With 4 losers I'd feel obligated to start with 1C playing Precision. Playing SA I'd start with 1S and enthusiastically bid diamonds forever after.

The books say to open such hands 1D in SA, but in real life partner never believes you have 5 spades if you do that.

Assuming I'm still in the area at that point, I'm definitely in for a game with any of this group.


Get better real life partners imo.

Yeah, I'll definitley be free to play with anyone in the first half of the NABC event with anyone.

i am in

How do people defend against 2C? Specifically, at r/w MPs, RHO deals and opens 2C. What is your action with 8 432 AQ543 KQJ2?

if it's just a standard pure strength 2c i'd just leave it as it'd tip off where all the outstanding strength is and hope they get into a bad game. if it's one of those multipurpose fancy things, then meh, i don't like overcalling with anything on that hand.

will be on bbo momentarily if anyone wants a quick half hour session before MOTD

if anyone wants to play a session tonight pm me!

I will play

it'd be so much better if i'm not so tired when you get home lol. east cost west coast so bad. but i will drink a lot of caffeine tonight

Thats ok. Even when tired, you play very well.

the one interesting hand that we had (11 hands, they declare 10...)

w/r imps

s: Q97652
h: J8743
d: Q
c: 2

me lho zhao rho
p - 1d - X - 3d(weak)

now what? i was torn between passing, abusing conventions and trying to show majors with 4d, or 3s

I'd have bid 4D some days, 4S the others. The problem with 4S is that there enough high cards unaccounted for that Z may have a big hand without true spade support.

Opposite some players (e.g., me) 4S is safe, and best.

If playing responsive doubles, you could X and raise. 4D should also get the point across, but I think bidding a simple 4S is best. At these colors, there is a decent chance that opps will bid 5D, and at least I can get across my spade length before they do. It may help partner with the 5 level decision.

I would bid 4D. That said, zhao's bidding doesn't make sense with any hand.

Sure it does:

Jx
AKx
AJx
AKJTx

yea i think i had something like that. i was playing poker at same time. i think i had 1 spade and 4 hearts AK. clubs were AKQxx i think.

At those colors, pass.

However, you need to have a gun in your holster for more favorable situations. One system that's reasonable is suction, with which you can show all one- and two-suiters:

• Bidding clubs = diamonds, or majors
• diamonds = hearts, or spades + clubs
• hearts = spades, or minors
• spades = clubs, or diamonds and hearts
• Notrump = clubs and hearts, or diamonds and spades

Over the suit bids partner normally relays with the next step up in case you have the one-suiter. The level you each bid to is shape- and vulnerability-dependent.

It's good to use this with shapely hands at favorable vulnerability, because a surprising number of average pairs are poor at dealing with interfernce in artificial auctions. However, it suffers from the problem that you can never play in the suit that's actually bid, so responder can make a card-showing double. Accordingly, I recommend instead using a more aggressive variant called inverted psycho suction, in which each suit bid = the suit bid and the next suit up, or the one above that. Partner often takes preference (including false preference) to the next suit up, but over a double it can be passed around when partner tolerates the bid suit. Very nasty to deal with.

(Incidentally, I've used inverted psycho suction against the Hammans, for a pushed board -- they handled it fine -- but they were mildy surprised to encounter it.)

Use this, or whatever else you decide on, over all artificial strong (defined as always 16+ or equivalent) bids, and artificial replies thereto, that do not show shape -- using it when one or the other opponent has shown his shape is suicidal.

Also, over a precision club, make the modification that 3NT is natural -- it's possible to have that hand. You could also play that all bids of 3NT and above are natural.

Two other systems you will see recommended are Cappelletti and DONT. Neither defines your suits as accurately, and with Cappelletti the double is wasted (because even if you had that hand, you wouldn't double with it).

Observe that it is not legal in most ACBL events to use either suction or the variant over a notrump opening, though at least one district in California routinely makes an exception to that rule in regional events.

As of a few years ago, 17, 18, 20, 21, and 22 (all of the western US except WA and AK) allowed mid-chart defences to 1NT. Not sure if that's still the case or not. We had quite a few director calls at District 19 regionals for illegal conventions because so many people were used to using them elsewhere.

You certainly do need some sort of structure. Incidentally I rate Suction as a particularly bad choice against strong opponents, who will know how to make use of their multitude of chances to double or not double. My own preference is some variant of CRASH, with 2M+ natural.

The more general question -- "my opponents are playing a convention I have never heard of before, how do I cope with it?" -- is one of the biggest holes in most Americans' bidding methods. By all means, plug the leak, rather than asking to have everything you don't like banned

Ban all conventions. Make every bid natural

I also encountered the problem at the Vegas nationals several years back -- people didn't even realize they were using a midchart convention (it was suction over a 1NT opening.)

It's true suction itself is suboptimal over artificial strong bids, but the version I use is powerful and effective, trust me.

Most players in ACBLland have no need for this, because they do not encounter significantly different conventions except in auctions for which they have general rules. Sad but true.

Note how I stated my advice for when to use inverted psycho suction: I delimited exactly (actually I left out a couple very small details) the conditions under which it should apply. Too few pairs do such things.

This happened in a club game today. R/W MPs

K 7
K J 4
K Q 8 5 3
A J 9

Partner deals and opens 4. RHO passes, and I decide to pass (since we agreed that partner is not going to hold two first round controls with her pre-empt). LHO overcalls 4, which passes back to me.

What's the bid here? Doubling is an all right option, since my hand is loaded with defense. The problem is that I don't know where we can find four tricks. We might get a heart, potentially a spade, a club, and maybe a diamond, but that would be really lucky. We might even be able to get another club, but even getting four of those five seems unlikey.

Then, I can also bid 5. We'd lose the pointy aces, and potentially more, and the lead would come through me. Doubled an vulnerable, I could see us going down 1 fairly often too.

Or, I can puss out an pass. Which bid is least bad?

4 spades is almost certainly going to be a make (there's very little chance you get a spade trick), so pass and double are out. They can't double you in 5H, so that's going to be -200 at worst.

However, my bid (opposite a reasonably intelligent partner) would be 4NT. Really I want this to be to play. I expect a spade lead which will hand me my 10th top trick. However, if partner happens to interpret this as some kind of "I want to play in a minor or maybe hearts" bid, that's OK. I'll just correct whatever she bids to 5H, so it can't ever cost. Obviously my 4NT can't be any kind of slam try in view of my initial pass.

I'm bidding 5. I thought about 5 to let partner help in judging when they go on to 5, but I don't really want that: I will just double that.
Chris's 4NT is interesting, but I don't see 10 quick tricks even with a spade lead -- unless you're sure partner has 8 hearts, than it's OK.

It's R/W, so in any partnership I've played in partner guarantees 8 hearts.

Edit: Also if I thought there was very little possibility I would be left in 4NT, I would just bid 5H, because 4NT will somewhat inhibit the opponents from going to 5S.