[pclayton]

Long matches, good opponents (pro with 7K MP's in your seat at the other table; fortunately you have Larsen / Grabel to keep him in check )

You are playing Precision with 14-16 NT's with your old pard.

1. ♠K98xx ♥AKJxx ♦KTx ♣----

All vul. 1♠ by you (dealer), 2♦ on left, 3♠ preemptive by pard, 3N on right. Your call?

2. ♠KJT98x, ♥QT, ♦x, ♣AQ8x. You are vul they are not. 1N on your right after 2 passed. You are playing Woolsey so have a choice between pass, 2♦ to show one major and 2♠ to show ♠+ a minor. Your call?

3. ♠K, ♥AT9x, ♦AQ98xxxx, ♣void. You are dealer, white on red. Your call?

4. ♠x, ♥QT9xx, ♦AK98xx, ♣x. White on red, 2 passes to you. Your call?

5. ♠Qx, ♥J9, ♦KJ5x, ♣J97xx. You and pard are silent; 1♥ on right, 1♠ - 1N - 3♥ (inv) - 4♥. Your lead?

[inquiry]

pclayton, on Mar 23 2006, 09:39 AM, said:

1. ♠K98xx ♥AKJxx ♦KTx ♣----

All vul. 1♠ by you (dealer), 2♦ on left, 3♠ preemptive by pard, 3N on right. Your call?

4♥ - RHO has either a diamond fit or huge clubs (probably the second), I want partner leading a heart if they bid 5D (if RHO bids 5♣ I will lead one).

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2. ♠KJT98x, ♥QT, ♦x, ♣AQ8x. You are vul they are not. 1N on your right after 2 passed. You are playing Woolsey so have a choice between pass, 2♦ to show one major and 2♠ to show ♠+ a minor. Your call?

2♠.. first with these spots this is a SPADE hand, second I don't want to make it easy for a double of 2♦ so they can easily compete there later. Nor do I want to descibe my hand so accurately for them if they do declarer it.

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3. ♠K, ♥AT9x, ♦AQ98xxxx, ♣void. You are dealer, white on red. Your call?

1♦.. you seriously concider anything else?

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4. ♠x, ♥QT9xx, ♦AK98xx, ♣x. White on red, 2 passes to you. Your call?

Old fashion, old school, long suit first. 1♦. Added benefit, should we defend, I prefer a ♦ lead. 3 ♦ is distant second choice.

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5. ♠Qx, ♥J9, ♦KJ5x, ♣J97xx. You and pard are silent; 1♥ on right, 1♠ - 1N - 3♥ (inv) - 4♥. Your lead?

♦5 Since I assume 1♠ promised five here, and spades are not breaking horribly for them.. we need to set up tricks.

[JohnnyH7]

1) 4S. I'm bidding to make. 4H has merit but I don't want to tip off my distribution to the opponents, and I may want a club lead against 5D X anyways.

2) 2D. This suit will play opposite a stiff so I'm not going to show a 2 suiter.

3) 1D. My hand is just too heavy (2 first round controls, stiff K, and AQxxxxxx of trumps, 8-4 etc) for 5D.

4) 3D. I see no intelligent way to immediately get both suits into play, and it seems like I should be preempting.

5) Diamond. Time to attack.

[Echognome]

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1. ♠K98xx ♥AKJxx ♦KTx ♣----

All vul. 1♠ by you (dealer), 2♦ on left, 3♠ preemptive by pard, 3N on right. Your call?

I'm a 4♠ bidder as well. I want to be burying fits here. Partner has said all he is going to say. If they find 5♣ or 5♦, then good for them. It's not clear a spade lead will hurt and partner has heard the bidding the same as I have.

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2. ♠KJT98x, ♥QT, ♦x, ♣AQ8x. You are vul they are not. 1N on your right after 2 passed. You are playing Woolsey so have a choice between pass, 2♦ to show one major and 2♠ to show ♠+ a minor. Your call?

2♠. Not because I want to play in a minor, but I don't want to hear 2♥ or X on my left.

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3. ♠K, ♥AT9x, ♦AQ98xxxx, ♣void. You are dealer, white on red. Your call?

