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Regina Duplicate Bridge Club
Player of the Year
June 1, 2010 - May 31, 2011
Last Updated - 09/05/10
This race is for all club members.
1. Nelson Sunshine 30.53
2. Dick Anderson 25.59
3. John Groves 25.16
4. Gil Lafreniere 23.24
5. Ilsa Krukoff 21.24
6. Cal McLeod 17.44
7. June Lind 16.55
8. Art D'Entremont 16.20
9. Rae Hart 15.52
10. Don Norman 14.21
August Player of the Month
Nelson Sunshine - 9.81
U100 Player of the Year
June 1, 2010 - May 31, 2011
This race is for all members
who started the year with
less than 100 masterpoints.
1. Don Norman 14.21
2. Sandy Bingaman 9.73
3. Barb Miller 6.94
4. Shirley Strohan 6.68
5. Ron Miller 6.02
6. Jim Rogers 4.80
7. Byron Seymour 4.59
8. Rae Lindsay 4.25
9. Buddy Lindsay 4.25
10. Nancy Welta 3.83
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This section is decidated to "Ask Barry". Barry Harper, a local at the RDBC and one of Canada's top players has offered to do a Q&A on bridge. Look here for updates as they unfold. If you wish to ask Barry a question, please e-mail him at bcharper at hotmail.com
October 22, 2007
Second seat you hold KJX KQX Q9X QXXX; first seat bids 1 club. What do you do?
Thanks
Dave
Dave
My personal style has always been to pass smoothly and see what happens. The problem with this approach is that this may have been the last chance to get into this auction. I know several great players (Bart Bramley comes to mind) who would dbl with this hand. They view this as their only chance to compete. My view is that partner's competitive evaluation will be off because of your club length and flat pattern. In addition if partner has a bad hand you could be walking into a buzz saw, or almost as bad, telling them how to play the hand. Also, you might have a chance to bid later on certain auctions, but mainly when you pass you are hoping partner will have an overcall. Change the hand a little, to say KJx KQxx K9x Qxx; and I would dbl (still unhappy).
Barry
June 26, 2006
South in 1st seat opened 1H with 11 high and two quick tricks. W- 2C, partner 2S (5 card spades, 14 points and 3 card heart support and no diamond stopper)? is this forcing or invitational? Should South bid again with 11 high at 3 level and 3 card support for spades, should North bid 4 hearts instead of 2 S??
The 2S bid shows 10+ HCP, unless you are one of the rare group that still play it as Game Forcing In Comp. It is unlimited and forcing. Opener must bid no matter what they have. Based on what you have told me, 2S is clearly the correct bid, planning on 4H at the next turn.
Opener should raise spades, showing a minimum with support, and now responder must chose Spades or Hearts.
Barry
April 16, 2006
>Dear Barry:
>Craig and I have a question on handling a specific hand. Craig opens 1
>club, I bid 1 Diamond, he bids 2 NT (19 points) and i have 12 points. I
>settle for 3 NT as we are missing at least 2 aces. 6 Hearts is the best
>contract, 6 NT makes only 5. How do we handle Craig having 4 hearts and
>worried about me passing him out and thinks 2 NT is more descriptive
>and forcing. Should i bit 3 hearts? I have checked Hardy, Audrey Grant,
>etc and cannot find this specific hand. Thank you for you time. Craig
>and Margaret Hubbard
Margaret
It is sort of a bidding philosophy question that a friend of mine even made a poem about :-) Who's job is it to find the 4-4 fit? A similar auction is 1D-2C-2NT-? The question is, has opener denied a four card Major. In your example and mine, the answer is no. Therefore, Responder must introduce the suit (Harper Rule #47: It is hard to get to game or slam in a suit, when nobody bids the suit).
A slightly different example is 1C-1D-1NT. In standard bidding, opener has denied a four card Major, so responder need not look. In the "Walsh" style responder would skip diamonds unless they had a good hand, so opener can rebid 1NT with one or even two four card Majors.
Just to clarify one point, 2NT is the correct rebid regardless of having one or two four card Majors.
In the meantime I will try and track down that poem :-)
Hope this was helpful.
Barry
February 27, 2006 (IV)
>Hi Barry. My partner opens in first seat with 1H. my RHO bids 2C, Some one
>told me that I should have at least 8 points to bid at this point, and the
>same if RHO had doubled. My question is, Is this right or wrong ?
