First Seat in a a Club Game

[Will in New Haven]

All Vul and you have

Void KQJTXXXXX QXX X

You open 4H, any dissent?

LHO passes, Partner passes, RHO doubles

You pass, any dissent?

LHO bids 6C

Partner passes, RHO passes

Your action?

--
Will in New Haven

[Dave Flower]

On Feb 2, 3:54 pm, Will in New Haven <bill.re...@taylorandfrancis.com>
wrote:

Double. And hope that this enables partner to find the spade lead. I
suspect that there is not much to lose, as 6C making doesn't score
many match-points in a club game

Dave Flower

[Thomas Dehn]

On 02/02/2012 04:54 PM, Will in New Haven wrote:
> All Vul and you have
>
> Void KQJTXXXXX QXX X
>
> You open 4H, any dissent?
>
> LHO passes, Partner passes, RHO doubles
>
> You pass, any dissent?

Fine so far.

> LHO bids 6C
>
> Partner passes, RHO passes
>
> Your action?

Lightner-Double.


Thomas

[John Hall]

In article
<eb1fb31e-9473-4244...@o12g2000vbd.googlegroups.com>,

Will in New Haven <bill....@taylorandfrancis.com> writes:
>All Vul and you have
>
>Void KQJTXXXXX QXX X
>
>You open 4H, any dissent?

Not from me.

>
>LHO passes, Partner passes, RHO doubles
>
>You pass, any dissent?

Again not from me.

>
>LHO bids 6C
>
>Partner passes, RHO passes
>
>Your action?

Would partner understand a double as Lightner? If so, I'd be tempted,
although it could turn out badly (eg if opponents have the Ace of hearts
and can run to 6NT).
--
John Hall
"The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism
by those who have not got it."
George Bernard Shaw

[Bob T.]

On Feb 2, 7:54 am, Will in New Haven <bill.re...@taylorandfrancis.com>
wrote:

> All Vul and you have
>
> Void KQJTXXXXX QXX X
>
> You open 4H, any dissent?
>
> LHO passes, Partner passes, RHO doubles
>
> You pass, any dissent?
>
> LHO bids 6C
>
> Partner passes, RHO passes
>
> Your action?

I'm going so assume that you're playing with an experienced player,
and you both know that double would be Lightner. The question really
is, if you double can they run to a making contract? I think there is
some risk of that, but it's not as big as the risk that they can make
six clubs on a heart lead. Spades are not breaking well for them, and
that willprobably sink six spades and hopefully will keep them from
making 6NT, too.

In a club game, six clubs making against you is probably not a much
better score than six notrump anyway.

- Bob T

[Nick France]

On Feb 2, 10:54 am, Will in New Haven

Double seems like the right bid. Besides if your club is the duece
don't you want to trump the 2 of spade lead with the 2 of trump.

No guarantee that you will beat this contract but I'd imagine at a
club game that 6C making is a near bottom anyway.

Nick France

[Eric Leong]

I would pass at pairs. A Lightner double has a low frequency of success but the rewards at imps are worthwhile the few times a slam is set. By defending 6C how do we know 6C is the best contract for the opponents? Maybe they should have been in 6NT or even 6S. Also, passing 6C may beat the pairs making 6Cx or some alternative slam. Next, by doubling how do we know even if partner guesses to lead a spade that 6Cx can still be set? Finally, I think most players don't leap to 6C unless they are certain that they are very close to making their contract so I think there should be a lot of company with pairs bidding 6C.

Last the next bid I would consider is 6H. However, with a spade void and the diamond queen it is just possible 6C might be set. So I am not sure paying out 1100 in 6Hx is going to be a bargain. Without the diamond queen, bidding 6H would be more attractive.

Eric Leong

South Dealer
Both Vul


The bidding proceeds:

West North East South
-- -- -- 4H
Pass Pass Dble Pass
6C Pass Pass ?




S xxxxx
H –
D Jxxxx
C Axx
S Kxx S AQJxx
H Ax H xx
D 10x D AKx
C KJ109xx C Qxx
S –
H KQJ10xxxxx
D Qxx
C x

[OldPalooka]

On Feb 2, 7:54 am, Will in New Haven <bill.re...@taylorandfrancis.com>
wrote:

I agree with Lightner doublers although I would normally play this as
I have better than expected distribution and would like to save unless
you can beat them. Either double has limited value at match points,
where you generally would not like to save for more than game, or in
the case of a Lightner double you may chase them into a better spot,
your partner may not figure out what you want to ruff, or the ruff may
not be enough, so you are perhaps looking at an expected value of 50%
over a lot of chances.

