twcho

[hv=d=s&v=e&s=s1094hkq52dk97c954]133|100|Scoring: MP W N E S 1♦ P 1♠ P 2♣ P 2♦ X P 2♥ 2♠ P 3♦ P P X P ?[/hv] You are sitting west and all are capable players. The auction went as shown. Your turn now. What should you bid? (Don't know how to edit the auction panel. :huh: )

Yes, that's exactly what I am looking for: A system that can beat all others assuming equal level of declarer play and defense ability.

H2 for both scoring

yes, perfect defense you'll go down because west shdn't discard the 4th C and the exit card. Now you can make the contract provided that east does not have 2 cards out of QJ10. Play the last trump and west will be squeezed in single suit.

As far as I know, Kerri 1NT structure for invitation hand is as follows: 1NT-2C-2D-2H/S: 4+ cards in the M, invite 1NT-2C-2D-3C/D: 6+ cards in the m, invite 1NT-2D-2H-2S: 44 or 54 or 55 in Ms, invite but for 1NT-2H, responder promises 5+S

That's really where Keri 1NT shines

Probably I missed out one of the very important facets of a good system: the ability to prevent opps from reaching their best game or slam.

There are numerous bidding system in the world. To name a few: 2/1, Acol, Precision, Polish Club, Moscito, Relay system, Forcing Pass... and the list can go for ever. And one can derive infinite branches from each of the above system. Now, which of the system is the best in your opinion with respect to the following aspects: 1. Accuracy to bid to game (and stop short of poor game) 2. Accuracy to bid to slam (and stop short of bad slam) 3. Competitiveness (and immunity vs opp's intervention when strong) 4. Difficulty for the defense vs your contract (correct declarer position, unexposed declarer hand strength and distribution to the opps) 5. Easier to grasp and lesser chance for partnership misunderstanding 6. The effectiveness on a whole. Actually, I have been watching the rising Italian star pair Fantoni-Nunes playing during their European Champion and is particularly attracted by their bidding system structure. All their 1 level opening is natural and F1 with 14+ while their 2 level bid is also natural but unbalance with medium strength. Personally I regard this is one of the strong candidates for the laurel (it can be proved by the recent good results they achieved though I have not heard of them maybe 3 years ago).

I guess it is "The Adventure in Card Play"

I play the recommended sequence: 1NT-2D-2H-2S

I will choose the simplest line. Finesse in H again and if it fails then finesse C, give me 75% anyway. :-)

It is not nmf. It is just natural and forcing.

I support both of them

One "little" thing that I have requested before but get no attention. It would be nice if one can right click a player's name to have an option to join the player's table. Thanks!

I guess the best player Luke is referring to is Bob Hamman who has been ranked no. 1 player in WBF for more than 20 years. He plays Flannery.

Transfer bid (many variations) is the one I like most. It can let the strong hand declare and let the transfer bidder one more chance to show his hand. Invaluable tool in my opinion. Should adopt as much transfer sequences as possible.

I have seen all their three pairs in action thruout the whole tournament. I must admit that Fantoni-Nunes appeals to me most as I will surely vote them the best pair in this tournament (though they only rank 2nd to Bocchi-Duboin in Butler ranking but pls remember B-D did get some generous gift from some of their opps. e.g. the 3400 from Lithuania :) ). Bocchi-Duboin and Lauria-Versace are long time well established partnership while F-N is a relative new partnership that is not well known a few years before. I just wonder how can they be promoted to the world top pair list so quickly. Is this because of their unique bidding system or they possess some talents that other pairs lacks.

"And 2S risks missing a makeable game. Bidding a marginal invitational hand in response to pd's 1 level overcall (may be 7 points?) is tough. Make a game try. " Yes, 2S risks missing a makeable game but the prospect is not so good in view of the possible devaluation of DQ. But I just want to know how to express invitation value with 3 card support only in responding to pd's 1 level overcall here. No space left for any bid below 2S which forces us to 3 level which may not be makeable albeit 2S didn't fully disclose your strength. So the only possible bid left is Double. But what is the best use of double in this case for a well established partnership? 1. Penalty? 2. Showing fourth suit and at least tolerance in pd's suit? 3. Or other?

Thanks for the opinion. 3D definitely pass the message to your pd but it may also risk bypassing the only makeable contract, 2S.

Imp, Nil, you hold ♠Axx ♥xxx ♦AQ9xx ♣Jx, auction went as follows: LHO Pard RHO You 1D 1S 2H* ? *Non forcing How to bid?

[hv=d=s&v=b&n=sak3h1083dkj532caq&s=s2hakq7daq4cj9872]133|200|Scoring: IMP[/hv] You play in 7D by N, no opposed bidding. First lead H2. What is the best line of play?

The logic behind is simple: Since the third step response and above are the same, the only difference is the first two steps. Which response you will be more interested in for slam, 1 KC or 0 KC? Of course, 1 KC and you will like to have more space to explore so it is better for responding 1/4 to the 1st step. (If responder has 3 or 4 KC, he will automatically continue the bidding regardless of pd signing off assuming he is not a super strong hand which 3KC should be a minimum)

Some of the traditional strong teams are not fielding the best players of their countries. Examples are Indonesia, of which the best pair Lasut - Manoppo is playing in the Senior, not Bermuda so considerably weakening the team. Another one is Poland. Though they have a lot of good pairs but arguably the best pair Balicki - Zmudzinski and the second best pair Kwiecien - Pszsczola are both playing in the transnational team. Also, though USA2 plays very well in the first 3 days, most of the players, except Wolff, lack international exposure and may not be able to stay in the top form for such a gruelling event as Bermuda Bowl. So my choice is as follows: Italy, USA1 are undoubtedly the 2 strongest team with Italy a slight edge because all 3 pairs of them are top pairs. Norway is the third team that has some threat over these two teams (any team containing such genius as Helgemo surely cannot be overlooked). Besides these 3, I can't think of any team that has the real strength to capture the laurel.

I have once come across playing with my regular pd, patlkp (small letter L) and was very astonished to hear my pd talking to me during the play. He could even told me about my hand pattern and cards in my hand during the bidding. I was so annoyed and angry about his unthethical behaviour that I instantly reported this to one of the yellow names (maybe Gerardo or Uday, sorry I forgot the name) how this can be happening and this must be a very serious bug. He told me that maybe someone just made a joke on us by using the capital letter of i to confuse us and i did found out that another patlkp (must be capital letter i) was kibitzing at our table. Later I clarified with my pd and learned that he had not done any trick and this guy had also been talking with him and he did not know what was going on at that time. I am really sorry of suspecting my pd's ethics. The whole issue is so confusing and annoying that I really hope that BBO can use a font that can distinguish the capital letter i and small letter L to prevent this from happening again.

I remembered reading columns in e-bridgemaster about the forcing game strategy. The writer, Andrea Wirgin (The name I may remember wrongly), advocates that this strategy is completely wrong. Rather than leading from strength and length when holding length in trumps, one should lead from singleton as usual. Don't know whether he is right or not but he gave out many examples to support his theory.