chasetb

I'm definitely interested in playing with you on the 14th or 15th - the other day I'm going to try and be a vugraph operator. I like Precision and would more than willing to teach and practice it. It sounds like we would DESTROY Flight C and probably B as well, I have the same issues as you with age and MPs.

I think JLall said in an earlier thread that "system made no difference on ANY of the deals" in his Platinum Pairs win with Bob Hamman. Look at past NABC results, and you will see quite a few scratch partnerships winning these pairs events, as well as a few players whom you have never heard of. Don't forget that luck plays a role in pairs events as well, though with Justin and Bob, they don't need nearly as much luck as most of us in order to win.

We have a great 16 with a Diamond suit that can be set up, or make life miserable for the opponents in NT, so I follow Mike and Justin with a clear 2NT. 3♦ is only slightly better than 1NT, but I hate any option other than 2NT.

I would maybe move 1♥ up to include most 16s and a few very REALLY bad 17s where you are short in Spades, but most 17s and any 18 is a tad silly. I also don't like the 1♥ relay, natural hands with 5+ or 4 with a longer minor come up WAY too much, and not every balanced hand with 5 Hearts should have to rebid 1NT and hide the suit. Now, if you were talking about making 1♦ be up to 18 or 19, then I can agree with that, and have toyed with it (just mental thinking though). To the normal nebulous 1♦ (2+), I would add 16-18 hands with: 6+ Diamonds, both minors, 5+ Diamond - 4 Heart hands (or a REALLY bad 5) with shortness in Spades. This releases a lot of tension from the 1♣ - 1♦; 2♦, and creates the possibility of utilizing it for multiple hand types, like the minors any strength, a GF balanced hand, etc.

I didn't see Weep with Frustration before I voted, otherwise I might have voted that. Pre-empts sometimes work, but occasionally they also keep you out of a game that was going down.

In a home game today, almost this exact hand literally came up (no, it wasn't with Jill). Here's how things went (dummy was so close to this, I just used the hand Jill provided; I was East): [hv=pc=n&s=st8h8762dkt4ckq52&w=s9764h4d853caj964&n=sakj3hqj9daq97ct7&e=sq52hakt53dj62c83&d=n&v=0&b=1&a=1np2cd2sp2np3nppp&p=h5h2h4hjd7d2dkd3sts4s3]399|300|Down 2 ![/hv]

This. Also, you should be playing that 2♠ is an Intermediate Jump Shift, which makes 3♠ stand out even more.

I vote for 1NT. There's no way I can double on this hand, and while I fully understand Pass, my partners never play me for 15 HCP, let alone 13 or 14 HCP if I pass the first time. It's also a bidder's game, so I will try to scare my opponents out of a possible game their way if it exists. EDIT - Now, move a Diamond honor to the Heart suit, and then I hate all my options, Pass probably being the least disgusting of them all. Then I KNOW partner will have the minors and shortness in the Majors, so I'll give the opponents a little rope and hope they hang themselves.

This is the classic 'Death Hand'. I wouldn't have thought of 1NT, but it does cover everything on this hand except a transfer to Diamonds. What would be extremely useful on this hand is Mexican 2♦ opening, which would free up a 2NT rebid to show either this hand or any hand 15+ HCP with 4-5 card support and a 5+ card suit (of course, the Club suit can't be 6+ and solid, otherwise you would have rebid 4♣). I wonder how well it could work if you used 2♦ here (by opener) as either a hand with support like above, or a 2NT rebid hand, and use 2NT as the reverse with Diamonds.

Siegmund, it sounds like you and I need to team up and play against straube and foobar. I'm tired of random pick-up partners and beating down GIB, and learning a thing or two about the Polish Club would be good for me. I know the basics, but I'm sure there are plenty of subtleties and a few common treatments that I don't know about.

Frances, I don't know about you but I have the agreement with partner that over interference we don't splinter in suits that haven't been shown. This comes up most often in the example 1♥ - (2♣) , where 4♣ by responder is a splinter and 3♠ / 4♦ are Fit-showing raises. Since a jump to 4♣ is impossible for a FSJ in the given auction, I would take it as a freak with the minors (they are going to bid Spades like crazy). Another reason for not using 4♣ as a splinter is because partner won't appreciate his hand nearly as much. Just cuebid 2♠, and save the room that 3♠ wastes. Besides, I use a treatment that here, 3♠ is a puppet to 3NT to play (thanks to JLall). You could also throw other type GF raises in here as well if you aren't afraid of memory issues. Of course, this is all moot because I will open this hand 1♥. I play 5-card Majors, and KJ9xx is clearly a biddable suit.

