TWPinDaHouse on AIM. usually free east coast weeknights.

bobman0330 on bbo, bobman5352 on aim. usually available east coast weeknights and at random times on weekends

ironyuppie57 = AIM
ironyuppie = BBO

AlternaG on BBO. Anyone in Detroit for the NABC?

KJ8653
2
Q
KJT92

w/w, playing with my gf against internet randoms. imps.

gf used to play a lot but hasn't played much for years. We tend to understand each other's bids pretty well. Standard American bidding.

RHO deals and passes. I pass? LHO opens 1 and RHO raises to 3. I bid 4, which has no assigned meaning, but I expect to be understood as a high-level Michaels. P responds (who didn't see this one coming) 5, which is doubled by RHO.

Questions:
1) Open? If so, what?
2) I feel pretty good competing over 3, but I'm not sure if 3 is better. Thoughts?
3) Do I pull p back to 5?

In your spot, I would have bid 5S. It just seems a lot better than 5DX (even though spades may also be doubled).

However, I would have also opened this hand 1S. You have 10 HCP (even though 2 is from a dead queen), and a pretty good club suit. The 6 spades are great. I would open 1S, to stop LHO from overcalling with an 11-point, 5 card heart suit. You can then bid your clubs, and rebid your spades, which should pretty much show your shape. You're dead if a red suit is trump, but you can take a lot of tricks with clubs or spades as trump.

Failure to open is bad. You have a six loser hand. Game is good opposite many flat six-counts. If you have a fit with partner, a double game swing could be in the offing.

At these colors, 1S is fine. 2S white/red, assuming you play this weak but not too weak. With an understanding partner at favorable you might bid 4S. OK, a very understanding partner. (I've done this in a very similar situation, with a pickup partner at a regional -- making 4S doubled with 11 HCP between the two hands. Partner was a bit nonplussed. Opps were more than a bit annoyed.)

Having failed to bid the first time, it's hard to do your hand justice in the second round, but 3S is close. Then when you then double 4H next round (which can't be penalty after you've shown spades but failed to open), it must show a second place to play. (Depending on partner -- with some players that double without the spade bid would be penalty, so you have to double 3H and then double 4H to get the takeout meaning. If it's undiscussed, I wouldn't go the doubling route.) But honestly, your 4H bid isn't bad.

Your partner's 5D bid means either that she has seven bad diamonds (they can't be good, or she'd have overcalled 3D), or that she is nuts. Her interpretation is, ahem, interesting, and you'd never figure it out at the table. Pass 5DX. She may even pull or redouble on her own, though that's unlikely. By the way, if partner needs to know your minor she bids 4NT -- that's why an immediate 5C or 5D is to play. (It's also almost certainly an error, but who knows.)

"Siegmund" on Swan and BBO. "engelnwald" on yahoo messenger. Not on AIM. Free weekends and late evenings.

1) I'd open this for sure. First choice 1, second choice 4. 1 has the advantage that you may still find a club fit.
2) I think it's a bit silly to pass first and then commit to the 4-level now that you have given opponents a chance to find their fit and strength. 3 is sort of OK -- it's clear you must have something weird because you are a passed hand.
Also 4 undiscussed is basically inviting disaster; this is not the time to invent artful bids.
3) Bid 5, it must be better than 5
Basically, I think 4 should show a 2-suiter in spades and a minor, so your partner now shows good diamonds and spade tolerance.

In the 4th quarter of yesterday's Vanderbilt final, a similar hand came up.

Vul: E/W
Dlr: N

KQ10543
Q9
106542
--

At both tables, North opened 4 and was down 1.

At least this gives you the expert opinion on a similar hand.

I've played a ton of bridge. It has too many problems with it as a game so I eventually quit after a year or so, till I pick it up again.

1. You have a partner. This sucks if because you have to play nice and can't get pissed off when they make mistakes. It also means there is tons of collusion between partners who have played together often, no matter how minor.
2. The vast majority of hands are boring.
3. Tons of luck even though it's duplicated. Hands that don't fit your system well, getting "fixed" by your opponents who overbid and landed in a lucky making contract, etc.
4. Ranking system is ******ed. It's basically a "who's played most" method rather than an actual measure of skill.
5. It's all old people. At 33 I'm still the youngest person in any club I step into. The ACBL doesn't seem to care (or at least do anything about it). Heck they don't even have a column or section devoted to young players in their magazine.

Given all that I've had some great times playing bridge and met many very nice people.

1 is a horrible overbid because the hand has no defensive values. I think most players would open 2.

OK, I hate people who list a convention in their BBO profile, and then don't know how to play it. If you list gerber, please don't reply 4 when you have the two aces I'm looking for

Note:

Most people have stuff listed in their convention card that they have no clue what it means.

I responded to a Jacoby 2NT by bidding a singleton, and got left there.

All you can do is laugh and move on to the next hand.

If 4H should show what he has, then it's not so bad to bid it undiscussed, if you have a thinking partner. Of course, in this case it seems he didn't.

