[kereru67]

What are some of the things partners do that annoy you? A few of mine:

(1) Pre-empting twice, e.g. 3♦ - pass - pass - 3♥ - 4♦?? When pre-empting or sacrificing, bid as high as you are prepared to go, then shut up. Don't get pushed up one more level. If you keep on bidding and bidding and bidding while your partner is passing and passing and passing, you can bet they are silently cursing you.

(2) Overbidding in competitive auctions, i.e. preferring to go down for 200 or even 500 rather than let the opponents play a part score. For a normal hand where the points are about evenly divided between the sides and there are 8 or 9 card fits competing, usually someone will go down at 3 level. Therefore, normally compete as far as the 3 level, and even then you won't get it right every time. It's very annoying to get raised to 4 of a minor when you know you had a good chance of beating their 3♥, and 4♦ is a no man's land of a contract, requiring game values but not even giving you game if it makes.

(3) Not paying attention to vulnerability in a competitive auction

(4) Failing to double an obvious sacrifice when partner has passed the decision on whether to double or bid on back to you.

(5) Taking partner's decision away from them. If there is a bid on your right, and partner knows more about your hand than you know about theirs, then shut up and listen. Partner might be itching to double.

(6) Removing partner's double because you don't trust them, e.g. (in a competitive auction of ♦ vs ♥): 5♦ - 5♥ - X - pass - 6♦?? If you were prepared to bid 6♦, the why didn't you bid it last round? If you're bidding it just because you're nervous about my double, then you are a bad, non-trusting partner. If I say I can beat 5♥ then I can beat it.

(7) Asking to play a convention that you don't know how to use. Sure I'll play Roman Key Card, but if you're going to give me the wrong answer when I bid 4NT what's the point?

(8) Repeating 5 card suits unnecessarily. A repeat of your suit is never a welcome bid. Sometimes it's correct, sometimes it's an unfortunate necessity, but it is never what your partner wants to hear. Try to find some other bid, e.g. a second suit, NT to show point count & semi-balanced shape, or raise of my suit with 3 card support and ruffing value. If I responded in NT, it's probably because I have a doubleton in your suit, maybe even a singleton. For the sequence 1♥ - 1NT - 2♥ you need 6 hearts, not 5. Worse still, some will even bid 1♥ - 2NT (11-12 balanced, non-forcing) - 3♥?? with a mid range hand, a ragged 5 card suit, a 5-3-3-2 pattern and decent play for 3NT.

(9) Reluctance to support my major with 3 cards. Just because we're playing a 4 card major system (not my preference but I can play it) doesn't mean my major suit opening will normally be 4 cards. If I bid 2 suits, it's 99% certain that my original suit had 5 cards, so support it with 3. I shouldn't need to repeat a 5 card suit to get that message across (see 8)

(10) No concept of "captaincy" and making decisions that aren't yours to make. E.g. 1NT - 2♣ - 2♦ - 2♥ - 3NT?? My 2♣ bid does not "show" any particular number of points, it is an asking bid, and the 2♥ bid is a sign-off in a 5 card suit. When you make a highly descriptive bid like a 1NT opening, your partner is best placed to make the final decision. Respect it.

(11) Raising my minor suit when you have a four card major you could have shown at 1 level. Minor suits in general suck as final contracts. Try to find a major fit, or failing that NT; only play in a minor suit if nothing else works.

[smerriman]

I agree and can sympathise with many of these. However:

kereru67, on 2019-January-21, 19:51, said:

(6) Removing partner's double because you don't trust them, e.g. (in a competitive auction of ♦ vs ♥): 5♦ - 5♥ - X - pass - 6♦?? If you were prepared to bid 6♦, the why didn't you bid it last round? If you're bidding it just because you're nervous about my double, then you are a bad, non-trusting partner. If I say I can beat 5♥ then I can beat it.

