[Free]

If you dont even open that hand 2♥, what in the world do you need to bid? 37HCP with a perfect 4333 distribution??? With that hand I open 3♥ btw, so 2♥ is a very sound weak-2 opening (also not my style )... I also don't get the point why 3♠ is that horrible. NV I'd open 3♠, so why not bid after partner bid as well? You still have some ♣-support, so it won't kill you. It's not being blind, it's 'counting losers' and 'GOOD evaluation of the hand', not that hard, trust me!

[Trpltrbl]

Yor pd overcalled 3♣, you have a good if not perfect 6 card ♠ suit and support for pd's overcalled suit and a outside Ace. what in the world does your pd overcall with that you won't even try for game??????
maybe nobody trust their pd anymore, this discussion is a waste of time...............

Mike

[Cascade]

luis, on Feb 20 2004, 09:48 AM, said:

Defending against a dummy with a good suit and no side entries second hand hight is usually the right play and
can produce some unexpected tricks for your side.

AKJxxx
Qx  Txx
xx

Declarer leads low towards dummy, if you insert the Q declarer may play you for the singleton Q and duck so he
can run the suit next even when your pd has Txxx. Same with Qxx, but more fun.

Curiously when dummy has one more spot card and you have QT9x you should play the same false card trying to convince declarer to take the Ace on the first round.

Here is the suit

---

Wayne

[inquiry]

Here is an appropriate one for this thread.

Scoring: IMP

---

West    North   East    South
                Pass    1♥      
4♠      5♥!     Dbl     Pass    
5♠      6♥      Pass    Pass    
Dbl     Pass    Pass    Pass    

DBL of 5♥ was "don't bid 5♠, a pass would have been forcing. West opens with the ♠ACE. Plan your line of play?

[Free]

throw ♠K to avoid a ruff?

[Trpltrbl]

I am screwed, I can only try to play the 9 of ♠ and hopefully they have singleton ♠ and put defenders for a guess. Not much of guess imo, but who knows, you might get lucky. I really don't see the problem. Only possible switch they can think about is the ♣ switch.

Mike

[helium]

Free, on Feb 24 2004, 06:57 AM, said:

Just thinking about a falsecard situation my partner learned me, and which works only against good players:

You're playing in TRUMPS, the suit is not the trump suit, you KNOW that the finesse won't work, and you still have some entry in dummy.  This is a possible setup:

Dealer: ????? Vul: ???? Scoring: Unknown

♠ A ♥   ♦ AQx ♣   ♠   ♥   ♦   ♣   ♠   ♥   ♦ Kxx ♣   ♠ x ♥   ♦ Jx ♣

North is dummy, trump suit is ♠

How will you ever be able to play ♦ without a loser?  Play small to the Ace and small back to the Jack.  RHO will be scared of giving ♦Q away when he takes ♦K now (in case you were singleton), so he might play small, and then you can give him a smile and cash your Jack 

Remark: if you play the suit like this, you won't even give away a possible trick, because if RHO takes his K, your Q becomes a trick, as if you played ♦J and let it run.  But you see it's necessary that you KNOW that the King is behind the fork, otherwise you'll give away a trick.

playing whit good players i dont think this work very often, they will know if u have 2 or 1 dimonds from p count.

[the hog]

Trpltrbl, on Feb 25 2004, 01:25 PM, said:

Ben,

I can bring up some sympaty for the 2♥ opening bid if Vul against not, or maybe Vul against Vul, not my style, but old people have their own style, it's oudated but what works for them...
But the 3 ♠ is so horrible, every time I look at it, I have to run to bathroom and .................... ( am sure you can figure it out ), only way I can figure it out is that they overcall on absolutly nothing and have to guess after that. Like I said before having a star doesn't make them worldclass players, it just seems to blind people, and making them think that whatever they do is the right thing

Mike 

At the risk of being offensive, I think the above is the most fatuous post I have ever read in this forum since I joined a year ago.