[Charles Brenner]

I'm puzzled. You make a number of valid points against doubling, but
the layout you show illustrates the flip side of your points and
suggests doubling. Yes, I realize that it's 50/50 whether partner
finds the winning lead, but adjust RHO to 4243 distribution which is
more likely and you have a posterchild layout for doubling: It
engenders the otherwise unlikely winning lead, LHO has made a possibly
winning bidding guess that many club players won't find, so even if
LHO finds the runout to 6NT the matchpoint loss isn't too much.

Charles

[Dave Flower]

>              C x- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

Partner is very likely to find the spade lead - LHO would have bid
spades holding four, and RHO would likely have bid 4S (not double)
holding five. So partner figures to hold at least six spades

Dave Flower

[Player]

On Feb 2, 10:54 pm, Will in New Haven

I would double. This looks obvious to me. The LAST bid i would
consider is Eric's 6H! This is an absolute partnership killer of a bid
and assumes partner is a total idiot.

Ron

[David Stevenson]

Will in New Haven wrote

>All Vul and you have
>
>Void KQJTXXXXX QXX X
>
>You open 4H, any dissent?

I sometimes wonder about opening 5H and have done so. *Of course*
people will point to hands where we can take ten tricks and the
opponents cannot make anything, but every time you pre-empt you take
certain risks - in fact most bidding on the first round or two involves
a balance between risk and gain.

I fancy that the gains are reasonable from bidding 5H, and ht erisks
lower than people think. I am not allowed to take any notice of
partner, of course, but if the opponents look interested I shall try 5H.

>LHO passes, Partner passes, RHO doubles
>
>You pass, any dissent?

I wish I had opened 5H.

>LHO bids 6C
>
>Partner passes, RHO passes
>
>Your action?

I wish I had opened 5H.

--
David Stevenson Bridge RTFLB Cats Railways
Liverpool, England, UK bluejak on BBO Mbl: +44 7778 409 955
<webj...@googlemail.com> EBL TD Tel: +44 151 677 7412
bluejak666 on Skype Bridgepage: http://blakjak.org/brg_menu.htm

[HoneyMonster]

On Fri, 03 Feb 2012 14:23:18 +0000, David Stevenson wrote:

> Will in New Haven wrote
>>All Vul and you have
>>
>>Void KQJTXXXXX QXX X
>>
>>You open 4H, any dissent?
>
> I sometimes wonder about opening 5H and have done so. *Of course*
> people will point to hands where we can take ten tricks and the
> opponents cannot make anything, but every time you pre-empt you take
> certain risks - in fact most bidding on the first round or two involves
> a balance between risk and gain.
>
> I fancy that the gains are reasonable from bidding 5H, and ht erisks
> lower than people think. I am not allowed to take any notice of
> partner, of course, but if the opponents look interested I shall try 5H.
>
>>LHO passes, Partner passes, RHO doubles
>>
>>You pass, any dissent?
>
> I wish I had opened 5H.
>
>>LHO bids 6C
>>
>>Partner passes, RHO passes
>>
>>Your action?
>
> I wish I had opened 5H.

I thought about 5H too, but have a distant recall that opening 5 of a
major (in Acol) traditionally requests that partner raises to 6 with the
Ace or King of trumps. Is my memory faulty?

[Robin Johnson]

no, your memory serves you well. I wonder how many remember this out of how
few knew it in the first place...

[Eric Leong]

I was just piecing together the deal from the other posts Will made.
Double dummy 6Cx can be set 500 on a spade lead. If I didn't peek I would have passed.

Eric Leong

[David Stevenson]

HoneyMonster wrote

>I thought about 5H too, but have a distant recall that opening 5 of a
>major (in Acol) traditionally requests that partner raises to 6 with the
>Ace or King of trumps. Is my memory faulty?

You are correct, but the traditional meaning of an opening 2H is a
hand of power and quality with at least eight playing tricks and forcing
for one round. I play neither a traditional 2H nor a traditional 5H,
but play the much more useful approach that both are pre-empts.

========================================================
Robin Johnson wrote

>no, your memory serves you well. I wonder how many remember this out of how
>few knew it in the first place...

