wyman

I am a gigantic nit when it comes to opening 2C with 2-suiters, but dude this hand is 2 losers. You've gotta open 2C. As to a good auction, I'll simply contribute "yuck."

...in hopes of being punished.

IMO, 4-any is a cue for spades, so my options are 3N, pass, and 4S. I think 4S has the best shot. edit: and the 6♦ option is a reference to http://www.bridgebas...40621-good-bid/ edit2: by "the best shot" I mean "highest EV" (since obv 3S has a better shot at making than 4S)

For the love of god, don't try to teach or "reason with" these people at the table. And just so you have some priors, if you find yourself in a game with an "expert" by chance, (s)he's probably not.

would dbl as opener on (1) Would bid 4H, 5H as responder. This looks like we have a lot of tricks in hearts, and I have no defense at all. I'd really need partner to show up with 4 defensive tricks, and especially when I give him a pop to 4H, he'll smash 4S with that much defense. This is not a FP auction imo. Opener bidding 3H with a min and three little hearts is, to be kind, very questionable.

In many (most?) 2/1 systems, 2S doesn't even show 6. So I'll prefer to show 9 cards rather than showing 5.

I don't think a low heart is an option at all. All I need is AJxxx opp Qx, and now I've allowed opps to establish 4 tricks in hearts by using 1 dummy entry. My choices would be the ♦3 and the ♠9. But again, I think I want to make declarer do some work to establish the spades, at least to use a tempo, so I'm leading the low diamond. I'm never leading a club. Ever.

her :)

Yes, kibitizers see all alerts.

fwiw, mine works fine

With his first double, east is showing a hand that prefers to not defend 1D. This can be for many reasons, but usually it's a combination of some values and short diamonds. I would not make the recommendation to a very beginner that (s)he double with 8; when we first learn about takeout doubles, we learn that they show about an opening hand and tolerance for any of the other suits (if we're going to cheat at all, we at least have real tolerance for the majors. If we cheat on HCP, it's because we have extra shape). In practice, most people will double on any hand with takeout shape when they are in the pass-out seat, because partner might have a very strong hand but have had no good bid over 1D [we say that, by bidding in situations like this, we are protecting partner]. With his second double, east is saying "hey, I heard you pass twice, but I have a very strong hand over here, and I'd like you to bid something (or pass, if you have some good diamonds)." I think 15 is a reasonable estimate of his lower limit, but he is often a bit better. When he raises 2H, east is saying, "I know I asked you to bid with nothing, and you didn't make any real noise, since 2H is your minimum bid and basically says only 'I like ♥ better than ♠,' but I have a seriously good hand, and if you have anything over there, I want to be in game." I would raise as west on pretty much anything -- an ace, or a 5-card heart suit, or even a singleton spade would be enough in my opinion. High card points are not really what east is looking for here (although if I had 5-6, I would be raising as west). As west, I'm asking "does my hand look good in the context of the auction?" If it looks like a hand that has some extra playing strength (and again, that can come via ruffing potential -- hence why I mentioned spade shortness, since partner clearly has spades as well on this auction -- or via extra hearts, or via HCP I haven't mentioned), I would definitely raise; partner is showing a quite good hand.

Only taking issue with the bolded. IMO, there are far more swingy actions. Take 1N as an example. Or 2H. Strangely, sometimes, especially when state of the match is known, the most swingy action is even to play normally...

Congrats, dude.

[hv=pc=n&s=sa5432h2d96432c65&n=skq876ht75dj5cak9]133|200[/hv] As an example, I've included a sample hand to show you how powerful shape [meaning singletons (sometimes referred to as stiffs) and voids] can be. North has a minimum 1S opener: 13 points and 5 spades. There's nothing special about his hand. He has no singletons or voids. He has only 1 ace. South has only 4 high card points. But note that he has 5 trumps AND a singleton. I'll make a few notes that you should think about, and if you have questions, feel free to ask. (1) If trumps split 2-1 (which is the normal split), you'll take 10 tricks on this hand. (2) If trumps split 2-1, North's trump Q is useless (or wasted) and his ♦J is always useless. In particular, this means that -- after a 1S opening by North, the south hand is very very powerful. I'm not trying to teach you how to use this to your advantage here. I'm just trying to get you to recognize the power of shape. We develop judgment over time by seeing many, many examples.

