Jlall

7N

I don't think I woulda bid 4D heh. If I was north and I had one bid for my life over 4D it's close between 6D and 7D.

Once my friend Shane bid 2C on a hand like this and I was like dude just reverse obv and Joe Grue was like reversing is horrible 2N is the only bid... but I stand by just reversing.

We might also belong in spades, and we might also get to the wrong minor if we bid 4N. But yes mainly just that we might want to defend 4H X

3h

ROFL. Hanped. No way in the world is pass forcing here. I thought this was a question of whether to pass or to double, I'd light em up since I have so much defense in the minors and shortish spades and they are likely to just be saving at this vul, and someone has to double them.

Yes XX is SOS, no don't do it with this hand (specificially the HJ is very nice). This kind of 2H bid is the thing a lot more good players are doing these days, when I started playing bridge it was considered completely awful. I still would never consider doing it red/white.

If RHO is so good then why are we PLAYING FOR HIM TO LET US IN DUMMY WITH Qxx of clubs! That would be a massive blunder! This is really strange because I'm always the one arguing to play the opps to be idiots and to take the losing option in many cases where not many experts would because that's the optimal way to exploit the opps and everyone is bad blah blah but in this thread I'm the only one arguing to not take the losing option heh.

Can you explain your reasoning? I guess it depends on how you take "not very strong" opps, maybe han was just being nice as usual but I take that to mean they aren't hopeless. If RHO has A8xxx(x) of hearts as I suspect him to have, I think he would see the need to duck the heart lead if he also held Qxx of clubs. This does not mean I think he is being so deep as to give us an entry on purpose to hook, more like he sees no danger of letting us in dummy when he has no CQ, but when looking at Qxx of clubs it's much easier to see the danger, so the effect is he's made a good play to let us in dummy when he has xx(x) of clubs. Against a good opp this inference would be 100 %, against a complete drooler it would be 0 %. Ignoring that factor, if LHO has JTxx of hearts and RHO has 6 hearts to the ace (not for sure since it would require RHO to return the wrong heart spot, but I don't know if LHO would lead the 4 instead of the 2 from JT742 or w/e playing attitude, and even if he has it's not clear he would unblock the jack/ten, whereas if he led from 4 he would always unblock the jack/ten. Obv he COULD always fake unblock to protect his real unblocks, but in practice I think people are much more likely to unblock when they need to (JTxx) and be lazy and play the 2 or 7 when they don't.), I don't think it's that unlikely that LHO is 5422 rather than 5431, and even if he's 5431 we have equity from stiff Q. And if he's 5422 he might always have the CQ, because for some people the cutoff for overcalling would be yes on QTxxx JTxx Ax Qx, and no on QTxxx JTxx Ax xx (and I actually think this isn't unreasonable, sure the random queen is not that helpful but it's something, but surely to "not strong opps" 2 points makes a difference from 7 to 9). Of course I have not talked about 64xx which is possible but imo discounted since RHO would have more reason to bid over 2H with Axxxxx and a queen if he had a spade void, and LHO would be more likely to lead a spade. So yeah I think it's close without the inference of RHO playing the HA at trick 1 and I would probably hook if it was just that but consider it a close call. However, even if RHO ducks the heart with Qxx of clubs like 25 % of the time I no longer think it's close.

Yeah agree with awm, 3 card limit raise or better starts with XX.

If I bid NT I would bid 2, if I bid hearts..I have no idea since I have an obvious X then hearts imo!

Why would you want to bid exclusion in clubs rather than spades? I assume this is a joke but I meant if the opps start bidding I'll bid 5C, and I assume they will be like almost always. If they pass I'll just go slow obv.

