[gwnn]

 RunemPard, on 2013-January-07, 16:20, said:

If we had done better on the two outrageous boards we would have finished around 60%+ and won. If we had done all 4 correctly, we would have finished with 66.72% and a great night.

And if your opps had done better on their outrageous blunders, you would have finished around 45%.

I don't mean to pick on you but these trains of thoughts are really not the way to go. Try to concentrate more next time and see where it takes you, and keep the mistakes to a minimum. It's normal that everyone makes mistakes, you and your opps alike.

[Fluffy]

 broze, on 2013-January-07, 18:18, said:

I have heard this a thousand times and am still unconvinced. Whether that lead is objectively bad on that hand I won't comment on but I really don't agree with your statement. Hopefully David Bird will discuss this in his upcoming book - I will be interested to see what he has to say.

Its hard to explain this since its mostly based on experience, but lets just say the obvious: doubleton leads are really complicated, you can almost always say that leading from KQJ is good, and leading away from AQ is bad.

But short leads (and trump leads as well) are very different, everything on the hand is affecting them:

-what is my trump holding, do I have trump control to win and return the suit?, do I want to ruff with Q10xx?
-do I control dummy's suit in case the lead is very passive?
-what's the bidding? does partner have implied length on the suit or am I leading blind? could partner overcall the suit at the 1 level?

this is just some examples, there are many more factors to take into account.

I see bad players do horrible short leads all the time, I've seen 3 times singleton lead with void in trumps, also doubleton leads with KQJ trump, and a couple weeks ago someone led a singleton and then rejected to ruff with his stiff AK trump when partner returned the suit.

[PhilKing]

 broze, on 2013-January-07, 18:18, said:

I have heard this a thousand times and am still unconvinced. Whether that lead is objectively bad on that hand I won't comment on but I really don't agree with your statement. Hopefully David Bird will discuss this in his upcoming book - I will be interested to see what he has to say.

I've got the new book - the simulations for suit contract leads LOVE doubleton leads (except Kx). If you haven't managed to get a copy yet, it is because I have bought the entire stock and I am currently burning them on a log fire.

[rhm]

 broze, on 2013-January-07, 18:18, said:

I have heard this a thousand times and am still unconvinced. Whether that lead is objectively bad on that hand I won't comment on but I really don't agree with your statement. Hopefully David Bird will discuss this in his upcoming book - I will be interested to see what he has to say.

+1

Rainer Herrmann

[P_Marlowe]

#0 as already stated, use different threads
#1 you dont know, what partner did, it does not matter
On that basis, why did you bid 4D?
You told your story, partner heard you, do you have anything, you did not already tell?
Being too weak, ..., too late, if 2D was in range, partner will have taken this into account,
if it was too weak according to partnership agreement, take your medcine, apologise and move on,
as you said -1 would have pretty good, so would have X-1.
#2 You told your story, partner heard you, do you have anything, you did not already tell?
I dont agree with 3NT either, but you lost all rights to apeal, as you bid 5D.
You play MP, playing MP, you never play 5 of a minor.
#3 The best lead is a diamond or the Ace of Clubs, for doubleton leads to work, the partnership
needs to control the suit lead and trump control.
To have a reasonable chance, that this is the case, and the opening leader should have at least one
or the other.
And even if you got the ruff, you may have established the suit for declarer.
I am not against doubleton leads, but if I have something else, I go for the alternative.
3D is ..., but it would have worked, if partner had bid 5D.
#4 Our suit? No other suit would even cross my mind.
As long as South assumes, that the 1H overcall happed at the other tables as well, and South has
no contrary indication, heart is the field lead, you play MP, make the field lead, unless you have
a sound reason to deviate.

If you want to take something away from the night, look at #1 / #2, and try to remember, that it is
usually not a good idea, to tell the same story twice.

With kind regards
Marlowe

[Free]

 RunemPard, on 2013-January-07, 16:36, said:

---

Probably the weakest 1st seat opening I have ever done...but at the time I really liked the hand for 10 points and wanted to get involved early. I bid in good tempo, and based on the bidding, I should probably pass 3d as this is not forcing. I gambled on 3NT and was absolutely shocked when partner had these cards after. 3NT+1 for a shared top should have been no issue based on the full hand.

I believe most people play 2NT as showing extras (your rebid should be 2♥), which makes 3♦ forcing. It's hard to judge because we don't know how your partner interpreted your bidding. For all we know, she was afraid of ♣s and thought that your full opener would be enough to make 5♦. Holding a solid suit and having a partner who keeps bidding NT should be a clear sign that the suit will provide tricks while partner will stop all the other suits. And even if that's not the case, you might get away with it when opps lead the wrong suit.

