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1♠/1♥/1♦ all show a 5-card suit and 12-17 HCP. 1♣ can be short 12-17 HCP (either balanced/semi balanced/unbalanced) or 18-21 HCP any distribution.

A hand from our local club last night. Partner and I play "Short ♣" which uses some ideas from the Polish ♣ system. The actual bidding is included: [hv=pc=n&s=saq965hada92cak32&w=skj32hk9873d75c75&n=s8ht5dkt86cqjt964&e=st74hqj642dqj43c8&d=e&v=e&b=6&a=p1c(Can%20be%20short)1h3c(Inverted%20minor%20raise)3h6c(How%20do%20I%20bid%20this%3F)ppp]399|300[/hv] Partner was sitting South and simply blasted into the ♣ slam which made. My question is this: How do you explore for the ♣ slam legitimately given the opposition competing in ♥?

The actual hand and bidding: [hv=pc=n&s=st86h6dq984ca9853&w=sk4hakj43d6532ckt&n=sj7532h8dktcqj762&e=saq9hqt9752daj7c4&d=n&v=0&b=1&a=p1hp4s(Kickback%20for%20Hearts)p5h(2%20with%20the%20Queen)p6hppp]399|300[/hv] The players who shied away from the slam scored well. South led the ♣A which removed any guessing for declarer in the suit. But there is no way to avoid the ♦ loser as well. So the question is, were E/W just unlucky or should West avoid the slam try with such a poor holding in the ♦ suit?

On a ♣ switch, declarer has to guess the ♠ situation. If you guess wrong, down she goes. You can never get back to dummy if you play to drop the ♠Q in 2. ♦ is 11, my mistake.

A ♦ switch keeps it to 10. Two rounds of trumps ending in dummy still leaves that third vital trump to get back to dummy. Declarer has already lost the ♥A and now loses to the trump queen as well at the continuation of the ♦ suit. A ♥ from hand goes on the ♠Q still leaving a ♥ loser in hand. So how about a ♣ switch?

East must continue with any of the suits excluding ♠. Look at the pressure that you now place declarer under. With 9 trumps headed by the Ace and King, it is considered normal to play to drop the Queen. So now declarer, after trumping a ♥ continuation or a ♣ switch in dummy must make a decision, a) play for the drop, or b) play for the Queen hook. It is easy to make judgements when you can see all 4 hands. At the table, declarer can only see 2 and has a tough decision to make. If he gets it wrong he is down whichever way you look at it. So the question really is, which of the 3 other suits does East continue with to maximize the pressure on declarer?

This hand came up at our local club last night. Poor defence gave declarer 12 tricks. Yet the contract can be defeated in more than one way. Which way would you suggest as defender? [hv=pc=n&s=sk75hjdaqjt98765c&w=sq42hk93d2ckt6432&n=saj9863ht84dkc875&e=sthaq7652d43caqj9&d=e&v=n&b=2&a=1h3d3h3s4h4sppp]399|300[/hv]

