nigel_k

My view is that representing your country is special and there are plenty of other ways for professionals to get paid. So if they allowed teams of four only in the trials that would be an improvement.

So what sort of hand would bid 3♠ on the given auction? And how would people bid with the actual hand?

The most important thing is to revise your value of the hand as you get further information from the auction. The problem with Zar, Kaplan and similar methods is that people use them for opening bids and commit themselves to getting too high when the hands don't fit well. A better approach with shapely hands is to start out with something in reserve, then bid more later if a fit is found and be able to stay at a makeable level if not.

I can understand why you thought playing 2♠ might be better than defending 1NT. But it was too much to hope that partner would let you play there if you bid 2♠ immediately over the double.

It definitely sounds like it is a text value, not a date value, and is being ordered accordingly. The simplest way is probably to create a new column with just the year in it. Let's say your data is in E2. Insert a column on the right (which will be F2) and put in the formula: RIGHT(e2,4), or maybe SUBSTRING(e2,7,4). Then copy that formula to all the other rows and sort on column F then column E.

The only way they stop me bidding 4♠ here is to pry the 4♠ card from my cold, dead hands.

3♠ then pass 4♥. Possibly I just lack imagination. I might bid 3♣ if I thought a club lead would be necessary but that doesn't seem to be the case here.

It's the same as what you play over a weak 2♠ opening. The fact they have opened doesn't change much. You can use 3♦ as specifically a spade invite so that declarer's hand is not revealed any more than necessary, but 2NT as an asking bid is still a lot more useful than natural. If you play multi then you need a specific agreement in this case.

Agriculture is underrated. You should definitely bid 4♥ over 1NT. Slam can never be better than 50% assuming partner would upgrade with Kx AKxxx xxx Axx, but even if there was a remote chance of reaching a decent slam, it wouldn't be worth giving them a blueprint of declarer's hand while searching for it.

It is more likely we want to defend. And we don't have to worry partner will choose the wrong minor because with 3244 he will pass the double which is what we want, and with 3055 he can bid 4NT.

This is enough to double, especially at IMPs where both contracts down one is no big deal. I can imagine passing at matchpoints but wouldn't do it. Nothing else appeals at all.

I definitely agree with not doing anything anti-percentage. It's one of those things that is good in theory only. You can increase the scope for swings by sending your strong club pair to play their strong club pair, but that's about all.

In notrumps, assuming balanced hands and average honour distributions and intermediate cards, you generally want to be in game with 25 and don't mind either way with 24. But sometimes if the bidding is at 1NT and you know the combined range is 23-25, you may just pass because 25 is less likely and you don't want to put your sure plus score at risk. For major suit games, there will usually be other factors to consider beside high card points. But if you have two balanced hands with eight combined trumps and all other things are equal, probably about the same high card strength as above is required. Maybe a little less in a 4-4 fit.

More likely partner will have spade honours. It depends on the agreements which sound non-standard. Something like QJxx xxx AJx xxx is a maximum 1♠ bid for me and I would be in slam with that if partner splintered in clubs. But if you need 8+ then this hand is closer to a minimum 1♠ bid, but still looks pretty good opposite a club splinter.

I don't agree that partner should have led a card that asks for attitude. He wants to know if declarer's jack will fall. Jxxxx(x) in your hand is possible but not a major consideration and you will have values outside in that case so there will be time. Pass on the actual hand is very wrong IMO.

Easy - because it's boring. In Australia and New Zealand we also call it soccer because we have other forms of football that are more popular. A harder question to ask is why football, baseball, and hockey are not more popular outside North America. Basketball is not as popular as it could be either.

Second or third suit is showing. Fourth suit is asking. No particular reason for this, but it does help to minimize accidents when partner interprets the bid as showing a real suit.

I agree you shouldn't change much. Definitely do not preempt less aggressively or do anything else that assumes they will always get things right. Pay more attention to what you do with small cards, especially on defence, because opponents will actually be paying attention to them, e.g. try to signal honestly only when it will help partner, and dishonestly or not at all when it is more likely to help declarer. It's easy to get lazy with that stuff if you are used to playing against weaker opponents.

I also have commented before and am on Roland's email list, but cannot sign up.

If you have to lose a spade, you will probably do worse than the pairs in spades because opponent's will have a diamond winner or two to cash when you get around to setting up hearts. So I would just play for 6 spade tricks: cash one top spade and lead a heart. Then overtake the ♠J and pray for 2-2 spades and a good heart guess at the end.

No. Something like xx Jx Jxxx Axxxx is better than we might expect and and we are still down three at least. Maybe if they were vul.

The double was not strictly takeout or penalty, just DSIP. Feel free to blame the agreement if you like.

[hv=pc=n&s=saqt853hdqj943cq7&w=s9hk3dat8765ck943&n=sk762hq98642dkct6&e=sj4hajt75d2caj852&d=s&v=0&b=11&a=1s2d4sdppp]399|300[/hv] 4♠ made and 5♣ would likely have made in practice, certainly by East.

Obvious pass.

Wasn't there a guy in India who strangled 900 people with a yellow cloth?