Point 1. 2H is not a bad bid. To say "old people have their style" is totally insulting, arrogant and ridiculously silly. I would open 3H but that does not make anyone who plays a conservative style either "outdated" or "old". You play what your partner plays and what makes your partnership comfortable. Read Larry Cohen on what he played with Ron Andersen and then later with Marty Bergen

Point 2. 3S IS a game try. Why on earth do you think the guy is bidding, to make a random expulsion of wind? They MAY or MAY NOT play it as forcing, you don't know and neither do I. I would that does not mean the whole world does! Whatever it is clear that North decided his hand was not worth a raise to game for some reason. IF it is not forcing, what do you want South to bid, 4S? What a wonderful bid, you have just by passed 3N which may be the only making game. What about 3H? Another "master" bid. What does this mean, by passing your 6 card Spade suit.

Before you put put your foot in your mouth, I suggest you put your brain into gear.

Ron

[Rado]

Trpltrbl, on Feb 25 2004, 12:25 PM, said:

Ben,

I can bring up some sympaty for the 2♥ opening bid if Vul against not, or maybe Vul against Vul, not my style, but old people have their own style, it's oudated but what works for them...
But the 3 ♠ is so horrible, every time I look at it, I have to run to bathroom and .................... ( am sure you can figure it out ), only way I can figure it out is that they overcall on absolutly nothing and have to guess after that. Like I said before having a star doesn't make them worldclass players, it just seems to blind people, and making them think that whatever they do is the right thing

Mike

Greetings to all from the "OLD" man from the above quoted post.

And because I'm old I'm typing very slow, so you may read it slow too.

I was the poor "old man" who opened 2♥ vulnerable vs not, playing friendly at BBO on a good table (of course GOOD as per old man's understanding). When I was about to hit the 2 ♥ bid I fully realized that I was exposing my stone age bid to the furious criticism of some "Godlike / Mr. know all" posters. Some days passed in suspicious peace and silence, because of the distance from Olymp of Bridge to our mortal daily round, but today the noble wrath struck my head and and scattered all over the world the ultimate truth.

Bowing my grey haired head to the "truth" bringers,
remaining sincerely Yours
the Old Man
(also known as Rado among some mortals)

P.S. In the old manuscripts is written that the purpoce of preempt is to make life harder for the Opponents, but nowhere mentioned to give them lazily slam record, when they have only a difficult to make game.
Would you kindly quote some good examples for excuses to teammates and partners after the correct 3♥ opening vulnerable vs not with the above monster hand , just in case it creates some juicy phone number in Opponents' column instead of their normal part score result.

Maybe something like:
"I was thaught by the famous..... that 3♥ is the only correct bid so no excuses here"
or "I have perfect preempt and it's only the bad luck now resulting in a disaster but I promised nexd 10 times to win Bermuda Bowl with such bid"
or....
....

P.S. (2) The initial definition of the BBO "star" symbol was just "worth watching" (at that time there were not any "world class" self-rated , know all people).
Since that symbol is appointed by Fred only, the quoted well proved accusations must be directed to Fred:-)

[inquiry]

Trpltrbl, on Feb 23 2004, 07:41 PM, said:

Well I agree with you somewhat. I just really think that that is almost a std play, as you can see that declarer has no problem making the hand if you do anything else. And taking 9 tricks on this is something my dog can do, if in game it might take some more attention. But people bidding this might need some lessons, send em my way. Preempting on good 7 card suit at 2 level then bidding only 3♠ after pd overcalled 3♣ is just sick . Do they need another ace to try for game ? Or is overcaller overcalling on nothing all the time? Come to think of it, I don't have time for students like that.

Mike

Mike,

Well the cat is out of the bag about the 2♥ bidder. As you may remember my quote about these players was "they both among the very best bridge players on the BBO, and both better than me."

