JoAnneM

I live in a smallish city (65,000) in California and Measure 8 has become much more than just about gay marriage. Of course the vote itself is about gay marriage, but the ads, the letters to the editors, the columns are all about "anti-gay". I think these people are hypocrites when they say they have no problems with gays, just gay marriages - that is not what I am really hearing.

I am more than honored to be mistaken for Jan :D

In my opinion :D , since partner left the 2D bid in for penalty this double must also be for penalty. I think it must be "we are going to double whatever they bid" time.

I wonder how many Republicans, especially in Congress, are just totally embarrassed by the Palin nomination.

I think she did great. We have a new word - "mavickry", and global warming is solved - "the end of days". It confirmed everything I felt about her. In balance I thought the spoof on Biden was pretty good, especially the bit about Scranton since that is the city where "The Office" is situated.

Ah, someone else not interested in my opinion. I noticed it was this person's first post and thought maybe they just didn't know women are allowed here. :blink:

I have never played with screens but I think the procedure is that you put your bid into a tray that is pass through, correct? These tables and trays should be constructed so that when the bids and plays hit the table they are recorded as to time elapsed. Now when time runs out it would be easy to determine the culprit(s) and act according to preset policies. Seems like with mini computer chips embedded this should be an easy enough technology.

Speaking of neat names - Arclight, your's reminds me of something my husband was involved in from 1968-1973. I wonder if that is the soucre of your name.

Walking away from a mortgage when you can actually still make the payments just for the purpose that was outlined in the original post should be a crime. If not, I consider it a moral crime and could not respect such a person. But then I have trouble with respect when it comes to a lot of people when it comes to their sense of honor, civic and personal responsibility, etc.

If I have understood you correctly, you can do that in Jack as well. Yes, with the deal profiler... I haven't tested BB, but I'm very happy about Jack 4.0! You can also play over the internet to practice with your partner. I don't see where Profile is going to let someone learn how to play Lebensohl, for instance, without actually typing in some hands. Whereas with BB you just choose the convention and tell the program how many hands you want to generate while learning to play that convention. It looks like profile is just setting the system for the computer. Am I missing something?

I have used both Bridge Baron and Jack. Bridge Baron is good for learning conventions because you can specify hands be dealt that will have those cards, for practice. Jack is good for general practice. It will give you your bidding and play mistakes after the hand. Both programs have lots of tournaments to play, or you can generate your own hands. Both are pretty good with conventions and systems available.

Why would you ask such a question? That is my mother's suggested reply to a bad question.

On another board I participate in the concensus is that 2-suited hands are not handled well with 2C openings either. What is the feeling here?

Bridge is a game of mistakes. At a certain level, during any given event it will be who makes fewer mistakes that will win.

And you think this kind of thing is something new?

Your post seems to imply that declarer made a bad claim on purpose. I would never, as a director, approach a table with that in mind. If that was my attitude I would quit directing.

The diagram in the original post could be a little misleading. The declarer did not claim with six tricks left to play. He played the AK of trumps and then claimed. This shows the director that he thought all trumps were pulled. That is why I would not make the next trick a trump trick, and would award the defenders one trick. Of course this is strictly a judgment call on the part of the director, and also could be based on his experience with that player. Also the first paragraph of Law 70 states: "The Director’s Goal in adjudicating the result of a board on which a claim has been contested is to restore equity — to determine the result which would most probably have been obtained had there been no claim. However, with that guideline in mind, the Director shall resolve any doubtful points against the claimer." For that reason I am really against windfall scores being given to opponents that skew the results for the rest of the field. This cannot always be avoided, and I have been on the receiving end, but I didn't feel good about it.

Is he kidding? People complain about a 17" screen being too small!

In case one it is stated that the AK of spades are played and then declarer claims. I agree that one trick should be awarded to the defenders. I made a mistake in assigning the tricks in my earlier post.

Please diagram the hand to show 24 points, I am just curious.

Charge for your site and you won't need the ads. People want a free site and then they gripe about the ads......

On the first hand, I would not award 4 tricks. If you think the trumps are in you are not going to pull another round of trumps, so that is an irrational play. Normally after a declined claim you are not allowed to pull trumps, has this changed? So, AK, Qtrumped, Atrumped, KQ = Declarer loses 2 tricks. On the 2nd hand I would also award 2 tricks.

Just today I played a contract in 3nt making six. My partner watched the play very intently and at the end asked "How could we have bid that". How could she not have noticed that the opening lead gave me a double finesse in a suit missing the ace, that I could never have picked up! I was actually too embarrassed to answer and just shook my head at her. That's why I don't like discussing the hands at the table.

In order to make a tongue in cheek comment one must show a picture of a tongue in a cheek. This is what I was told a few months ago when I committed a similar sin.

Seems like if you have plenty of entries that leading the jack from dummy might entice RHO to cover, and then if LHO opp has doubleton AK you are in clover. You are talking about "noobs", right?