Jinksy

Can you not play Rubensohl in that situation when you're an unpassed hand? Playing Leb you'd have to choose between GF and not GF, playing Rub you do the same. As a passed hand it seems a bit different, since you might still want to partition your hand into 'slightly sub GF' and 'no interest in game at all' without committing the partnership past the three level. On a normal Leb auction as above, what's the difference between overcaller bidding 3S directly and X P 2N P 3S?

Why is 4D serious CB? If partner's limited, it seems like it would be more useful as natural.

I would assume that much, but it still leaves in question how big the big hand is. I can't have partner passing because he thinks I have a 19-21ish count and he doesn’t have enough for game. Given what PhilKing thinks about 2S being right on the hand he had, there’s at least some possibility he has a very wide range, sufficient that 3S might be an invite.

We had 'basic Dixon' in the sense that the X had a specific range, other bids natural and limited.

Nice list :P 'Stolen bid'?

I don't normally like to fight my corner in ATB threads, since if my P's not here to defend himself it seems a bit cheap. But the comments that I should have made a forcing bid are almost as unhelpful as the comment that I should have had an agreed system. Had I any confident notion of what my partner would take as forcing, I obviously would have done. But for all I knew, 3C, 3S or any other would have been passed out, jumps in new suits might have been taken as splinter, EKCB or natural GF with the suit, or natural with a solid holding in the suit etc. That's what undiscussed means. So my realistic choices of bid were 4S, 4N, 5S (no idea what it would mean), 5N (ditto, though probably agreeing Ss, or at least not denying them) and 6S. Maybe something creative that might just help tell P what I want and is unlikely to go horribly wrong (4C, not caring too much if it's shortage or length?)

What's your definition of a balanced hand? Does this agreement not risk a passout at these colours? No-one has any idea where the Ds are (unless opener is sitting on a side suit stack), but given that you've got game at the absolute min, it seems like good odds for him.

[hv=pc=n&s=sakj97ha8d85cakq3&n=st8653h42dakqc872&d=w&v=n&b=12&a=pp2ddp2sp6sppp]266|200|[/hv] (couldn't see how to alert bids in the diagram. 2D is multi, I think usual weak major or strong balanced. Double is 13-15 balanced or 19+) Playing in a relatively new partnership with a P around my level - we've got quite an involved system elsewhere, but all we'd discussed over the multi is the meaning of the initial X, and takeout Xes of their paradox bids. So this was the auction - please assign the blame. (eta)Actually I’ll come out as S since I think this is a bit unfair on my P – if my jump to 6 had hit small Ds opposite, we’d be having quite a different conversation. So let’s just make this a request to Assess the Bidding (which I’m now guessing was the original meaning of the acronym…)

To what end? I’m not interested in game, so I bid the contract I think I can make and let the opponents worry about whether it’s their hand or not. Obviously not in first or second, but that’s why I’m raising the question – opposite a passed hand, pre-empts can be somewhat heavier than usual. It wouldn’t have occurred to me to double for that reason before, but the situation seems comparable here.

Would that go for lower level preempts, to? Eg in third seat would you open 2H with something like xx AQTxxx KJx Qx and then X if LHO overcalls and it's passed back around to you?

I'll rephrase: C lead let it through.

If partner has that hand, either RHO has made a very heavy preempt or LHO got one of his aces stuck to the back of another card.

Knocking up to hopefully provoke more discussion - I should have added 'and why?' to the poll options

Hm, I'm in good company at least. AH beats it, C lets it through. Hands not quite what I expected from the bidding. xx Jx Axxxx AQTx opposite AKJTx Kx Qx 87xx

Reasonably competent. Expect them to bid to the right place give or take a trick on most hands and not misplay too savagely. More than that I don't know.

Undiscussed after this specific intervention, but usually natural weak. Can't believe I missed that :blink: Edited in as an option (or rather as two).

Am I he only one even tempted by the JC? On MickyB's method's, P could systemically be (233)5 (maybe 2245? not sure about that), so Cs looks most likely to be his 5 card suit. This contract doesn't look like it's going off on a passive defence...

You have 92 J9763 - KJ8642 Teams, at white, playing against average club opps. Bidding so far: P 1N* 2D** *a mini NT (10-poor 13, can systemically include a singleton if 4441 and max. 5422s 10-11s not mandatory to open, but fairly often will be at these colours) ** Ss and a minor, 'should have 5S' Double from you would be takeout, everything else Rubensohl FASS (2N showing Cs, 3C showing Ds etc) What's your plan for this auction? (See poll)

Assuming you're playing a fairly standard system, so opener's rebid is a splinter. Obviously you can agree to play it GF or inv+ - is there a consensus as to which is better?

The bidding: 1S* 2H** 3H 4C*** 4D 4N 5C 5D 6C 6H * Fantunes style (but without the weak with Hs option), F1 and 14+ ** GF *** 1st or second round cue bypassing Frivolous 3N, ie extra strength. Rest standard

Why? By the time you've seen 1 card in one hand and two in another, surely there's only two remaining possible layouts, one of which (if the question is relevant) you'll pick up by playing for a drop, one of which you'll pick up by finessing. In the case of leading running an intermediate through the Q, if you lose to the J on the first round (and don't see the K) it's trivial that you have to play the A on the second.

You mean if your partner Xes?

But you’re probably planning to play small from dummy anyway and then cash the AH if you lose to the J, so when is this gaining? I think Han is right about chances – you lose to stiff J, or either KJx with E playing this way. On the actual hand, small to AH seems to have the added advantage of bringing trumps in for no losers when E has stiff K, which gives you a lot more wiggle-room in the black suits as well as cutting down possible ruffs.

If they really do all pick up 12 combinations then, ignoring communication issues, am I right in thinking that the ones the pick up the more even distributions would be fractionally better, since on empty spaces eg 2-2 splits are marginally more frequent than 6 times in 16 (and conditional on a worse split, 3-1s are marginally more likely than 8 times in 10) on the full hand? Was after the reasoning, but I think I've satisfied myself of it now.

Further question – what is the best line of play for one loser in this trump suit? I was going over them as systematically as I could while I should have been sleeping last night, and assuming equal likelihood of all 16 H distributions, all lines I thought about (small-A, small-T planning to cash the A, run the Q planning to cash the A) seemed to be basically equivalent, each working on exactly 12 distributions. Cashing the A first also gives a 1/16 chance of picking the suit up for no losers, which might be helpful on this hand, but I’m more interested in the 1-loser line, since it feels pretty implausible a priori that they’re really all the same.