Of course I remember it, and played it once upon a time. However,
what other sensible meaning can be given to the auction 2C - 2D - 5H?

[Adam Beneschan]

On Feb 3, 7:00 am, HoneyMonster <some...@someplace.invalid> wrote:

> >    I wish I had opened 5H.
>
> I thought about 5H too, but have a distant recall that opening 5 of a
> major (in Acol) traditionally requests that partner raises to 6 with the
> Ace or King of trumps. Is my memory faulty?

No. That's a very old treatment, and it's not just Acol; I think
that's what authorities taught in the US for a long time also.
(Probably dates back to the 1930s.) But experts have more recently
questioned the usefulness of this. I think I started seeing comments
in the Bridge World at least 15 years ago suggesting that using it as
a preempt was more useful. That makes sense to me. The old-fashioned
meaning was one of the rarest bids in bridge; and while hands where
you'd want to open 5H as a preempt don't come up all that often
either, they should be more common than the old-fashioned type. Plus
we now have tools like Exclusion Blackwood to help us with the hands
where we really would have wanted to open the old way (or we can use
2C followed by 5M as David suggested).

-- Adam

-- Adam

[HoneyMonster]

On Fri, 03 Feb 2012 15:42:37 +0000, David Stevenson wrote:

> HoneyMonster wrote
>>I thought about 5H too, but have a distant recall that opening 5 of a
>>major (in Acol) traditionally requests that partner raises to 6 with the
>>Ace or King of trumps. Is my memory faulty?
>
> You are correct, but the traditional meaning of an opening 2H is a
> hand of power and quality with at least eight playing tricks and forcing
> for one round. I play neither a traditional 2H nor a traditional 5H,
> but play the much more useful approach that both are pre-empts.
>
> ========================================================
> Robin Johnson wrote
>>no, your memory serves you well. I wonder how many remember this out of
>>how few knew it in the first place...
>
> Of course I remember it, and played it once upon a time. However,
> what other sensible meaning can be given to the auction 2C - 2D - 5H?

I don't disagree about the usefulness of opening 5M as a pre-empt versus
a specific conventional bid, but your question begs another:

What about 2C, 4S from LHO, pass, pass, 5H?

[OldPalooka]

Without playing the old fashioned we would not have faced this pretty
problem in the Master Solver's Club

You hold void Axx Axxx JTxxxx and partner opens 5S. Your response?

[Fred.]

On Friday, February 3, 2012 6:07:26 PM UTC-5, OldPalooka wrote:
--snip--

> Without playing the old fashioned we would not have faced this pretty
> problem in the Master Solver's Club
>
> You hold void Axx Axxx JTxxxx and partner opens 5S. Your response?

Do you consider that an argument for the old fashioned? Or against?

Fred.

[OldPalooka]

In real life, I vote with David S. One chance for the master bid of a
lifetime is not enough.

[Charles Brenner]

I see. Thanks for doing it. I hadn't even noticed the other threads.

Charles

[dak...@aol.com]

I open 4H hoping blasting away their space would induce an error.
They may be misbid: 6S, 6N may be better.
They may be misbid: penalty is their best.
They may be overbid: 5C was best.
They may be underbid: grand is on.
I'll trust my initial preempt got us well-placed.
Besides I expect Dbl shows HA, so partner can
lead to HA for his H-ruff. As useful here as Lightner.
Second partner took no action, what impels me
to action even on this long suit?

[Will in New Haven]

On Feb 4, 8:55 am, "dak...@aol.com" <dak...@aol.com> wrote:
> I open 4H hoping blasting away their space would induce an error.
> They may be misbid: 6S, 6N may be better.
> They may be misbid: penalty is their best.
> They may be overbid: 5C was best.
> They may be underbid: grand is on.
> I'll trust my initial preempt got us well-placed.
> Besides I expect Dbl shows HA, so partner can
> lead to HA for his H-ruff.

Not for most sensible players.

As useful here as Lightner.

Except in a bridge game.

> Second partner took no action, what impels me
> to action even on this long suit?

The difference between a plus and a big minus?

[Paul Hightower]

"Will in New Haven" <bill....@taylorandfrancis.com> wrote in message
news:eb1fb31e-9473-4244...@o12g2000vbd.googlegroups.com...