There have been a few thread about Support Doubles on here in the past, the consensus was they are made on minimum-type hands that have 3 good trump (would have raised if Support X wasn't played), and don't have great defense against the suit opponents interfered with. I didn't see this thread before Fluffy showed partner's hand, but I would have bid 2♥. Queens and Jacks are overvalued in suit contracts, and we don't have great shape. Also, 1♣ hasn't been a real suit since the 1950s, if you believe Edgar Kaplan (which I do, since I play Precision with the nebulous 1♦).

I have to add that 13+ points is WAY TOO LOW - using some advice from Mike Lawrence as well as some experience, 13+ total points should only be for 1-level through 2♦, 15+ for 2♥ through 3♦, 17+ for 3♥ through 4♦, and so on and so forth.

First off, a quote from a BridgeWinners post: "7-5, I'm taking the dive". Second, I honestly could never play with West again, sorry mate. Even if you swapped Diamonds and Spades, I would still support partner. Third, saying it's a 5-loser hand is a tad optimistic, but 3♦ is also very pessimistic. That Heart suit is pretty ratty, I would just bid 2♦ planning on rebidding 3♦.

In a club game last summer, I opened 1♣ (16+) in 1st seat... or so I thought. Turns out I was in 4th seat, and barred my partner from the auction after opponents refused my bid. So 3 passes to me, and I just bid 3NT on my balanced 19. I made 5, but it turned out that 6♥ was makeable, so I was near bottom.

You all are forgetting that these people tried to implement a policy that would have greatly reduced the amount of discounted entry fees that the Junior bridge players get at NABCs in order to save $10,000 a year, when by simply raising every ACBL membership by 10 cents a year "for the Juniors, for bridge's future" would cover that and then some. This just doesn't seem well thought-out, because it 'punishes' anyone not from the Eastern Time Zone as well as us college kids by changing the times like that.

I follow the Mike Lawrence way - partner expected us to have 7 HCP, we have 9. I'll give an extra point to the King singleton, for 10 points. We only have 3-card support, and I always expect RHO to have 4 trump. Therefore, I bid only 3♠, though I am a maximum for it. 3♥ should promise a 4th trump (or 13+ points), and 4♠ is more of a distributional bid.

I would love to play, but I'm trying to get a friend the gold she needs to become a Life Master this weekend, then celebrating my brother's HS graduation the week after.

I will say that Stansby-Martel played a Weak NT except at 3rd seat Vul, but that didn't stop them from getting doubled by Grue-Lall and going -800 during the 2011 Bermuda Bowl. Personally, I play the same NT ranges that Straube does, but I have the agreement that 14-16 is strong. There's been a discussion about NT ranges before on these forums, while they were talking about Precision it applies here as well. EDIT : the -800 was a 3rd seat Vul 1NT opening

Suitplay says missing the AKT98, always finesse the Q or J. Missing the AKT9x, you should still finesse for MAX tricks, but you can choose between finessing and hoping to drop a singleton A or K. Missing the AKT62, again finessing produces MAX, but either finessing against the 6 or ducking guarantees 4 tricks. I can't help much more than that, but I do recommend downloading suitplay - www.suitplay.com

If you want something simple, take a 2/1 system, make a 1♣ opening Forcing and throw all the Strong hands in it, and make 2♣ opener 10-14 HCP, 6+ ♣ . Over the 1♣ opener, 1♦ would have a negative in it like 0-5 (could put other hands into it of course), and other bids would be positive and generally natural. If I put a few minutes into it, I bet I could have a decent structure that wouldn't be a burden on the memory.

You need at least 8 HCP for a Limit Raise, so this clearly doesn't qualify. 3♠ seems an underbid - I would bid 4♠. We might owe partner another Spade, but that Club suit and the ruffing values has me thinking we make it.

Is This what you are looking for? Or maybe it's This? Seriously, have people gotten THAT lazy where they won't do a simple search, like 'Slawinski leads + bridge'???

Double post.

While I don't play Snapdragon, I would go with honor-doubleton in partner's suit, and generally a decent 5-card suit. However, unlike some other people, I would also do it with 3 baby cards in partner's suit if balanced, and/or a weakish 6-card suit. I would say you should have a minimum of 7 HCP, but where the honors are and the spot cards are more important than outright HCP.