wyman

Mike, the heart out was instead of exiting a spade after he eliminated the minors. I didn't think hard about an alternate line from trick 2.

In the grand scheme of things, the question that you want to ask God is: "Does P=NP?" I just don't see the importance, especially given our priors on the answer. [Maybe if he could provide you a proof, so that you could score the cool $1M, I'd understand, but that would be academically dishonest. Unless of course you believe that God provides us all of our thoughts, in which case it's probably kosher.] You don't want to understand human inequity? hunger? war? massacre? You don't want to know why anyone in history did what they did, or how? You don't want to know about life beyond our planet? Or about the afterlife, if any? Which stories in the bible are literal, and which are parable? Even if my sole purpose in life were to troll Jehovah's Witnesses, I think I could come up with more interesting questions than P=NP. And I'm a mathematician.

Waste of a question. It doesn't.

I think I would have just cashed the HA rather than exiting a spade: if hearts are 2-2, claim. If someone ruffs the heart, claim. If someone shows out but fails to ruff, play the spade. Then at least I'm not left trying to figure out lefty's motives.

At the table, I cued 5C with (2) but maybe that is wrong. But you are right, I would bid 6D over anything north bids over 5C with (2), and probably 6C over whatever he bid holding (1) -- but probably I should know what he means if he bids 5H/S/N ...and what the difference is btwn 5S/5N/6C if he cues 5H over 5C

i think 2 is from another planet but I understand 3H on 3, and lol'd and thought "cute" at 1N on 1. Of the three of them, I like 1 the best. Like jdonn said you can pass 2D, and also you probably have chances if partner forgot to open and punts 3N.

I'm more interested in whether or not anyone can bid 7m on the first hand after this start.

N: Ax / AKx / KQJxx / Jxx S: xx / Q10x / Axx / AKQxx Qx / QJ10 / A10x / AQ10xx QJ / Qxx / 10x / AKQ10xx S dealer at teams How do we differentiate after 1N - 3C* [puppet] 3D* - 4D* [no 5cM // 5332 slammish]

I liked it a lot, but part of that is that I usually don't get the opportunity to sit down against Levin-Weinstein, let alone twice in two days. I think the final should have been an 8 team RR though so that r5-7 is not just the top guys trying to punish the little guys as much as possible when the little guys are already down-and-out.

I think he just meant to not include the carryover when doing pairings for the next morning. I.e., you keep the carryover, but you play d2 just as you did d1 -- a new swiss -- and then add the carryover at the end. But I don't want to put words in his mouth.

No, east has the UI that NORTH thinks east has clubs; hence north may be likely to view the D10 as a singleton and misplay the suit. Or at least I think that's the argument that was being made. edit: sorry it seems like this point has already been made. I need to refresh the screen more :P

You have 8, RHO has 15+, so I guess partner could have 17 and LHO could have 6-7 hearts, but this auction is more consistent with a 5xx6 pard with a regular opener, in which case we have basically no defense at all -- 1 spade, 0-1 club, maybe a red ace or something? Maybe an opening D ruff? I'm definitely not ripping this. If I pass (I'm prob not passing), I'm just going to quietly lead a diamond and hope for the best. Probably I'm gonna bid 4/4 though. It just doesn't feel like we're beating 4H with 18+ cards in the blacks.

I put the HQ on the table as well (this was given to me as a problem, so as far as I am concerned, there is no real layout to evaluate), but two decent players played a club up and hooked a spade, so now I'm wondering if I'm nuts.

always 1S for me

[hv=pc=n&s=saj8hqjdakqjcaj52&n=sqt6h97632dt8ck76&d=s&v=0&b=11&a=2c(str)p2d(wait%2C%20+)p2n(bal%2C%20f)p3d(%21h)p3hp3nppp]266|200[/hv] IMPs. Lead ♦3, 4th. Opps are I/A. Best line for 9?

I would have summoned the director promptly and requested: 1) that opps be required to play SAYC 2) a ZT penalty And if he refused either, I'd ask for the DIC. But I've never really been one to worry about ruffling feathers. And I probably wouldn't have summoned the director had WCTSP not sassed me, but now that he's used intimidatory tactics (and just generally been a dick), I'm more than happy to let the directors sort it out.

@Phil, He described that partner pitched 2 spades on the run of the diamonds.

So are we supposed to pass 1D holding KJxx / Q109x / Qx / Axx? Or are we just not making off-shape dbls of minor suit openings? edit: or if you object to my hand choice, feel free to vary it as you like so that it's 4423 or (45)13 or (45)22 or 4414 or whatever you want.

@Mike, Helene, gnasher: Is 2C really that strong (Mike)? And (Helene/gnasher) are we expecting pard to rebid 2D that often? Maybe I'm way off -- please let me know if so, since I haven't thought about or discussed this sequence much -- but I would have assumed that 2C either shows a strong hand or an off-shape tox (we're dbling with a lot of 4423, right?) looking for a major fit. And in particular, I would have expected that advancer's priority was to show a 4- or chunky 3-card major. I guess we can bid 2N over 2C-2M, but that sounds really strong to me. Maybe I'd bid differently if I had incredibly sound agreements about auctions that start this way (what's forcing? how high? what calls agree diamonds? what are advancer's priorities? ...), but I'm bidding 1N on this hand.

I would still bid 4N. If he bids 5C I will bid 5D. Partner will figure it out. Switch my minors and I'd bid 5C.

On the first, south, who took control, needs to tell north that their side has all the keycards. Then North can bid the grand himself. AKQ and the ace of hearts take care of the nondiamond cards in souths hand. If trumps are 2-1, you'll score 2 red aces, cakq, and 8 trump. If they are 3-0, you'll still have chances, like a red K or a high cross ruff.

Agree almost 100% w Andy. I'm just not totally convinced that I'm denying a card in the minors with my pass.

Count me in for 6♥, and I've had detailed slam agreements with a number of partners and have never discussed this specifically, so I'd assume (with them) that bids other than 6♦ are natural.

Just gives you the extra chance that east discards incorrectly. If defenders defend DD, playing diamonds does nothing; ruffing a club and playing ace and a spade wins anytime E has ♠Kx or W has ♥K or either defender has a stiff ♠K. And rhm correctly points out that 5 diamonds before the club ruff also conceals your holding/plan.

I would guess RHO has both kings and play CA, ruff a club, 5 diamonds, and guess RHO's doubleton King of spades, falling back on the heart hook, which is probably failing for -1.