Jinksy

Not with this partner. It would be an automatic Fantunes 2S.

Ok, so by 'strength', we're taking something in the vicinity of 10+? Is that enough to push on with a misfit and two aces?

Has he? Aren’t 1S and 2S basically just showing good Ss and better Ss? :blink:

The normal alternative in Fantunes is to have 5-4 major hands open at the one level, on the theory that you can lose a fit in the other major too easily otherwise. My partner and I both decided that did more damage than it was worth to our constructive auctions. The range of 2-bid openings is nominally 10-13 (min 5431 distribution), so we decided to try only opening the ones that would make a positive (ie 12-13) rebid after a feature ask. So you might decide this was worth giving a positive response to, which might be a different question to whether you agree with the system. I think I agree with my P's pass though, since you don't have much playing strength to offer if he doesn't show up with a decent major fit, and you don't particularly mind defending if it comes to that. With another P I have the agreement that we open them all if NV (and third and 4th you can open them on a much wider variety of hands), only following the 'no side major' restriction if vul. So far both agreements seem to have worked pretty well.

2H, though you might still pass the first one.

[hv=pc=n&s=sqt63hqdqt532cq96&n=sk972ha9842da74ct]133|200[/hv] This hand's caused a bit of controversy between me and my P. The bidding, (teams) goes P P* 1C** 2D X 4D P P P * On our current system is that we have to pass 10-11 counts with 5-4 in the majors. If we wanted to upgrade, the bid would be 2H (1H showing a significantly stronger hand) **I think 1C promised 4+, but I can't remember for sure. First Q: Is 2D off the planet? We have the agreement that preempts opposite a passed hand are wide-ranging Second Q: What do you make of 4Ds, and the various alternatives? (2H not discussed in this sequence. After P P 2D(nat) P, it would just be to play, nonconstructive, and 2N or 3C would be constructive showing a max pass and good fit)

Do you know their reasoning? Like everyone else here I led a trump, and (for others' benefit) a S lead was the only way to set it.

[hv=pc=n&w=sat98632h8654dcat&e=skqj75haqjdat5cj7&d=s&v=n&b=15&a=p3sp4sppp]266|200[/hv] We hadn't discussed much about our style in 2nd seat. Elsewhere our preempts are quite aggressive. No methods available over 3S. 4m would be natural and F1.

It works on the actual layout, but conceivably (based on what I've told you) W could have Kxx in D and still get his ruff. Doubt there's much you can sanely do to guard against that, though (AD AKH in case of QH dropping (which it does), risking a 2nd round ruff?).

I would guess E plays a small S. W now puts in the K. It loses, W cashes the KS, plays a small C to the T, E plays third S which west ruffs for the setting trick. This is on the actual hand, obviously – it doesn’t necessarily show what the best line is.

I don't remember NT range from their card. Neither of us asked during the auction. I think W had a 14 count, though IIRC they weren't a particularly good team, which usually means playing weak NT in this country, so given that they had a reasonable 5-card C suit and AQx in Ss, they might have been playing either, perhaps planning to rebid 2C. Amber = all vul.

Best line on this hand? A972 KJT8 J75 52 Q43 A7 AQT842 76 Bidding (unopposed, both vul, N dealer) P 1D* 1H** 2D 2N 3D *F1 and unbalanced, 14+ points **1H nat, unlimited EW I later learned were very strong. W leads the KC (standard leads), overtaken by the AC. E returns the JS. Take the reigns.

