chasetb

I predict 3 biddable slams, a slam that isn't biddable, 12 other games, 12 partscores, and a partridge in a peach tree that's outside my window right now.

I actually have a Saturday off, so I messaged my partner obscurans. I'm sure he'll be up for it, I should be able to confirm tomorrow.

As promised, the full auction and play happened below. We play 16-18 as 1NT, don't ask me why she didn't open it 1NT or lead either AK on trick 1. If we set them, I would have gained 0.35 Black points, and I still need almost 25 black to get my LM (the games don't pay that much locally, and on top of it I can't play normally). [hv=pc=n&s=st843h8752dqj85ca&w=sak2hakdkt742c876&n=sjhqda963ckjt5432&e=sq9765hjt9643dcq9&d=w&v=b&b=4&a=1d2cp2np3nppdppp&p=d4d3h3d5cac6c2c9dqd2d6h4djdkdah6ckcqh2c7cjs5h5c8cts6h7s2c5h9h8d7c4s7s3hkc3s9d8skhqhts8hasasjsqs4dtd9hj]399|300[/hv]

[hv=pc=n&e=sq9765hjt9643dcq9&d=w&v=b&b=4&a=1d2c]133|200[/hv] Partner is a very weak player, and very unpredictable as well. If partner were a good player, would you bid differently? EDIT - She is a lifetime C player, with no hope of advancing because she just plays 'for fun'. The auction and play are unbelievable; I'll post them once I get a few more responses. EDIT 2 - It is MPs.

♠ AQxx ♥Qx ♦J ♣AQxxxx ALWAYS opens 2♣ in classic/regular Precision. I still play that 2♣ could be 5♣-4M, but I have the stipulation that if you only have 5 Clubs, you better be ready to play in 2♣ on a 5-1 fit (partner might have Qxxx Qxxx QJxx x). This way, you don't have to worry if Opener 'only' has 5, since it will be a great suit.

Mycroft is right, but with one tiny detail - over 1♣ that doesn't promise 15+ HCP, 1♦ can be used artificially as a transfer. EDIT (14 days later) - I didn't say that you had to transfer TO HEARTS, Spades is a possibility. In fact, a few Moscito-like systems use the 1♦ opening to promise 4+ Spades and deny 4+ Hearts. 1♥ shows 4+ Hearts and denies 4+ Spades ; 1♠ promises at least 4-4 Majors.

A majority of the time in a Strong NT, you in fact want West to bid Hearts, since (s)he has more HCP and is more likely to want to avoid any finesses. This is a rare case that you shouldn't worry about. The only system I can even try to get East to do it is via a Strong Club with transfers, and then you have to screw up parts of the system to fit this in. EDIT - I did not see the X. I don't play anything fancy like Adam does, but that does make it easier to get to the right strain.

I'm glad you conceded after this remark that stupidity wasn't exclusively Republican, because the health care act shows something else - when Democrats try to think, they screw up even worse. As part of the bill, they now consider full time at least 30 hours a week over a certain period of time (I think for any business over 50 people), and you have to buy insurance if you don't have it. Where I work, the time period is a year. So what are larger businesses doing? They are cutting back hours for part-timers from 35-38 down to 28-29, and it's more difficult now to find a 2nd job. So, take home pay is reduced for a lot of people, and people who don't need insurance / make too much to qualify for gov't assistance is being forced to waste money on it...

This problem was addressed in Modern Defensive Signalling by Kit Woolsey. He mentions if playing UDA, there are for sure two exceptions you should make. On this one, if partner's opening lead hits dummy with a singleton Ace or King, standard attitude/count is in effect for trick one only. Therefore, you can unblock the Ten and let partner know that you like the suit. In that book, Woolsey said that UDCA was superior, partly because when you want to encourage it's easy to throw a small for Attitude and not have to worry about the rest of the hand, and on occasion when you discourage from a sequence, it helps partner out. However, he said that standard attitude and count were better than UDA and standard count, or UDC and standard attitude, because of ambiguous situations where you aren't sure if attitude or count apply.

I agree that with hand #2 posted, you can't use 4♦ as a rebid because you are missing both top Diamond honors. You must have at least two of the top three, and three of the top five of your minor, and at least 5 HCP in the Major. Also, only in the sequence 1♦-1♥, do I not expect 4♦ to have any outside Aces or Kings. In any other 1m - 1M ; 4m sequence, you have at least one in-between bid to show slam interest.

1.) I pass. 5♦ can have some play, but more often than not it won't make. We need some suits to break, and if partner has 6-5 or 6-6, the opponents might interfere and then we can crack them. 2.) Just because you are 14-16 HCP doesn't mean you should J/S. I wouldn't do it with a 5-5 unless I have the intermediates; I usually would with 6-5 and 6-6 always. On ♠KQJTxx ♥J ♦ x ♣ KQT98 I have opened 1♠ and rebid 3♣, alerting the opponents in the process. 3.) When I am 5-5, it depends on my suits and how I expect the auction to go. With 16 HCP, I can't have Spade shortness. With 13-15 HCP, Spades is one of my suits. At 13 or 14, I will usually have Hearts as well, though it could be Diamonds. 4.) Because of interference over 1♣, I don't strictly play it as 16+ (17+ bal). 1♦ is 10-(bad)18 (if 16-18, then 5+ Diamonds and 0-3 Spades), 1♥ is 10-16, 1♠ tends to be 10-(bad)15. 5.) Raising the limit on Diamonds has helped a lot more than hurt, especially in competition. It also freed up 1♣-1♦; 2♦ to be forcing for 1 round, so we added GF balanced hands with no 5-c M into that bid.

