David Stevenson
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It looked a reasonable question to me for Ask Julian.
Out of interest the rule to which Julian referred, where you add your points to your number of spades and open if this comes to 15 or more is called Pearson Points. When invented I believe they only opened with 16 or more but I prefer the 15 rule.It is interesting that there are some names that have been generally accepted even though they are somewhat confusing if you take note of what the name actually means. One of the best examples of this is “Better Minor” when you, as Julian points out, sometimes actually open the weaker minor. But there is no point trying to swim upstream in a raging torrent ? and you might as well just accept that it is just a name.
When you are dummy there are one or two things that you are allowed to do but not very many. Calling the director except where somebody is very rude is not permitted unless somebody else has called attention to an irregularity. So if there is a claim or concession and play continues (whether legally or not) you have to keep quiet until the end of the hand. If the concession had been accepted then the hand ended and then you were allowed to call the director on your own initiative and say to him whatever you like. Technically play can only continue after a claim or concession if all four players agree so your opinion counts then.
It is a little different online insofar as it is normal for play to continue if a claim or concession is rejected, but the situation as far as dummy is concerned is unchanged: dummy may say nothing if play continues but may say anything or call the director if the claim or concession is accepted.
If the director is called the only reason why he would not accept the concession is that players may not accept a trick which cannot be won by any play of the cards. So perhaps he would give declarer a couple of tricks because the declarer cannot really not make any trump tricks.BMB tournaments do not give masterpoints as such, so any reference to masterpoints must refer to BBO masterpoints which are given out by BBO for any tournament run by anybody on BBO and they have a ranking system of their own. If you look at the BBO names of people to the right you will see a number which is their rank attained from BBO master points.
To answer this I really need to know who ran the tournament, where it was, and whether it was online or not, and if online, on which platform.
Saying “I am sorry but you cannot say that” will definitely be considered hostile and is just as likely if not more so to drive inexperienced players away from the game. Basically so long as you call the director in a low key manner, for example “I think we better have the director, don’t you?” it should be all right, and anyone who is going to leave the game because a director is called will leave the game eventually anyway.
It is a sad fact that too many people want to sort things out themselves and not call the director, probably because there is a negative feeling about calling the director. If the laws and regulations are not followed that is a matter for the director not the players. When you said what you did to your opponent you were telling her the laws and you should be leaving that to the director.
To put it another way, saying what you did to an opponent is creating more fuss than calling the director.
It does not sound like a proper duplicate. But if it was you did not have the right to tell your opponent the rules, you should have called the director immediately. The question and any answer provides unauthorised information. The director will warn them about the unauthorised information and make sure it is not used. You were certainly right that the question was illegal but you could have dealt with it better.
It is perfectly legal to play a 2D response to 1N as either hearts or a signoff in diamonds. What is not legal is to call it a transfer to hearts. If you call the director he should adjust the board giving you a ruling that includes you making nine tricks in hearts. Furthermore if your defence was affected he might include some percentage of 3D making fewer tricks.
To be clear, if a bid is described as a transfer then it guarantees one other suit, usually the next suit up.
No. It is alerted because there is the simplest rule of all for alerting doubles of suit bids. You alert them unless they are for takeout in all situations.
You tell him whatever range you play, perhaps 16-18. If on BBO I would have written the range in before making the bid.
You could call the director, but if he is playing it as weak and has made a judgement to open this hand, why not? The only reason to call the director is in case they are really not playing weak twos.
I trust you alerted your penalty double!It is normal to play intermediate or weak to intermediate twos in fourth since you have little hope of game with a minimum opener opposite a passed partner and are just hoping to bid and make a part score. By opening at the two level you make it more difficult for opponents to compete. On the other hand if you really have six points after three passes it is normal to pass as fast as you can since you know the opponents have the balance of points. I think 9-13 is a common range. As Julian says with 14 you have some hopes of game.
Any non forcing change of suit response to 1 of a suit is alertable, so your weak 2 of a major response must be alerted. On the other hand forcing natural changes of suit are not alertable unless they are very unusual so a strong jump shift is not alertable although people do play it in a variety of ways these days.
System cards, also known as convention cards or CCs, are completely different from the alerting regulations so whether something is on your CC or not does not affect whether it is alertable. The rules for alerting are the same on BBO and F2F.
All I can say is that I agree with Brian Powell’s reasoning. As he says, if you imagine perfect hands for partner you are invariably disappointed.
While I shall leave the question of how to bid the hands to Julian I am curious to know what slam is best and which is second best. 6S on a S lead needs the H finesse unless there is no S loser. However on another lead a D ruff gives the 12th if both black suits break. 6C needs the H finesse or the CQ to drop unless you get a H lead (quite possible if South does not show his Hs). This also needs both black suits to break on a S lead, but a bad S break may not be fatal on another lead. 6N by South is awful on a H lead and poor by North since it probably needs the H finesse and more.
So I suppose the best slam must be 6S since it is better than 50% counting the possibility of the wrong lead and I doubt that any slam is good enough on perfect defence. I am sure I would reach some slam or other! Over to you, Julian