Since Rado was kind enough to reply himself, let me tell you that not only is Rado a Gold Star and frequent Vugraph commentator, he is a both a fine bridge player and excellent ambassordor of the game... helping out with beginners and novices. And since he has let us all know who made the bid, you see why I said he is better player than I am. And I think most impartial viewers will believe him as a better player than you, as well. I will also add that Rado has a reputation for making wild preemptive (pressure) bids, opening 3 on five card suits, and making jump overcalls to the three level on five card suits is a favorite ploy of his when conditions are right. Dispite his aggressive pressure bidding style, IMHO his 2♥ opening bid on the hand in question is just right.

I still will not share with you who declarer was, but I will add he too is a gold star, he too helps beginners and advanced players as well, and he too is recongnized as one of the better players on the BBO. And I dare say, he too will be viewed as a superior player to you or I.

Ben

[luis]

Trpltrbl, on Feb 25 2004, 02:25 AM, said:

Ben,

I can bring up some sympaty for the 2♥ opening bid if Vul against not, or maybe Vul against Vul, not my style, but old people have their own style, it's oudated but what works for them...
But the 3 ♠ is so horrible, every time I look at it, I have to run to bathroom and .................... ( am sure you can figure it out ), only way I can figure it out is that they overcall on absolutly nothing and have to guess after that. Like I said before having a star doesn't make them worldclass players, it just seems to blind people, and making them think that whatever they do is the right thing

Mike

Greetings from the guy who bid the "so horrible" 3s bid that made you go to the bathroom and ........

First of all I think 3s is quasi-forcing because it would be stupid to correct the contract. But anyway I'm open to suggestions WITHOUT seeing the 4 hands.
Do I bid 3N and lose 4s or do I bid 4s and lose 3N or do I bid 3h and endplay pd in the bidding?
Or do I bid another thing and blame pd for not understanding I had 6 spades and bid another suit to show them?

Luis

[Free]

I thought it was you Luis

[helium]

Trpltrbl, on Feb 23 2004, 07:41 PM, said:

Well I agree with you somewhat. I just really think that that is almost a std play, as you can see that declarer has no problem making the hand if you do anything else. And taking 9 tricks on this is something my dog can do, if in game it might take some more attention. But people bidding this might need some lessons, send em my way. Preempting on good 7 card suit at 2 level then bidding only 3♠ after pd overcalled 3♣ is just sick . Do they need another ace to try for game ? Or is overcaller overcalling on nothing all the time? Come to think of it, I don't have time for students like that.

Mike

Well rado and luis i guess u arent to sad to hear that mike dont want to waste any time on students like you:) LOL

[luis]

Free, on Feb 27 2004, 04:02 PM, said:

I thought it was you Luis

Now I must ask: why ? :-)

[inquiry]

luis, on Feb 27 2004, 12:07 PM, said:

Free, on Feb 27 2004, 04:02 PM, said:

I thought it was you Luis 

Now I must ask: why ? :-)

I think he knows the old fashion way, he was one of many kibitizers when this hand was played...

ben

[mishovnbg]

Spoiler

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi friends!

Spoiler

------

I am sometimes sorry about times when duels was accepted form of prove the truth . It was clear and radical solution . Changing the rapier to rapier thrust doesn't have same effect at battlefield of egos But fighting against expert's counting by usage of falshecarding ir really good field to prove yourself friends . I am waiting, experts of any age, sex, religion... Make Bridge, not war !

Spoiler

-------------------------------------------------------------

Member of BBO community, Misho

[Free]

luis, on Feb 28 2004, 02:07 AM, said:

Free, on Feb 27 2004, 04:02 PM, said:

I thought it was you Luis 

Now I must ask: why ? :-)

Inquiry said: "but I will add he too is a gold star, he too helps beginners and advanced players as well, and he too is recongnized as one of the better players on the BBO. And I dare say, he too will be viewed as a superior player to you or I."

About one of the only gold stars helping out beginners (that I know) is you, and I think your play is slightly better than the average intermediate - just kidding