I found this to be very close, I went back and fourth. One reason I often bid 6S here is because they will save, but in this case if LHO is the one who saves he will always be right, and when he doesn't save it will often be because he has a trick or a stiff diamond. That creates a bad situation for us, but getting them to 7D X is still better than playing 5S if 6 is cold, and it's matchpoints (and of course they won't always save when it's right). I agree with everything jdonn said about 3 keycards not being enough necessarily. I also wanted to add that even if partner has a doubleton diamond it's not that infrequent that they have 9 of them. QJxx of spades would just be such a huge improvement here. Meh, I'd probably bid 6.

I won't claim to know how often I have had a slam try, but I'm sure I've made this bid more than once (as a slam try, I wouldn't have considered it possibly having another meaning). I do think that we can have a slam more often than you're suggesting though, 3H is a wide range of like 0-8 (sometimes 9), and doubler is unlimited, and the opps haven't shown any values. I also think on those hands opener cannot just drive to the 5 level that often because responder has such a wide range and can be very weak, so a slam try is quite useful (esp here since 4D last train is available so we can have intelligent auctions despite the wide ranges involved). I concede your point about 4-4 majors and symmetry though, I would take 3S-4C as a slam try in spades also, and in that situation a choice of games can be much more useful.

It can't hurt, but is it really a slam try? (Rather than a lead-direction in case they bid 5♠?) These were my thoughts exactly (both yours and jdonns). I was also thinking what does 4N mean (I have no idea). Maybe 4N should be a slam try and 5D lead directing in theory (allows a 5C cue etc), but obv I don't have that agreement with anyone. It would be a really sick auction though... 4N 5C 5D 5S etc 7H lol. Interestingly even over 5D showing just a lead directing raise with a 5H bid (aka a void), north can basically drive to slam or even try for 7 (xxx Axxx --- KQxxxx one time).

Yes but he is disadvantaging the whole field by playing in an event he's not planning to play in if he wins. For starters he might elect to dump (hypothetical he obv, I don't know this guy). Sure you might say, no he won't, but imagine the ramifications of people playing in events where they do not have a personal interest in the outcome. It's an easy spot to just play in it to dump to your friends. If you choose to play on a team with your friends to win because they aren't as good as you and will have a worse chance without you, you're hurting your district and imo it's very unfair to the field. Sure if you win you might be able to add someone equally good, but so might the guys who won, but so might the other guys who were going to win. Their team might have been better than yours. I mean theoretically if person B is the best replacement, maybe person Bs team was better than your team without the ringer, and person B could add person C who is better than anyone on your team, but worse than person B. In that case you are sending a worse team with your team + person B than person Bs team plus person C would be. But fundamentally I believe it's just wrong to be able to "help" your friends at the expense of the other teams. FWIW my own personal experience with this was the junior trials last time, we were only told that it might conflict with Philadelphia like 2 weeks or so in advance (maybe it was available somewhere before then, but we didn't know). I contacted the appropriate people to make sure I could still play even though I would drop off if it did conflict, I was told that I should play since it wasn't a sure thing yet when the scheduling would be (and the dates were actually changed, but just to a different part of Philly). IMO I was ethically obligated to not play if it was definite that I would drop off the team.

He's just making an inside joke with me which all started when he wanted to X then pass leb then when I was at his house 2 days ago and we were ragin robodupes he did it with gib and got a good board. That said it wouldn't shock me if he actually would consider doing it with this hand too had he doubled which I'm sure he wouldn't.

No, I have often heard the phrase "you cannot play in a trials where you have no intention of playing if you win." I don't know if that is a rule or just something people say or what.

No, quite the opposite. My comment was intended to show why GF is a poor idea when partner does not have three-ace hands. wasnt asking you obv

People are really hooking? I insta go for the drop and lol.

lol

2D I'll probably bid 5C next depending on how the auction goes

really obvious pass

I think south should just pass it out. If I didn't pass it out I would bid 2S not 3C, but with QJ8 of hearts I am always just passing. After 3C 3N I think 3N is normal, AQTxxx and out is a good game.

Are you implying that partner would ever pass a 3C invite with 3 aces including the CA? lol