the_dude

You play 2/1, none vul at matchpoints, partner opens 1♦ in first seat and RHO overcalls 1♠: x 10xxxx Axxxx xx (1) are you doubling? If not, what? --- Ok, let's assume you double: (2) What is plan when LHO bids 4♠, partner doubles, passed back to you? (3) What if LHO bids 4♠ and partner passes? Any difference? Thanks in advance for your thoughts. (apologies if this is too basic for the expert forums)

Like most Americans, I typically reserve my strongest opinions for the topics I have the least knowledge. This hand is the exception though - I have a stong opinion that 2D is correct *and* I feel I know what I am talking about.

Where are the diamonds? Seem likely to be 4441 around the table, meaning partner very likely has a stiff heart. (I'm not sure what your opening bid tendencies are with 4-4 in the minors). You didn't list your heart spots (I'm assuming they stink) ... or say anything about your opponents ... but in my experience players making this call know what they are doing. I'm letting not them play in a decent 2H spot when we have our own 9 card fit and half the deck.

3NT for me. When they preempt, I seem to have alot more disasters bidding speculative contracts than had I just bid a solid game. True we could be on for 6C, we have a fantastic hand, but we could also be turning a vul game into a minus. One opp made a takeout X ... maybe he was kidding and maybe he wasn't but I have no reason to think so and no good way to find out. I'm taking the surest profit.

I know these are mostly guesses, but I'd like to get a sense of where the majority is.... Local sectional, swiss teams against average opponents. Hand 1: [hv=pc=n&s=s2hkq986daj92cq82&d=e&v=b&b=10&a=3s]133|200[/hv] Hand 2: [hv=pc=n&s=sa2hj2dqj5caqjt92&d=n&v=0&b=1&a=p3s]133|200[/hv] Thanks for your input ... the more votes the better :)

Thanks all for the feedback so far. As I held the South cards, I am admittedly biased, but I am surprised no one has mentioned the #1 reason that I would have passed with the North hand (and not thought much about it). You hold 8 points and the opponents have made no move towards game - it would seem to me that (A) partner holds a good hand and will not know what to do over 3S, or (B) one of the opponents forgot to make a game try. If it's (A) (likely) then partner has strength and shortness in clubs he should be able to reopen. I just have terrible results when I bid 8 counts freely twice. That being said I still think 4S was pushing it. My logic as South at the time was if partner needed a S or D finesse, it was on, and if he needed the H finesse it was off. 66% I never put his actual hand in the family of those he could hold. RE: the 2H vs X bid, another tough choice, but since I was going to bid 3D over 3C anyway I figured I might as well get both suits in there. Thanks again.

[hv=pc=n&s=s9765haqjt2dq32c2&n=sjt42h3dak987ct84&d=w&v=b&b=4&a=1c1d2cd3c3sp4sppp]266|200[/hv] Obviously we both lost our minds a bit, but who do you think went overboard the most? Any other comments on the auction are welcome. Thanks. Scoring was IMPs btw

I think South's bidding was fine. I would have bid 3D instead of 3H, but both are reasonable. Partner's bidding, though, boggles the mind. What hand can bid 4S opposite a known void but also be willing to play 3CX?

Club game (matchpoints) you are NV opps are VUL [hv=pc=n&s=sakt52ha7532dck52&d=n&v=e&b=9&a=1cp1s2dd3d4dp4sp]133|200[/hv] You play pretty basic 2/1. Partner's double is 3cd support and says nothing about his values - he would tend to make this double regardless of other holdings. How optimistic/pessimistic are you? Side question - Can you bid 5♣ as a "second try", would it be clear that spades is trump and not clubs?

[hv=pc=n&s=sat875hj96dkcjt87&n=sk62hak5d9642ck92&d=e&v=e&b=6&a=pp2dppdppp]266|200[/hv] No chance at beating 2D (makes 3 so long as declarer is careful), Even at imps -380 hurts.

Before the GIB Tournament Declarer play fix, I played hundreds (thousands?) of robot tournaments opening 1NT with any 4441 approaching 15-17 range. Given that these are "best hand" tournaments this turns out to be a pretty big sample size. What jumped out at me was how often 1NT turned out to be the winning bid, and would have been even if there had been 3 human experts at the table. Opposition bidding over 1NT is severely handicapped, as was the defense when we played the hand. (Note that this was all matchpoints, presenting many more opportunities for large scores via misdefense and partscores. Your results may be different at IMPs where missing games and slams is much more costly) Of course, this then begs a few serious questions regarding disclosure (and legality). As an infrequent member of the ACBL scene I don't know the answers to those questions.

Consensus here. Partner's limit raise was the "game try", a return game try seems ludicrous to me, how finely are trying to slice this? In my world 3D is natural and forcing to game, not ruling out a slam but not necessarily making a slam try either. Therefore by responder 3NT would be Serious and 4C is not.

