Jlall

MSC is like the forums, you post a tough 2-6 hand and they think 4D shows that. If you gave them AQxx AJxxx x Qxx you can be sure most of the people who bid 4D on 2-6 would bid 4D with this. Also, why would you think an Eric Kokish comment is the equivalent of BWS? The guy is the leading bidding theorist in the world who has a lot of strange/non standard views, and gets them out through outlets like...MSC.

Partner did show something very important: some club support. How is bidding 3♦ going to help? It isn't clear to me that forcing to 4c is a lot better than forcing to 3n. Besides, is partner supposed to infer a diamond stopper? Partner might X with 5422, and that looks very likely right now. Partner does not have to infer anything, if he bids 3M we can bid 3N. That let's us have a shot at 5C if he actually does have short diamonds and club support and extras, and it lets us play 4C if partner's hand is minimum. I don't see how you can think getting out in 4C is not a win vs playing 3N if partner has some random 12 count, and partner will know not to play 3N if he has that. Where is the gain in just bidding 3N?

Double really sucks, the great thing about 4H is they have no last train or anything so they have to guess right then. It is also very likely RHO is void in hearts, and LHO doesn't know about that yet. If it goes pass pass XX or pass pass keycard on a hand that was passing 4S, I think that would be a disaster. Just pass imo.

It's a slam try in spades lol

I think opening vul at imps is absurd on hand 4

Also I have to give a big lol to passing 2D and then bidding 3N when partner showed nothing extra. That is completely inconsistent bidding, it is the equivalent of 1N p 3N p 4N to me.

I thought 4 and 5 were auto (2C and pass). The others are good problems. Disagree with hanp that X would be weird on 5314 shape on the first auction, I think that is by far the most common shape. What else can one do with like 15 and that shape? We have extras, we want to compete, and we don't know what suit to play in. Double with a void is risky as partner might pass, but it keeps hearts in the game quite well. I would be worried after 4C that we might miss hearts, and I also think it's an underbid (it shows a good hand but our hand is extremely good. We would bid 4C if one of our hearts was a diamond). Overall I'd go with double on that board. Hand 2 I would have bid 2N over 2D (disagree with the first pass). Now it's pretty impossible, but I'd probably bid 3D which I think always shows a hand with clubs too good to bid 3C. With say 2344 with 4 small diamonds I would always double first (10+) or just bid 2S now. Over 3H p p I'm sure this is a minority view but I feel pretty strongly about passing. It's matchpoints, and by far our most likely plus is defending 3H imo. If we bid we will very often get to the wrong strain, and possibly the wrong level, and sometimes we'll just start out by being too high. Sure I'm only going to get small pluses but that's what MP is about, and I think bidding anything will lead to a minus very often.

pass

Those crazy estonians

haha

X is fine with hand 2 if you are going to treat your hand as a limit raise, but you cannot double with less than a LR and 3 spades. IMO this hand is not a 3 card limit raise so i bid 2S.

Yeah I got 76 and missed a few easy ones and a few just becuase I couldn't spell it. I missed M Branco because he had some weird last name listed :P

So you play transfers, but with redouble retaining its standard meaning? Does that mean that you can't show a natural 1NT bid? Yeah exactly, that is the normal way to play it in USA dunno about other places. Re awm: You can include constructive raises and limit raises into one raise but to me that puts a ton of pressure on partner to game try some hands, or otherwise you might miss some games. It's not the same as like a 6-9 range even though it encompasses the same amount of points.

http://www.sporcle.com/games/atakdog/bermudabowl Made by a regular poster on 2+2 (atakdog). GL on spelling some of these names :(

I think takeout of spades is completely standard. I have played it as penalty of clubs in some partnerships but that is really not standard imo (though not a bad agreement).

Yes 8+ seems terrible since you have to drive to the 3 level to show a 3 card LR. Yes sometimes if it gets competitive you have to do that also after XXing, but more often imo you get to XX and raise to 2 and stop in 2. Same problem to me with gnasher's idea, an inv hand will have to force to the 3 level. The biggest benefit of XX with a 3 card LR to me is that you can stop in 2.

Didn't read any answers but 4H over 3N to set spades.

The USBF does make it a rule for Trials. It's stated in the general conditions of contest as follows: B. Players Each player in a USBF Championship must be eligible to compete and intend to compete in the WBF championship for which the USBF Championship is a selection trial. Thanks Debbie

Really? I could be missing something, however, other than the GNTs / GNPs I can't think of any events in which ACBL districts give players money to represent the District in competition. GNT subsidies are up to individual Districts and vary greatly from District to District. I believe some Districts provide zero subsidy. NAP subsidies are provided by ACBL. D16 gives no money for superflight, but gives money to the other flights, FWIW. I think the reason is because for a long time a team with a client and Hamman and Wolff won every year so they decided it's dumb for them to give money in that case.

Don't do it???

Because he has clubs? My 4 small diamonds makes this an obv pass to me.

Constructive raise, less than a LR (7-10ish, not all 7s not all 10s).

They are already in the IMSA.

I have a problem even with an entire team that is not going to play in the nationals playing in the event. This is a problem if it is a KO from 4 teams. You might beat the 2nd best team in the semis, and beat/lose to the 3rd best team in the finals. In that case your participation has screwed the 2nd best team. These events are for determining the best team, not the 2nd best team. Again I feel like if you aren't going to play in the event you qualify for, you should ethically not be playing.

The best way to get a real forum consensus is to have people PM you their answers imo. Posting can definitely bias the results.