meanwhile over 1H 1N showing 5+ spades you can bid naturally, bidding 2S with 3, the only problem shape now is exactly 2533 which must bid 2C.

Yeah this is not close andy, 3S. Yes 3H would be last train. If you wanted to make this interesting make it Kx of diamonds... if I had that I'd go 3H, the doubleton combined with the 4th trump is very valuable opposite Axxxx or w/e.

Spade, how is KQT7 of a minor a passive lead?

2N is not a limited bid, ergo 4C cannot just be a signoff. It's not as if west preempted. West has a wide range, and will often bid 5C just based on the fact that east thought that 4C might have a shot at making. I don't think it "invites" anything, but east is not going to bid for no reason, thus west with extra offense may always choose to bid 5C.

loled at the floppy disk and kimi gibler... good times. In other news Stephanie Tanner ended up being a raging cokehead or something...go figure!

Yeah your "lead" is not very big at all, you need to play normal. Everyone has lost by 32 in 24 boards, especially if their opps are going for it. The best way to not lose imps is to just play to maximize your imp expectancy on each board. If you had to avoid losing by 70 then you could alter your approach to minimize variance, but 32 is not nearly enough.

Yep very unfortunate typo there lol. I mean I wouldn't ever bid 3N with Kx of hearts I don't think. Jdonn knows that I in general think the most common error in bridge is bidding 3N too often over a jumpshift, it should be rare and specific.

All that said I agree with the basic premise that when partner shows 3-6 in the minors, and you're loaded in the minors with a double fit, you should play in a minor.

I think if playing walsh style bidding 1D with this hand is a mistake, and will actually cause you to lose room as well as leak information more often. For example after 1C 1H 1N you can just bid 3N. After 1C 1D 1N you will have to check back for a heart fit. After 1C 1red 2C, you'd rather have started with 1H, as you can now bid 2D, and if partner bids 2H you can bid 3C and you are off to a good start and are lower than you would be after 1C 1D 2C 2H. Also it will be easier to get to a 4-3 heart fit if necessary having started with 1H, though it could be possible even if you start with 1D it will be less straightforward, especially since a later heart bid by you might just be third suit forcing. There are some deals where partner is something like 2245 especially that 5D might be better than 3N when we have no spade stopper, but even then the best I can come up with is something like xx Ax KQxx AJxxx which is close to a 1N opener... anything weaker like taking away the CJ and we'd be better off hoping they don't lead a spade vs 3N since 5D is no play. IMO it's a narrow target, and it's worth paying off to in order to just be able to bid 1C 1H 1N 3N a lot or 1C 1H 2H *whatever ask* 4H.

lol really? The orginal hand is much better. Having AQT instead of Axx and the ace of hearts instead of the king is way better than having a third and fourth trump and a side doubleton and it's not close at all. Often your third and fourth clubs are irrelevant because partner has the queen himself, and often your doubleton is irrelevant because partner is also doubleton. I mean you cherry picked the hand to eliminate all our wasted values that happened to be opposite a stiff, and give us a doubleton in partners tripleton, and add trumps when partner happens to have 7 and not the queen...

5C is awful, just because you are 6-5 you don't have to bid lol. West has very good defense (a stiff spade is good defense, AK in the suit partner didn't raise, bad clubs..) and no extra offense. Yes he's 6-5, but that's why he was able to stretch to bid in the first place, his hand still sucks. I prefer 3D from west to begin with, or 2D if playing intermediate jump overcalls, but 2N could work and it is not nearly as big of an error as the 5C bid. East should not bid 4C imo, KQTxx of spades is very likely facing shortness so his hand is much better for defense than offense, and he really doesn't want to encourage partner to bid, or even to play 4C rather than defend 3H. If partner is 2155 it might work well, but it's not that likely. Side note, what does 4N over 4H mean from west? Slam try, or showing 6-5 in the minors? What does 4S by west mean? 3055, or a cuebid? If 4N and 4S are both cuebids, does 4N imply no spade control? If 4N and 4S are both natural, how does west try for slam, or do you just give up on that?

Because his partner did not show slam interest? We must have different ideas of what "cue bid" means then. I normally don't cue bid without slam interest. This is the crux of the matter, does "cuebid" in this context mean slam try, or just a stopper trying to get to 3N or what. I'm no semantics genius but south obviously thought 3S was trying for slam, in which case driving to 6 was fine (but trying for 7 was dumb). Agree with bidding shortness being really good in this auction. Jdonn taught me many years ago that 3D should also be shortness, and with 4-6 minors you just bid your short major then 4D if necessary (or pass otherwise). It makes your 4-6 minor bidding a little less accurate, especially for the 3N or 5m decision, but it helps a ton when you actually have short diamonds. Keep in mind short diamonds is much less likely than short major though, because you also can't have a 4 card major limiting you to 3316 or 7+ clubs. Some people also include balanced slam try with short diamonds in the 3D bid to give more room for balanced mildish slam tries and the ability to stop in 3N, but I don't really like it. Anyways, I would say the system sucked, north had to try for a slam with his hand since many hands make it cold, and south didn't know his AQT of diamonds were not pulling much weight. Overall it's not the worst slam ever though due to LHO being endplayed at trick 1 into giving us a finesse.

Love those Hardy boys!

Yeah this is a good hand to bid 3C with, it's a strong player but you have no aces.

Close enough, declarer had KJ10xx xx QJxxx Q. So there was no defense after the lead?! Ok declarer might go wrong but a little unlikely. Yeah I don't think declarer will go wrong

Read this on another forum (of people mostly my age or younger), but it is very true... I feel old when people around me don't laugh at my obvious Seinfeld references ^_^

This book is only 29 years old, so I'm sure it gives a good indication of how modern bridge is played.

I don't think I'd ever bid 3N with Kx of hearts, but certainly not with two cards in the red suits, and only 1 black suit card (and even 5 spades!).

lol

I cannot fathom anything other than pass once you get here - you have described your hand to partner much more definitely than she has to you - why would you act in front of her now? Huh? Because you don't rate to make pretty much ever given that your hand is this weak combined with RHO telling you that he does not think you will make, and you already stretched to make this bid. You haven't "described your hand" you could still have a 24 count, and you could still be 3442 or 3433 etc, so partner has no idea that you have a home, whereas you know you have a 5 solid suit. Also it is very hard to double 4D without trump tricks imo, they're doubling you into game, so there's a reasonable chance that you will survive, especially if RHO is good and he won't spite double you. It's not like his hand is massive, he couldn't bid over 3C, so it's unlikely he has so much in top tricks that he can light you up. Partner is never going to run, it's up to you.

4C I would definitely raise to 5. If partner has something like 8 to the KQ or even 8 to the ace game is good. Even 8 to the QJT9 is good. 5C I would pass, partner has a lot of 8-4 hands that are possible (esp white/red), and most people aren't as conservative as me in opening 5 white red and have a lot of stuff like 1138 or 0238 also with pretty crappy suits, and partner can basically have any 9 card suit. It's possible his trumps are playable for 1 loser obviously, but a lot of time they won't be.

X but I'm planning to pass 3M, but I agree with gnasher that X then 3N shows a hand willing to play 4M, and I would also add that I think people bid 3N wayyyy too much over 3C when they should be Xing and bidding 3N most of the time.

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wow!

Interesting, curious what others say, but BWS is a good indication that your way is more normal.