> All Vul and you have
>
> Void KQJTXXXXX QXX X
>
> You open 4H, any dissent?
>
> LHO passes, Partner passes, RHO doubles
>
> You pass, any dissent?
>
> LHO bids 6C
>
> Partner passes, RHO passes
>
> Your action?
>

Since I define all bids of three or more as preempts, I would open 5H. I
realize this isn't standard, but I've never seen a "standard" 5H or 6H
opening (11 or 12 tricks, missing only both or one high trump) in 35 years
of bridge.

Lacking that option, it's 4H, 2H ("walk the dog"), 3H (much the same), pass
(sometimes effective on freak hands) or a psychi bid such as 2S. Not a fan
of psyches, my partner hang me enough on normal bidding. I suppose I'd bid
4H on this one. Does club game = matchpoints? We have so many Swiss and IMP
Pair games at our club I can't assume that any more :)

Over the double I think I'd try 5H. There seems little chance of 4H doubled
being left in.

Having opened 4H and guessing to pass over the double, I'm going to assume
6C was a guess and pass again. Bidding seems to offer a fielder's choice
between 6H doubled and 7C.

[dak...@aol.com]

To Will in New Haven

Not for most sensible players.

**** Only for argumentative posters.
**** Surely preempt then double shows a defensive trick such A of my
suit.
**** Of course that's not sensible by your decree.

As useful here as Lightner.

Except in a bridge game.

**** Again by your decree. What possible reasoning are you proposing
by that sarcasm?

Second partner took no action, what impels me
to action even on this long suit?

The difference between a plus and a big minus?

**** My turn. I am very sorry you do not play with a capable
partner.
He cannot get most I pass decisions correct - says you.
Now you are even insulting YOUR partner.

**** Make your REASONED CLAIMS and STATE WHAT YOU THINK THOSE
REASONS ARE.
That's what logical discourse is. Are you able to do that
SARCASMIC DEMON???

[Will in New Haven]

Ok, I will explain why almost everyone plays that the double asks for
an unexpected lead. It is because partner is expected to make the
_expected_ lead if you don't double. The double to say "I have the Ace
of my suit" depends on partner having exactly a singleton Heart and
not being over-ruffed on your Heart return. If he has a void, you are
screwed, if he has a doubleton, you are defending a making doubled
contract most of the time, although he could pull the double with two.

Since all you can see is your own hand, you don't have a clue about
whether your "I have the Ace" double will help you. If you have a
void, you can see it.

So most people don't think it is as useful as a Lightner double.

[dak...@aol.com]

So *** 'most' *** people don't think it is as useful as a
Lightner double.

Do you not see this ('most') appeal to popular?
That is a rhetoric device (ad populum) and to logicians a fallacy.

Again, I understand YOUR (one person) claim that you think
Lightner is more useful than Ace of my preempt suit.
Shall I now appeal to authority that say Dbl shows A?
I quite simply asked "what evidence are you logically presenting?"
I don't claim my thoughts are gospel, just I'm eager to
read logic from your mind.

[jogs]

There's no need to double when opponents are
off two aces. In imps +100 or +200 wont matter
much as your teammates should be +650.
In matchpoints the field wont be in this unmakeable
slam.
Have seen the Lightner double backfire. Opponents
sometimes can run to a makeable 6NT.

[Will in New Haven]

The most important point, out of what I already said, is that you can
see your own cards and cannot have any idea that telling your partner
you have the Ace of the suit that he would probably lead anyway will
do any good. You can tell that you have a void and at least one trump
card.

That most people agree is not all that important except if one has
never discussed the situation with ones current partner.

[Player]

Doouble certainly does NOT show the Ace of H, but in any practised
partnership is a Lightner double.
Will is correct.

Ron

[Steve Willner]

On 2012-02-02 10:54 AM, Will in New Haven wrote:
> All Vul and you have
> Void KQJTXXXXX QXX X
> You open 4H, any dissent?

5H seems obvious unless playing against very timid opponents.

> LHO passes, Partner passes, RHO doubles
> You pass, any dissent?
> LHO bids 6C
> Partner passes, RHO passes

No dissent on the pass on the prior round.

Lightner double looks right here. As someone else commented, if 6C
makes, the double will cost hardly any matchpoints, and I don't like our
chances of beating it without a spade lead. If opponents run to and
make 6NT, good for them, but again the matchpoint cost will be trivial.

