Leaderboard

north has far too much for 4s. all the blame to him. 2 extra trumps a.k.a. tricks and 2 top honours in partner's main suit. oh dear

[hv=pc=n&s=sq3hk65daq64ckqt4&n=sk75haj74d85ca752&d=e&v=0&b=14&a=p1np2cp2dp3nppp]266|200[/hv] I've got to stop reading these ^&@*! bridge books! This was problem 1 in a declarer play book. I went down although I thought my line was reasonable. Down in problem ONE - the humiliation! I'd like to see how bad my play was. Playing IMPs, West leads the ten of spades. Plan your play.

The 4♦ bid, self pre-empting staring at those trumps plus the ♥A PLUS the diamond void is very ill considered. Is north really going to cue 5♣ over that? (with just about anything that makes 6 let alone 7) A simple 2♦ cue to set spades and a further cue (of hearts probably) would do the job against anything but a fast 5♦ bid by them.

questions 2/3/4 never happened at my theoretical table since I played 5c x making who knows what. The real problem with xx is not so much that 5c should have decent play but that we almost certainly do not have enough defense vs the opps in a heart contract. In order for the xx to gain the contract must make AND the opps fail to run OR if they run we have to be able to set 5h at least 4 tricks. YEAH, read that again, FOUR tricks to make up for the score of 5c x making. Once you arrive at that conclusion I am pretty sure you will forever be happy to play in 5c x under these conditions.

At MP, I think pass would absolutely clear. But at IMPs, where bidding thin vulnerable games is a winning strategy, I'm making a try. So, 2 NT or 3 ♥ whichever is the power invitational raise.

This leads to my earlier post where I said that the nomination process to the Presidency is fundamentally flawed, broken, and/or rigged. Constituents on both side of the aisle are beginning to realize this. Debbie Wesserman Schultz, Former Chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), created a very limited debate schedule that favored the Hillary campaign and reduced Bernie Sanders' chances for a surge in the polls. Schultz' staff sent emails in which they brainstormed ways to undermine Bernie's campaign. Donna Brazile, Former Vice Chairwoman of the DNC, funnelled questions to Hillary's campaign in advance of two CNN debates. The DNC had its thumb on the scales all along which effectively destroyed the integrity of the nomination process and made Hillary's win questionable. Has the DNC even conducted a postmortem to ensure this chicanery never happens again? The media industrial complex also abrogated its responsibility to the public by refusing to give "equal" coverage to all 17 Republican candidates and by failing to conduct a deeper political analysis of their campaign platforms. Instead, the media focused on Trump since he was a ratings magnet and was notorious for making headline catching comments. Thus, Trump sucked up almost all of the media oxygen in the campaign season and left the audience with a distorted, yet unreliable view of the Presidential candidate field. The Presidential campaign season should resemble an intellectual marketplace where the best political candidates present compelling solutions to policy problems in their platforms. Instead, it became a poorly produced reality TV show with little substance, dubious characters, heightened political drama, and forced outcomes.

The hands could fit well, or they could not. I suppose partner could pass 1H with real dross, but 3H isn't safe. Also when vul partner will accept easily, and that might not be good, so I shall pass cautiously.

Awkward. You want to raise clubs without inviting 3NT, and I don't know of a way to do that. So I suppose I have to pass.

A few months ago I wrote a template for future challenge events, you can find it here: link. Some of that is not relevant for event #9 but the following extract may be helpful to newcomers: The application procedure differs from before: Since you got frank0's "+", you have already been registered as a player. In case of any conflict of information, the official source of information for this event is not this info box but post #1 of the forum you are now reading. Whenever you're in trouble during the event, please contact the forum. There will be help.

I register.

Me please.