hotShot

What blame? I don't mind not to be playing 6♠. Both player have shortness opposite partners longest suit, and there is no need to be in every 23 HCP slam. And after a ♣ lead, it's not even a good one. But seriously: South showed a 6-5 distribution with a strong hand. He can't have more than 2 loser in ♥ and ♣ and North is covering a possible ♥ loser. North single in ♦ must be helpful to establish partners ♦ suit and limits loser in this suit to one. And South is covering a trump loser by holding the ♠Q. How many loser can South have holding a 6-5 distribution with (more than) opening strength? 100% North for missing game.

My RHO just promised a weak hand with 6-7♠ I hold 4 so partner will be single or void in ♠ (more void i guess). I hold 6♣'s so partner is likely to be short in ♣ too. So he will hold 11+ (perhaps only 10) red cards. If he thinks that his 6-5 distribution is strong enough to reopen (my partner would feel they should), I will hear a red 4-level bid, probably leading to a bigger disaster than 4♣ would. After my 4♣ bid, my partner is warned, and since he has to put 5-6 ♠ between his partner and his RHO, he should expect me to be short in the reds.

A team fight has a "home" team and a "visiting" team, if the match has more than one round the seating right changes each round.

I'd open it 1 club, the Rule of Spades applies. I don't know the rule of spades, but I call KQJxxxxxx trumps (even if the smallest spot is the deuce). Remember that the 1♣ opening is defined as: Responder has so many ♣'s that the chance partner hold the 18+ pts is relevant. With a strong hand as shown why should he jump to 6♣? Holding ♠xxx ♥- ♦- ♣QJ98765432 you would not care to know how strong opener is and you would find it more likely that opps would be able to make 6♥.

I don't know about the ACBL, but if we have different groups playing the same boards (Howell-Type movement or scrambled Mitchel) and all scores are used, they are scored in as one group.

yes, no, 4♠

1) pass If partner has a 12-card suit with the ace, I expect him to find a better way to bid that. So the only sane reason to open 6♣ I can imagine, is a weak preempt with an 8+ length in ♣ without the A. Why else would partner preempt on the 6 level. Now I expect him to make and I will redouble should opps dbl. 2) 7♣ There are only 3 HCP in the black suits I don't have, and he should be void in ♥ so he has to have ♦A.

Why not open a normal 1♣? I might consider opening 3♣. Since a preempt makes no sense in 4th seat, partner should understand that you have a minimum opener with 6 good♣. He can pass or correct to 3N with stopper in the other suits.

4♠. With most of the HCP located, ♠K is either with partner or onside and partner will have most of his cards and values in the minors. I want LHO to lead (because he does not know where his partner has values). If I bid 2♥ LHO has a cheap dbl to show his ♥ length and it is save, even with 0 HCP, because it is transfer. If LHO does not dbl, RHO knows that LHO does not have significant length in the majors and can assume a minor fit. So RHO can bid 3/4m on his own.

You promised 3-card support in ♣, so he knows about your 9 card fit. He knows that his ♣ suit is worth 5-6 tricks now and that he has 2♦ tricks. He knows that he has just 1♠ to lose. He should assume that if opps have 8 cards in ♥ this would leave you with just 2. So if you have a ♥-stopper or only 2- ♥'s, 4♣ will usually make. If you have a ♥stopper and a ♠ stopper to his 7-8 tricks you might make 3NT.

Ok another approach: Partner did not dbl! You know where 8-9♥'s are, distribute 5-4 between your partner and west. You know where 8♠'s are, distribute 5 between your partner and east. You know where 3♦ are, distribute 10 between partner and opps. (East had an cheap 2♦ bid avaiable.) You know where 8♣ are distribute 5 between your opps. So your partner should have 5+♣ and 4♦, with a strong hand he could have dbled to tell you about that. So he is either to weak to dbl or he does not have 4♦ (reducing the chance that he has a stopper by 25%).

I don't have defense and opps entered the sacrifice road. The most important thing to do is tell partner we have a fit. The advantage of bidding ♠ is small compared to the risk what partner might do over 5♣. Overbidding 3♠ will almost force LHO to bid 5♣. To defend against our game.

East opened and West bid 1over1 so they should have 17+HCP so the odds seem very bad. But if partner has 6♣ and a ♦ stopper, ♥_K and ♠A you will be able to make 9 tricks. But I guess the chance to go "screaming off" is less than 15%.

