hotShot

I'll bid 5♦, because i don't think partner will see 4NT as "pick a minor".

Can it be that 4th seat openings are more often played in a major, while dealers side defend in a minor? This would explain why the same amount of tricks is worth less.

Didn't you restrict to bidding to: pass-pass-pass ? So a weak 2 made in any seat, would have eliminated the hand?

Look: 1minor - something from Partner => 1NT shows 12-14 now if partner forces you on the two level, 2NT takes over the role of 1NT. Since you can have only 3m cards you can't repeat the color. With 15-17 and a 5 card Major you bid your M first. So your NT rebid shows that you could have opened NT. If you are weak you can repeat your 5 card suit, or bid a lover suit. As to 4♦333 you must decide, are your 18-20 and partners 6-? good enough for 3NT. So after 1over1 answers jump to 2NT, after 2over1 answers to 3NT.

Bidding a major now would be revers and strong, since y2♣ is forcing you have to bid. Since you can't repeat yout ♦ and can't raise the ♣ the only bid left is 2NT (you need around 15+ to try 3NT).

I'd like to know what reason, should allow an adjustment. Each player is allowed to make any bid he likes. 1) North opened with 9 HCP (3rd seat), why should he bid 3♣, if he expected that 2♣ might be on a 2 count. So even if north might have known that south may be weak, he did not try to "field" a psyche. 2) South did not open and did not raise 3♣. Both indicate that south is not strong. 3) Both east and west are holding 4♥ and know that NS do not have a ♥ fit. They know that south is bidding under pressure. 4) What difference does it make to WEST, if south might be weak. Remember WEST called the director and claimed damage. Even if the systemic agreement might allow to bid that weak, this does not mean that this hand is weak. East has an 18 count, if south had 8 HCP, east would still have opening strength. West knows that he and opener share 9♥ and that he and opps share at least 10 (more like 11)♣. So west knows that partner has to have lots of cards in ♠ and ♦. 5) East has 18 HCP, expects 12 from opener and 8+ from south. This leaves 2 HCP for his partner. Why should west ask for the meaning of a bid with 2 HCP? This question sends a clear message to east that west is not weak, i wonder how you would judge, this UI problem. 6) If west (or east) needed to know the HCP range, he could have asked for it. 1) I don't see a systemic agreement to bid weak 2 level bids. 2) I don't see any missinformation given 3) I don't see any damage caused by NS. The damage to EW was caused by east and west successfully hiding their strength.

Within the submenu called when you press the GIB button, remove the upper and the lower option. You will get a DF like answer much faster. I have had deals that took GIB 2-3 minutes to analyse, other needed only seconds. If you have a slower computer it can be even longer. But it's worth waiting. I assume GIB is not just running a single double dummy analysis, but one analysis for each possible lead.

I'll try 5♥. I'm sure we have 4♥, and i don't see 4♠-3 to cover our loss. ♥Kxx ♦Kxxx might be enough to make 5♥, but not enough to get more than 4♠-2.

