jjbrr

i'd never open 3. 7222 and a suit that is Q222222 make this hand pretty awful. I might open 2, but probably not red. I think this hand is too weak for a vul weak 2; it's pretty poor offensively.

We actually did poll the Famous World Champion who frequents MABCs and asked him 1) if he thought this was alertable, and 2) if 3♦ michaels is highly unusual here. He said 1) probably, though he would definitely make sure the opps had information before the lead, and 2) not highly unusual. he thought it was entirely conceivable to have a bid to show majors in this auction. just fwiw.

Doubles after auctions like 1♠ p 2♠ are often very aggressive (pre-balancing) and can contain less than ideal distributions (maybe 2425, even). Double of 3♦ should be penalty.

IIRC, the short answer from the committee was something like 1) cuebids aren't alertable 2) this auction is strange enough that it can't hurt to ask anyway before making the final pass or double (surely there would be no UI from asking and doubling, etc) 3) without asking, you don't get two bites at the apple. you can't take your doubled undertrick if it goes down but claim you wouldn't double if it makes. Clearly erroneous, but that's not so important now. I was just genuinely interested in your opinions of the cuebid and whether it was alertable. The director and AC were not sympathetic at all that we didn't get the information we needed, since either of us could have asked at any point. Just wondered how you felt. Greatly appreciate your input.

It was a few years ago. Somewhere in the MABC. Greenville SC or Atlanta or something? Can't remember. I feel less strongly that this was a bad ruling than you seem to. I personally think they got it wrong, but I'm willing to admit I'm not very smart about this stuff. I was the doubler of 3♦. I had like AKJ9x in diamonds and out. So I had nothing to say in anything of this; I was merely an observer. And I won't remind you not to go there; rather I encourage you go there. Great regionals.

2♦* - (3♦) - Dbl - (3♠) P - (4♠) - P - (P) Dbl - All pass 2♦ shows 4-4 in the majors and a singleton in one of the minors and a minimum opener (mini roman with 4-4 majors always.) It was alerted. LHO quickly bid 3♦. Dbl was penalty, the rest natural. The opponents never alerted anything, nor did anyone ask what any of the other bids meant. Dummy flopped with a strong hand with 5-5 majors, and after a few questions about the auction (this is when declarer found out 2♦ opener was most likely 4414) the director was summoned by 2♦ opener. After declarer quickly took 10 tricks (3♠ bidder had 3♠ and 5 ♦, so he obviously correctly interpreted his partner's bid), director was resummoned and 2♦ opener argued that there was a failure to alert 3♦, given it is very unusual for a cuebid of a bid promising majors to show the majors. Had he known this was majors, he argued he wouldn't double. He thought the opponents' bids were all natural; lefty's diamonds weren't a source of tricks (partner doubled), trumps and the other suits were all splitting badly. Neither opponent asked about the 2♦ bid yet, and both admitted they didn't realize the bid was mini roman. 3♦ bidder argued that opener could have asked at any time about any of the bids. Director ruled result stands. The 790 vs 620 ended up mattering to the result of the match, so captain appealed. The important issues that arose were that the 3♦ bid was made very quickly and without having asked for an explanation of the alert of 2♦. This seemed like the best way to make sure partner understood 3♦ as michaels. If he asked and found out 2♦ showed majors and then bid 3♦, his partner probably would not have taken it as michaels. Again, appealers argued that michaels in this auction is unusual enough to warrant an alert. Committee asked 3♦ bidder about other cuebid auctions like (2♣) 3♣ (they said natural) and (1NT) P (2♣) 3♣ (again natural). Committee felt that 3♦ michaels was not alertable, 2♦ opener could/should have asked about 3♦, and director's ruling stands. No penalty against 3♦ bidder for the tempo of his bid and not asking for an explanation of the alert. I guess there are a lot of issues that could be discussed here. Agree/disagree with the director/committee? Should 3♦ be alerted? How do you feel about 3♦ bidder quickly bidding 3♦ so that his bid isn't ambiguous?

1♣, 2♣ Guess I'm an exception. me too

no one gets 1100

3♠

rumors of his death, it appears, have been greatly exaggerated... exaggerated, but not greatly!

quartz

lol...

sorry, mostly irrelevant. missed the part about "minimum opening bid"

LOL

even with the queen i'd be worried if partner passed 2N.

raspberry jam is so good must be nice to be beating the brother-in-law. i suspect most bridge players tend to be on the competitive side. i know i am. golf is a very frustrating game to me. one would think it'd be relatively easy to get a little ball to go where you want it to go. i, meanwhile, spend most of my time looking for the ball in bushes or in some obscure place far, far away from where i wanted it to go. if golf was about hitting your ball into large bodies of water, they'd call me tiger.

peanut butter and jelly on a warm toasted english muffin. can't go wrong.

doesnt lefty win the spade and set you?

agree shortness ask has lots of merit. people much smarter than i don't use it, and maybe they should. i think they're not good for your methods if opener shows any max since youre at or above 3N without setting trumps yet sometimes. so you have to pick and choose when you want to use them. ours is better suited to use them if we chose. you're right the wide range opp a slam try isnt great, but at least we can evaluate better than most given we know of 10 cards in openers hand, including a fit and a source of tricks. bad, but not fatal.

so we lose when we have a slam try opposite hearts and the knowledge of the location of the stiff is the only crucial information and we win when we can stop in 3♣ without a M fit or when we're better placed to find slams because we can set trumps cheaply in all the auctions except one, ie we always get a couple extra bids when we're slam trying in clubs. close to a wash? probably a small advantage to you. and when we have spades, i think ours is much better given we dont have to bid 3♥.

sort of surprised you think finding the location of one spot card in one of two suits is more important than setting trumps in auctions where we have potentially a lot of tricks and need to know how well the hands fit.

We just like to set trumps. Opener can clarify his strength on his next bid, usually, via 3N, 4m, or 4♥. You can ask shortness over our way if you'd like. We don't play 3N after finding a major fit when one hand is 6-4 too often, sadly. I'm skeptical knowledge of the location of the stiff would determine your decision often enough to make that a real reason you'd want to know where it is. For slam bidding, it's a fine idea. Edit: are we both talking in the context of 2♣ promising 6+? I just realized OP's system has 5C/4M. I wrongly assumed you knew we play this as 6+, i think.

guilty

you can use 2N shows ♥, then 3♣/♦ spades min/max. after 2N, you can sign off in clubs, show a slam try in clubs, invite in hearts, or slam try with hearts using the next 4 bids. after 3♣ min spades, you can slam try in clubs, slam try in spades, or invite in spades with the next bids. after 3♦ you can slam try in clubs, set spades with the next two bids.