Sitting East-West, we messed up the defense on board 26 at this link Friday night. It was still a topic of discussion on Saturday.

I don't recall the bidding, but I think West opened a third-seat Precision 1♦, North overcalled some number of hearts, and South placed the contract in 3NT. West led the ♦A, which we play as asking for suit ( Read more... )

In a sectional Swiss, you pick up

♠ AK72
♥ QJT9
♦ A
♣ AKQJ

( a nice hand for once )

Interesting hands from last night's Bridge Spot game -- you're bidding Precision at matchpoints, of course:

1. Opps silent throughout, the bidding goes 1♣ - 2♦ - 2 ♥ - 3♦ - 4♣ - 4♦ - 4NT. Is 4NT Blackwood or to play?

2. None vul, LHO opens 1♥, partner overcalls 1NT, and RHO passes. What's your strategy with ♠QJ64 ♥7 ♦J98642 ♣K4 ( Read more... )

After two passes, neither vul at matchpoints, you pick up the following hand at the Watertown sectional:

♠ QJT87
♥ (none)
♦ (none)
♣ KJT98532

What do you open? What is your strategy?
( Read more... )

( below cut for those uninterested in Canadian politics )

In previous posts, we looked at weak and strong preempts in third seat. One conclusion was that the ACBL's weak hand is safe to preempt in third seat except perhaps red-on-white. But what about weaker hands? ( Indeed, what about them? )

We've simulated 6000 preempting hands and looked at a variety of statistics. This post draws conclusions from the data. ( more bridge )

Should 3rd seat open the ACBL's very light preempt example? Should other seats consider it? What about in 1st and 2nd seats? Do very light preempts play well with strong preempts ( Read more... )

The ACBL says that the hand
♠Q6 ♥Q95432 ♦J85 ♣93
qualifies as a "very light" preempt. My initial reaction to the hand was that it was too weak to preempt except possibly in third seat white on red, and even then only if I'm sufficiently caffeinated. But I'm often too conservative in bidding, so my judgment may fail me on such questions ( Read more... )

Both Standard American and WMCB Precision provide a way for opener to describe a 20-21 HCP balanced hand. On marginal balanced hands, when should responder raise to 3NT? Thomas Andrews has done a large number of simulations, which are summarized in these tables. As a caveat, his simulations are for double-dummy results at notrump only and ( Read more... )