Justin got it right, neither side will back down. I’ve already disclosed to you what the purpose is of the God of the Jews with creation, and that is for an invisible God to become visible in you and me and everyone else. The Jews who brought us this incredible story have themselves rejected it. Nearly ALL of the non-Jews who have accepted or believe God’s plan of salvation haven’t understood or recognised this from the writings which the Jews have brought us. Why? I’ve already given you two reasons in this thread, 1) an inadequate translation of the Bible to a large extent has buried the story, and 2) fallen man more interested in his own interests, positions, welfare, recognition etc instead of following God’s agenda, has caused all the infighting in institutionalised religion which has led to, I don’t know how many different denominations, churches, whatever being established who ALL CLAIM OWNERSHIP OF THE ONLY TRUE GOD. You can extend the previous sentence to include Judaism and Islam. Christianity and Islam are both offshoots of Judaism. None of the three have understood God’s ultimate purpose with creation, yet the New Testament discloses this hidden mystery of God in quite a few places. For Paul to undergo the harassment and hardship at the hands of his own people, the Jews, for zero financial gain, to complete the story of creation must have been the toughest assignment that he or anyone could ever face. When the Jews rejected this mystery, God destroyed the temple in Jerusalem at the hands of the Romans. It has never been rebuilt and it never will be rebuilt. Ironically the Muslims have now built a temple of their own on the site. Worldwide institutionalised religion is on the steady decline. Fewer and fewer people are entering the religious building erected by most denominations that you care to name. In my own country, periodically there are discussions on the radio, or an article appears in the newspaper where the leaders of these institutions discuss their concerns etc regarding declining numbers attending and what needs to be done to turn things around. The stuff that sometimes comes out is truly laughable. Declining numbers means declining tithes flowing into their coffers. I doubt whether any are truly concerned about the real truth. It’s all about the money. You want tangible visible proof that God exists. Through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, God has already demonstrated to us once what is going to happen to every single person who ever walked planet earth. John 14:8-9 “Philip said to Him, "Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us." Jesus said to him, "Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how can you say, 'Show us the Father '? 1 Corinthians 15:49-53 “Just as we have borne the image of the earthy, we will also bear the image of the heavenly. Now I say this, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality.” Romans 8:29 “For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined [Greek means “to limit in advance”] to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren.” 2 Corinthians 4:3-4 “And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” Colossians 1:15 “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.” I can go on but choose not to. If you get down into the nuts and bolts of this incredible story that the Jews brought us, the bottom line is this; at the resurrection God will become visible in ALL of us. Our choice is simple, let it happen the easy way or let it happen the hard way. This first life is not the all important one.

A large amount of copies of all the letters written which make up the New Testament have been recovered, sometimes 300 or more. The oldest manuscripts are regarded as the most accurate. But there is also a process of comparing them with each other to determine consistency in the copy process, the majority containing the same text are considered more reliable. The language of the first century was predominantly Greek.

There’s a major flaw in your reasoning here. The writings of Flavius Josephus confirm the accuracy of Acts in more ways than you can imagine. The flaw? Acts was written some time during AD 60 – AD 62 as Paul’s affidavit before Emperor Nero during his first Roman imprisonment. Josephus became a Roman defector during the Roman-Jewish war of AD 66 – AD 70. He documented the history of the Jews during/after this war. You can read more here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josephus

The word “worship” does not occur in the Greek in the New Testament. The Greek word is “proskuneo” (NT:4352) and means “homage.” Look up the difference in a dictionary.

I like your suggestion of 4♦ as "pick a major." The North hand is worth 11 points in total; 7 in HCP, 3 for the singleton ♦ and 1 for the 5th ♥. But it will be a very brave North to bid the slam directly. Any other way to get there more slowly, stopping in 5♠ if necessary? That said, your analysis of no move by West despite W/R would indicate that West has little and South has the bulk of the HCP is good.

This hand came up at our local club last night. Is there a way to legitimately find the ♠ slam after the opponents pre-empted on the 3-level? The actual bidding is included. [hv=pc=n&s=sak84ha2da64cakj7&w=sq72ht9875d87c852&n=sjt65hkj643dtcq93&e=s93hqdkqj9532ct64&d=e&v=n&b=2&a=3ddp3hp3nppp]399|300[/hv]

