pooltuna

The cumulative of negatives makes a pass the most attractive call

my best partner (R.I.P.) said I need a strong 2♣ opening bid to raise him under these colors. Frankly I would rather not consider opening 2♣ an option :)

Amen to this although IMO it is close ....T close. I assume you were looking for 3NT but adding the T♦ instead of an x increases your 6-1 holding to 10 of the 30 4-2 breaks for 6 tricks and the 6-2 holdings make when 4-1 breaks have a stiff J. With the given hand IMO your best game shot is to bid 2♥ obviously not risk free.

[snip] Well if Jack is right(the program not the card) then can someone please explain how I screwed up the chart that follows LHO RHO hold hold Play J tr lost Play A tr lost Which wins QT954 - 2 3 J wins T954 Q 2 1 A wins Q954 T 1 2 J wins QT54 9 1 2 J wins QT94 5 1 2 J wins QT95 4 1 2 J wins 954 QT 1 0 A wins T54 Q9 1 0 A wins T94 Q5 1 0 A wins T95 Q4 1 0 A wins Q54 T9 0 1 J wins Q94 T5 0 1 J wins Q95 T4 0 1 J wins QT4 95 0 1 J wins QT5 94 0 1 J wins QT9 54 0 1 J wins QT 954 0 0 No difference Q9 T54 0 0 No difference Q5 T94 0 0 No difference Q4 T95 0 0 No difference T9 Q54 1 1 No difference T5 Q94 1 1 No difference T4 Q95 1 1 No difference 95 QT4 1 1 No difference 94 QT5 1 1 No difference 54 QT9 1 1 No difference Q T954 1 1 No difference T Q954 2 2 No difference 9 QT54 2 2 No difference 5 QT94 2 2 No difference 4 QT95 2 2 No difference - QT954 3 3 No difference - - 30 36

just bid 4♥ partner may hold[hv=s=sxhjxxxdkxxcxxxxx]133|100|[/hv]

I suspect this is worthy of a transfer and an invite but would need to see a simul to see if the odds are close to right

Hamman minus one

Even worse I was born there and they are fixing us one at a time :)

Hmmm...I thought he was a Lavalander (maybe Ashlander would be closer) :)

yeah if you think not bidding is going to keep you out of ♠s personally I agree with gwnn ( just lets you know you are in big trouble Csaba)

partner expects to be able to pass with weak hands fortunately we are just strong enough to risk an X because of our positional values

Just goes to show that some people need smilies in order to understand feeble attempts at humour. Oh well ( :) ) at least on this side of the Atlantic we can not only Anglicize but Americanize and correctly spell "humor" :)

As a rather frequent user of bidding shorter ♦ over longer ♣ this is a "does not apply" situation (2 card length disparity). As a system fault you have to conceal the ♦ suit and just rebid 2♣ over partner's 1x, x =/= ♦. A much harder hand would be xx xx KQTx AKQxx since strength disparity is an issue as well in choosing ♦ over ♣.

I have to give two answers because you did not specify type of scoring. In IMPS this is IMO an automatic pass. In MPs I might risk 2NT unusual for the minors.

I assume there must be a 2 card disparity in length between ♣ & ♠. Consequently I wanted to bid 4♠ but 3 should show this hand and leave partner some leeway.

Well that is good to know. I certainly was ignorant of the universal acceptance and I guess that makes you the official glossary of BBOF. So I know now where to go for my acronym and near decryptions. :)

We don't use rubber hoses anymore we just prefer to hammer you.

They may have been stuck in his caviar sandwich

If East didn't know the opponents were maniacs no blame just bad luck. If East knew they could bid like this then I would choose East.

100% West....after all he chose to sit down in this game :D

passing or not passing a 1♣ opening call is a matter of judgment. With your particular hand say xx xxx xxx QJTxx you are probably already in your best contract so it is time to bail...I would pass in a flash (tempoically speaking of course). EDIT: oops thought the QJT9x suit was clubs so bid 1♥ and get ready to pass forever after.

Haha, it would be nice if there was a way to settle this. Then we could bet :) The only things left for us as it is endless polling among better players (some of them posted in this thread) and living with sense of being right :) That is why we run simuls...so we can get a sense of the associated probabilities. I would suspect one hand should be a minimal opener with 5+ ♠ and 4+♥ and exactly one ♦ and the other hand the one the OP presented and then let the hand generators and DD players fly.

I am inclined to pass and try to beat it with this much defense.

I am pretty allergic to unfavorable saves so I am inclined to pass.

My choices are below 1] 4♣ 2] 3NT 3] X 4] 3♣ 5] pass