It kind of depends on what you want to bid. If you are talking about
raising partner, that should be 6-9 HCP, just like without the overcall.
If you are talking about bidding a new suit, in general you should have 10+
HCP, just like a two level response in Standard. I have been know to shade
that, but only with hands that I thought I could handle any funny turns the
auction might take.
This is where a negative dbl becomes important. Essentially it says either
I don't have the values to bid a suit (10+ HCP), or I have the values, but
don't have the length to bid a suit (Usually 5+ cards). With perfect values,
I might make a negative dbl on as few as 6 HCP -- for example on this
auction: S QJT8 H T7 D KT865 C 54. There are some people who would say
you need 8 HCP for a negative dble that takes the auction to the 2-level,
and even others who say you need 10 HCP.
A small minority of people who play 2/1 game forcing, play a new suit at the
2 level is still game forcing after an overcall. I don't recommend that
because it makles the other hands to difficult to bid.
Another small minority play "Negative free bids", which means that a new
suit is 7-11 HCP and with any 12 HCP you must start with a negative dbl. A
difficult method, but it does have some advantages.
Hope this answered your question.
Barry
February 27, 2006 (III)
>As north, I held KJxx xx AQxx xxx. East opens with 1 club. Partner
>overcalls 1 heart. West passes. Now it's my turn. My partner thinks I
>should bid IN because of the overcall - if she is promising 5 cards, I
>should promise 5 as well - up the line doesn't apply here. Another bridge
>player I asked about this thinks I should pass as partner gets another bid.
> I did neither - I bid one spade. East and west bid clubs, pard supports
>my spades because she thinks I have 5, and we end up in 3 spades, down 1.
>She comes down with 13 points - 3 spades to the 10, 6 hearts, and I can't
>recall the minors. Can you dissect the bidding, and set us on the right
>track for how we may consider bidding these hands in the future?
>
>Thanks Barry
This is actually a very good question, because it is the type of situation
we all run into every day.
My simple answer is to bid 1NT. I might bid a four card spade suit, but
only if the quality was a bit better, say KQT8. I don't consider the lack
of club stopper to be a serious flaw with 1NT, partly because of the types
of hands people open 1C, but also because 1NT doesn't say we are going to
take ALL of the tricks :-) The other alternative of passing goes against my
nature. I feel I should respond to overcalls on most hands that I would
respond to opening bids. I don't like to rely on the opponents re-opening
to let us get to our best part score or even to a game. Here, if opener has
a minimum with heart length, they will pass 1H and this may or may not be
good for us.
To sum up, I bid the UNASSUMING 1NT. Parnter cannot assume points or lack
of points, fit or lack of fit, stoppers or lack of stoppers. All they can
assume is I had a reason to bid and nothing else seemed right.
Barry
February 27, 2006 (II)
>Both sides vul, pard opens 1S, RHO overcalls 2H, you are 4 triple 3 with 4
>spades and the king of hearts as your only points. In this situation, some
>say "raise on the smell of an oil rag". Playing Bergen raises, what would
>you do if anything?
It does seem strange that such a simple question should generate so much
thought with me. I told you at the club that I think this question is
almost worthy of a book! A real simple answer is based on the fact that you
can pass (you only have 3 HCP and flat), raise to 2S (I always say, the 4th
trump forgives all sins) or if part of your system bid 3S pre-emptive (Not a
total synonym with "weak", but less than a certain amt. of values).
The real key to analyzing this situation is to look at the hand as I recall
it from that Friday afternoon. (I am sure I am close in the relevant
details, though the diamond suit was a bit fuzzy in my memory).
Both VUL
South (overcaller)
S K
H T9xxxx
D Kx
C AKJx
East (Dealer)
S AQJxx
H Q
D AQTxx
C QT
West (You)
S T9xx
H Kxx
D xxx
C xxx
North (Innocent bystander)
S xxx
H AJx
D Jxx
C 98xx
So, let's analyze this deal. NS can make 4H on their 19 HCP (16 of which are
working) and EW make 7, 8 or 9 tricks depending on their view in spades and
diamonds. The so called "Par" on the hand is EW to play 4S doubled down 1
for -200 (guessing everything). As usual, par has little to do with actual
results and if you were -200 EW you likely got a below average score.
On their own devices NS may never bid 4H, but the EW goal is to make life as
difficult as possible, while being careful to not push NS to 4H, that they
might never bid on their own!