This depends on the auction, but in general I would disagree. A lot of time it is correct to take out a penalty double, especially in forcing pass auctions where double means 'my hand suggests defending', not 'please pass'. This is an area I struggle with a lot - there's a good article here: http://www.davelegro...y%20Partner.pdf

kereru67, on 2019-January-21, 19:51, said:

(10) No concept of "captaincy" and making decisions that aren't yours to make. E.g. 1NT - 2♣ - 2♦ - 2♥ - 3NT?? My 2♣ bid does not "show" any particular number of points, it is an asking bid, and the 2♥ bid is a sign-off in a 5 card suit. When you make a highly descriptive bid like a 1NT opening, your partner is best placed to make the final decision. Respect it.

I'm not sure what system you play, but for me - and I suspect many others - 2♥ is an invite, not a sign off.

[kereru67]

smerriman, on 2019-January-21, 22:39, said:

I'm not sure what system you play, but for me - and I suspect many others - 2♥ is an invite, not a sign off.

I think if you play a weak no trump you need a garbage Stayman to escape with hands like this:
♠Jxxx
♥KJxxx
♦x
♣xxx

Pass a major response, sign off with 2♥ over 2♦.

♠xxxx
♥xxxx
♦xxxxx
♣-

Pass any response.

Of course it can also be used with stronger hands. If you want to invite game you can rebid 2NT or 3 of a major.

On the other issue, removing a high level penalty double should only be done if you have not already properly described your hand. As that article says "You should pass partner's penalty double unless you have information that partner does not havethat would decrease the chances of taking defensive tricks."

[pescetom]

kereru67, on 2019-January-22, 00:57, said:

I think if you play a weak no trump you need a garbage Stayman to escape with hands like this:
♠Jxxx
♥KJxxx
♦x
♣xxx

Pass a major response, sign off with 2♥ over 2♦.

With or without weak NT, it's common to play 2♥ here as 'pass or correct to spades' (Crawling Stayman), which allows you to handle a weak two-suiter while retaining 2♠ as forcing.

[DozyDom]

Somehow I feel that when your partners are doing all these, you aren't entirely blameless yourself.

Otherwise I feel like you might get better partners.

[apollo1201]

pescetom, on 2019-January-22, 03:58, said:

With or without weak NT, it's common to play 2H here as 'pass or correct to spades' (Crawling Stayman), which allows you to handle a weak two-suiter while retaining 2S as forcing.

I think with weak, you need to escape. But with strong, you are less likely to go down for as big numbers, and it is more valuable to show an invite with 7+ to 9- points such as

Qxxx
Kxxxx
Qx
xx

Or

xxx
KQTxx
x
Qxxx

[nige1]

Kerura67 draws attention to many common mistakes I'm guilty of most of them Some quibbles:

• Raising partner's possibly 4-card suit with 3-card support. Many won't consider this raise without a singleton in an unbid suit, For others it's a complete no-no.
• Agreeing to play unfamiliar conventions. Bridge-players love conventions and want to learn them by playing them.Hence teething problems are hard to avoid. This is especially true with conventions like Bergen, RKC, and 5-card Stayman that have several common variants.
• Raising a minor when holding an unbid 4-card major. I have an agreement with some partners to do this. Since we're aware of our propensities, we rarely miss a major-fit.

[Cyberyeti]

Some of these are missing important nuances:

Say partner has bid his 5+ card clubs in a GF way and you opened the bidding with 1♦ on x, Kx, AQJ109x, xxxx (which in system we do). It's now your bid over 4♠ by RHO. Pass would be forcing so you have to decide whether you'd rather be in 5♣ or 4♠x given that it's very likely partner will double with most hands, what you can't do is pass then pull his double because you're showing a slam try and a much better hand.

Neither of you know that much about each other's hand, just that you both have opening hands with a suit.

The raising 4 card majors with 3 thing depends on system, we only do it rarely, usually with a side singleton. People brought up with opening 4M4m32 hands 1M outside the 1N range are usually more reticent to raise with 3.

We play inverted minors that CAN contain a 4 card major, you just need to be organised in your system structure.

[blackshoe]

The key to most "convention" problems is to sit down and discuss the convention before you put it on your card. When is it on, when is it off, what are the continuations, what do we do if opponents interfere, what's forcing, what's not forcing. Probably other things that I've missed. Keycard Blackwood in particular can be a problem. "Let's play Keycard". "Okay". And you write it on your card. I can guarantee you if you don't discuss the items I mention above, you will run into problems.