[Geoff Davies]

The 4 spades response is unusual and I agree I would bid 3NT with the actual hand shown. I think Charles has been a little lax in describing the 3NT rebid as 16+, however,  which might mean up to 19 or 20 points.  After a game forcing Jacoby 2NT I would say 3NT shows 15 – 17 and a balanced hand.  With 18 or more I would respond 3 spades and would only bid 4 spades with 14 or fewer points.   So after 1S – 2NT – 3NT looking at your hand you know you have two balanced hands, a 4 – 4 fit and a maximum of 30 points between you.  A slam is unlikely.  Since you have a doubleton you can probably make an extra trick playing in spades so I would bid 4 spades to play with the rest of the field.

[Geoff Davies]

I see that Andrew Robson is now offering supervised online play and duplicate sessions using Realbridge software.  Are you following developments Bernard?  Will you be offering similar events?

[Geoff Davies]

Dear Bernard,

How about instigating an annual Andrew Robson vs Bernard Magee teams match with the Andrew Robson team all playing the same ‘Robson teaching’ Acol system and the Bernard Magee team playing the same ‘Magee teaching’ Benji system?     Ideally it would be a special event in the New Tricks Bridge Club tournament series.  I really like their presentation style where the players voice their thoughts during the bidding and play.

For members who haven’t seen the New Tricks Bridge club on YouTube, playlists for the tournament series and bridge tutorials can be found here.

[Geoff Davies]

Hi, It would help if you included the hand image in your post.  Using a computer you can right click on the Q plus hand image and choose ‘save image as’.  Then in your post use the ‘insert mage’ tool (last one in the tool list at the top of the editor).  Unfortunately, I don’t know how to save the image on an iPad or Android tablet – can anyone else help here?

[Geoff Davies]

It’s worth pointing out why Julian uses 3NT to show 3 spades when opener has no 4 card major.  Since he uses 2NT – 3S to show the minors, he doesn’t have a bid as responder to show 5 spades and 4 hearts which is a common use of this sequence.  By promising 3 spades if opener bids 2NT – 3C – 3NT then responder can take out to 4 spades with the 5 spades and 4 hearts hand.

[Geoff Davies]

You can use Ogust (an artificial bid of 2NT asking partner to describe their strength and suit quality)) after your partner opens a weak 2 because you can still play in 3NT if you wish after hearing your partner’s response.

After partner opens a weak 3, however, you are quite likely to want to play in 3NT if you have a strong hand so it would not be a good idea to use 3NT as an artificial Ogust-style bid.

[Geoff Davies]

You are basically correct but you don’t necessarily have to press the alert. To announce something. e.g. your 1NT range, just enter 12 – 14 in the text area by the alert button before completing your bid. I think Bernard has covered this in a video somewhere but don’t know where. You might like to watch Paul Gipson’s YouTube video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2UFOOVR5P8

[Geoff Davies]

If you play the hands in a BBO teaching table or with others (using the .lin file uploaded to BBO) then after you have played the hand you will see it in your history tab. Looking at the deal in the history tab if you click the hamburger menu (the three light blue horizontal lines on a dark blue background) you can select ‘show double dummy’. This will show you that leading A, Q, or 8 spades or Q or 2 of hearts can take the contract 3 off. Alternatively, your play software may well have a ‘double dummy analysis’ option.

[Geoff Davies]

You only need one trump to be able to trump the Q of clubs. You have an entry to hand with the A diamonds and to table with the A of spades.

Leading the J clubs early on essentially gives up the throw-in possibility since West would have to have a void or singleton spade. Doing it when I suggest could still see East ducking with the A clubs and has the better chance of the throw-in succeeding.

With regard to the bidding, Jack bids it the same as you. It’s a better than 50% slam (just) so you should be in it at teams but probably not at pairs.

[Geoff Davies]

There is another slight chance you could play for – that W started with only 2 spades.

Assuming you get a heart or a spade lead then play off all your hearts but one, and two rounds of spades (or one more if a spade was lead which you should have taken in declarer’s hand.)