On this particular hand, what happens if you pass with the 4 card spade
support. Most North's would not raise with a flat 6 HCP, so back to partner
who should re-open with dbl. Now you bid 2S and North has an easy 3H bid
having limited their hand last time. Now who knows, but you have let them
communicate.
If you raise to 2S right away, I would stretch with the North hand to bid 3H
competitively, and now South might carry on to game, based on their good
shape.
If you bid 3S, North should be out of the bidding, but now when the auction
gets back to South, they might feel their pocket being picked and try 4C,
though most would be afraid of the VUL.
So is their an answer? Yes and No :-)
I think it depends on your opponents. Against conservative opponents bid 2S
or 3S depending on your personal beliefs. Many would disagree with 3S
because of the poor shape and the fact that your only high card values are
defensive. Against good opponents I tend to pass and try and not reveal our
fit, whcih only encourages them to find their fit.
Here a good score for EW was -100 (As they did against us in 3S) and an
average score was likely
-170. All in all a lot of talk and no solution :-)
Barry
February 27, 2006
Hi Barry: Here is a situation that evoked many opinions as to how I should
proceed. Hopefully you can shed some light. I'll give you my actions and the
thinking behind them as well, (as flawed as they may be!).
No one vul, auction starts on my left: (1D) - X - (3D) - ?
3D was weak. My hand was spades xx, hearts AK97, diamonds T, clubs J9xxxx. I
felt I was too good to pass and too shapely for a responsive dbl. I also
thought that if I bid 4C, the auction will probably die there, (leaving the
opps in 4 of a minor is usually considered "mission accomplished" from the
other side's point of view) and maybe we would've then missed a 4H game. (If
I somehow knew the opponents were going to go on to 4D, I could bid 4H as a
rebid after first showing clubs but who knows if they'll compete on.
It doesn't seem obvious or even likely that they will). Anyway, I chose to
bid 3H directly over 3D hoping that it showed some stuff and that partner
could raise me. As the auction proceeded, LHO now directly bid 4D, pass from
partner, pass from RHO and now back to me. My thinking now was that I showed
some values and still partner did not act over 4D with a penalty dbl or a
heart raise. What's going on? I therefore concluded, (rightly or wrongly),
that perhaps partner's hand is blacker than I thought so I bid 5C thinking
this should have every chance to make.
I believe pard was (in proper order): AJxx, Qxx, Qx, AQxx . We made 5,
losing only a spade and a diamond. Now of course the opps say that if they
dont bid 4D, we would wallow in 3H, and they are right.
How do you recommend I handle this auction?
Would you show clubs right away and hope the auction continues so that you
can later show hearts or do you bid hearts thinking that the suit may never
get uncovered if not shown now?
And would an immediate responsive dbl from me imply both majors, asking pard
to pick? There are a lot of judgement and "bidding chops" issues on this
deal. Suggestions?
To recap; You hold S xx H AK97 D T C J9xxxx
On the Auction: (1D) - Dbl - (3D) - 3H - (4D) - Pass - (Pass)
You would think the first question to answer is what does partner's pass
over 4D show. There is actually an earlier question. What did your 3H bid
show.
In my view 3H by you is a very wide ranging call which could be base on
shape or high cards, could be almost totally competitive, or value showing
and constructive.
The worst hand I could come up with was: xx Kxxxx x xxxxx, and the best
hand was some kind of 10 HCP hand with 4 hearts. If those are the choices,
then partner's pass means little, because they would need a fair amount of
extras to bid.
Here partner held: S AJxx H Qxx D Qx C AQxx
On the actual hand I would bid 3H or 4H depending on my mood and how well I
had been declaring so far :-) If I bid 3H and they compete to 4D, I would
now bid 4H -- I am stubborn.
Of interest is the play in 4H. If the defense leads 2 rounds of diamonds,
you should pitch a spade, rather than trumping. This is a standard way to
keep control in a 4-3 fit. Your plan is to lose 2 daimonds, pick up the
clubs with no loseres (likely on the auction) and either lose one heart if
they split 4-2 or no hearts if they are 3-3.
Barry
January 21, 2006
In a game I held this hand AQJT5, AQT2, K98, 3. The bidding goes N 1C E
pass, S 2C, W (me) Dbl, N 3C, E pass, S pass, W(me) 3S then it was passed
out.I made 4S. Should I have doubled again for my partner to bid or should
my partner bid at that point?
