CamHenry

That's an excellent and helpful reply! I think I'll go along to Us Uil next week (is that "The Owl" in English?). Henry

It's traditional in Acol to use 4NT as the specific ace ask. That obviously takes up one more level, and responses are 5♣ - no aces; 5X/6♣ - that ace; 5NT - two aces. I prefer an improved version: Opening 4NT asks for aces. Responses are: •5♣—no aces •5♦—ace of ♣ or aces of ♦, ♥ & ♠ •5♥—ace of ♦ or aces of ♣, ♥ & ♠ •5♠—ace of ♥ or aces of ♣, ♦ & ♠ •5N—two other aces •6♣—ace of ♠ or aces of ♣, ♦ & ♥ •6♦—ace of ♠ & ♣ •6♥—ace of ♠ &♦ •6♠—ace of ♠ &♥ Each bid shows the ace in the suit below or all other aces; 6♦ upwards are ♠A plus the suit below. 5NT is "two aces outside spades". Obviously if using 3NT as the opening, you can move everything down a level.

I'm an Englishman who's going to be in Amsterdam for some time, working. Is there anyone here who'd either like a game one evening, or could recommend which of the (apparently many) local clubs I should contact? Regrettably I speak no Dutch. I'm expecting to be here until mid-June at least, likely until December; I'm around Monday through Thursday evenings (though Wednesdays are less convenient).

Ruff immediately and lead a small heart. I hope to lose 1♠ and 2♥; my real concern is losing trump control, but this line makes it look like I'm planning to ruff two hearts in dummy or score a cross-ruff. Of course, if they do win and return a diamond, I ruff that then play cross-ruff lines (crossing in ♣). Edit: I've just dashed this post off at the end of a long day in the office so it might be little more sane than North's bidding, but from what I can see N got lucky. Let's hope I did too.

ahydra: your line matches the best I can come up with. I think you have to decide at trick 1 whether to play for 5512 or 5521 with West; if 5521 you should duck the opening lead and hope E doesn't switch to a small spade from Axxx or a spade from xxxx.

OK. It turns out that all spade and diamond honours are onside, so making +2 wasn't very difficult. I was the only person in the room to do so, though: I wondered if there were difficulties or if another line was superior. (Incidentally, the club lead was repeated at all but one of the tables in 3NT; one NS pair had an accident and played 2♥).

Excellent, looks like I read the spade position. I win the ♠A, having come to 2 spade winners, 5 ♦, and 2♥: I therefore play ♦A and another, because then I'm home. Not sure this is the best line, but it works on the layout!

I have 8 top tricks (5♦, 2♥, ♠A) and need one more. The trump finesse would make this, but I think I can do better. The main problem is with entries. I can set up a ♥ trick, but then I'd have no entry to it; I can take the ♥ finesse but if it loses I go worse off than if I eschew it. The more I think about it, the more I worry about the ♠ switch. If it's a singleton, I risk conceding a ♠ ruff; if it's from JTx(x) I need to duck; if it's from a doubleton I need to cover. If it's a singleton, though, LHO has declined to overcall with KTxxx/?/?/KQx(?), which may indicate he's got shorter spades. I duck the SJ, unless W puts in the K. What next? Assuming RHO is on lead again, and he plays another spade, I run it to the A9 (unless it's the T, which I cover). If he switches to a ♣, I wait to see what comes back; if he switches to a ♦, I take the finesse.

Diamond to the 10 holds: what next? As for the H to the Q: that loses to the K, and you get a club return.

My local club contains a certain helping of "life novices". Many of these, when asked what signals they play, will tell you "we throw cards we don't want".

[hv=pc=n&n=st4haqjt9daqt7ck4&s=skj53h76d654caj86]133|200[/hv] Opening lead is the ♣2 (4th highest), which comes around to your J. What line do you take at MPs? (Auction was 1♥-1♠-2♦-2N-3N)

Obvious options are 3♣ - 4sf, planning to bid 4♠ unless partner shows something exciting such as 5-5 reds and a direct 4♠. I'm going for 3♣; if partner can't show anything magic I'll just bid 4♠.

It could, however, indicate that it's the third time this session that partner's done something stupid (passed me in a splinter; revoked to let through the contract; misplayed an easy 6NT...) and we're still only on board 8. Though I try to be a considerate (and polite!) partner, sometimes I lapse.

I quite like 4N - two places to play. Partner's not going to take this as ace-asking, or as to play, so we're safe.

My favourite "always-Gerber" auction: [hv=pc=n&s=st5hkqjt765d832c2&d=s&v=b&b=7&a=3h4c(Gerber)p4d(0%20or%204)p4n(Signoff%20in%205%21c)pp(System%20forget)p]133|200[/hv] For once I was glad I'd preempted cautiously on the South hand, and given them room for this disaster. My partner very kindly led the ♥A, then another one, and then he turned up with a couple more tricks... As for other dubious agreements, I saw a pair playing 2♣ as "4-11, 4432, 4441, 4450, 5431, or 6430, with at least 3 clubs". They had some quite intricate followups...