We have a massive irony (and tragedy) here. The world has much to thank the Jews for bringing to everyone else this incredible story: God’s ultimate purpose with creation; an invisible God becoming visible in you and me and everyone else. The irony? After bringing us this incredible story, the Jews themselves have rejected the second half of the story (the New Testament). The tragedy? Non-Jews have to a large extent gone and corrupted the second half of the story to fit in with what they want their followers to believe. Why? Personally I believe it has to do with power, greed, money, control of the masses, etc; fallen man unable to make it or find recognition in open society has gone and created titles, positions, roles, et el, in religious organisations in pursuit of the recognition he was unable to gain for himself. To do so that which the Jews originally wrote is misrepresented. And it won’t be fixed by the religious organisations either because they have the most to lose. Here is a typical example of what you will NEVER HEAR in these organisations: It has to do with the tithe, the 10% placed in the coffers. That is all Old Testament. Jesus himself effectively did away with the tithe in Matthew 17:24-27. Go and read it if you are so inclined. Paul himself took pride in the fact that he was never a burden to the Corinthians (2 Corinthians 12:13). He never accepted any financial assistance from the Corinthians, instead supporting himself making tents. You can read the whole passage from verse 11. He did the same in Ephesus, supplying his own needs and those of his companions through hard work (Acts 20:33-35). These religious organisations will instead twist circumstances to squeeze extra money out of you for their own purposes. A favourite scripture they quote is 2 Corinthians 9:6-15. But you must read that in context. Paul was busy making a monetary collection for the starving believers in Jerusalem which had suffered a famine. When he finally delivers the collection, Luke makes no mention of it in Acts 21 because of the hostility of the Jews against Paul. In Acts 24:17 Paul himself mentions the collection before Felix. Start your own pursuit of the truth. I use something called PC Study Bible distributed by BibleSoft. It contains something called an Interlinear Bible, the original Greek with the English translation of the Greek directly above it. By double-clicking on the Greek word, a Greek-English lexicon opens up on the right. This gives you what the English should be. There are 4 lexicons for you to compare with each other. One final word on the tragedy: I get much of my information from this website http://bible.cc/ . In the commentaries below the parallel translations, the commentators more often than not point out the inadequacies in their own translations. So if they know that the translation is inadequate, why not fix it? It just won’t happen. You think I’m joking about institutionalised religion. As early as AD 95 in Revelation 18:4 Jesus was calling on his followers to “Come out of her my people.” You are encouraged to read the whole chapter.

Sorry BunnyGo, but your own Jewish writings leave me no choice. It can be found in Ezekiel chapter 3:17-21 17 "Son of man, I have appointed you a watchman to the house of Israel; whenever you hear a word from My mouth,warn them from Me. 18 "When I say to the wicked, 'You will surely die,' and you do not warn him or speak out to warn the wicked from his wicked way that he may live, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand. 19 "Yet if you have warned the wicked and he does not turn from his wickedness or from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but you have delivered yourself. 20 "Again, when a righteous man turns away from his righteousness and commits iniquity, and I place an obstacle before him, he will die; since you have not warned him, he shall die in his sin, and his righteous deeds which he has done shall not be remembered; but his blood I will require at your hand. 21 "However, if you have warned the righteous man that the righteous should not sin and he does not sin, he shall surely live because he took warning; and you have delivered yourself." Jesus repeatedly referred to himself as the Son of man. Go look it up for yourself. Ezekiel 18:32 "For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone who dies," declares the Lord GOD. "Therefore, repent and live." For the record: I wasn’t lecturing you or anyone else. It was some recommended reading regarding one of your Rabbi’s. Your choice is simple; read it or don’t read it.

Luke 6:22-23 "Blessed are you when men hate you, and ostracize you, and insult you, and scorn your name as evil, for the sake of the Son of Man." "… For in the same way their fathers used to treat the prophets." Luke 6:26 "Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for their fathers used to treat the false prophets in the same way."

I'm not sure which part of my posts you don't understand. Every single person who ever walked planet earth will one day glorify the God of the Jews. Your reward: Cooperate with him and you get to do so the easy way. Your punishment: Fight him or remain in total denial and you get to do so the hard way.

