[P_Marlowe]

jillybean, on 2026-September-18, 08:42, said:

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Teams, you need a swing. 15-17 nt
Do you make a toronto-transfer and leave it partner or do you have another plan?

At the moment, it does not look like the hand can produce a positive swing,
you can always pass, to generate one.

I would make the xfer, and bid game, the hand is certainly worth sending a mild slam
interest message across the channel, nothing more.
If partner picks up the message and acts on it fine, otherwise fine as well.

Two good points got mentioned
#1 Await the finale count, weird things do happen from time to time
#2 if you fail this time, try to play better next time, your hope is always, that there
is a new tommorow

[WasWinM]

jillybean, on 2026-September-18, 11:32, said:

I can trust my partner to have their 1nt bid.

Can your partner trust you not to mastermind, not just with him but for the entire team?

[mikeh]

Late to the thread, although I almost posted some time ago.

Here are my ‘rules’ on trying to generate swings:

I’m assuming VP Swiss. The rules are only slightly different for win loss scoring and remain unchanged for a long KO match noses were stuck a lot at the half, and then it depends…I’ll get to that.

1. Don’t try for a swing just because of one bad board. You let a vulnerable game make when it ought to have been easy to beat it. Or you bid to a hopeless slam they almost surely will not bid, etc. iow, don’t panic. I like to say to players seeking advice their teammates owe them a good board.

Many years ago I had the dubious pleasure of playing a 28 board KO. We weren’t a very strong team but neither were our opps. Stuck a small amount at the half, my partner and I had a great set. I’m a conservative estimator but I felt we’d picked up 30+ imps, more than enough for a comfortable win. We lost by 40. Our teammates went nuts, trying to create swings early….which they did but all in the wrong direction. Had they stayed in the boat, even with a couple of blunders, we’d have won. That’s the last time I played on a team with these players.

2. Remember that swinging is, by definition, intentionally choosing inferior bids or plays and, as such, will lose more often than it wins. Unless you need big wins…say you are in third place playing the leaders the last match, at VPs, and need a big win to prevail…and neither you nor your teammates care about second or third place…or 6th or 7th….a big loss is much worse than a small loss. So swinging is not a good idea in most situations.

3. If you do need to create swings, look for chances to make only slightly offbeat bids or plays. Dramatically swinging is extremely low percentage. Say you have a 9 card fit missing the queen. Absent clues, the ‘correct’ line is to play for the drop. Need a swing? Take a finesse. The two lines are very close in terms of the odds, so choose the slightly inferior one. Have a 4=4 or 5/3 major fit with balanced hands and game values…especially with a weak trump suit…bid 3N not 4M.



On the given hand, it’s borderline. I think that the percentage action is a texas transfer, settling for game. But it’s close enough that he could consider 2H followed by 4S unless opener super accepts. In that case, I’d make a cuebid and see what happens.

Long KO match, stuck at the half? I’d discuss with my teammates what we want to do. Some players don’t want either pair to try to win…just play our game and hope to have luck and to make winning choices. But others are willing to see us sing.

Years ago, stuck in the final of the CNTC, we had one pair very comfortable swinging. So we agreed that my partner and I would just try to grind out our boards while the other pair operated. We disclosed this to our opps…I think it unethical to not do so. Our guys played very well, but we fell short. Their swings were never wild, other than a couple of favourable vul preempts.