BillPatch

Uh Oh? Just glanced at Mike Lawrence. The Complete Book on Balancing in Contract Bridge. Revised ed. 2012. p 358. He advise using the cue bid after lebensohl to find the 4-4 major fit, and the direct cue bid for the stopper ask. Good thing I checked. Corrected auction 2♠ p p (double) p (2NT) p (3C) p (3♠ p (4♥) ppp

South is worth 14 points if balancer has 4 card support of hearts--very common for a takeout double of spades. If that doesn't work South's values are very good for NT or diamond contracts. South should force to game with a cue-bid of 3♠ and accept North's suggestion of 4♥. Edit: Wrong! See next post.

The present format of one post per book stifles discussion. Why close discussion after one review? Other people might want to comment or dissent. Perhaps a good review will rate an "attaboy." Personally, I now prefer to write reviews for Amazon, because I expect more feedback. Please change the present format of closing comments after a review.

I noticed a new book titled Kickback advertised In Baron/Barclay catalog. Any comments? Kantar's system of Key Card asks was said to be as complex as using Kickback. Is this book a good way to learn Kickback? Is it easier to remember than Kantar's methods?

Where are you? No location is noted on your Forum bio. Chez moi(Central Ohio) we play both versions of Key Card. Kantar, the expert who keeps on writing new editions of the book on key card, recommends using both,choosing between the two using a system dubbed by Bridge World as Molson. ("Two beers in one.") Asked by Jeff Rubens whether it was harder to remember, Kantar said no. I agree with Kantar. Agree with the rest of your list.

If we accept that "about 18 max", it should be OK to pass with any hand that revalues to 6 or a poor 7, regardless of HCPs, since normally 25 "points" are required for game.

North's 2♣ cue is normally a LR in diamonds, which he would normally express with the minimal diamond rebid. If he had some other type of hand which required a cue bid force he would not be following South's orders at this point. The 3♦ rebid now makes South boss/captain.

Assuming that you have another way to express a strong ♠ hand, most traditional systems don't, at least among English speaking world.

Slam is not reasonable if missing 2 aces. The appropriate ask should determine number of aces. I prefer the ace ask after jacoby transfer route to slam. 52% odds on grand slam after finding 4 Aces and 1 K might be good shoot if opponents reliable 90%+ to reach small slam.

Even when I play with Jack, I try to pass the auction with the proper responder's hand, and we usually do at least as well as if I find a bid. But Jack doesn't complain about my idiosynchroussies and I am simply amused at its.

My understanding is that one over one suit rebid is not forcing but responder should find a rebid with a poor 8 hcp. By the way, the bridge program Jack plays it forcing, a treatment from Dutch Acol. Also, in a recent tournament I was surprised when I jumped to 2♥ to show a game force on opener's rebid and partner passed, saying one over one rebid by opener was the forcing rebid.

Agree. No Blame.

I ATB 95% to S, thus most of the blame. I agree with N's bidding, but anytime bidding blows up with no agreements I see some shared blame. Both double and 1NT would have been better, South's hand would have been ideal for a major suit game if partner had 8+ HCP and a five card major. the 3 club counter cue only makes sense if it offers a choice of 3NT, which South could have offered by bidding 3NT next. Without agreements partner might not misinterpret that sequence as a partial stopper rather than Ax, or whether counter cue allowed N to stop at 4 of minor after S bid 3NT. South's final pass deserves the majority of the blame, surely the 3♣ recue set up a force to 3NT if not to game. By the way, I attribute a bonus 50% of the blame to the problem setter; 10% for originally misquoting the auction, and 40% for not specifying whether they were playing MPs or "real bridge."

1 NT may be the best rebid in standard as based on Goren. Mike Lawrence, in The Complete Book on Takeout Doubles, 2nd ed., 2014, introduces the treatment of using the doubler's two diamond cuebid predominantly to show this type hand (18+ support points with three card support. I love this treatment, which is a much better way to bid this hand. 1♦(dbl)p( 1♥) p (2♦)3♦(4♥) ppp See chapter 12.