Art I want to encourage you to read this book: THE RABBI FROM BURBANK Isidor Zwirn and Bob Owen ISBN 1-57562-729-9 THE RABBI FROM BURBANK tells the fascinating story of Rabbi Isidor Zwirn. Here is an extract from chapter 5 of this book: Once, while I was taking a class at a Jewish educational institution, the question was raised concerning the Messianic prophecies. The professor responded, “Do not attempt to study any of these prophecies concerning the coming of the Messiah on your own. It’s too dangerous. Don’t study them unless you do so with a rabbi who is able to interpret them for you.” Further on in chapter 5 he writes: All this seemed strange to me. The coming of the Messiah is anticipated at every Jewish Passover Seder. We sing and read of the Messiah during each Sabbath and High Holy Day celebration. And the Messiah’s coming is a looked-forward-to event in the heart of every Jew. Still our educational institutions were silent on the subject. I didn’t understand. Isidor Zwirn then embarked on his own independent research of the scriptures. After months he came to the conclusion that Yeshuah of the Christians is also the Messiah of the Jews. Upon revealing his conclusion to his family he immediately became an outcast. They all believed that he became a Christian. This was his response… “No. I’m not a Christian,” I would try again. “I’m no more a Christian than Jesus was…or Peter…or Paul. They were all Jews. And I’m a Jew. The only difference is that I believe that Jesus, or Yeshuah, is the Messiah, just like the disciples did. Just like those believers in Jerusalem. And they weren’t Christians, but Jewish believers in the Messiah. It was the Gentile followers of Christ who were known as Christians.” The Jewish community never understood and he remained an outcast. When the Christian churches heard about his acceptance of Jesus as the Messiah they began inviting him to give his “testimony” on how that had happened. When he related his story of how he had come to Jesus completely on his own, they didn’t believe him. They insisted that it was absolutely necessary to accept Jesus “by faith,” which was the “regular formula.” Gradually Isidor Zwirn was excommunicated and hated by all. Neither his own Jewish people nor the Christians would accept him. The God of the Jews is the True God. Others are an offshoot.

Here’s a question for those who say that god’s are created by the imaginations of fallen mankind to fit into their way of thinking: Why would the Jews create a god for themselves and then reject the very God they created as early as 1 Samuel 8:7-9. But this crazy notion of imaginary gods is even crazier regarding the Jews. Their own writings record that they have rejected their own God, yet they kept on recording the doings, actions and sayings of the God they first created and then rejected? How’s that for logic? So now they appoint a human king who starts taxing them and conscripting them to the army? Sound familiar? How many of you guys were forced to go and fight in Vietnam against your will? Or Iraq? Or Afganistan? Or anywhere else? I invite you to read the full chapter of Samuel 8. But guess what? This first life of ours is not the one that counts. YOU needed to be born for an invisible God to one day become visible in YOU. What do you think the resurrection is anyway? To give you a second chance to keep on repeating all the same mistakes? You can run but you cannot hide. You can build yourself an underground bunker and stock it with as much tinned food you can buy. You can blow yourself up with a bomb. Ultimately it matters squat to the God of the Jews. He will one day put together again every part blown apart and PURIFY it for HIS purpose for your very existence. It is not a religious fanatic who said this. The God of the Jews said it. It’s going to happen no matter how much you fight it and continue living in denial! You and I and Osama bin Laden will one day all be glorifying the God of the Jews. Some get to do so straight away the easy way. The rest the hard way. Go read the writings of the Jews. Their God had no problem removing those who fought against him or his plan with creation. As early as Genesis chapter 6 their God destroyed all except 8. The trail of destruction continues wherever you read. We are all going to find out that it is easier to cooperate with God than to fight him.

In a different thread, someone suggested opening 5NT as "pick a minor suit slam" with a hand such as this one. I think it may have been Vampyr who made the suggestion. Over whichever minor partner picks, raise to 7. Nice and easy!

So what exactly do scientists says is causing this climate change or global warming? What about the increase in ethnic violence or wars (versus wars between countries)? What lies behind that?

What do scientists ascribe the steady increase in natural disasters worldwide to? Global warning? Something else? If so, what is the something else?