--
Help keep our newsgroup healthy; please don't feed the trolls.
Steve Willner Phone 617-495-7123 swil...@nhcc.net
Cambridge, MA 02138 USA

[Eric Leong]

On Monday, February 6, 2012 7:11:33 PM UTC-8, Steve Willner wrote:
> On 2012-02-02 10:54 AM, Will in New Haven wrote:
> > All Vul and you have
> > Void KQJTXXXXX QXX X
> > You open 4H, any dissent?
>
> 5H seems obvious unless playing against very timid opponents.

Why is it obvious the opponents can make some high level contract?
Why is it obvious if the opponents can't make some high level contract that 5H would be safe?
For example, give partner S AJ9xx H -- D xxxx C AKxx.
Are you worried the opponents will make something?
Isn't 4H high enough?

Also, how do you know partner might not raise 5H and he will be wrong?
For example, give partner S Axxx H A D xxxx C AQxx.
Do you really expect partner to pass 5H?

>
> > LHO passes, Partner passes, RHO doubles
> > You pass, any dissent?
> > LHO bids 6C
> > Partner passes, RHO passes
>
> No dissent on the pass on the prior round.
>
> Lightner double looks right here. As someone else commented, if 6C
> makes, the double will cost hardly any matchpoints, and I don't like our
> chances of beating it without a spade lead. If opponents run to and
> make 6NT, good for them, but again the matchpoint cost will be trivial.

Given the auction, why do you presume you are going to be one of the few pairs defending 6C?
Even if you pray and your wish is granted, how do you expect to get the setting trick?

Eric Leong

[Will in New Haven]

Your constant use of "pray" is irritating. Even more irrititing than
the rest of the stuff you post. Everyone wants what he does to work
out, including you. However, you constantly portray others as
quivering in fear that their action, since it isn't the one YOU chose,
won't rebound on them.

On the other hand, 6C may be the field contract and I'm not sure why
so many people here think it will be such an outlier. However, I still
double. Lightener doubles are usually made without knowing for certain
that we have another trick coming. This is especially true here, since
they may well have been preempted out of a good-looking grand that
would only fail on the Spade lead. But I'll take my chances on the
double and without reference to any supernatural entity.

[David Stevenson]

OldPalooka wrote

>Without playing the old fashioned we would not have faced this pretty
>problem in the Master Solver's Club
>
>You hold void Axx Axxx JTxxxx and partner opens 5S. Your response?

7C. Yeah, yeah.

[Nick France]

On Feb 7, 8:16 am, Eric Leong <ewleong...@hotmail.com> wrote:

> > Steve Willner            Phone 617-495-7123     swill...@nhcc.net
> > Cambridge, MA 02138 USA- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

In a club game almost all slams score above average and minor suit
slams score even better. Its just a fact of life in most club games.
I see no reason to believe this hand will be any different.

Nick France

[Player]

> > Steve Willner            Phone 617-495-7123     swill...@nhcc.net
> > Cambridge, MA 02138 USA

So you are suggesting the opponents hav misbid and should be in 7?
Ron

[Nick France]

> > > Steve Willner            Phone617-495-7123begin_of_the_skype_highlighting            617-495-7123      end_of_the_skype_highlighting    swill...@nhcc.net

> > > Cambridge, MA 02138 USA
>
> So you are suggesting the opponents hav misbid and should be in 7?

> Ron- Hide quoted text -

>
> - Show quoted text -

no, I'm suggesting the downside to a lightner double is very little
and the upside is high. The difference between 6C making and 6cX
making will be very little but the difference between 6C making and
6CX down one will be almost all the matchpoints

Nick France

[Eric Leong]

It depends on the type of auction. In most club games, LHO does not jump to 6C on flyer. He usually has the nuts. If the opponents had a crawling auction to 6C than maybe you can think differently.

Eric Leong

[Eric Leong]

When you use a Lightner Double at imps or rubber bridge you are risking a little to gain a lot. You can be a big underdog to set the hand but the few times you succeed you are amply rewarded. At pairs, a Lightner double will more frequently be wrong for a bad score. You not only payoff when 6Cx makes but you give up when the opponents had a better contract available but they didn't bid it. You also payoff when the opponents find a safer contract. I won't go into if you are redoubled. When you wish from your fairy godmother the parlay that the opponents will sit for 6Cx, and partner will find the spade lead and have a cashing ace, I am certainly entitled to say at least once you are praying for an underdog action to proceed. But I only mentioned the word once in my previous post.

