whereagles, on 2014-July-09, 00:46, said:
hmmm... did you remember to take your medication?
My prescribed medications are
-Black coffee in the a.m
-***** loads of beer p.m
In between, I work. And I never ever forget to take them.
How about you sweetheart? Where did you forget your common sense and logic when you decided to reply the way you did? I am not against 5
♥ as much as the reason why you chose it. Where is this resistance coming from? Another poster just wrote that 5
♦ over 5
♣ can be used as showing keycards...as if there is enough space between 5
♣ and 5
♥ to show them even if we agreed to that in a moment of insanity. I mean why there is such a huge attraction to the shortcuts such as trying to apply loser count in a situation where there are so many hints screaming that loser count-hcp count-whatever count will be flawed by far for obvious reasons. Why is it so hard to read what Mike wrote in this topic (and in general) and try to digest it and improve and why is it so attractive to rely on magical formulas-shortcuts?
1-About lead directing: In order to lead against a contract, our side needs to be in DEFENSE! What is our genius pd planning, if god forbid they decide NOT to declare? After all his 5
♦ took out the responsibility of taking 11 tricks in clubs from the shoulders of opponents! I am just saying...
2-About 5
♦ being natural: He opened NT, and at 5 level he decided that we should play in diamonds, even though more or less we know his
a-Strength
b-Shape
when he does not know a ***** about ours! We may have a 3622 13 hcp or we may have a 4711 5 hcp in this auction with various hands types in shape and strength.
What does this tell you? Your name need not to be Meckwell in order to figure out that all of this comes down to 1 and only 1 thing = I have a
♥ fit! (unless you really want to spare this bid for "I opened NT with a 6 card solid suit")
The argument of whether
♥ fit+lead dia if they bid on or
♥fit+slam desire is easy. Hands which want to give these 2 different messages will be very similar in most of the cases. We are talking about hands that wants to compete to 5 level and does not want to defend 5
♣. How can you go wrong by approaching high level competitive auctions and decisions by being flexible-logical-thoughtful instead of trying to apply a formula?