Thanks BBO!

Just held this in a pickup game:

♠ J72 ♥ AKQ ♦ AK ♣ AKJT7

You're third seat and partner, in first, opens 1♠. Do the math.

Even I can't botch the auction on this one. Ending in 7NTXX, you are delighted to see this:

♠ AKQ865 ♥ J ♦ Q743 ♣ 52

♠ J72 ♥ AKQ ♦ AK ♣ AKJT7

Wow.

We sank our Battleship!

Just posted this hand in the BBO Forums... I was East:

♠ AQT93 ♥ ♦ A7 ♣ KT8763

♠ J8754 ♥ AQ87 ♦ 98 ♣ AJ

West	North	East	South
1♠	p	2NT*	p
3♠	p	4♣	p
4♦	p	4♥	p
4NT	p	5♥	p
5♠	p	p	p

Over there, I'm asking three main questions:

• Should I have pushed to 6♠ over pard's signoff?
• Was cuebidding ♥s a good call? I could've taken the RKC call instead.
• Should I have just blasted to slam at some point, knowing that we had a big fit and a couple strong hands.

What I didn't do, but will do here, is point out that partner was an idiot anyway. We play 2NT as 'Jacoby-esque' - essentially a GF major raise that promises only 3 card trump support. The clearly defining characteristic of his hand is the ♥ void, so a 3♥ bid would've been helpful. Oh well.

Anyway, back to my issue. How would you bid the East hand?

The Flu is bad for bridge....

Sorry for the lack of content here or at the other blog this past week. Shortly after my last post, I came down with the pan-asian chicken flu. I've been mostly out of commission since last Thursday, and only returned to the land of the living today.

In addition to robbing me of all health and vitality, "the Froo" appears to also have taken away any declarer play skills that I had. I've played a couple hands online and versus BridgeBaron and I'm playing like absolute TRASH.

With any luck, I'm on the mend in both departments. Anyway, more content later.

Bridge-news.blogspot.com

Well, I finally pulled the trigger on something I've been thinking of for a while.

Read all about it here. Hope it flies (rather than dies).

Cuebiditis

Another thing to add to the list of things to address... I've developed a predilection for various cuebids. The trick is that I occasionally space, I think, on what those bids actually mean. Take the following debacle I caused, for example:

♠ KJT8 ♥ AKQ75 ♦ J ♣ 76

West	North	East	South
	1♥	2♦	2♠
p	?

What do you bid back over partner's 2♠? You know you probably want to be in 4♠ at least. I thought "Ah! I'll be artistic and cuebid!". So, I bid an "elegant" 3♦. My plan was one of two things. Either:

1. Pard will see this as agreeing spades and cuebid with a great hand. Or...
2. Pard will see this as a generic GF cuebid, limit their hand, and then I can bid game.

So, imagine my joy when partner answered back with a jump to 4♣! I was thrilled thinking we'd agreed spades and were now cuebidding controls. This was reinforced in my head since we had bypassed the 3-level altogether and a possible, logical stopping spot of 3NT.

So, I decided to cuebid back my heart control. The auction so far:

West	North	East	South
	1♥	2♦	2♠
p	3♦	p	4♣
p	4♥

And that's where it stayed... Passed out at 4♥. So, I waited (very) anxiously for dummy to come down. Sitting north, I saw:

♠ KJT43 ♥ AKQ75 ♦ J ♣ 76

♠ Q952 ♥ 94 ♦ K9 ♣ QJ853

4♠ and 4♥ both rate to go down (lose 2 ♣s, 1 ♦, and 1 ♠), though I'd still rather be in 4♠ than 4♥.

As it is the defense led/won the ♣AK, but erred by leading a 3rd round. West ruffed with the ♥2, which I overruffed. West had 4 ♥s to start with, so I was now able to pull trumps, lose the ♠A, and the rest came home.

So, the next chapter to finish in the bidding guide is on competitive cuebids.