As on your web search, you'll probably get (moderately) differing opinions here as well. People tend to play "intermediate" twos in 4th seat. As you no longer have a need for a preemptive call, your 4th seat bids should have the expectation of going +. Typically, this is a 6 card suit, 10-14 or so, with a good honor holding (some play 2 of 3, some play 3 of 5, etc). It should have _some_ expectation of making a game opposite a passed hand, but only a very good one.

i use it as a natural slam try or i flip the minors and use it as a diamond slam try depending on who I'm playing with.

Two points: First, semantics, but I think a solution is for more beginners to ask questions in the existing fora, not necessarily the solution. Second, I think there are fair arguments against a B-only forum. For example, players playing online and then posting on this forum are likely to move beyond a B forum extremely quickly, so its use might be infrequent. This is even (especially?) if the player isn't "learning" at clubs. Of course, it's good that beginners would learn quickly. Just saying that the forum might not get a heck of a lot of traffic -- or worse, intermediates not confident enough to "move up" would effectively make it an intermediate forum. All in all, I think the plusses outweigh the minuses. In any case, until a change happens, it's good to encourage beginners to not be afraid to post in B/I; that's what it's there for.

Part of the confusion (I think) is that many play, for example, that 1C-1H; 1S-2C!; 2H!! shows a 4315. So 2D is not _exactly_ forced.

Plus, dude, if declarer has 3 hearts either partner lied about his heart holding or the K will drop p's Q and the hearts are established.

Right, my point is that scenario (1) seems like a takeout double, not 3N, so I'll ignore it [plus, he can succeed on that hand anyway I think in various ways, (e.g. double hooking in clubs or by having the spade jack) and in scenario (2) we're talking about risking changing 750 v 600 [150, 4 imps] to 950 v 600 [350, 8 imps], so a 4 imp risk, in order to gain +200 v -600 [800, 13 imps]. So it has to be right < 25% of the time in order to be worth it. edit: I missed the (x) in (1) and assumed you gave declarer 4 hearts. If he has 3 hearts, I think Ax / Q10x / ? / ? usually has 6 diamonds, and again we're talking about an overtrick in that case. Or he can have AJx / Q10x / AKQJ10 / xx and again have 9 on the spade switch.

This may be a style thing. I think that we can have very wide-ranging preempts in 1st w/r. But I don't understand what you're playing declarer -- who has nothing in clubs and at most the queen of hearts -- for: Qxx of spades? I assume this is IMPs, but even at MP. Turning = into +1 or +1 into +2 is far from the gain we'll see by turning -6xx into +200. So I think you have to beat it. I just don't see a hand where it makes a difference. Qxx / Q10xx (and he falsecarded...) / AKQJx / x ? Sure doesn't seem like a 3N call to me. Ax(x) / Q10xx / AKQJx / x(x) ? Looks like a double to me. I don't have strong hopes of coming to 9 tricks here with just the one spade stopper unless partner has the goods. Axx / Q10x (and falsecarded, ballsy) / AKQJxx / x ? Getting closer, but if he has this, he's got 9, 10 even if he holds AJx of spades and we lead the K. I dunno. If we're talking about him getting doubled overtricks already, the idea of giving up one more in an effort to beat it seems like a no-brainer.

I would have led the HK to begin for an unblock. I'm definitely not leading the SK now. Declarer surely has the ace. If not, what does he have? Qxx and the queen of hearts? No way. I agree though that it's most likely that declarer has long diamonds, and our best shot is for partner to have Qx(xx) of hearts. On a good day he's 6-4 and it doesn't matter what I lead. On a bad day, I need to play the HK now to run the hearts. If partner has a stiff heart, declarer is Ax / Q10xx / AKQJx / xx? Seems fishy. Much more likely is like AQ / 10 / AKQJxxx / xxx. Also a touch fishy, but a far better gamble. Hmm, that gives partner Jxxxxx / Qxxx / xx / x ? Errr. Maybe partner has the SQ and declarer has A / 10xx / AKQJxxx / xx. That's better. Then pard has QJxxxxx / Qx / xx / xx. Yeah HK now.

I think Ben meant that it's ok to play for the drop (anti-percentage) if something at the table gave you a reason to. I don't think he was suggesting that the finesse was anti-%.

X

I don't like to play partials when we might have a game on, so I obviously complete.