Chew the Fat! > IAC & Master Solvers Club
2023 December MSC
Masse24:
DECEMBER 2023 MSC
Deadline: OCTOBER 31 at 11:59 p.m. (ET)
Submit your DECEMBER MSC responses here: The Bridge World - MASTER SOLVERS CLUB
BWS 2017 System: BWS 2017
BWS 2017 POLLS, CHANGES AND ADDITIONS: BWS 2017 - Polls, Changes, and Additions
* Bridge World Standard 2017 (BWS or BWS2017) is effective beginning with the January 2017 Master Solvers' Club problems. This page shows (1) the results of the panelist polls that were used to adjust the system; and (2) the changes in and the additions to Bridge World Standard 2001 (BWS2001) that were made.
In the listings of the questions and answers, an asterisk indicates the BWS2001 agreement; the proportion of the expert votes for each item, rounded to the nearest percent, is shown in brackets.
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DickHy:
Thought I’d give Jock, the usual opening bidder, a breather. My comments will be much less sensible than his, but they’ll provide easy targets.
A. 2 !S. We’re close to slam territory. I’m not keen on 3 !D as it takes up space and that’s partner’s bid, not mine. I’d bid 2 !S as control to leave 3 !D available to partner to show/deny diamond control. If partner bids 3 !C over 2 !S I can bid 3 !H to deny diamond control. Either way we know at a low level if slam is possible.
B. 3 !H. 3 !D is GF and I have a K extra for my reverse. Should I just bid 6 !D? I’d like to know about partner’s kings. With 8 HCP+, partner could have heart and club Kings and diamond Queen. I can ruff one of my two spade losers if partner is 2443/2434. If partner has the spade king too, would she/he have bid any differently? A control bid of 3 !H allows partner to show spade or club control. Cueing a suit holding of Kx(x..x) as dummy-in-waiting can be risky, but opposite a powerful hand (reverse, 2!C opener, 2N etc.) ought to be safe.
C. 2 !S. I’m near the top of the range for my pass and East’s 2 !C may be good news for my K. We have 3 !D as a fall-back, should partner do something other than raising spades.
D. c5. 1N risks missing a 5-3 heart fit. 1 !S followed by 2 !H gives the wrong picture, but with this hand 2 !S in a Moysian doesn’t look too bad (said he with almost no experience of declaring successfully in Moysians). I might be able to get the hearts going while partner’s clubs prevent me from getting tapped? Or a spot of cross-ruffing may be in order. According to BWS, 1 !H – 1N is semi-forcing and at most game-invitational and 1 !H – 1N – 2N is invitational. That looks ok to me: partner will raise to 3N with invite hand and pass otherwise. Partner has a minimum of 7 minor suit cards, and we could well get a spade lead.
E. 3 !H. Very tempting to bid 3N: all of partner’s high cards are outside spades, so I can rely on him/her for some club cover. However, partner must be short in spades, making a heart fit probable. In hearts I can ruff a couple of spades safely across West. Of course, when partner continues with 4 !D or 4 !C, I’ll be cursing not bidding 3N.
F. 1 !S/xx. The hint seems odd. The perfectly natural bid of 1 !S to me naturally would be forcing. After that if partner bids 2 !H, 2 !D or raises spades we’re ok, but what do I bid over partner’s 2 !C? A preference bid of 2 !H would be made on two small spots and 5/6 HCP, but partner would take 3 !H as 3c heart support and 10/11? Perhaps redouble is a better start than 1 !S? I have a couple of tens to make up the deficit and a heart bid later will show only two card support, and complete a pretty accurate picture of the hand.
G. 3 !C. This looks good to me. Where are the spades? Partner has at most four, so EW have a spade fit. Do we want them to find it? No, if partner has only three spades and they are 5(W)4(E) or 63. A 3 !C bid may well deter West bidding 3 !S with a 5c suit. There’s also the possibility that EW have a double spade/diamond fit. But our heart fit is at best 43. So let’s just get in the way for now.
