Conference turris::bridge

  I bid 2H, not three.  If this turns into a partscore competition, I
 will not them have it below 3S.

  There is something to be said for just bidding 4H and rolling dice.
 If I did that, partner is captain and I abide by his decisions.

  Suppose I go the 2H route and it DOESN'T turn into a partscore battle,
 but a high level hand.  Only my partner is looking at his spades and
 clubs, and only he knows what they can make - I can't tell.  So if he
 doubles them, or bids, I can't overrule.  The only hard case is when LHO
 bids 4S and partner passes it to me.  I don't expect to beat them, but
 the save could be expensive.

  In the other case, where the opponents have junk and partner has all
 the strength, he'll cue-bid, and perhaps I'll show diamonds.  I'll be
 glad I didn't induce slam bidding by him, with my lousy trumps.

  bb

	If I'm going to bid at all, I'd bid 2C, telling partner to pick
	a red suit.  I'm willing to compete to the 3-level eventually,
	as we should have a double fit with a 9-card fit in one of the
	two suits.  Some people will compete with 2H now, and bid 3D
	over 2S-P-P-?.  I'd much rather have it go 2C-2S-P-P-3D, as my
	diamonds are much better than my hearts.

	I don't mind a pass here, either, but I think I'd like to tell
	partner about the red suits *before* the opponents bid too high.
	It's always nice when the opps give you room to bid, but I don't
	think that's gonna happen on this hand.

	-Dave

I'm definitely not passing.

I bid 2H.  I like Dave's 2C bid in principle, but it makes it
hard for partner to know for sure to bid hearts with 3 pieces and
4 decent spades, rather than bidding NT, which is the last thing
I want to hear.

I also can't outbid them if they have spades (I'll push them to 3S
if necessary), and don't want to give them a free opportunity to
find clubs by my cueing 2C and having it doubled.  2H chews up
a level quickly, and I can still show diamonds later.  I don't start
with 3H since the hearts are so bad and the diamonds so good.

If we have both reds, I want to play in hearts (this is matchpoints).
Get the (admittedly awful) 5 hearts into the auction now.

					- Mark

    For you who want to compete in hearts, I have the following question:
    
    If we get outbid on this auction and partner is on lead in a club
    contract, do you need to be concerned about his leading hearts?
    
    For the 2C proponent(s), what would you bid with 8 HCP instead of
    the 3 you have been dealt?
    
    Shekhar

    You have reds, they have blacks plus the balance of strength.
    Only a pass gives you a chance to fool them stay in partscore.
    If, notwithstanding, they go 4S, then I'd bid 4N for pard to
    chose the sacrificial red lamb. Mind you, pard may have 4 spades,
    and make 2 trump tricks, and they still may have 10 tr.

  I know people who bid 2D for the lead, but I don't like it, myself.
 That will work out if they bid 3NT, I suppose.  But on many hands, the
 lead doesn't matter, and surely partner knows you haven't promised a
 lead with a two-level bid, so this lead-directing business becomes an
 excuse for distorted budding.

  It comes down to this : you know very little about the hand, so far.
 When that is true, you can either gamble boldly on one thing or another,
 or make a nothing bid of 2H and hope you know more later.  I choose the
 latter, more from personality than conviction.  I play down the middle
 in situations where I don't know enough, saving decisive actions for
 situations where I have more knowledge.

  bb

>    For the 2C proponent(s), what would you bid with 8 HCP instead of
>    the 3 you have been dealt?

	2S or 3C  Partner made a takeout double, so he's short in clubs.
	In this case, 3C can't be a stopper ask, so I'd play this as a
	"Mixed-Raise" bid.   2S depends on your agreements whether this
	is natural or not - you might double if you had spades.

	Some people play that doubling 1S is "Psyche uncovering" (penalty).
	Others play the the double is some kind of Resposive double.  If
	it's responsive, you can now assign different meanings to 2C & 2S

	I suppose it might be better to switch the meaning of the cue
	bids.  Make the lower one show more strength.  The idea being
	that the less you got, the more bidding space you should consume.
	So I could have bid 2S instead of 2C saying, "I have a bust,
	and am willing to compete to the 3-level in at least one of the
	red suits"

>    If we get outbid on this auction and partner is on lead in a club
>    contract, do you need to be concerned about his leading hearts?

	Partner shouldn't be expecting much out of me.  This is a noise
	bid type of situation.  Opener and partner have 13 or so points
	apiece, and depending on the opponents agreements, RHO should
	have something worth a free bid.  (Was a new-suit forcing by
	RHO?  If so, I'd expect RHO to have a decent hand).  This doesn't
	leave much room for you to have many points.  Partner should be
	aware of that and won't play you for much.  Therefore, a suit
	bid by you is not lead-directing, merely preference for a place
	to play if partner wants to compete/sacrifice.  Some people play
	it as lead-directing, though.

	-Dave

    Here is the question that is still unresolved for me:
    
    Chances are better than even that this is not our hand. Shouldn't the
    primary concern be to get the smallest minus as opposed to the highest
    plus? If the opponents:
    
    a) find a fit in Spades, we'll need to bid one more in either red suit.
    b) play Notrump, partner needs to know which suit to lead.
    c) play in clubs, partner is on lead and there too it might help him if
       he knows my only card is in D.
    
    Why do we not want to play in the better suit? If partner bids again
    showing a strong hand, surely he'll be happy to play in a major, should
    the opportunity be presented to him on the second go around.
    
    Shekhar

I would bid 2D and take all the blame if that didn't work out. I will 
bid 3H if I get the chance. My second choice would be the prosaic 2H 
bid. I, like Bill, tend to be down the center, but I wander a bit 
more that he does. 

    Matchpoints: Dealer S
    The full hand:

			S AJ9xx			The bidding:
			H x			S	W	N	E	
			D AJx			1C	Dbl*	1S	2D*
			C xxxx			2S	P	P	3H*
	S Kxxx				S x	Dbl	P	4C	AP
	H KJxx				H 7xxxx		We got a good board
	D xx				D KT9xx		since N-S have a
	C KQJ				C Tx		Spade fit. The *
    							bids were the ones
			S QTx				we couldn't agree
			H AQx				about.
			D Qxx
			C Axxx
    
    

  On the actual deal, nothing you did mattered, as long as you don't sell
 to 2S.  North erred in veering into a (shudder) minor suit at matchpoints.

  The lead did not matter.  If you had bid 2H first, 3D next, that wouldn't
 matter either.  The 2D, 3H a la BC worked out the same.  (You might make 3Hx).

  And SK is right, since 4S makes here, I think.  But they weren't bidding it.

  bb