Indipendent of the seat you are in, if you are holding 11 HCP, the other 3 will have an average of 9 2/3 HCP. So what difference does it make what seat you are in? If you are in 1st seat you will find that the HCP's of the other players are much wider spread. The standard deviation would clearly show that. If you look at the average suits length , you will find that even when the averages are similar, extreme suit length will be rare if the bidding has been p - p - p. If you are in forth seat, obviously nobody in seats 1-3 had 12 HCP, a weak 2 or some distributional opening. If nobody of the other 3 has more than 11 HCP, there can be nobody with less than 7 HCP. If opps open with 11 HCP in 3rd seat, nobody in seat 1-3 will have less than 8 HCP. When opening in first seat, the other players lower limit of HCP is 0. Indipendent of the seat you're in: Your HCP [space] HCP average other seats [space] [space] average combined HCP of your side 9 [space] [space] [space] [space] [space] [space] [space] [space] [space] [space] [space]10 1/3 [space] [space] [space] [space] [space] [space] [space] [space] [space] [space] [space] [space] [space] [space] [space] [space] [space]19 1/3 10 [space] [space] [space] [space] [space] [space] [space] [space] [space] [space] 10 [space] [space] [space] [space] [space] [space] [space] [space] [space] [space] [space] [space] [space] [space] [space] [space] [space] [space] [space] [space]20 11 [space] [space] [space] [space] [space] [space] [space] [space] [space] [space] [space] 9 2/3 [space] [space] [space] [space] [space] [space] [space] [space] [space] [space] [space] [space] [space] [space] [space] [space] [space]20 2/3 12 [space] [space] [space] [space] [space] [space] [space] [space] [space] [space] [space] 9 1/3 [space] [space] [space] [space] [space] [space] [space] [space] [space] [space] [space] [space] [space] [space] [space] [space] [space]21 1/3 13 [space] [space] [space] [space] [space] [space] [space] [space] [space] [space] [space] 9 [space] [space] [space] [space] [space] [space] [space] [space] [space] [space] [space] [space] [space] [space] [space] [space] [space] [space] [space] [space]22 Each player that passed in front of you, narrows the possible range around this average, cutting of weaker (more of the weaker!) and stronger hands. Additionally If you have to decide about a 4th seat opening, you can expect to hold 20(+) HCP on your side most of the time, if you hold 10+ HCP. The side with the majoraty of points needs to score positive, passing produces "0" which is not positive (enough). What about a fit? After 3 passes, the other players distribution should be sort of balanced. Possible extremes are 5332 or 4441. So bidding a 4 or 5 card suit will often produce at least a 7 card fit. Low level contract are often won, by the playing side. With little information available for the opening lead, this trick is often a gift to the declarer. So any 5(4) card suit with 11 HCP in 4th seat, will on average lead to a 7+ card fit and will on average produce a positive result (>0). Of cause opening the auction gives opps a chance to enter the auction too, and some times they will force you one level up or to get the defending side. If they can score positive, bad luck. Opening ♠, preempts the 1 level (opps can't have a 1NT overcall) and reduces the likelihood of opps to enter the auction. But i don't think today this is important enough to justify the use of Pearson points.

Ben the result of your query is basicly that if you hold 11 HCP in 4th seat, your side almost has a 21 to 19 HCP advantage. You need to score positive when you have more HCP, esp. at MP. At 1 or 2 level 7card suits are often good enough to make the contract.

Among others WBF, EBL and i think even ACBL accept 3+ length as natural for a minor. So i can hardly think of a reason that would allow an adjustment here.

I agree with 3H, and I'll pass 3NT. Since I don't see a ♥ fit, i expect you to hold 2♠ stopper, since my aces prove that you need to exit at least once. Without ♠A you need at least 3♠ card for that. So there are 7+ minor cards left in your hand. We might well have a ♣ fit, but this is a source of tricks in NT too. With 2-3♠, 4-5♣, 1♥ (odds are ♥KJ is offside) and your ♦ stopper, I see 8-10 tricks comming up.

North has been digging his own grave. N's dbl is ok, but it reduces his 6 card suit to a possible 3card suit, as it is possible to bid it with just tolerance for ♠. A lot of people play X here for strength and do not promise 4♠'s, so one can not bank on it. Bidding 1♠ would have been better. How can south know of a psyche? Since north might have only 3 to 5 ♠'s, it is possible that east holds 4♠. Why should south bid 2♠, if there is a strong possibility of an unfavorable ♠ break. 1NT requires ♥ stopper, dbl is a fine bid from south. South 3♥ bid should make north think a lot. South has no idea of north 6♠'s, south has no ♥ stopper, no simple ♦ raise and does not bid ♣'s, but noth is strong and he's got to have 13 cards. North knows that 2♠ might be enough. All trouble is caused by north hiding his 6 card major.

Well selected hand! The average opening strength of a 1♠ opening in a 5 card-major system is about 14.5 HCP. I assume opps to open with 12+ HCP. Holding 16HCP of my own, third and 4th seat will hold a combined maximum strength of 12, with an average at 10-. Responder will have trouble to rebid with less than 6 HCP and will pass most of the time. Partner will usually not reopen with less than 8 HCP. Opener has no reason to bid on either. If i pass, it is unlikely that i will get a second chance to bit. My hand should be worth at least 6 tricks playing ♠, but a penalty dbl is not possible. If partner has a trick or two, opps will be down. So from my point of view, the best opps can score is 80 for 1♠= or, if responder pulls his only option, 90/120 1NT=/+1. I hope we agree so far. So opps can hardly make their opening bid, there is nothing to win for our side, i have the wrong shape for dbl and a single to prevent NT, so i would pass. The chances for a suit to be 5521 or 5530 is 4%. Since the player with the other 5 cards can be anyone of the other three and since among the handtypes with a 5card suit, 5431 is not too common , this type of exception is less likely than 1%. But i will consider to add a footnote. :)

Perhaps the minority will be not that small Richard. Agree with Richard too.