When you like this hand so much, I'm quite confident that you'd get to 3NT if you passed in first seat (1♦-1♥-2♦-2NT-3NT?). I don't like this hand as much as you do (poor ♥ suit, poor controls), so I would've passed and probably played 2♦ (unless with my Precision partner, who can jump to 3♦ showing a max hand and a good suit).

I've had a lot of hands where at some point we're at the optimum contract (here 3NT) but me or partner continues to bid. Usually the harm was done before that point (here opening 1♥ and maybe the 2NT rebid - depends on agreements), and pulling is just the result of that previous error.

[Free]

 RunemPard, on 2013-January-07, 16:41, said:

---

I made a very weak NV/V minor preempt, which partner can expect, but not too often. I found it hard to believe that partner could not find the 5d card in her bidding box. I led the S5 rather than a diamond resulting in 4h+2 rather than 4h+1 for a bottom instead of a 50/50 board.

Was my best lead to go with my suit, or does the bidding suggest trying another play?

This depends a lot on your agreements about the preempt. It's easy to construct hands where you'll go -4 or -5 in 5♦ when you have ♦Kxxxxx without anything else. The hands fit well because you have a 3rd ♣ and a 7th ♦ which apparently split 1-1.

Leads aren't always clearcut. Since you don't have any ♦ honors, I think you can't give much away by leading a small ♦. Going for a ruff with a small doubleton seldom works. You might try ♣A first, but leading Aces usually isn't a good idea.

[Free]

 RunemPard, on 2013-January-07, 16:46, said:

The last one...this was more interesting I thought.

---

1D is alerted as 1+D, strong club. Partner is on lead from south...what should she lead?

I would probably lead ♥J. Partner knows this isn't from a doubleton, but may expect me holding the ♥T (not in this case though).

[RunemPard]

 gwnn, on 2013-January-08, 02:21, said:

And if your opps had done better on their outrageous blunders, you would have finished around 45%.

I don't mean to pick on you but these trains of thoughts are really not the way to go. Try to concentrate more next time and see where it takes you, and keep the mistakes to a minimum. It's normal that everyone makes mistakes, you and your opps alike.

Of course, this is the same in any event. But I do disagree that their blunders are 100% on them. Blunders can be created as well (of course opponents still need to misjudge). It can happen during the bidding(or lack of), during the play(false signals or what you will), or even by not giving away unneeded information. At club play, even more so at mixed level, so many players give away hints through not only play, but also bad habits. I have always tried to play every card in the same way, at the same pace (as often as possible), and plan ahead to avoid any stop that may hint aware opponents to a winning play.

In conclusion...I really do not think of the hands where the opponents played great and got a good score or the hands where they did something extremely foolish. I try to concentrate more on things that I have control over...our play.

[RunemPard]

 P_Marlowe, on 2013-January-08, 06:12, said:

#0 as already stated, use different threads
#1 you dont know, what partner did, it does not matter
On that basis, why did you bid 4D?
You told your story, partner heard you, do you have anything, you did not already tell?
Being too weak, ..., too late, if 2D was in range, partner will have taken this into account,
if it was too weak according to partnership agreement, take your medcine, apologise and move on,
as you said -1 would have pretty good, so would have X-1.
#2 You told your story, partner heard you, do you have anything, you did not already tell?
I dont agree with 3NT either, but you lost all rights to apeal, as you bid 5D.
You play MP, playing MP, you never play 5 of a minor.
#3 The best lead is a diamond or the Ace of Clubs, for doubleton leads to work, the partnership
needs to control the suit lead and trump control.
To have a reasonable chance, that this is the case, and the opening leader should have at least one
or the other.
And even if you got the ruff, you may have established the suit for declarer.
I am not against doubleton leads, but if I have something else, I go for the alternative.
3D is ..., but it would have worked, if partner had bid 5D.
#4 Our suit? No other suit would even cross my mind.
As long as South assumes, that the 1H overcall happed at the other tables as well, and South has
no contrary indication, heart is the field lead, you play MP, make the field lead, unless you have
a sound reason to deviate.

If you want to take something away from the night, look at #1 / #2, and try to remember, that it is
usually not a good idea, to tell the same story twice.

With kind regards
Marlowe

#1 I bid 4D because of thinking that if I let the double stick and it went -1 we would be punished. I wasn't sure if I was allowed to bid 4D or not and honestly was mostly thinking if I am the one to call the director or even when to do it. Not to mention being extremely annoyed...so I would greatly appreciate if ppl would stop making such rude comments about me bidding 4D. I didn't do it in my mind to break laws, I had no clue what I was supposed to do.
#1b My partner alerted my bid as inverted promising 10+ hcp. I had a very weak overcall, which is ok, but as I said above...