Agree with ahydra, I pass as well.

I know this is raising this topic from the dead a little, but I am curious about DCB in a Strong Club Relay system. I've read a little about it, but am still not 100% sure. What document(s) are best for reading up on Denial Cue Bids? Must you know exactly how many controls/relay points partner has in order to effectively use DCB? How do you know when to run on/skip (i.e rules)? How easy is it to show Queens and Jacks if partner shows two long suits?

First, I don't understand why some people play 2♠ as 3 Kings or an Ace and King in different suits, and 2NT as AK in the same suit. If you end up playing in NT, more often than not THAT is the hand that should be playing it, at least in my experience. It's pretty ironic that the reason you want North playing it is the Diamonds and not the Clubs. Second, there is no reason that you cannot play 2♦ as either 0-1 control or 6+ controls if it's an established partnership. Playing in a home game once, in 4th seat I saw the bidding go 2♣ - Pass, and 3rd seat was taking awhile. I asked her if she remembered that she was playing controls, and she said that she knew, but didn't know how to show 6! We all had a good laugh, and they ended up in 7NT - 2, when every suit broke horribly and there were no extra tricks to establish. Third, in Goren's 1985 book, he recommended that if you were thinking about using 2♣ on a hand with distribution and planned on bidding a suit, that it should match these criteria: - If the longest suit is 5 cards, then the hand should have 25+ points - If the longest suit is 6 cards, then the hand should have 23+ points - If the longest suit is 7+ cards, then the hand should have 21+ points I forget exactly what he used to define the points for suit length. That doesn't detract from my point: I agree with the upgrade, BUT the rebid should be 2NT showing 22-24. You have 8 tricks in hand and it's balanced.

So far, my luck has been crap. Our teammates us down once or twice, but what's killing me is a 35% slam, another <40% slam, and several <35% games were made by opps (all but one make even with perfect D). Good news is I exchanged a few words with Zia in an elevator, been surrounded by all the top pros, and once this bad luck is out of the way, I should hopefully place high in the Reds and repeat in NAP Flight C.

The reception wasn't too bad - they ended up combining the Juniors with the regular knockout, but it was a blast. I'm a little disappointed that Justin didn't show up, but I already talked to him on Friday, so it's all good. Also, I think a Strong Pass with a 1♣ or 1♦ fert should be allowed in Super Chart, it's not that bad to play against and it was fun as hell to play last night.

This seems to be a corollary to the thread. GIB pulled 1NT to 2♥ here. Is there an easy way to post full hands on BBF without using the hand editor? If someone would explain it to me, I'd greatly appreciate it.

What lindgm is referring to is 'x' - 12, as in the range from x to 12, and usually including both x and 12, and the same with 12 - 'x'. Even before I took up bridge, I've always taken 12- as 12 or less, and 12+ as 12 or more, so it's not special.

I'll be there, mostly for the KOs (if I wasn't playing with friends who are paying for everything, I wouldn't be going). I am also playing in the Red Ribbons, and trying to defend my Flight C NAP title.

My problem with it is that the K♠ is garbage, and I wish that we had a second honor, or at least 98x. If GIB can't discount honor cards in partner's suit on Defense, then I agree in bumping the required HCP up to at least 15 (though with 5+ Hearts and 2+ in 8421 points, you can tone it down to 13+ provided 1- 8421 points in Spades).

It is IMPs. I probably am wrong on this one based on the sim, but I would honestly have passed - I've run into WAY too many hands where partner's Support is garbage, and the 2nd suit is attacked immediately on opening lead and I suffer a Club ruff. I rarely super-accept over a 1NT or even a 2NT opening, but with the (21)22-24 HCP bal. hands I super-accept far more (though I bet it's still under 20%). Change the Q♦ to the Q♥, and it changes the hand enough to where I WOULD force to game no questions asked.

http://tinyurl.com/aa5h4be - I would transfer, but then I would Pass over 3♥, and resulting has nothing to do with it. If partner has a good hand, (s)he will super accept, and any other hand isn't good enough to go straight to game.

Basic robots for both hands: Hand 1 - Why is there no upper limit on my 3♥ overcall of 1NT? My hand is worth 13-14 points, but it really should be something like <10 HCP, 12-16 total points. Hand 2 - I agree that my 2NT overcall wasn't too bright, but I like to put GIB through its paces. My problem is why there was no pull of 4♥ - I implied shortness in the Majors, and it has 6 Diamonds! Of course, down 2 doubled isn't great, but it beats -590

You might be right in that I won't be running from 3♣ often. I wish I knew what was best, and with West passing despite a decent hand with 3-card support, I don't know. THIS HAND though, I despise the 4♠ bid. Why isn't there a 3♥ cuebid showing a LR or better? What would 2NT/3♣/3♦ show, and what should they show?

http://tinyurl.com/bl8kulo My description, as well as if I had bid 3♥, should show 5+ of the suit and 0-2 Clubs, NOT 0-4 Clubs and only 4+. On a side note, how come the Basic robots seem to defend very poorly, and not only defend poorly, but only for me? If my slow dial=up connection has anything to do with it, then that bites. If you don't believe me, then look up the hands from today, March 7.