H. Q !H. I’m supposed to help partner’s major here. He/she’s going to have 6 HCP at most, and more likely to have longer spades than hearts. A low spade will kill one of partner’s honours (possibly the only one in the suit) to not much use. I’m also keen to create an entry into partner’s hand so diamonds can be led across declarer. A spade lead burning one of her/his honours ain’t gonna help. So why not bang down the heart Q?
blubayou:
I, Dick; Thanks for the good paragraphs! Naturally I will prolly be off on another tangent on some of these. To wit:
PROBLEM A:>> It's a little strange that a solid 16 parses out to a full 7 loosers -- even "adjusted" loosers. Even a dummy such as ...
Axx, KJxx, Axxx, Jxx or a tad more leaves us soo far from slam facing our Kxx, AQ9x, QJx, Axx--right?
We really need PARTNER to start the slam sniffing by moving on after our 3NT rebid by reverting to hearts via a 4 Diamond rebid -- or even maybe 4 Clubs. Being left to play in said 3NT rebid should partner be so inclined seems just dandy.
---Three Notrump---
P.S> "1 !D , 1 !H ; 2 !H , 2 !S ; 3 !C , 3 !H " doesn't sound "waiting" to me, but rather an abortive game-TRY auction..?
PROBLEM B:>> This setup is radioactive for my partnerships :( We definitely have heart SUPPORT. when we rebid 3 Hearts now, hence tend to not jump-shift with this shape. So, the simple way out is to be a glass-half-empty guy and rebid 3NT. After all, that promises20 points and stoppers in the blacks with long diamonds!! But really am only considering tis because I dont know which black ace to cuebid first or if doing such will help partner get us over the hump when appropriate.
---no answers yet :-[ ---
PROBLEM C:>> My fantasy auction for after "1 !D , (2 !C ), " is to neg-double and say 2 !S over pard's 2 !H rebid (the opponents having politely stepped aside for now)... This actually shows as good a hand as Dicks direct two spades-by-a-passed-hand, true?
BUT I am somewhat out in the cold if either opponent can block this plan by raising their clubs to three before whole fairy tale is completed. I guess the three diamond fall-back is still there, but it's likely we are in a worse position than if I had shown long spades already.
blubayou:
PROBLEM D:>> 1 !H , 1NT; 2 !S . No reason to GO TO 2NT when this is basically equivalent. And there's the added chance that we can play 2 spades! I have been dropped in 2 !S a dozen times in the past century, or done the dropping-- mostly with good results. Have pondered a couple weeks over opening 1S.
--- C-4---
PROBLEM E:>> Super-obvious penalty double. ---pass---
PROBLEM F:>> At last a problem with 3 or 4 good answers, including Dick's promoting the hand to redoubling strength. I'm going with a 5th possibility--lurking. A delayed 2 !D or 3 !D ought to show this count, these diamonds, and even this heart tolerance!
---pass---
PROBLEM G:>> ................... --- fOUR cLUBS ---
PROBLEM H:>> ANOTHER KAMIKAZE QUEENxx SACRIFICE! Does that make three in the last five months? Thanks for the nudge, DickHY!
DickHy:
A. You’re right Jock: 1 !D – 1 !H – 2 !H – 2 !S is a game try bid. According to BWS a simple new-suit bid is a game-try showing length (or a suit where honor [sic] strength would be helpful). If N denies a spade honour by bidding 3 !H, I could continue with 4 !C (control) which gives N the option of showing or denying diamond control – the information I am really after. I have an agreement with one of my partners that if the game try asker carries on after a rejection, we’re bidding controls. I don’t expect that to be a common agreement (my partners are tremendously tolerant of my foibles, as you might imagine). If after 2 !S N accepts with 4 !H that’s not really helping as it could show queen or ace. Nevertheless, if I’m wearing my junior shorts I could carry on with 5 !C, also giving partner a chance to show diamond control.
That all seems rather fraught, so let’s bin 2 !S. 3 !D might be the bid, but what exactly does it force? If control-bidding, we’ll be ok. If partner bids 3 !S (good news) I can bid 4 !C and he has 4 !D available. Alternatively, partner might not be able to cue spades, which will bring him to the 4 !D/4 !H decision.
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