Re 5D showing good diamonds and spade tolerance: (1) How good can the diamonds be, if pard neglected to jump-overcall at her last turn? KJxxxx? KT9xxxx? Each is an overcall opposite a passed partner, particularly with only three (or fewer) hearts. (2) If pard has spade tolerance, 4S is a much smarter bid, unless she is so weak she expects a 5H call and plans 5S over this, and is showing diamonds to help you evaluate competing further. Seems unlikely, and you'll know soon enough if you pass. It seems you're pretty much playing her for T9 xxx KT9xxx xx, which is an awfully narrow target and still a bad bid. Remember, she can't have much in spades, the opps have told us she can't have more than 3H and may have two, and she can't have much in clubs, three dead at most, else 4NT was a much better bid by her. But she didn't bid 3D, so the diamonds are horrible. Hence, those diamonds are long and weak, and worthless unless they're trump (because they can't be set up and then reached). Pass.

-1100 is not unlikely, but you'll do worse in spades if you run into a spade stack, and are unlikely to do better unless pard has at least Tx and they break. Also, it looks like opps can make 6H (or more), so this might be only a 5-or-so IMP swing.

I think most players would pass. But then most players aren't very good.

1S is a horrible overbid only if your partner expects defense with your one-level openings. If she does, you need to open 2S, and consider showing the clubs later. 4S would make sense in third seat, or maybe first, but not second.

2 is extremely horrible IMO. Your hand just has way too many tricks for that. I suspect that 4 is the majority choice among experts, at least in Europe (American bidding is generally much more conservative).

The reason I open this 1 is that I have an easy 2 rebid after 1NT, the most likely response. Over 2-anything, I have an easy 2 rebid.

If opponents compete, I regret I haven't opened 4, but I'm still not hopeless.


(BTW: I'm in Holland, where bridge is promoted more sensibly than in the USA, but it's still an old people's game -- at 45 I'm still one of the younger players at my club. At serious tournament level, there are more younger players though.)

Note that here the hand in question is held by the dealer -- it's a better 4S bid when first to act than in second chair. Also the vulnerability differs, in a way to make 4S look better. I'm not saying it's not relevantly similar -- it is -- I'm only pointing out that these differences could easily change what call is optimal.

For what it's worth, I think the hand you gave is a trivially easy 4S bid, while the first one is tougher to judge (but there's no good argument for passing it). Incidentally, the reason I don't like 4S when second to act is that it makes slam bidding too difficult.

I agree. I think this hand is a much easier 4 call in first chair w/r than the hand in question is in second chair w/w. I'm actually inclined to open the bidding 1 with this (6-loser) hand to see what partner's got. If opps get involved, I can take a more unilateral action, but I don't like shutting partner out of the bidding with this hand; we could easily have 6 or better.

There's problems with every bid. 4 has some merit but the issue there is that the spade suit is very weak. You could easily be down 5+ tricks facing a singleton from partner. The problem with 1 is that you have no defensive values and opposite a misfit (very likely) you'll end up being in a horrible contract. It's also highly likely that the opponents will compete. You have 8 HCP and an unbalanced hand and you're going to be hard pressed to limit your hand in the face of competition without giving up completely. 2 isn't perfect by any means (or this discussion wouldn't be happening) but at least it limits your hand. You're not going to be missing game if your partner has a good fit in spades and it will prevent your partner from making the wrong competitive judgement when the bidding hits the 4-level.

Also worth mentioning is that shooting out 4 is primarily an option only at IMPs because the game bonus has a higher value (non-numerical) than in matchpoints or rubber play.

I should also point out that the hand doesn't actually have very many tricks. Sure, if there's a fit there might be plenty but that has yet to be determined. Both suits are very weak and may produce as little as 0 tricks.

It's not a 6-loser hand because you have no fit with partner yet. If your 6-card suit was very strong and could play well vs. a singleton or void from partner, you might have a case for counting losers but you don't.

Also, to hit 6 takes a pretty good hand from partner. One that you will get to 6 pretty much no matter what you open. He has to have at least 3 aces and the Q of the trump suit plus a doubleton or the Q in the other suit to have a chance.

A
Axxx
xxxx
AQxx

is still not a sure thing for 6 (though it would be odds-on) because if clubs split 3-1 and spades split 4-2 you'd be in a bad spot.

Anyone up for a game in 20 minutes?

Have you been to your local bridge club lately? Your location says Anchorage. I'm younger than you, and I come down there to play in your tournaments. Stasia is younger and cuter than either of us, and directs your Saturday afternoon 199er game.

Maybe if you opened 1 (my choice every time) or 4 rather than two on that crazy 6-5 hand, you'd not have so much trouble with screaming partners, eh?

^^ He also thinks the "vast majority" of bridge deals are boring. I don't think there's much hope.

Meanwhile, you have a young, cute, female director? I might need to visit Alaska.

Thanks for the comments. The consensus seems to be 1S > 4S >> 2S/pass.

If we weaken the hand a bit to, say, KJxxxx x x JTxxxx, would everyone then be comfortable with 2S? What would you bid with Kxxxxx x x KJTxx? Does the Qd play any role at all in your decision?

I am an enthusiast, but not an expert, so take what I say with a grain of salt . An expert friend of mine is "never opening 1S because of no defensive values"; his vote is 2S with a plan to bid clubs later.