05/16/2023 Tuesday Game Post-mortem Session

One of them allows you to stop in 2 of the major. So i basically always use the 2 of opener's suit cuebid unless I have extreme distribution.

Thanks this is all related to the same bug which we are working on.

Thanks for reporting this issue. We appreciate it. We will look into it.

North limited their hand with the 2H rebid. They do not have enough to jump to 3H. With 15 they would have opened 1NT.

Honors in the opponents suits are likely tricks on defense and they do nothing to build long suit tricks on offense. Take a simple situation. You have two suits AKQ. ---- 32 T987 ---- 6543 With 9 points in the opponents suit we will take 3 tricks on offense and the same 3 tricks on defense. If you are lucky you will build a slow trick in your 8 card fit. 765 --- 43 AKQ2 --- T987 Now we reverse these two suits and we have our 9 points in our long suit. On defense, we have a maximum of 2 tricks (if the opponents have a singleton, we may only have 1 trick). On offense we have 4 tricks. The basic idea is points in our long suits help us make our contracts but often dont take any tricks on defense.

Thanks so much for your response and very helpful analysis of all the hands. I just discovered your website recently and have enjoyed a couple of lessons so far. Keep up the great work!

I dont see how south can know to overtake and play a diamond unless their partner raises clubs. Partner could easily have a doubleton club and we need to cash them right away. It isn't clear to south that diamonds is the suit that has urgency. If south plays the 2, north can see that their king of heart stopper gives them time to shift to diamonds and even if that is wrong, we can get back to playing clubs later.

X is takeout / value showing. It just means, "I don't want to pass and am not sure about our direction. You would have at least an invitational hand to double in that spot. A direct 3D or 3H would just be competitive. This isnt a maximal double situation because we don't know we have a fit. I would bid 3♠ with your hand after double. You want to accept game but aren't sure which game to accept to. 3♠ shows your spade values.

Double of 4D by your hand is "I have a good hand too partner. I don't have a clear 4 of a major bid myself". You may double with 4-4 in the majors, but you would also double with a random balanced opening hand like 3325 or 3334. If you have a lot of points, you have no choice but to let partner know. With your hand I dont think it will matter which major you play. You have at least 9 spades so I would choose spades myself and not risk partner passing my double.

I have no fear of getting shut out. I am going to make a takeout double over 1S or 2S at my next turn. This is definitely a better way to bid this hand. Every time partner has 4-5 in the majors and extra values the opponents are in serious trouble. I will make a takeout double of spades and partner will pass. By bidding 1NT you are encouraging partner to compete in hearts. I was taught you need a doubleton in support of partner for 1M (X) 1NT. I don't play 1NT natural (I use transfers after 1MX) and havent for a long time so I don't know if thats still the accepted practice (1NT promising 2 card support), but I am confident that it used to be. Whenever you have a singleton in partner's 5 card major, your hand will be better off defending unless you have a fit. Pass followed by takeout double solves everything. I don't think bidding 1NT makes it any easier. If partner jumps to 3H all by themselves (after we pass over the double) it is a clear cut raise with our hand. If I made it sound like it wasnt clear it was just me being empathetic for how this is a very unique spot that is new for people.