Well I would like to hear at least one argument for that. I can back my rule with counting points and simple arithmetics. I might even argue with the number of posts that suggested to bid "pass" up to now. I would accept that one should "never say never", but i guess experts know when to bend the rules.

Assume opener has a minimum of 12 HCP and you hold 15, that leaves the other two players with a combined max. of 13 HCP. So on average your partner will hold 6-7 HCP, if opener is minimum. Often he will have less than that. Those weak LAW based rises are used to cut your sides communication. Your partner does not know about your strength, so he can't make use his distribution, while you will never know, that your partners distributional strength willl allow you to score a good result. Rule of second With a strong hand you should never be silent in second seat, because you will never get a second chance. 1 - dbl should include those nat. 1NT calls now, but 2♣ is a nice bid too (but dbl shows more strength) 2- without anything in ♥ and with only 1 stopper in ♦ i guess i would bid 2♣.

If this turns into an UI question, i agree that hesitation (a little more) suggests pass.

Do you have an agreement about dbl? In 2nd seat any action over a preempt should be at least solid. I would expect dbl to be stronger than bidding a suit. A suit bid should have 5+ cards. So i would pass.

Did you notice that every board you played, is stored on your Harddisk? If you activate the option, even boards you kib are logged there. You can find the files at: C:\Bridge Base Online\hands\YOUR_BBO_NAME or what your bbo directory is. By double clicking on the .lin file, BBO is launched and you can review the boards with the usual BBO inteface and use GIB to analyse the play. I think this beats email by far.

Again I think this is inefficient. There are a million broken suits that need to be bid. If your own suit is not long enough, you can always dbl first. After a 4M preempt, you don't have much options left. Of cause the is a dependenciy with opponents bidding style. Im used to weaker 4level openings, if opps play them solid to strong one i might choose a different style. Opponents bidding this xx DJTxxxxx xx x need a different treatment than those with x AKQxxxxx Axxx - I've seen both kinds of 4level openings from opps.

If there were an option to switch timestamps on, this timestamp could be set by the client, when receiving the message. This way the client/server communication is untouched. Simply append the timestamp prior to display, if the timestamp option is active.

This hand shows, that established partnerships have advantages. Any suit bid by east at the 4 level should be self sustained. So i would not bid ♠. In this case we hold 3♥, so it is not possible that partner would prefer a penalty dbl, but an agreement here should allow partner to change the dbl to penalty. Opps high preempts are often made to keep us from something. So we must have a way do to distinguish between strong and weak hands. In this situation some sort of Lebensohl comes in mind. So west could show a weak (minor suit) hand by bidding 4NT first, forcing partner to bid 5♣. A direct 5♦ shows a better hand. I don't think that west is strong enough to show a good hand here, so bidding ends in 5♦. Any followup form east, will now ask for a specific first round control. e.g. in this case: after - - 4♥ x p 5♦ p 5♥,♠ and 6♣ asks for first round control in this suit 5NT can be used to check the quality of the trump suit.

I don't know, if those of us with limited intelligence (even when this limit is very high) could see the difference between unlimited intelligence and madness. :)

I don't think this wording is wise. Some mentally instable people are seduced to do criminial acts and even to kill themselves by a few people with lust for power. They falsely claim, to do this in an holy war. Instead of telling everybody what they really are: criminal mass murderer, some mentally disturbed this fact is diguised by calling them terrorists. The use of the term "war" can create the wrong impression that there is a holy war going on. Additionally giving up basic western principles (e.g. about torture, being arrested without a warrent, innocent until proven guilty, privacy ...) can be understood in a way that such acts of violence can actually change something. I wish the news in Iraq and worldwide would reference their reports to "mass murders where the murderer killed himself", and "destroying property of the iraqi people worth xxx" or whatever people and money involved. Don't you think that this kind of "advertising" might at least seed some doubt in those, who are now supporting these criminals.