5♦. I am happy with 1♦ as well. I just think with freaks it is going to be tough to have an intelligent auction even with the opponents silent. Diamonds is almost surely to be the right strain and right now I have 2 opponents and 1 partner to preempt. Let me get my hand off my chest now and let the opponents make the last guess.

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4. ♠x, ♥QT9xx, ♦AK98xx, ♣x. White on red, 2 passes to you. Your call?

3♦. Again, I might as well preempt in 3rd and let opponents figure it out. Opening 2NT might be fun, but I wouldn't dare try it in a serious match.

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5. ♠Qx, ♥J9, ♦KJ5x, ♣J97xx. You and pard are silent; 1♥ on right, 1♠ - 1N - 3♥ (inv) - 4♥. Your lead?

My guess is that lefty is 5=3=(23) or 5=3=(14) and righty is 2=5=3=3, 2=5=(42) or 1=6=3=3. It seems that declarer might want to ruff some tricks in the short trump hand, so I will lead a trump. I may be way off base if spades is a source of tricks for declarer.

[Gerben42]

1. 4♠. Less information is more.

2. 2♠

3. 1♦

4. 1♦ followed by 2♥. Good to play Precision

5. Agree with ♦x but why on earth should 1♠ promise 5?

[joshs]

1. 4H Partner can have a decent hand for 3S, and I am willing to have him compete to 5S if we have a double fit. One of the opps is about to bid 5C next....

2. 2D. Not even close. You should not make a major and a minor bid with a good 6 card major, unless you have a strong 5 card minor also and even then think twice about it.

3. 1D I guess. Unless you think you can get away with psyching 1C then open 1C.

4. 3D. If partner has a bid heart fit you may regret this but the red suits are just as good as each other for competing against the black suits.

5. Diamond. You need to attack in a minor on this auction (especially with Qx of spades) and you will not take many club tricks holding J 5'th.

[awm]

1. 4♥. It could be right to pass and lead a heart. And opponents might do better doubling 4M than they do in 3NT. But I'd be surprised if they didn't compete to five of a minor in this auction. Note that this depends slightly on partner's tendencies for vulnerable 3♠ bid; if he's the sort to often hold a balanced yarborough I would pass 3NT and lead a heart (too likely RHO has a big balanced hand and we're going for our lives).

2. 2♦, grudgingly. This hand is a big plug for Meyerson vs. notrump, or in general a natural 2♠ call. Bidding 2♦ gives opponents a lot of ways into the auction that they wouldn't have otherwise, but I really don't want partner pulling us from spades on a singleton.

3. 1♦. This is not a strong 1♣ opening in my book -- I want to bid diamonds twice and then hearts; curiously the 1♦ open tends to produce less preemption than 1♣ as well as starting to describe the hand.

4. Again 1♦. I haven't had much luck preempting with good hands. This improves the chances to get hearts in the auction later, and like Gerben said it's nice to be playing precision where partner won't assume some semi-balanced moose for a reverse.

5. This depends a little on opponents' methods/style. For many 2/1 players, a 3-card limit raise normally goes through 1NT or 1♠, and they will tend to bid 1♠ with four of them. If this is the case, I am leading ♠Q -- there is no reason that dummy's spades have to be magnificent, and I think a good chance of setting is to find partner with some spade cards and score a ruff. If the spades are really good, I don't like our chances to set anyway. On the other hand, if this sequence is more of a "fit-showing" auction where the spades have to be really good, I'll try a club lead. I don't really believe in underleading kings on auctions where opponents have shown the majority of values; while it could be the only lead to set, it could also easily be the only lead to let them make what is apparently a fairly pushy game (both hands are limited, opener is balanced).

[mikeh]

1. 4♠: I doubt that LHO is bidding 5♦: he will expect his partner to bid 5♦ if it is right, and I think RHO bid 3N on his ♣ suit, not a big ♦ fit. Pass and lead a top ♥ may well be the winner (doubling first might be even better) but it is too unilateral. If we are beating 3N on the basis of my ♥ suit, we may be making 4♠ for the same reason. 4♥ tells the opps too much.

2. 2♦: this is a one-suiter. I am not going to distort my hands because I don't like the method.... not that I dislike it necessarily, but to bid 2♠ because of a fear that 2♦ makes it easy on the opps is weird: why play the method?