You will then be on table with one spade entry left. Lead the J of clubs, just in case it is covered by Q. If E plays the A then you have to fall back on the diamond finesse.

If W has the A and only started with 2 spades (or has discarded some) he must lead a diamond – finding the K for you or a club – finding the Q for you. If he has a third spade then you fall back on the diamond finesse.

[Geoff Davies]

Jack 6 works extremely well over the internet. My partner and I use it almost weekly for practice. If you are modifying the convention cards, however, you must make sure that a copy of your modified convention card is available on both machines. Confusingly, the option to export or import a convention card is only available after you select edit!

Create your new convention card and save it. Select it and press ‘edit’. You will then see an option to export your convention card. Transfer the .cc file produced to the new machine. Within Jack, settings, select any convention card and press edit. Select Import and import your new convention card.

[Geoff Davies]

Unfortunately, I can’t save the hands that Jack generates when doing his lead analysis. I can ask him to generate a hand for me to play which would match the given auction but it takes much longer to generate the hands so clearly the routines are different. Here’s a hand generated by Jack to match the given auction where South has 3 hearts to the K.

North S Q10, H 875, D AQ108, C AJ107
West S 9842, H AQ3, D 76, C 9832 East S 5, H J1094, D KJ54, CKQ64
South S AKJ763, HK62, D932, C 5

I suppose that some people would bid 3NT instead of 3S with South’s hand. Interestingly, Jack also uses simulation during the bidding phase. His expected average scores at this point are: 3S 143, 3NT 190 and 4S 217 (about 56% probability of making if he only went one down when failing). These are final contract values. He bids 3S at this point expecting partner to raise to 4 with their typical hand but allowing them to pass with a weaker hand.

A heart lead allows 4 spades to make. Any other lead defeats the contract. Infuriatingly, despite Jack’s lead analysis by simulation favouring the 7 diamonds lead, when the hand is played Jack actually leads the ace of hearts! – There’s another level of analysis in actual play which is not described in the manual as far as I can see.

Brian – if you are getting the contract down 80% of the time then your North/South hand descriptions are inadequate. Good players would be bidding non vulnerable team games with about 55% chance of failure. As I said, I can’t save the hands that Jack generates for his lead analysis so I don’t know how many contracts fail in his analysis but I doubt it is much more than 50%.

I think that the real message here is that sometimes doubleton leads aren’t as bad as we have been told. Any lead other than the ace of hearts or a diamond are at least a trick worse.

[Geoff Davies]

Jack is a computer program that will listen to the bidding in any one of a number of different systems. It will then keep the leader’s hand constant and deal 1000 hands all consistent with the bidding and select the best lead based on a double dummy analysis. For Prize Quiz 4 it thinks the seven of diamonds is about half a trick better than the ace of diamonds.

[Geoff Davies]

I’m posting this rather late in the discussion because my previous post has disappeared into the ether. It’s our way of dealing with 5S/4H when using 3S for the minors. We use a reasonably simple version of 5 card Stayman. After 2NT-3C:
3D – No 5 card major, may have 4 card major, if not then not 3S.
3H/S – 5 card major
3NT – No 4 or 5 card major but guarantees 3 spades
After 3D from opener, responder bids majors up the line:
3H – 4+ hearts (may have 4+ spades). Opener raises with 4 hearts, bids 3S with 4 spades or 3NT with neither major
3S – 4+ spades (not 4 hearts).
3NT – no 4 card major. (was looking for 3 – 5 fit) To play.
This has the disadvantage that responder, presumably the weaker hand, can end up playing the major contract.

[Geoff Davies]

No, I’ve not played at Stafford Bridge Club.

I’ve got the Bird/Anthias book and am aware of the shortcomings of double dummy analysis but more than 60 years of experience tells me that leading small is bad at pairs. After all, the opposition have 25+ points and partner has 6-. They are going to have the AS and JS quite often. Leading small lets them make the J whichever hand it is in.

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