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Heh, if you weren't joking about GIB declaring faster than you then we know why :P

BBF play analysis... LOL

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Ahh I probably skipped question 10 since i got a 0, or did I pull a kenrexford lol

How did people do? I got 78, apparantly I bombed questionw 7 and 10 but I don't remember which ones those are and can't figure out how to see it..

LOL LOL LOL Expert analysis from Art. Anyways if you are cheating it's not hard to have the auction 1D p 1H p 2C p p p which is actually quite normal. It also wouldn't have been hard to prebalance with 2C. I don't see any reason to think there was foul play there.

Why would you ever post the second hand? The opps sold to 1S and go +50 when they are cold for a partscore in MP, and their defense was to lead their stiff ace of partner's suit and shift to the suit they don't have an ace of where dummy had the ace... effectively the bid terribly and then defended completely normally. Also as a side note your partner had an obvious 1N balance which would make a lot of tricks.

LOL Why would he be confused if you bid 5H over 5D? This is not an auction where you could have clubs and hearts, he already overcalled hearts. LOL! I was not aware that once partner shows a suit, I automatically know if I belong in that suit or a different suit. I know you prefer to make posts with silly sarcastic comments rather than actually think through your position, but obviously the point is if you have clubs with a heart fit and you are bidding 4N you are not increasing your chances of getting to the right fit by much, if at all. When you have clubs and hearts partner is going to bid 5D over 4N and overwhelming amount of the time anyways. This is not an auction where if partner prefers diamonds to clubs and clubs to hearts he's going to bid clubs, because you are far more likely to have the minors (there aren't many hands where you are bidding 4N with a minor+hearts). If partner is say, 2542, he is going to bid 5D and you still miss clubs. Also, even if partner does bid clubs you may belong in hearts, for instance if partner is 3622 he is going to bid 5C and you are going to miss hearts. And aren't you the one who was so concerned about the opps bidding 5S in the first place? If you have no known suit at all for your 4N bid even with non slam try hands your partner is going to have a hell of a time figuring out what to do when the opps bid 5S. Yes he is in a much tougher position if your range of hands is C+H, D+H, or C+D as opposed to C+D or slam try with hearts, because in the latter case when he keeps bidding assuming you have C+D he will have a good offensive hand that makes slam playable when you have the slam try variety, whereas in the former case he just has no idea what to do. I think it's close whether you should include C+H in your 4N hands is a winner at all, and when you take into account the fact that you are giving up the ability to make a slam try in hearts in order to play it it is a clear loser.

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LOL Why would he be confused if you bid 5H over 5D? This is not an auction where you could have clubs and hearts, he already overcalled hearts. You're right about the risk that they bid 5S, partner has no idea what you have so you have to guess what to do. The good news is that they usually don't bid 5S (you only have to get by righty as LHO has already preempted, and often even if righty has a hand that will save over 5H they will pass 5m because you are likely to play it there), and when they do you are not THAT much worse off than if you had raised directly. If you double them then you are only losing if partner had a hand that would bid 6H over a direct 5H bid which is almost impossible for a hand that overcalled 3H. If you bid 6H you haven't lost anything since partner is never bidding over 2S 3H 4S 5H p p 5S X. This is only untrue if you would view 5H then passing 5S as forcing which seems silly. So overall you are pretty much just going to have to guess when the opps bid 5S most of the time anyways no matter what you do. One more thing that is often overlooked in this auction though is the likelihood of inducing a save, especially when you're red/white. This is a spot where the likelihood that you can exploit the opponents goes UP as their skill level goes up. It helps to know your opponents, but in general better opponents will save over the auction 2S 3H 4S 6H p p (especially if bid in normal tempo) very often, because most people don't bid 6H in this auction as a semibluff nearly as often as they should. They will always be counting on taking zero spade tricks, and they presumably think it will be a cheap save since they were willing to bid 4S the first time. This is a better bluff when you have good trumps and less outside values though; with J9xx of trumps the chance that RHO has a trump trick against 6H increases and thus the chance that he will save decreases.