#2 I opened 1H on this board...very light opening. I was not the one to bid 5D. I thought passing 3NT at MPs was an obvious action with her hand was all. The other thing about the board is that for us 2H promises extras.

#3 No comment about my bad lead. I was just very shocked to see partner pass.

#4 I still disagree...There are some holdings in hearts that a heart lead will provide something good. It is more of a safe lead I guess, but at this point I still feel we can afford a slightly more aggressive lead. My thoughts were a diamond. On this board, the opponents were in a 4/3 split and a diamond lead would allow us to shorten the player with 4S to 3 setting up a final trick later. The diamonds were 4522. I am not claiming my thoughts to be right, I just think that a diamond lead may pay off here.

[RunemPard]

Just a random message regarding my 1st of the two replies above...

I used to get rather nervous at the table. I decided to work on my "poker face". I concentrated on playing my cards in a monotonous method, take my time, and give a look of confidence. I have no stats(duh), but I sure do seem to get a lot more freebies than I used to. And it is honestly true IMO...

LOL at the club is going to give away a lot, played for as free MPs...if you can managed to play your boards with confidence and ease you may just get a few good results.

[neilkaz]

I particularily don't like your partnership bidding on hand #2. I don't see why your aceless 5431 10 count is good enough to upgrade to an opening bid, but in your defense you admitted it was very light. But since PD's 3♦ was non-forcing it seems to me to be very bad to then think that you can make close to 9 tricks in 3NT with just the 8 of ♦ as support.
But once you bid 3NT and noting that this is your 2nd call of NT, PD's decision to pull to 5♦ is simply awful and she should have no doubt the black suits are stopped.

One thing that I tell PD's that if they are certain we want to be in game, DON'T make any call that can be passed below game. Here, in your system 3♦ can and should've been passed so PD must find another call.

[Stephen Tu]

 RunemPard, on 2013-January-08, 10:59, said:

#1 I bid 4D because of thinking that if I let the double stick and it went -1 we would be punished.

So you were trying to escape punishment?
Some things to learn:
- once an infraction has occurred, there's really no getting out of it. If the opponents are entitled to redress they are going to get it regardless of what you do, unless they stop playing normalish bridge and do something totally nuts like bid 7nt out of nowhere. The only thing you can do is follow the law from that point forward. Which means not taking actions suggested over other actions because of UI.
- other than things like revokes and penalty cards for playing out of turn, there are few automatic penalties in bridge. Most of the time the options are there to simply restore equity if the infraction hadn't taken place, so don't panic and think you are automatically getting a bad board and do something weird.

Here, if 3nt-x had gone down, there's nothing to redress:
- the opponents bidding would not have been different (you being described as stronger should dissuade them from bidding game, if anything, but they bid it anyway)
- presumably play would not be different on this layout. (could have been adjustment if there were a line to take more tricks, but they choose different line because of being misled about your strength)
- partner is allowed to double, because she has no UI from you, she can do whatever she wants, including doubling on a mistaken idea of how strong you are.

The opps if end up 3nt-x -1, they kind of got fixed relative to the people in 3nt-1 since partner might not have doubled had she known you were so weak, but that's just a break of the game, not an advantage gained because of an infraction. But most of the field is not in game, their bad score is mostly their own fault for overbidding to a 23 hcp 3nt.

[P_Marlowe]

Quote

<snip>
#4 I still disagree...There are some holdings in hearts that a heart lead will provide something good. It is more of a safe lead I guess, but at this point I still feel we can afford a slightly more aggressive lead. My thoughts were a diamond. On this board, the opponents were in a 4/3 split and a diamond lead would allow us to shorten the player with 4S to 3 setting up a final trick later. The diamonds were 4522. I am not claiming my thoughts to be right, I just think that a diamond lead may pay off here.

Diamomd is their suit, opener will quite often be 54, if you start with diamonds,
you develop tricks for declarer.
If you want to go swinging to get a topscore, lead a club.
The lead will be through opener, partner will have length, but so will declarer.

The advantage of a heart lead is, that you will collect your heart tricks before
diamonds ( or clubs) have been es, tablished and vanish.
Given that partner / declarer have club length and you have the king of clubs,
heart will also be your best shot reaching partner, so that he can play club throug
declarers holding.

The argument about shortening the long trump hand is a non argument, at the time
you have to decide what to lead, you have no idea, that they are in a 4-3 fit.

With kind regards
Marlowe

PS: I did not want to be rude, and the advice I gave, that you have to ignore partnetrs
alert is the only one, I wanted to make.
What bid to choose is up to you, but you should choose the one, least likely to be good
for you, but a reasonable one.
And not telling the same story twice is also good advice, I can give this one also to
myself.