1Valeria->Kibitzers: Robert and Kino I apologise for 4!H-1 :( BILmanager: => Club: !d Beg/Int Lounge Members- paulg's discussion of the teams match hands is starting now---- All Members Welcome !d paulg: so hopefully i can get through all the hands I wish to :) paulg: certainly a couple of them raised some interesting points paulg: this is hand 3 paulg: robert and klaus bid this very well, as follows paulg: the 2!c bid is the best of bad bids :) paulg: you are too strong to bid 1NT with such good controls paulg: the club suit is poor, but maybe you'll stop a club lead if you get to NT paulg: robert's 3!c is probably the best bid with the West hand paulg: East has only guaranteed 4 clubs and perhaps 3NT is still the best spot ... paulg: in that case the singleton king will help ... whereas a splinter bid of 3!d would stop partner bidding 3NT paulg: klaus recognised that 3NT is probably not great when partner raises clubs, and 4!c is a fine bid paulg: so well bid :) paulg: at the other table the auction started the same way ... paulg: but now there was a 3!s bid ... paulg: perhaps it is best to say what this normally means .... paulg: i believe it shows a good six-card suit, probably semi-solid, and a good hand paulg: it is forcing over a 2-level response ... paulg: 3!c is probably a better bid this time paulg: with the East hand I would bid 4!s .... paulg: as partner has good spades and I have tricks to help paulg: it is more likely that 4!s makes than 3NT where we may be weak in one of the minors paulg: however in this case East passed ... at least it was a making contract but 10 IMPs were lost paulg: this is hand 5 paulg: this was the auction in the "other" room from me paulg: not surprisingly robert failed to find the killing lead and the spade lead gave roberta her 9th trick paulg: in my room Helen overcalled 1!h .... paulg: this is a weak overcall, but it is a good suit that you want partner to lead, and the vulnerability was favourable paulg: val doubled .... paulg: val, did this show any specific holding? 1Valeria: no paulg: Tommie then bid 2!h -- with a poor hand only worth one bid it's normally better to support partner than bid a new suit paulg: wayne doubled to show a good opener (for him) and essentially denied spades paulg: val has the strength for 3NT if they have a stop, so 3!h asks paulg: wayne does not have a stop, and is quite weak so bids 4!c paulg: it is always difficult to pass 4!c with such a strong hand as Val ... but as partner also has paulg: weak hearts, probably !hxx, then partner needs a lot of cards for 5!c to make so perhaps pass is best, but tough :) 1Valeria: with DBL he has shown max hand paulg: ok, so perhaps wayne should pass 2!h then 1Valeria: I think so paulg: one little point on defence that you can often make sceptic: noooooooooooo anitaruber: lol paulg: on the !hK lead West plays the !h2 to discourage or show an odd number 1Valeria: you have nothing to add to the fact that have an op hand paulg: now on this trick West has two cards ... and it really makes no difference which is played paulg: so West can play the !h10 to show spade values - high card for a high suit paulg: if West had the !dK, then could play low card to suggest diamonds paulg: Helen found the spade switch anyway here, but a useful trick when you have "useless" cards paulg: so what do people think is the best approach with the West hand? alano->Club: Need 2 players at alano table pls? jmccrea3: 4NT? paulg: chosen by one table geofspa: one of 2 ways to go ... look for 4-4 in majors or just bid quant$N paulg: yes, robert decided on stayman ... paulg: but I think this approach depends on your agreements paulg: or your aggression :) paulg: the value bid is a quantative 4NT .. paulg: but it is likely the 6!h will be okay if partner holds four hearts paulg: the trouble with stayman is the following auction paulg: is 4NT keycard, blackwood or quantative ? 1Valeria: quant kyno40: yes robertn: I play it as quant, but wasn't sure partner would ... paulg: in a pickup partnership it is a difficult question ... sceptic: quan paulg: i thought that was the reason that robert thought bidding 6NT was probably best robertn: y paulg: however, perhaps it does not matter here .... paulg: try 4NT .. if partner passes he took it as quantative ... paulg: if he responds to keycard then just bid 6NT paulg: unfortunately 6NT has no play on this particular hand paulg: i see that both pairs opened this hand 1NT with a five card heart suit paulg: a good decision as otherwise you have no rebid over any response! paulg: roberta, i assume 2!s was a club transfer? paulg: ok, they've disappeared! paulg: i agree with val that it is better to introduce a second suit now paulg: standard 2/1 does not show what new suits mean in this auction paulg: playing them as natural seems a good idea :) paulg: i should say that North's 3!c denied primary support for wayne and val paulg: wayne, as North, has a choice here ... paulg: partner has should 6 clubs and 4 diamonds, so will be short in a major paulg: 3!h should be natural, showing concern about spades ... sceptic: 1nt 3!C for us shows 5/5 minors and 1nt 3!d shows 5/5 minors slamish paulg: 3!s should probably show a half-stop normally, perhaps !sQx .. which would allow Wayne to bid 3NT with his holding paulg: ... or it could be an advance cuebid if you remove 3NT paulg: ... or you could bid it to see what partner does! paulg: now, we know partner does not have primary club support, nor both majors well stopped paulg: so slam is unlikely, and we should offer partner a choice of games with 5!c paulg: in the other room roberta just raised 3!c to 4!c and North bid game paulg: for a flat board paulg: notice that East-West have to be a little carefull to defeat 3NT - there is the potential to block the spade suit paulg: so the match finished with a 21 IMP win to the COKE team ... so well done to them sceptic: well done coke:) kyno40: yes well done paulg: if you have the log files, see that most of the IMPs are due to bidding :) paulg: which is why I tend to focus on that most of the time paulg: when we all get to the right contracts, we'll focus more on play and defence paulg: So that's it for this evening .... thanks a lot to everyone who played ... sceptic: thx Paul :) paulg: the hands will be on the website later this evening .... robertn: thx Paul 1Valeria: thank you all HelenJon: ty so much Paul paulg: and we'll be doing the same next Monday paulg: if you want to play then please leave a message for me kyno40: Thank you Paul