Eric Leong

[Eric Leong]

Would it be that surprising if the opponents did not get to their best contract?
Maybe they got to the wrong level. Maybe they got to the right level in a lesser scoring contract. Certainly, I am not shooting for a desperate Lightner double. Why not just allow that the opponents did not get to the perfect spot?

Eric Leong

[Will in New Haven]

I think that possibility is very real. After all, they had to start
their auction at a very high level. I still don't think the double is
"desperate" but I can see your point.

On the other hand, the opening leader, in this case, won't have a lot
to go on whether first seat doubles or not. In our case, he led a
Diamond because, I think, he had a sequence so it looked a bit safer.
He said he would have led a Spade if his partner had doubled and there
was some logic to the idea that dummy had shown Spades. But dummy had
shown Diamonds also, at least to some extent.

I was dummy and I think my balancing double of 4H was one of the least
difficult actions in that hand. And there was still a reasonable
alternative of 4S.

[Nick France]

On Feb 8, 11:33 am, Will in New Haven

> Will in New Haven- Hide quoted text -

>
> - Show quoted text -

So an interesting question for you, where was the field. I assume
this is a club game. How would you rate the field that night (or
day). You know from 'Even Eric would think it was a tought field' to
'Even Stig would be in contention'

Nick France

[Will in New Haven]

Stig could hope to have an average game. There were some good pairs
but it was a Howell and there might be no good pairs in a particular
direction on a particular board.

[Steve Willner]

SW> 5H seems obvious unless playing against very timid opponents.

On 2012-02-07 8:16 AM, Eric Leong wrote:
> Why is it obvious the opponents can make some high level contract?
> Why is it obvious if the opponents can't make some high level contract that 5H would be safe?

Neither of these is obvious, nor is either relevant to whether 5H is
obvious or not. I'm sure we've all opened 1NT with a balanced 16-count
and ended up in the soup. It happens, but it doesn't mean the opening
bid wasn't obvious.

There are a variety of approaches for deciding how high to preempt, but
the best one I've seen is to make the bid where you don't know what you
want the opponents to do. With the 9-card heart suit, if I open 4H and
opponents double me, I'll be ecstatic. If they bid, I'll be unhappy.
That means 4H isn't high enough. If I start with 5H, I have no idea
what's best for them. I like that a lot better.

On the actual deal, 5H might have an unexpected benefit. After the
Lightner double, partner might reason that 5H is more attractive with
0931 shape than with 3901 and find the spade lead. No guarantees on
this or anything else when it comes to preempts, of course!

Will: how did 6C= score? Any mp difference from 6Cx= if partner leads a
diamond or a trump?

[Will in New Haven]

On Feb 8, 8:48 pm, Steve Willner <swill...@nhcc.net> wrote:
> SW> 5H seems obvious unless playing against very timid opponents.
>
> On 2012-02-07 8:16 AM, Eric Leong wrote:
>
> > Why is it obvious the opponents can make some high level contract?
> > Why is it obvious if the opponents can't make some high level contract that 5H would be safe?
>
> Neither of these is obvious, nor is either relevant to whether 5H is
> obvious or not.  I'm sure we've all opened 1NT with a balanced 16-count
> and ended up in the soup.  It happens, but it doesn't mean the opening
> bid wasn't obvious.
>
> There are a variety of approaches for deciding how high to preempt, but
> the best one I've seen is to make the bid where you don't know what you
> want the opponents to do.  With the 9-card heart suit, if I open 4H and
> opponents double me, I'll be ecstatic.  If they bid, I'll be unhappy.
> That means 4H isn't high enough.  If I start with 5H, I have no idea
> what's best for them.  I like that a lot better.
>
> On the actual deal, 5H might have an unexpected benefit.  After the
> Lightner double, partner might reason that 5H is more attractive with
> 0931 shape than with 3901 and find the spade lead.  No guarantees on
> this or anything else when it comes to preempts, of course!
>
> Will: how did 6C= score?  Any mp difference from 6Cx= if partner leads a
> diamond or a trump?

6C making was a tie for top. 6CX making would have been a clear top.
Since a top was five, this is a bigger difference than it appears,
although still not huge. Beating 6C, doubled or not and it would have
been down two, would have been a top the other way.

--
Will in New Haven

All change for round nine; slow pairs please go home.