How do I know beyond doubt that God is real and that he exists? Ask anyone who has been baptised in the Spirit of God. It is an unmistakeable life-changing experience. It happened to me on 28 December 1995. I was visiting a family of believers. The father of the house had the practice that at 20h00 every night all members of his family (and any guests present at the time) had to pray together. A bit extreme I thought as a complete novice believer. Each person in turn was expected to pray something, no matter what. I was extremely nervous as this was new to me. It was also unexpected. When it was my turn I managed a few barely audible words. It was then that the Spirit of God fell upon me. The weight of his presence pinned me down in the chair I was sitting on. The warmth of his presence began washing over me. I began crying uncontrollably, a crying from deep within which can only happen when touched by God. Snot began streaming from my nose as I cried and cried. But the weight of God’s presence had rendered me immobile. It was absolutely impossible for me to lift an arm or a hand to wipe away the snot. After about 5 minutes God’s presence lifted and I was able to move again. I had zero understanding of what had just taken place. But the father of the house did as he had seen it happen to many others as well. After cleaning up the snot puddle he began explaining to me about being baptised in the Spirit of God. The second time this happened was during 1996. A preacher from the USA was in my hometown. I can’t remember the guys name but it could have been Virgil Johnson. Neither of us had ever set eyes on the other before. During the service he called me forward and started praying and prophesying over me. I can’t remember exactly what was said but it was something along these lines, “I can see that you are on fire for God, a sailing ship ready to set out to sea, a violent and tempestuous sea. But God will bring winds and storms across the face of the ship, forcing it back into the safety of the harbour. You are not ready to leave.” I never had the faintest idea what this guy was talking about at the time. However, as he began praying and prophesying, the Spirit of God fell upon me again like the first time. This time I was standing in front of a church full of friends and strangers, crying openly at once again unmistakably being touched by God. The third time happened in one of the home fellowship meetings. Someone was praying over one of the woman who had been molested as a youngster. God was busy cleansing her of all the anger, hatred and hurt of some very painful memories. But this meeting had a difference. There were others in the group who had also suffered some or other form of abuse. When the Spirit of God fell upon the woman being prayed for, he fell on the others in need of healing as well. I was one of the others who was being healed. You ask me how I know God is real? I know because he showed up more than once! Prior to this third happening, I had attended a church course dealing with healing. I don’t know where he got his numbers from, but the guy presenting the course claimed that 7 out of every 10 woman were molested or raped at some point. In my own country South Africa, statistics reveal that every 7 seconds, a woman or child is being raped or molested somewhere in the country. That is truly shocking. The world population recently passed the 7 billion mark with 51% of the population women. Take the South African statistic and extend that worldwide and the number of woman and children in need of healing is truly staggering. A psychiatrist or a psychologist cannot heal you. The best they can do is give you a crutch to cling to so that you can cope with your ordeal. The question has been asked a myriad times: If there really is a God, why does he allow these things to happen? In short; I don’t know. Fallen man void of the indwelling presence of God is capable of doing some really horrific things. But this I do know. It is necessary for us to be born. We are all to become God’s vessels wherein an invisible God becomes visible. The things that happened to us during the 70+ years before we die will become completely irrelevant. The same question can be extended to the millions (especially Africans) born into abject poverty and no future of any kind. Millions die of starvation, mostly before they reach age 5.

So what will happen when the world starts suffering from pollution, overpopulation, depleted resources, poverty, dying oceans and a hot climate due to the greenhouse effect? Soylent Green is a 1973 science fiction film starring Charlton Heston which has a look at how things may turn out for those still living when the worlds carrying capacity has been reached. The year? 2022 which is not too far off now? Well worth a watch for all who have been following this thread.

I’ve seen a few players adopting this style of bidding. The idea is to “bid out your shape,” as well as “any change of suit is forcing for 1 round.” In the auction you posted 1♦-1♠-2♥, typically these players would be showing 5X♦ and 4X♥. Partner has already bypassed the ♥ suit, so with 4X♦ and 4X♥ and a minimum opening, little would be gained in bidding 2♥ now. The hand would be too balanced. Instead 1NT would typically be the second bid by opener. Over the auction posted partner is now better placed as to where the contract belongs. Probably 2NT or 3♦ when responder holds a minimum. With a bigger hand and 4X♦ and 4X♥, the auction 1♦-1♠-2♥ still meets the requirements of a reverse bid.