For what it is worth I would have bid the same way. Dbl showed some stuff,
and then when you bid 3S you showed you had more stuff and 5 or 6 spades. I
do think most experts would disagree with me, and dbl a second time mainly
because it also shows more values and it is more flexable. This would allow
you to get to 3 of a red suit or even defend 3C dbld. My choice to bid 3S,
like you did, is that bidding spades is the only way to get to a 5-3 fit
when that is right.
If you had dbld again it seems likely that partner would bid 3D and you
would bid 3S now and partner is in sort of the same position. Or, partner
would bid 3H and you would have a guess as to whether to raise to game or
not (I would raise).
Based on what you told me, I don't know if 4S was a lucky make or a good
contract, but I am reminded of a quote of Al Roth. He was asked how 2 hands
could be bid to a cold slam, and he replied that he didn't know how they
could be reasonably bid to game!
Hope this was helpful
Barry
November 14, 2005
Hi Barry
I have a quick question about Michaels. Here is the scenario:
Neither side vulnerable
RHO opens 2C
I have 14HCP, 5-5 in the majors H- AKQxx S- AJxxx
I bid 3C, hoping my partner takes this for Michaels, even though such a
situation has never come up before
LHO passes
Partner passes (has not recognized my bid as a cuebid . . . assumes I
have long Clubs)
RHO doubles
I bid my hearts to escape the double
pass pass and RHO bids 3S
They play in a 3S contract, going down 3
The question:
Can a Michaels ever be used over 2C?
My thinking was:
-this has never come up before, but my partner will recognize that
this is a cuebid, and will assume Michaels
-there are only 4 more points out there
-my distributional hand is worth more than 14 points
-a 3 level response by partner would be safe in either suit . . .
we may well make, or only go down 1, which would be a reasonable
sacrifice (it turns out we could have made 3H)
-at the least I am interfering with their bid, and the likelihood
of their finding their contract (which as it turns out would be a
minor), or forcing them to go higher than they may want
I have answered this question first since your other question is going to
require a longer answer and more thought to do it justice. Here, we
discover that we have to have some general principles in these situations.
On the convention card in the Cue Bid section is a box in the row "natural"
and the column "artificial bids". Most pairs check this off, meaning
anytime we cue bid an artificial bid it is a natural call.
For example 1NT by the opponents and a 2C Stayman response. Now even though
double shows clubs, 3C shows more clubs. Similarly, 1S by the opponents and
a 3C response as either Bergen or mini-splinter; a 4C cuebid by us is
natural. If 3C is a natural weak jump shift, then a cuebid would not be
natural (Probably some very distributional t/o to the other two suits).
So in your case 2C (strong and artificial) - 3C cuebid should be natural.
You need this because you could very well have a long club suit and may want
and/or need to show it. To compensate for this many pairs play a double of
2C is majors and 2NT is minors (Or perhaps some more complicated method such
as C.Ra.Sh. or Suction).
Without any agreement, I probably would have passed over 2C to see what they
were going to bid. If they rebid a Major, I would be out of the auction for
a while. If the bid a minor, I would likely double for takeout.
Hope this is helpful.
Barry
On the Road
Columbia, Missouri
September 25, 2005
Hi Barry: I have been using 3rd and 5th leads of late. Like most people who
use it, I lead 3/5 vs suits but 4th best vs NT. My question is; what is the
reasoning behind retaining 4th best instead of 3/5 over NT?
The main reason to play 3rd and 5th is to help differentiate between when
you lead a 3 card suit vs a 4 card suit. The count can be very important at
a suit contract. Hopefully playing 3/5th you can almost always tell whether
it is 3 or 5 from the bidding, your hand and dummy.
4th works good against NT, because it is very rare to lead an unbid 3 card
suit, and here it is more important to differentiate between 4 and 5. Also
I have seen it happen where the lead of a fifth best card can block the suit
when declarer has four, pard has three and dummy is stiff. It is sometimes
important to be able to get "under " pards second play of the suit.
This is rare, so some people do play 3/5 vs NT also. I played it for some
time with several people and I don't like it partly because of the reasons
stated and I don't think you need it.
Barry in Indiana
September 1, 2005
Hi Barry. My partner and I are using Capp. The bidding goes like this, LHO
1nt (12 to 14) partner passes, RHO bids 3D(weak). If I were to bid 3H,
would this be natural or capp?