I agree that, particularly at MPs, it hurts to lose 5-3 major fits due to opening 1NT holding the 5 card major, so one might want our partners to know which 5 card majors can be rebid somewhat conveniently, how opener adjusts his rebids on the next round, and how responder adjusts his rebids on the next round for the increased NT ranges possible. A lot of material to cover but I suppose one could fit it in to 1/4 to 1/2 a session in the beginner's course. The alternative which I prefer as Marty Bergen teaches, is to teach beginners to open all balanced hands of the correct strength 1NT, even with a 5 card major. He, and his students, have proven it is possible to attain international class bridge levels doing this. After the student has some experience, and developed more bridge judgment, he can make the decision for himself whether he wants to adjust his style. He will be able to learn more quickly due to his higher skill level.

33 HCP is the traditional level, as I explained above it is proper for the level of this board.

At the N/B level the traditional requirement for a NT slam is properly 33 HCP and should continue to be taught at that level, especially on this board. At higher levels of bridge it has become apparent that there are 34 HCP hands with little or no play for six NT, and some hands with 30 HCP where it is possible to bid odds on slams. The poor 33-34 HCP slams are normally due to pancake(4333) or mirror distribution. It normally takes a complex bidding system which may aid the defense to avoid bidding the losing proposition 33-34 HCP NT slams; even at matchpoints, it is usually good practice in this region to bid an eight card fit suit slam with a possible ruffing trick. See Jeff Rubens. Secrets of Winning Bridge., for a fuller description. As for 30-33 HCP slams Richard Pavlicek on his excellent web site has a series of excellent double dummy simulations; the one on IMP odds with various sets of distributions an HCPs shows that DD NT slam is usually IMP positive with 31+HCP with a balanced distribution versus another balanced or a semi-balanced distribution, and 30+ with balanced versus un balanced hands. NT Grand slams are biddable with 35+ HCP. Checking back for A's is normally a good idea before bidding such slams, and stoppers are nice at NT. I normally locate the Richard Pavlicek web site by Google or Bing.

A comparison of the poll results with the sim results suggests that BBO poll takers are better at MPs than IMPs in opening leads. One more person preferred the top result spade J at MPs, and most of the remainder chose the second best MP strategy the club 2. At IMPs only a minority chose the number one answer according to the sim, and an equally large cluster chose the third best answer the club 2.

I did a simulation of 3750 hands declarer any balanced 15 hcp dummy any 8-9 hcp with 0-3 spades and 0-3 hearts. leading hand given. the results Set contract JS 19.28% QC 15.12% 2C 13.95% 10H 13.71% QH 13.41% 2h 12.56 defensive tricks JS 4.70 2C 4.57 TH 4.53 2H 4.51 QH 4.50 QC 4.48 So as I predicted JS lead was best both by the IMPS measure % contract set and the MP measure avg. defensive tricks. QC second at IMPS. mediocre at MPs. A 2c was 2nd and MPs and 3rd at IMPS.

Thanks for the sims. Sorry for the bad hand waving. Checking back with Bird-Anthias I see that they warn against leading their major. I misremembered this because their sample hands included a high proportion of such leads. Mea culpa.

Bird-Anthias extensively covered leads from the auction 1NT-3NT and on a similar 10 point hand low from the heart tripleton was best, Jx a close second. On that hand hearts were Qxx. QTx is normally not as good a lead, so I am going to guess the Jx this time, with heart T second. The auction 1NT-2NT is less common, and Bird-Anthias notes that shorter suit major leads, particularly from doubletons are better even more frequently. I will do sim later if nobody beats me to it!

Bird-Anthias found that a singleton spade was often a good lead on this auction. They are assuming that the opener will return to spades over 3NT anytime they have more than three spades, and responder has promised exactly five, so we can deduce that partner also has five. Since partner's spade length is over dummy, a spade rates to be a safe lead. Richard Pavlicek on his web site recommends that when the opener on this bidding should always stay in NT at IMPs with any 4-3-3-3, regardless of 4 card suit. I respect his sims, I intend to follow this advice. I suspect that at least some actively playing experts might also adopt Pavlicek's theory, against them I would play my second choice low diamond. Then I would lead a diamond because my extreme weakness dictates a short suit trying to set up partner's suit, and I prefer a diamond since if I hit partner's long suit my honor card may help establish that suit.

Director Branerd may not adjust, but the committee will surely overrule.

A penalty double was proper against a 12-14 NT, because you had the top of the NT range in HCP and a fairly good lead.

The primary benefit of the 4♣ bid is to warn partner of my side strength so we avoid the double game swing with strong club duplication when they compete to 4 ♠, also many single game swings with weaker duplication. Lead director is another way for 4♣ to win.