3. 1♦. Any other call ignores partner.

4. Tough hand: I can see merit in a whole bunch of calls: 1♦, 1♥, 2♥, 3♦, Pass. I think that pass is probably the best: clearly I am passing only temporarily: I should be able to back in with a descriptive bid later. Of course, that may be too late... and if any other immediate call struck me as even close to helping partner, I'd laugh at pass. But nothing fits, while I rate to be able to bid intelligibly (and intelligently) after Pass

5. The appropriate ♦ spot: time to attack with this hand. Without going rabid, that is

[joker_gib]

1. 4♠ less information possible.

2. 2♦ :This is a one suiter. I prefer to play 2♠ in 6-1 than 3
♣ in 4-3 !

3. 1♦

4. Pass and hope to be back

5. ♦ seems OK

Alain

[pclayton]

Ok here's what happened. I hope that you aren't waiting with baited breath that each problem was the 'key' to the match; hardly . I just thought each decision was mildly to very interesting. By the way, we got off to a fast start at our table, and I was pretty sure that 1/2 way into the 16 board segment we were up by 30-40.

1. The good thing about playing with this pard is that I know his preemptive vul jump raises aren't made on 4 trump and a prayer. At the table, it seemed (with my k♦ in the pocket) that BOTH 3N and 4♠ could be making. 4♥ is possible, but I don't know that its a certainty that they will be pulling 4♠ to 5♣. If they were, 4♥ involves partner. But if they play 5♦ (I expect pard's shortness to be in ♦'s), then it seems a ♣ lead is what you want and you don't want pard to lead a heart. This is wrong reasoning, because with your ♦10, declarer can't return to dummy, except in clubs, to take a 2nd hook. And if the Q (J)♦ is on your right, you have a natural trump trick. I suppose if the A♦ is on your right, you need a club ruff for TWO ♦ tricks.

I bid 4♠ and it got cracked by RHO. Pard tabled ♠Jxxx, ♥x, ♦Jx, ♣K9xxxx. Opponents led A♦, ♦ (Qx) on right. Spades were AQT on my right, but RHO also had Q-5th of hearts.....+790.

2. I bid 2♦; double on my left. I led the ♠K against 2N and they wrapped up 150. Pard happened to have K-5th of clubs and a club lead gets us +200. Pard made some silly comment that 2♠ probably gets us to clubs as he has a 1=4=3=5 shape. Whatever.

3. I opened 1♦ and I heard 3♣ on my left (remember they are vul vs not), pass, pass. This was fairly far into the segment when we had built up an (apparent) lead, and the opps were pushing on just about every hand, so I was fairly confident pard had some sort of trap pass over 3♣. But with this freak, double was out of the question. Furthermore, were were the spades?

After about 3 minutes, I hadn't made a bid yet. The 4♦ call was almost out of the box, but if pard has a little offense, 5♦ has to be reasonable. Maybe 4♦ does justice to this hand; but I tried 5. x'd, -300. Pard DID have a club trap; ♠9xxx, ♥8xx ♦K ♣Q9xxx. The hand at the other table opened this 4♦ which makes my skin crawl, all pass. -6 IMPs.

4. Normally I'd open this 1♦, but with a passed pard, I didn't think 5♦ was there. So I tried 1♥, hoping the (potential) 5-3♥ fit would play well, especially with the big 2nd suit hidden.....1♠ on left, pass by pard, 2♠ on right, 3♦ by me, 5♦ (!) by pard (all pass). He tabled: ♠AJxx, ♥x, ♦QJxxx, ♣xxx (what is wrong with 1N over 1♠?). +400.

5. I tried a club with no strong feelings. One thing I can tell you is that this board took place very late in the set and the opponents were in a desparation mode, so I knew that this was a game that was going to be pushy, so I didn't feel the need to get agressive with a ♦. Game is good, but there was no way to know it: RHO had: ♠Kxx, ♥Kxxxx, ♦xx ♣AKTx; LHO had ♠Axxxxx, ♥QTx, ♦x ♣Qxx. The club lead holds them to 4, but pard didn't duck the A♦, so they made 5. Our teammates opened the spade hand with a weak 2 and played it there, so we lost a few.

At the half we were +41. I learned later we won by about 50.