LOL I agreed with you on the other thread but I think this is totally ridiculous.

I strongly prefer double to 4S, I don't consider pass an option.

I'm not sure how common it is but I think it is at least somewhat common in expert circles to play 4N in this auction as a slam try for clubs, and I play that with my most regular partner. What 4N means in auctions like this depends on what suit your partner bid, and what suit the opps are bidding. The most fundamental rule my partnerships have is that 4N is never keycard in auctions like this; if I have the choice of a slam try or just keycard I would always prefer to have a move that involves partner available. But sometimes you want 4N available to find the right suit also; getting to the right fit must be priority number 1. Here are the other possible auctions where they have bid to 4x and we have no cuebid available between game and slam (and obviously it applies when they open a weak 2 instead of a weak 3). (3D) 4C (4D) 4N = This one is a slam try in clubs, playing it for the majors wouldn't make much sense since you are going past 4M anyways. If you want REALLY detailed agreements then play 4N starts all hands that want to set clubs, so 5D shows both majors with slam interest . (3S) 4C (4S) 4N = Now since 4S forces us to the 5 level already 4N is a "2 places to play" type of hand. A lot of people like to say "but I play responsive doubles here, I don't need 4N as takeout." That is fine, but partner will pass your double normally even if it is takeout. It would be silly to double with 66 in the reds or whatever. (3S) 4H (4S) 4N = Again 4H is above both of the unbid suits so this is 2 places to play, but the good news is we can combine that with a slam try in hearts by bidding 5H over 5m. (3S) 4D (4S) 4N= You could play this one always takeout with clubs and hearts, but I prefer to also allow for hands that want partner to pick between 5 of a red suit (commonly 62 in the reds, but other shapes possible). So if partner bids 5C and I correct to 5D that's what it shows. The reason you can't combine shapely takeout with slam try in partners suit in this auction like in the one above is because partner needs to be able to pick hearts over 4N, which would propel you to slam automatically if you have a slam try in diamonds. The tricky ones are: (3H) 4D (4H) 4N = This one is tricky because we could bid 4S with a black 2 suiter rather than bid 4N and force us to 5S with a spade fit, so it seems like 4N should be a diamond slam try right? The problem is we could have a "choice" between clubs and diamonds that doesn't want to do something committal like 5m, or we could have a spade/club 2 suiter that is too strong to bid 4S, or we could have a huge disparity in suits like 5 7 or 5 6. I won't even comment on what I think the best way to play this is, just make some agreement with your partner and you should be fine. The same logic applies to (3H) 4C (4H) 4N, which is the auction you gave. You might want to bid 4N rather than 4S with certain spade/diamond 2 suiters, and you might want to bid 4N with certain hands that have long diamonds and a partial club fit, or very long diamonds and 3 clubs. Or you might want to bid 4N with a club slam try... So to sum this up: When they jam you like this you have to prioritize and then use your space based on those priorities. Generally the priority is going to be finding the right fit/being able to compete when you have the other suits and a shapely hand. This is the more important than having a slam try because when you have a slam try you can guess what to do, generally bidding slam with the best part of your slam try range and bidding game with the worst part, and you are going to land on your feet. It's not like having a slam try will give you 100 % accuracy, and lacking one will give you 0 % accuracy. On the other hand, if you have to guess a FIT at the five level you are risking much bigger disaster, and a larger percent of the time that it occurs; losing double game swings or big penalties or going plus a small amount instead of a game swing. However, in some auctions it doesn't make sense for 4N to show the other suits since it drives you to the 5 level instead of the 4 level, and in those auctions you can use 4N as your slam try. And in some auctions it's not clear which of the 2 will be more useful because one suit is higher and one is lower. Clearly though in none of these auctions is keycard more useful.

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Richard, Would you care to offer a defense to Transfer Walsh? Why are you unethical enough to use it even though its not required? LOL

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