[hrothgar]

I feel obliged to share one of the silliest results that I have ever seen. This one cropped up during a low key team game on BBO last night.

♠ A
♥ J
♦ AKJT9865
♣ K95

♠ Q87
♥ AKQ973
♦ 2
♣ 863

Here's the auction:

You decide to open a rather heavy vulnerable 2♥ in second seat. LHO makes a takeout double and partner jumps to 5♦. I go into a long tank and eventually decide that

1. This is undiscussed
2. It should be natural
3. My stiff Diamond makes it even more likely that its natural
4. It damn well should be exclusion keycard for Diamonds

Of course, all this thinking severely depletes my poor brain cells which are already trying flitting between

1. Whether the rat will ever come out from under the stove
2. What in god's name is Rami thinking of on Project Runway
3. How to coax the rat out from under the stove
4. A few spare cycles are being invested into the bridge game

So, I screw up and miscount my steps and respond 5N (showing 2 keycards and denying the Queen of Hearts) rather than 6♣.

Then to top it all off, partner passes 5N and LHO open leads the Queen of of Clubs. In some other world, this lead might have worked. In this one, the takeout double pretty much placed most of the missing cards.

I happily won the King of Clubs, Played the Jack of Hearts to my Ace, played a second heart (see the 10 drop on the second round). I then got to cash my remaining six four heart tricks and then confidently hooked the Queen of Diamonds for my 11 tricks. (Of course, it turns out that the Queen of Diamonds was tripleton so I actually got to collect 13 tricks)

This miscarriage actually covered all the points we lost on an ill advised 5♦ preempt a couple boards later. (At the other table, the person hold my hand opened a sane 1♥. LHO didn't make a takeout double and declarer had no reason to guess the Diamonds...

[pclayton]

Agree. Exclusion is one of the most abused conventions. 5♦ should be natural, as should 4♠.

You landed on your feet. Next time you probably won't be as fortunate.

I do appreciate your candor Richard

[the hog]

Jlall, on Feb 15 2008, 12:13 AM, said:

lol.

In all seriousness I think it would be good for everyone to incorporate a rule that jumps to game are natural in contested auctions (in suits the opps have not bid).

Ok. What about in a contested auction?

My very first hand on BBO many years ago, playing with an unknown self rated expert had a similar auction to Richard's.
You hold:
Qx KQJxxx x xxxx

2H (P) 5D (P)
?

What does this mean? What should it mean? Standard amongst strong players in Oz would be "bid 6 of your suit unless you have 2 fast losers in this suit."

[dicklont]

So you missed 6NT. Bummer man!

[helene_t]

Sr but the idea that this might be XRKCB is absurd:
- Slam investigation has a low priority after opps double our preempt.
- A disciplined preempt does not have side ace anyway.
- Shortness bids are generally off after an enemy double, replaced by fitbids.
- A strong hand with ♥ support starts with 2N (or whatever you have agreed on), then it might be possible to end in 4♥ after slam investigation.

Personally I would prefer to play jumps to game as natural unless they can't be, for example
1♠-(pass)-4♥
I prefer to play as natural. I know this is played as a splinter by many. But a jump to 5♦ is certainly natural if it can be natural. And here we are even dealing with an enemy t/o double.

[han]

helene_t, on Feb 15 2008, 09:45 PM, said:

Sr but the idea that this might be XRKCB is absurd:
- Slam investigation has a low priority after opps double our preempt.
- A disciplined preempt does not have side ace anyway.
- Shortness bids are generally off after an enemy double, replaced by fitbids.
- A strong hand with ♥ support starts with 2N (or whatever you have agreed on), then it might be possible to end in 4♥ after slam investigation.

You are right about the absurdness but wrong about the most important reason. The most important reason is that you are playing in a low key BBO team game and you have not discussed it.

[hrothgar]

han, on Feb 16 2008, 09:07 AM, said:

helene_t, on Feb 15 2008, 09:45 PM, said:

Sr but the idea that this might be XRKCB is absurd:
- Slam investigation has a low priority after opps double our preempt.
- A disciplined preempt does not have side ace anyway.
- Shortness bids are generally off after an enemy double, replaced by fitbids.
- A strong hand with ♥ support starts with 2N (or whatever you have agreed on), then it might be possible to end in 4♥ after slam investigation.

You are right about the absurdness but wrong about the most important reason. The most important reason is that you are playing in a low key BBO team game and you have not discussed it.

In turn, you all might want to consider the following point:

1. The partnership in question has not had any serious discussions about when Exclusion does/does not apply

2. In theory, we're practicing for the GNT finals (In practice, I tend to goof around alot)

If I were playing in a real partnership, I wouldn't want to treat 5♦ as natural. I'd prefer to use it as a CAB or exclusion or a fit jump or something...

I figured that treating this as if it were exclusion might be a good way to generate some discussion with partner

[gwnn]

Great story, you rock for treating it like this.