Dbl would be a good hand; mainly takeout.
3 Major would be natural.
3NT would be natural.
Hope this helps.
Barry
April 10, 2005
Hi Barry,
My partner and I are debating about whether a jump shift response to opener best describes a weak or a strong holding. What would your interpretation of partner's hand be if their response to your opener (no intervening bid) is a jump shift? What would it be if there were an intervening bid by opponent?
This is one of these things that is 100% partnership agreement. You must
decide yourself based on usefulness, frequency, ease of memory and your own
preferences.
2nd question first --- It is very common to play a JSIC (Jump Shift In
Competition) as weak.
1st question --- most people now play PJS (Preemptive Jump shifts)
Believe it or not I still, after all these years am somewhat ambivalent on
what type of JS to play.
If I play strong jump shifts, I would play the Paul Soloway style. The hand
is either a self sufficient suit, a two suiter with one of the suits being
opener's suit or a very big balanced hand. The type of JS would be
clarified on responder's second bid.
With many of my regular partner's I play the following:
JS over 1 Major = specialized (mini-splinters with some, Bergen with some
and natural and Invitational with others)
JS Major over 1 minor = PJS - less than enough to normally respond -- 6 card
suit, 3-5 HCP, most of your values in your suit.
1D-3C = natural, good 6 card suit, invitational to game (because most of us
play 1D-2C is game forcing so Kxx x xxx AQJ963 is hard to bid when partner
opens 1D)
With others I play all JS are strong, with some I play some JS are strong
and other's are invitational (2 level = strong, 3-level = inv.)
To add complexity to an already to complicated answer many good
players/experts play in competition jump shifts are natural with a fit for
opener -- FJS = Fit Jump Shifts (Typically Hxxx of opener's suit and HHxxx
of bid suit).
If this hasn't been too helpful, I would not be at all surprised :-)
Barry Harper
Question #1
LHO opens with 1D, Pard Passes, RHO bids 1NT and I bid 2D. My partner thinks it is a Diamond suit and passes and I play in a 2-2 fit. He says it means a strong diamond suit. If that was so I would want to defend. I meant it as Michaels as the opponents have not bid a Major and LHO may have 4+ Diamonds. Your advice?
Answer #1
It seems like the 1NT response usually has a few diamonds (2-5) and the 1D opener will have four or more diamonds, I believe, 96% of the time, so 2D must be majors. In fact this example is also in a book I'm just reading -- Bridge Inferences by Marshall Miles.
When I had it come up, I was 3-2-3-5 and of course bid 2S, got doubled because opener was 4-4-3-2 and responder was 3-3-2-5 so of course partner was 3-4-5-1! anyway there was good news. I made 2S doubled!
Question #2
Many players say that Jacoby 2NT can be made with 4 trump and any shape including a singleton or void. I ask, "Then why are we playing Splinters?" They don't know or they haven't thought about it. I have heard that some good players don't Splinter with a singleton Ace. Your thoughts?
The 2nd question is worth a chapter in a book. I used to play sort of a Bergen system over 1M opener. So splinters were 12-14, 3NT was 12-14 with 3 trumps and we had a forcing raise with 12-14 HCP. Therefore Jacoby 2NT was 15+ HCP. The problem of course is the following:
Opener S AJT85 H 754 D 85 C AQ4
Responder S KQ73 H 8 D AK83 C KJT9
The auction goes 1S-2NT-4S showing a minimum with no shortness and responder has to guess. Is he facing the 11 HCP hand given and slam is cold on 27 HCP, or does opener have 13 HCP:
S AJT85 H KQJ D 852 C Q4 and here although 5 is cold, it might not be if opener has 14 HCP:
S AJ985 H KQJ D QJ8 C 43 now we might lose 2 clubs and a heart.
My solution now days is to play Kenny's methods: mini-splinters with a range of 7-14 HCP and responder proceeds to game with 12-14 opposite a signoff, and maxi-splinters are 15-17. This way we are always able to diagnose the perfect fit when there are no wasted values opposite the shortness.
Someone I played with recently suggested to play the minisplinters as 7-11 or 15-17 and the maxi splinters as 12-14. I don't believe it makes a difference, as long as you cover all the ranges.
BTW, if it works for you, I can be available Monday night. The topic I would do is "Competitive bidding and using a Cue Bid". I will have some notes by tomorrow afternoon. (You can find these notes in the "Helpout Handouts" section)
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