I don't know your partnerships overcall style, my partner could have 5+♣ with 10+ HCP. We do have a ♣ fit, so opps will usually have a fit too. I don't believe in game, but I won't allow them to play 2♥. And I won't allow west to show extra ♠ length with a simple 2♠ call. With ♦ stopper I would bid 2NT, but without one, this is no option. This leaves 3♣ as best choice.

Shouldn't there be a dbl somewhere, if we can pick redbl?

They are in a database on the bbo-server.

Calling the TD just to disrupt the concentration of one of your opponents is unethical. The setting was: I never suggested to call the TD to disrupt the concentration. I thought I made it clear, that the pro and his client are violating the law. I suggested to call the TD, when it happens. Lets take the wider-ranged, off-shaped NT. If the disclosed range is 15-17 and I see a NT opening made with an (unbalanced) 13 count, this is a legal psych. And if there is any trace/evidence of fielding or frequent psyching, I will call the TD. There is nothing unethical about that.

5♠, I don't have the ♥ control.

About 15.4% of all hands dealer has less than 12 HCP and 2nd seat holds 12-14 HCP. Only in 18.5% of these deals 4th seat holds 0-6 HCP. In 18% of these deals 4th seat will have 7-8 HCP. The average strength of the 4th seat is 9.8 HCP. The average combined strength is 22.75 HCP In about 72.4% of these 2nd and 4th seat have combined 21+ HCP. In about 62.6% of these 2nd and 4th seat have combined 22+ HCP. 47.8% have 1 ace. 41.6% have 2 aces. 3.7% have 3 aces.

Any form of scoring, is depended on the strength of the field. Obviously the sequence p-p-p-something indicates that all hands are at least semi-balanced, so fits with more than 8 combined cards are unlikely. An advantage of 2 HCP means that you can probably make about 1 trick more than your opponents. So you need to find your fit at the 1-level, the 2-level might already be to high. There is little margin for play errors, without much information from the bidding. 56% just means you managed to do a little better than the average player in the field.

Edit: Note that the given Hand is in 2nd seat! If the bidding is p-p-p and 4th seat has 12-14 HCP you will find your partner with frequency % / HCP seat 2 / Average(HCP seat 2+ HCP seat 4) 0.62270 / 4 / 18.0000 2.35378 / 5 / 18.6441 6.01367 / 6 / 19.2697 10.87733 / 7 / 20.1665 15.87976 / 8 / 21.0761 19.51537 / 9 / 22.0108 22.10331 / 10 / 22.9744 22.63408 / 11 / 23.9439 About 80% of the time your side has an 21-19 HCP advantage. About 91% of the time your side has the same or more strength as opps. Of cause having this advantage does not always mean that you will score plus. But on the long run, passing is a losing option.

IV) Don't be nice: Call the TD If the pro is bending partnership agreements very often, this is an implicit partnership agreement and has to be disclosed. In fact the pro and his client would be playing different systems. Incomplete disclosure and playing different systems are against the laws. So call the TD whenever you notice something odd. If they agreed on t/o dbles and the pro isn't using them when he could, call the TD. If the client makes an t/o dbl in a situation where the pro did not, call the TD. Something is wrong with your opps disclosure. If the pro bids off-shaped or off-strength NT, call the TD. If the client could bid an off-shape or off-strength NT and he did not, call the TD. Make use off lame excuses (if the TD witnessed them). If the lame excuse for opening off-shape NT was that they count 5-card majors lover than 10 as a 4-card suit, finesse the other hand and call the TD, if the finesse fails. If a 1M opening does not have an honor, call the TD, because the hand should have been opened 1NT. The TD will hate you, the pro will probably kill you, but calling the TD will break the clients concentration (sometimes even that off the pro). He will lose count and play worse.

Now I get more than a white page. Seems to work again.

Seems they are reinstalling the server (or they've been hacked.)

The requirements for the reopening is related to the possible strength of the pass in direct seat. So if you pass a 5431 shaped 11 count in direct seat, when do you reopen? I'm sure that those who bid will require more in 4th seat. If I pass my partner will expect less than 12 (11) HCP often with bad shape, so he won't reopen in 4th seat with less than good 12 HCP.