1) ATB: KJT9632 KQJ2 x x opposite x A98 AJT8x JTxx Vul is amber, bidding goes (W dealer): 1C 1S X P 1N 2S P P P 2) ATB - or is this just bad luck? EW vul N has AKJ KQ8 K987 J83 opposite QT82 AJ7 JT63 74 E deals and passes, the constructive sequence then goes P 1C* 1H** 1N*** 2N 3N * natural or any balanced (without 5-card major), with 14+ points or 15+ if balanced ** Ss and 5+ points *** 15- bad 18 and <4 Ss

[ETA - Questions split into multiple threads per gszes' suggestion] Got a number of board requiring judgement of the BBO court from the EBU easter congress (all teams IMP scoring). You're S where relevant. 1) Q92 8 AKQJ KT985 Third in, at red, you hear Pass 4H. X just shows 'values' with no specific agreement about whether it's takeout or penalty oriented. Do you X? Do you believe in having such an agreement at this level? Would you X if you'd agreed it was a) Takeout oriented b) Penalty oriented ? 2) E deals (NS vul) and opens, and the constructive sequence goes 1N* 2C 2H 4H * 15-17 You hold K84 T74 Q76 AT74 What do you lead? 3) Simple judgment Q: A KTxx Q9xx AK8x At red, P opens a regular weak 2S, passed to you. Do you invite, pass, or other?

I discussed the second hand with MickyB, saying I was concerned about the weakness of the H stopper for NT. His response was that though it’s not ideal, having towards the upper end of the range for your bid compensates. I wanted to ask a further question about that reasoning, but he had to go before I get the chance: If partner invites after your NT overcall, given that you’ve already ‘bid’ those extra points to justify the NT call in the first place, does that mean you’ll then turn down the invitation? If not, what explains the apparent inconsistency?

On the first board, ATB: xx 9xx AKJT AKxx vs Txxx AKTxxx x Jx N dealt, and the bidding was constructive: 1N (15-17) 2D 2H 3H P Atb. Possible relevant considerations: We had Smolen available 2S over 2H undiscussed Opener can xfer break naturally with a max, or a direct 4H bid to show min with 4 card support and a ruffing value On the second board, two questions: 1) You hold Q7 KJ Axxx AQJT8 Teams, love all. Dealer is to your right, and opens 1H. Your call? 2) Another ATB. At the table, the call was X. LHO bid 3H, P bid 4S, which I think was passed out. P's hand was J9863 x K K97xxx This fared poorly when opener showed up with 5611 dist. Any blame? Or reasonable bidding by both and bad luck?

How would you understand the final bids in the following sequences, sans in-depth system discussion, playing 2/1 GF with a 26ish YO partner: P P 1H 1S 2S X 3S 1D 1S X 2S P P X P 2N 1D P 2S(weak) P P X P P XX (if it matters, scoring is IMPs)

Very helpful, thanks both.

I've got a rubber match this evening, which is a first for me, and I really know nothing about how the odds of bidding change from IMPs. Are there any significant differences, eg of when to bid vul vs NV games (seems like they might be closer), when to sacrifice, when to bid slam, how much to allow denomination change because of 100 honours etc? Obviously this needs to be the kind of info one can digest from a forum in a short amount of time...

The argument would be that if they're in that situation you should be hunting penalties, and a forcing pass would no doubt help with that.

I was discussing this with a couple of regular Ps recently (none of us as good as the theorists on this forum though), and it felt to me like if both partners have made a positive noise, one of them suggesting penalties (typically after auctions like 1a X XX), pass must be forcing, since we’re pretty confident it’s our contract, but that on auctions like this, where one person has made a competitive takeout double and the other, having to do something, has chosen to pass, the situation is quite different. Occasionally partner will be passing with a hand so horrible he expects them to make, but expects to take even more damage by pulling and getting doubled. More often he’ll pass with a hand where he doesn’t really know what’s going to happen, but that has no better denomination to play in than theirs, so he just hopes for the best. In either case if they rescue us from the auction, it seems like we want to be able to stay rescued, especially after auctions like this one, where opener have a monster, and doubler might be protecting on fairly shapely junk out of an aversion to leaving them in 1 of a suit.

Our what are what? :blink:

Does that mean after the initial passed out double, N's pass is forcing?

Is there a name for that convention?

Ah... do you do with a GF shapely hand then? Do you just have to jump/cue and start showing your suits at the 4 level?