I think North's decision is alot more discussion-worthy than South's. I can';t think of an argument for anything besides pass for South. That being said, you missed a 21 point slam in an auction where the opponents preempted to 4S. I wouldn't feel too bad about it :P

This auction is so space-consuming and awkward - responder has little room to investigate anything (particularly when the minor is Diamonds). Therefore opener must be good enough for responder to bid 3NT on any excuse. It's hard to describe that in terms of points ... it's more about tricks and good side cards. Therefore, I tend to only bid 2m with anything up to non-exceptional 14s and bad 15s - I expect my partner to look at his hand and be able to figure out to invite on marginal hands that include Qx of my suit :)

Thanks for the feedback all .. the ruling seems as clear as possible and had the TD made it this clear on the spot I would not have made a fuss. You up an interesting point. Opening leader had K10xx of spades and A10xx of clubs. Under those circumstances, I don't know a single player who wouldn't ask about the possibility of dummy's having / not having spades - and we were in a high enough bracket that they should have wanted to know. They certainly knew enough to call the TD the moment the play of the hand ended. That makes me wonder ... once I failed to alert did he deliberately not ask, to game the system? Lead a club and if it beats the contract, great. But if a spade lead would have beaten it call the TD to get it via ruling. Best of both worlds? I have no idea if this is what was happening, and furthermore if such gamesmanship is unethical or not. It just makes me say hmmmmmm :P

I haven't played much offline bridge in the last 20 years, so the current ACBL alert standards are a bit foreign to me. Nevertheless I have been able to fake my way through and I try to be as ethical as possible. Then this came up yesterday in a regional knockout match: Me Partner 1NT 2C 2H 2NT 3NT P With the opps passing, we had this vanilla auction, a club was led, and we made 4. After the hand the opponents claimed that they should have been alerted that partner might not have 4 spades and if they had, a spade lead would have resulted in down 2. The director agreed and changed the result from +630 to -200. She claimed that because we play 4 way transfers we must alert 2NT on this auction. My position: since the day I learned bridge, standard stayman stipulates that with 8-9 points and 4 spades, you bid 2S over 2H on the above auction. 2NT categorically denies 4S in standard stayman, which is what we play. At least that's how I learned it. 4way transfers doesn't have anything to do with it because 2S is a standard bid with or without 4way transfers. Therefore responder can never have 4 spades on this auction. I wasn't trying to hide info, I just thought this was normal bidding. It never even occurred to me that I would have to alert my opponents to this. Is it my fault the opponents don't know standard bidding and failed to ask? Thanks for any feedback. I was going to appeal this decision, but the margin of victory made this swing irrelevant so we dropped it. However I'd very much like to hear some educated opinions on the subject.

Given that opener has mediocre trumps, there's a good chance he has an honor on the side in which case breaking either hearts or clubs could be disastrous. I'm leading a spade which is least likely to cause damage. I have so few HCP partner is probably not on a bare minimum ... and I have 2-3 trump tricks ... so I don't feel like I need to attack vigorously.

If I had a way to splinter or show shortness in hearts, I would try. This is so clase any wasted values will probably sink us, and I don't see a way of getting that across to partner. We will probably end up in a couple of bad slams (or slams where the key finesse loses or we get a bad break) for every good one we make ... therefore I just bid 4S.

Thanks all for for the feedback. I felt that X and a club lead seemed pretty normal and it was just an unlucky hand. A little validation helps :P (except for you lalldonn you were spot on :) Partner's hand was Q10xx AKxxx Qxxx --- That's an opener for us and I don't see much to do other than sit for the double. Really the disaster on this hand was our misdefense allowing an overtrick :/ -380 lost us 7 imps and a bunch of VP in the close/deciding match...

[hv=pc=n&s=sk92h97dj5ckq9752&d=n&v=e&b=9&a=1h1n]133|200[/hv] Swiss teams, 2nd board of match. Our partnership opens all 12s and decent unbalanced 11s. We generally do not open balanced 11s. Are you doubling? If so what are you leading?

[hv=pc=n&s=sqt932haj82da2ca3&d=w&v=0&b=8&a=pp3d]133|200[/hv] Matchpoints, Love all. Does your call change if partner is not a passed hand?

Yeah, partner's favorable 2C over 1D could be pretty bad. I'm still bidding 2D looking for a major and following with 3NT over 3C. Even in this spot he shouldn't be both 5332 AND have a terrible hand. Meaning he will almost always have 4M, 6C, or a good hand. In any of those cases I'm will to take a shot at game. Let LHO figure out which honors to underlead a few times vs 3NT. I won't make it every time but I'm willing to bet I'm over 50%. There are many 11-12 counts where my partner *thinks* he has a minimum but game will be excellent. Frankly my partner will always expect me to bid game with this hand so his evaluation will be based on that.

Game all, IMPs KQ8xxxxx x Q AJx 1H (P) 1NT ?

Thanks all for the responses. Our rule is primarily to keep responder from having to bid over a raise of his minor or 2NT ... both iof which come up often. However you make a good point - this should be a top consideration. Another very good point ... good reason to keep it NF.

Doesn't look like the right hand mess around with 2NT to me ... opponents are likely to figure out which Ax to lead and my black suit tricks are slow. I bid 3S at MP ... might bid 4S at IMPs.