[32519]

 Vampyr, on 2013-May-30, 03:04, said:

Read Law6E4. If these "pre-dealt hands" are not random, the game is illegal (although I believe that an exception can be made if certain hand-types are included for instructional purposes. Have the clubs disclosed that this is what they are doing?)

Woah there! Now you got me. They use the card deal machines. Can't these be set to deal a specified amount of HCP to any given hand, while the actual cards dealt are random? Similarly, can't these deal machines be set to deal a specific number of cards in any particular suit to a particular hand while the actual cards are random?

I don't know enough about these machines as our club doesn't have one.

[gwnn]

Play 2C-2H as 'I will pass your 2NT rebid' and everything else as a GF. This is not my idea (I read it from Fred I think). 2C-2S is sometimes played as 8-10(11) balanced/semi-balanced because it's supposed to be an important range. 2NT can then be played as either 5-5 majors or single-suited with a major (i.e., one of them, not as an either/or bid) as those are the hands that are least likely you belong in no trumps and they are also important to show. Haven't read the whole thread so maybe these have already been mentioned.

[Vampyr]

 32519, on 2013-May-30, 04:34, said:

Woah there! Now you got me. They use the card deal machines. Can't these be set to deal a specified amount of HCP to any given hand, while the actual cards dealt are random? Similarly, can't these deal machines be set to deal a specific number of cards in any particular suit to a particular hand while the actual cards are random?

Sure, this can be done, but it is against the Laws of Duplicate Bridge, unless it is for a specific purpose (eg Play with the Experts or teaching) and I should think that it must be disclosed.

In any case you could ask the management of the clubs.

[mycroft]

Last night I got lots of really difficult hands to bid, including one that could have reasonably be opened 2♣ (I didn't because it was a massive heart-club two-suiter, but I was really hoping partner didn't pass!). Some of them were, I'm sure, much easier to bid at the other table, because they had a strong NT available, and that would have made life easy. Having said that, there was at least one hand that was really hard to play at the other table, because they told the defence what to do; our table had it easy, 1NT-3NT and scene.

Oh, did I mention it was hand-dealt?

Seriously, though, really big hands are difficult to bid. You need to find a fit, and then find out how many of two or three specific cards partner holds - all at the same time not making calls that can be passed, and not bypassing the "zero" safety level. And if you cheat and use pass or 1♣ for all the strong hands to maximize your space, the pesky opponents steal it all anyway. It's not surprising that you get a 2♣ opening (one side or the other) once a session, and likely there will be some nasty decision to make once every two or three of those hands. I highly doubt that they are deliberately cooking the hands - after all, if they are, you can bring in a system that makes those hands easier to the detriment of other hands, that don't come up as often.

[GreenMan]

 Vampyr, on 2013-May-30, 05:50, said:

Sure, this can be done, but it is against the Laws of Duplicate Bridge, unless it is for a specific purpose (eg Play with the Experts or teaching) and I should think that it must be disclosed.

In any case you could ask the management of the clubs.

I wouldn't bother. This sounds like a classic case of availability bias -- the big hands that are hard to bid stand out in memory, in comparison with the common routine hands that pass quickly into the fog, so they "seem" to be happening a lot. And they stand out in large part because the OP's system doesn't handle them well -- which is why this thread got started.

[Winstonm]

 TylerE, on 2013-May-28, 17:18, said:

So What do you open with:

xxx
-
AKQJx
AKQJx

?

2C then 4C if I remember (two suited minors)

[Winstonm]

 Antrax, on 2013-May-28, 20:57, said:

Having read BBF extensively, I was convinced that you should never open 2♣ on two-suited hands, instead opting to open them at the 1-level. The problem was that people in the club hadn't read BBF, so we would sometimes get 1m swish. To solve that dilemma, I've come up with a tweak where with strong hands, you open 1m while staring intently at your partner. This has two upsides: the force of your gaze might make your partner more likely to bid, especially if you start frowning when it seems like he's reaching for a green card, and avoiding eye contact with the opponents signals weakness, which would encourage them to overcall on trash.

I almost agree with this - 2C on 2-suited hands need to be game-in-hand type hands. Then it is basically 2C-2any- pick a suit bid.