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StevenG

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StevenG
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  • Club players always remember bidding and making slams, especially grands. They would certainly remember making a grand missing the Ace of trumps. Is it possible that the wrong suit has been entered as the contract? Or, is it possible that the boa…

  • Perhaps a CC should just have a space for "my partner is completely clueless".

    in No Signals Comment by StevenG March 2020
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    General knowledge is that a new suit at the 3 level is forcing - not alertable

  • Do people really say "non-forcing", because that makes no sense? Do you mean not game-forcing?

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    If, systemically, we think 3C is strong and forcing, then it seems unlikely to me that 3D is a logical alternative. If we don't think that is the case, then, clearly, 3D is a LA. I don't think that it can be correct to just combine the…

  • I can't think off the top of my head of a sequence where a change of suit after a non-forcing invitation isn't a strong bid. Without the UI, 3NT seems obvious.

  • On the other hand, if they then bid to 5C opposite a Yarborough, isn't the bid as described?

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    It's not practicable to make it alertable, because players who play reverses as non-forcing rarely understand why it's not normal.

  • I would expect that balancing on a hand that weak is very unususal in a non-EBU club (unless it is very strong) and the opponents have every reason to think pass is a LA (but no right at all to be rude about it).

    in BIT Comment by StevenG June 2018
  • Why is penalising an accidental revoke more important that restoring equity after the other side cheated?

  • But then you're saying that under normal circumstances the NOS are defending 3NT, but, if and only if, they make a serious error, they are defending 6NT. That doesn't seem logical - they have still been damaged by opponents reaching a contract in…

  • If we have the same situation without the revoke, but OS have 12 tricks on top unless NOS find a specific lead, which they don't, do NOS (who haven't committed an irregularty) get -990?

  • Sorry - deleted

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    The poll there clearly demonstrated that the bid chosen was not suggested by the UI, but as Pass was the majority choice of those polled, it seems clear to me that not to pass was a breach of Law 73C.

    I really don't understand …

  • Abbeybear: yes, that's essentially what I'm saying, although of course the strongest bid may, extremely rarely, also be a 10 trick hand. (And I'm ignoring the balanced hands.) The better players know the difference between a hand on which they sh…

  • Is there a demographic to these complainants? Because, where I play, it's not a problem and wasn't a problem 25 years ago. Nor have I ever seen it a problem in tournament bridge.

    The problem is essentially one of disclosure, and I don't k…

  • Robin, I'm just trying to understand the EBU thought processes because they baffle me. When I first started dabbling in EBU club bridge, traditional Acol was effectively obsolete. That was 1993, a quarter of a century ago.

    So, yes, playin…

  • I don't see how I can disclose my Benji 2!c opener other than as "8 playing tricks, unspecified suit", since that is our agreement.

  • "If you open a hand strong in playing strength at the one level how often does it get passed out?"

    But it can happen. Imagine you have 11 points in first seat, as in a hand posted on other forums played at the Young Chelsea recently. I ca…

    in Strong Twos Comment by StevenG May 2018
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    I was assuming that people had read my points on the other thread. What I'm trying to say is that if you start from the basis that "everybody plays 4NT as unusual", which is clearly untrue, then you will be making a bad ruling.

  • Again, as in the other thread, you lot are still living in your ivory towers. It's only serious players (not 'everybody') who would play it as a two-suiter. The fact that nobody has mentioned Blackwood, which is what the more social players would…

  • Clearly EBU TDs never see "regular" club bridge (and, obviously, I don't include the Young Chelsea). That's all I can say.

  • I'm not arguing that everyone plays Michaels (or similar). They don't. I'm saying that people who don't play Michaels usually don't because one or both of the partnership finds it too difficult, either through lack of competence or lack of experi…

  • Seriously? How many club players have ever heard of that? Michaels was completely normal when I started proper club bridge 25 years ago, and the majority of our club members came into the game after me.

    My problem is that I feel that a lo…

  • If an ordinary club pair don't play Michaels or some Ghestem variant and have nothing artificial on their CC, what else can it show? The fact that they probably never actually use it as natural in an auction doesn't mean that it's not natural.

  • Assuming Michaels, can't North replace with 3C under L27B1(a)? Or 2C without Michaels? Then rectification comes from L27D and/or L16C.

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    My understanding is that that is no longer the case in the 2017 laws. As long as the meaning attributable to 1D is plausible, as it is here, the correction can be made to 2D. Play will continue to a sensible bridge result without any U…

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    But I have never once been told an opponents hand is strong. I have always been told it has 8 playing tricks, which is almost invariably true. That is the case in almost 25 years experience. It is only the regulation makers who tell me…

  • At the moment Law 27B1(a) is ambiguous. Some TDs would allow the 2D purely because it is diamonds. It all depends what "specifies" means.

    On the other hand, if you disallow it because it "shows" (rather than "names") something different, …

  • About 15 years ago, I joined Bluejak's IBLF forum. At that time I'd been playing club bridge about 10 years. The same arguments were being made by senior TDs at that time, and I didn't understand them. I'd never heard anybody expect a Benji 2C to…