There are times when a description of my bids could well be "nominally XYZ, but he hasn't had an opening hand in twelve boards: this may have an effect". (I resisted the temptation to open in third on 932/Q9863/J85/76, all white, last night...)

Not the way I meant it: I intended to say something along the lines of "if they'd got it right despite the MI, we'd rule no damage and call for the next case; however, some of the damage remains because we can't be certain they'd get it right even absent MI".

My immediate thought is 80% going off. The reasoning behind my methodology is to decide that choosing the unsuccessful line, which I have estimated will be selected 40% of the time given the MI, is an error but not Serious and Unrelated. It's probably not even Serious. I therefore rule that none of the damage was self-inflicted and that the most likely outcome, given correct information, is 80-20. (As an aside: there *is* some damage under this ruling, relative to working it out at the table regardless of MI. That's life.)

Hand 1: probably a small club, because I tend to play that the X of 2♦ says "I have another suit I want you to lead" as partner's already shown diamonds. Hand 2: Choice is between a top diamond (partner's suit) and the club. The club gains when partner has either minor ace; the diamond gains when oppo's diamonds are 2-2 including the A, *and* they have the ♣A. I lead the ♣.

Hmm. I'd want to see opps' 1M opening description: some pairs play automatic canape with 4cM, so 4♠ is bid on a good 3-carder as an advance sac. I'm having difficulty constructing hands all round here (I assume you'd have mentioned if RHO dropped the ♥Q). Suit distributions: hearts are known, clubs suspected ♠: 4-4-4-1 or 4-4-5-0 ♥: 3-3-2-5 ♦: 5-2-5-1 or 5-2-4-2 ♣: 1-4-2-6 If partner's just 5-5, declarer's bid like this on 4=2=4=3 or 5=2=3=3 - neither of which seems plausible! I guess declarer's actual shape is more like 4=2=5=2, giving partner 1=5=1=6. How can we beat this? Declarer can't establish discards on the diamonds; he doesn't have enough clubs for discards, and I'm counting partner for x/QJxxx/x/AKQJxx for his bid. He might be missing the ♣K and have upgraded for shape; that gives declarer Axxx/xx/AKxxx/Kx to "justify" his 4♠ jump. There's a lot of points on this auction. I think we've got 2♥ and 1♣ trick wrapped up. Nothing in ♦, and no ♠ trick looks likely. Declarer can potentially ruff a loser in one hand, unless we draw trumps early - which we can't, now. I have to hope partner has the ♠T, because then declarer has difficulty ruffing without losing entries. Ugh. I think I'm going to play a diamond back, playing the J to look a bit more like a singleton. Hopefully declarer will misread the position; I can't see this costing (if declarer has 6 diamonds, he'll lose a ruff here so we don't need to worry about conceding a trick).

Well, E shouldn't have two heart losers for his Blackwood call, and he's obviously got exactly 2 spades. That means he's 2=1=6=4, most likely (could be 2=1=7=3). In either of those cases, ♣A and a ♣ ruff looks sound. However, why did he play a heart up? With just one heart in hand he should consider the immediate spade finesse and then ditch the heart loser on the next spade. He's clearly short on entries to hand (other than a spade ruff), and he might be 2=2=6=3 or 2=2=7=2 (yuck). Are oppo actually any good? If declarer has 3 clubs, ace-and-ruff still beats them - especially if I play a low club for the ruff in order to take the heart return. The problematic layout is when declarer is 2=2=7=2, when ace-and-club gives the contract away. Downside of an immediate heart play is that it costs if declarer's 2=1=7=3 (he can then draw trumps in two rounds, knock out my club and claim). I'm playing ace and a small club.

She's a beginner, and as she put down dummy she said "I know I shouldn't have doubled but I didn't know what to do" - so there's hope there, at any rate. (For what it's worth, I played a crossruff-type line, and diamonds broke, so I made +150 for a second top. Top was +300 for 2♥-3 the other way, because some numpty decided that raising a 4-card major on a 2-card suit was good bridge)

[hv=pc=n&s=skj3hdqt984cqt743&d=w&v=b&b=4&a=1hd1s3d3s4dp]133|200[/hv] First off, do you raise to 5♦ here? Do you bid 5♣ along the way, or make a cue-bid? [hv=pc=n&s=skj3hdqt984cqt743&n=sa2hajt6543dk73c8]133|200[/hv] Secondly, how do you play 4♦ or 5♦, at MPs, on this layout and the lead of the ♣A, followed by a spade round to the J? It's now clear that partner's double of 1♥ was... eccentric, but you're in a contract and you can't always choose them!

Exactly. I've adjusted in the past when someone's called me after a hesitation-then-pass; I felt the hesitation strongly suggested passing (can't remember the exact auction) and the explanation given by the hesitator's partner was "but she hesitated for a long time, and I thought that meant I wasn't allowed to bid". This was a misguided (!) attempt to be as ethical as possible. No PP, just an explanation of why I'm adjusting and what they should do next time.

This situation comes up infrequently enough that my regular partnerships have a meta-rule: "If I declined to double that suit for takeout earlier, I've missed the bus and now it's penalties". That does lead to some retarded doubles, but at least it doesn't cause frequent partscore-doubled-up-two accidents...