Brian Davies
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David’s Wild West description of BBO friendly bridge is depressing, but probably accurate:
My advice is:
- On BBO, it is often quicker, easier and less contentious if you play it out, rather than claiming.
- If you do claim. The laws require that you should state your line of play. You will avoid problems if you do this. I know that is slower to type the line of play – that is why I recommend that you normally play it out.
- But it shouldn’t take long to type: “cross-ruffing” or “drawing trump’s” or “taking the marked finesse”
- Don’t take casual bridge on BBO too seriously.
Nik,
Redouble should suggest a holding that wishes to make a penalty double of the opponents’ response, so it will tend to be short in spades. With three-card support, we might want to bid constructively, in which case, it would appropriate to inquire with a 2NT Ogust bid. The vulneranility will also be a factor in choosing whether to bid constructively or look for penalties.
Steve,
As I stated in my very first reply, takeout doubles have not been covered as a Big Seminar or as a subject in the Live Presentations. This is a tricky one to search as some authors use “Take Out”, some use “Take-out” and some use “Takeout” (I am not sure which is correct, but since takeout is a dictionary word, I use that). In addition, you might find “Double” or “Doubling”. Combining these, I carried out a search and confirmed that the topic occurs in forum topics and replies but not in the Seminars and Live presentations:
If instead, I search on a topic which has been covered such as competitive doubles (which is a form of takeout double), I get a greater variety of responses:
Now the search returns one Big Seminar and two charity seminars as well as a number of forum posts. The screenshot shows “All”, but you could filter on “Seminars (1)”, which will return the Big Seminar only.
The Quizzes and hands of the Week are difficult because the only text for the search engine to find is the title – which by definition doesn’t give away the answer!
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John, I haven’t played in the Acol club for a few years. But I seem to remember that even in the Acol club, the score were compared across BBO – not just within the club?
Our 1NT rebid range is 15-18. The range is already pretty wide and I am reluctant to include 14½ points. But the five card suits and intermediates probably make this a 15 count, so on reflection, maybe 1♣-1♥-1NT rebid is best.
I quite often find that certain defenders have a habit of fiddling with dummy – straightening suits that were already pretty straight with all cards clearly visible, that sort of thing. This doesn’t usually merit any comment. But one particular defender was so obsessive about straightening and rearranging the suits that it was becoming a bit irritating. I finally lost patience when she moved a suit mid-hand, because dummy had now become void in the suit and she wanted the suits re-ordered so that they resumed her red-black red requirement!
Steve, Bernard covered this back in the Friday Live series on Weak Two’s. The fourth of these live presentations (11th September 2020) moved it onto the Benji strong openings (2C and 2D).
A link on Third Suit Forcing: Third Suit Forcing
Thanks Julian.
Yes, I hadn’t spotted that 4S can make! Looking at it, I think that she went wrong at trick one, when she ducked the trump lead and North led back a heart. She later finessed for North to hold the queen of clubs.
Thanks all, for some thoughtful responses.
Stephen is correct that the sequence 1H-2H-3C is a game try and cannot by definition be game forcing. In this sequence opener will either be balanced or have a five-card heat suit. If opener is balanced, the correct game try will be 2NT. If unbalanced, there will be an eight-card heart fit and no reason to play in a club contract.
The sequence 1D-1H-2H-3C is a little different because responder might bid a major rather than a longer minor and so might bid 3C as a game try with only a four-card major. But I guess that Opener’s three-card raises are less common in Acol, so maybe I shouldn’t worry too much about them.
It depends a little bit on the minimum strength of an overcall. But since a 1S overcall can be weaker than a 1S opening, you need a bit more for a 1NT response. In my partnership, I would expect about 9-11 HCPs.
David has it right. Doubling a contract carries a reward if you defeat a contract and the reward grows, the more tricks that you set it by. The flip-side is that there is a penalty if you double and the contract succeeds. The penalty increases with each over-trick.
I think that Bernard plays it as forcing and offering a choice of game. I tried to find a hand, but couldn’t locate it. Certainly in my partnerships it is forcing.
I am not a fan of 3C as artificial (I think they call it a Wolff sign off?). The problem comes when the opening bid is 1C in a four-card major system, because we might want to bid a natural 3C to suggest that a club slam might be a possibility. This is less of a problem playing five-card majors, because the 1C opening is frequently short.
