jjbrr

Ding ding ding!

Are the rules of the event not in effect or something? Seems like there isn't much to dispute here. If they didn't have a written defense, they can't play the convention.

does hrefna still play bridge

I'm down for drinks in Tuna's honors as well. Happy birthday!

Interesting that this has never been done. This seems to suggest that the luck factor, however small, is greater than the skill difference among the best players in the world. Or is it just that once a pair has won it, they don't tend to enter together again? luck factor.

It's generally wrong to bid RKCB with a void because partner's response might be completely meaningless to you. Suppose on this hand he shows 1 keycard. It's more or less a coinflip that he has the ace of spades rather than the king of trumps. If you ask for the Q and he denies it, then what do you do? You'd look silly getting to slam missing the KQJ of trumps. If you just play straight blackwood, I guess this is fine, but when you ask for the number of kings partner has, again he could easily have the king of spades. The solution is to cuebid rather than ask for keycards. In this case you're interested in hearing about a ♦ cuebid and later about good trumps.

3♠

oooooooooooooh no you didnt.

The gains of being able to bid to 4♠ with a lot of hands and forcing them to make guesses at the 5 level outweigh the losses that arise when partner doesn't know our exact shape or strength or whatever you're suggesting. Usually partner will have a clear raise or a clear pass or double. Other times he has to guess, and sometimes we don't have the best shape to suit his needs, but thats bridge. Developing good judgment in these situations is really the only solution. I would never give up the ability to bid 4♠ aggressively just to have accuracy in 5 over 5 decisions.

eh. saw it off.

well defense is the obvious answer because it requires two people instead of just one like with playing. it's really tempting to have the ability to take more tricks than everyone else, but that's a skill that should be the easiest on that list to learn. opening leads might be another consideration if i could "get them right more often" than just have someone share my workload with.

ya that was my first thought. i didn't respond the first time i read this, because I've been trying to improve on that, but ♥ to 9 is what I'd do at the table.

pull trumps, ♥ to Q

pass for now. for some reason 2♥ popped into my head first. i think that would be my second choice, and it's not far behind pass.

6♣. I have a 5-card suit I haven't shown yet! Partial credit since I didn't answer 1. Edit: slow pony is slow.

1♠

5♣

Ya 3♥ is great if partner always passes opposite a weak 3♥ bid and raises opposite the good 3♥ bids. Unfortunately he'll raise regardless.

Our side will bid 5♥ in this auction an extremely small amount of the time.

I'm superstitious when it comes to balancing. I'll pass quietly, though I expect double to be right more often than not. Just to break up the monotony a little.

I'd lead a low ♥ against 3♣. 100 per trick is gonna be gooooood

Gotta get that extra 50 points!

Why not?

imo forcing pass in this auction would be retarded.

My first instinct was pass. We need a lot of stuff from partner to make 11 tricks here, and we don't need much from him to take 3 tricks.