Cthulhu D

Makes sense. So if you can stop in 1NT here you're better off with 14-16, hence the proliferation of swedish club, precision and polish systems playing 14-16 NT I guess.

Decisions are more routine than that - using a vaccine with known side effects when my risk of exposure to the disease is practically zero is a waste of time which is why you don't get vaccinated against encephalitis when you go to Thailand unless you're planning on working in rice paddies or similar. If the cost + risk > prevention it's not worth doing, and because prevention can be quite small costs and risk can be low as well. It's the pill though which is a prescription drug, and does indeed involve a doctor and may be proscribed as a medical treatment. But from the state's perspective if all the people who didn't want a baby could manage to use a condom and the pill they cost savings are mammoth, so they really want you to. Otherwise they have to deal with you getting syphilis, an abortion or an adoption later and all those cost way more.

Al_U_Card: Was the US Government behind 9/11?

Yeah, we get full hand records with leads made, contracts reached, deep finesse analysis and tricks taken on all tables along with imps or matchpoints in/out, which can be displayed in a couple of different ways usually within 15 minutes of the last table finishing at the club (director checks scores, posts the results, handles any disputes then wacks it up online). It's really good because you can see your dumb boards at a glance, discuss what you did and then you're done. Results from a recent butler IMPs comp: http://www.bridge-club.org/bcorg/results/showMultiResult?id=213529,213530,213216,213217 Click on a pair to see the detailed breakdown

It seems lots of people playing swedish club like to be able to pass 1C!-1D! which makes it less desirable to open 1C. Are you safe bidding a major?

It's using 1NT instead of double as your three suited takeout shape hand. Ken plays it super light, Fout's overcall structure plays 8-14ish. Where you put the strong balanced hand becomes an issue, but I like the style

Makes sense - was curious what the other option you wanted was

Why isn't a 14-16 no trump pretty much standard with 2/1 GF? It seems the system works a lot better (because it mitigates a lot of the horribleness of the 1NT) when it's 14-16 and not 15-17.

What's the view on a power double (15+ semi bal) with 1NT for takeout ala the overcall structure?

Yeah, but then good chance he will bid 3H now, so let's give 3D a go.

If you use 2S as invite plus here, what do you do with 2NT?

I have no idea, I'd start with 3D, caring not if partner thinks that is fourth suit forcing or asking for a stopper or what, then maybe try 3NT unless partner tries 3H. I'm thinking long and hard about just punting 4H, but starting with 3D is 'free' so lets do that and see what he comes back with. 6C seems a long way away but I'll be better positioned after 3D. This is a deal where you wish you where playing roman jump overcalls or another two suited approach that would have let partner bid 2S the first time if he was 5/5. I think the lack of double means that he's probably 5-1-3-4 or 5-1-2-5

I think you have to double. I'm not sure 2D showing hearts is great, particularly as double here should probably imply 4 hearts anyway, so 2D should show a hand more like a NFB, or something stronger.

Bridge for dummies is actually pretty good. It goes through absolutely everything from the play, to bidding, through to the other stuff that surrounds the game, like scoring, alerting, playing a game of duplicate, how duplicate scores work etc. It even briefly touches on other systems and the like from a 'you may encounter this, don't be afraid' perspective. If you wanted to learn Standard American from a book, this is not a bad place to start. The joy of bridge, co-written by Rodwell(?!) is not.

Preventative care for any particular illness is a massive cost saving, as long as you're comparing it to 'waiting for them to get sick and turn up in ER.' If you're baselining it against 'and then they get sick and die and we don't have to pay for ongoing care' it is economical not to provide treatment. You can use this argument to make smoking look like a good idea, but it's completely ridiculous analysis because it ignores secondary effects (if you get sick and die of cancer at 40, the government is missing 20 years of taxes, but this isn't included in the 'smoking reduces health care costs so you shouldn't ban smoking' line of reasoning). From the state's perspective, not only does it have to pay for you to be in hospital (and it can pay this directly in a system like Norway, or indirectly in the US system where your taxable income is reduced because your premiums are tax deductible and you get charged for the guys clogging the ER who cannot pay), it also misses on the sweet, sweet tax harvest that you are not pulling in because you are dead or dying somewhere. However, I think the reality in most countries that are not a dystopic wasteland, if some guy gets brought to ER going into Diabetic shock, you're going to have to treat him and it's really expensive. This is the current state in most OECD countries. Given that, preventative care is ridiculously cost effective for any healthcare system that promises to treat you if you turn up in an ER whether you can pay or not.

It was going for 1100 because they'd psyched and pard had 5 spades to the KJ. I spent several minutes in the tank trying to work out what to do. Was frustrating when dummy came down and the psyche was revealed. However even if they had the spades they were supposed to have it wasn't pretty.

Okay that makes sense.

All red, you deal yourself some balanced 3-4-3-3 12 count with Axx of spades playing a 14-16 NT and 2/1 GF. Systematically this is a clear 1C. Unfortunately this then goes off the rails pretty much immediately: 1C - (1S) - 1NT - (2S) P - (P) - X - (P) ?? I tanked for a long time and pulled, thereby missing an awesome +1100. Should double be always penalties here when we tend to have two flat hands facing each other?

1. Opens 1D - though some will open it 1H (playing with 4 card majors, but 5 is the standard I gather) 2. It depends. Most will have some way of self splintering or showing a 4414 in a GF auction

I've been playing 2/1 GF while opening all 11 counts (with an A or K otherwise anything goes. xxxxx AJ Kxx Kxx is a partnership opener), since I started playing bridge (like... 6 months so take this with a grain of salt). This seems to work, mostly. Our criteria for a game force is a balanced 13 count. This sometimes catapults you to a very skinny 3NT but thems the breaks. This fits in with a generally very aggressive partnership style My overall thoughts: If you're opening absolute trash you really want to be able to stop as low as possible. So IMHO it works much better if: Your NT range is 14-16 because 1X-1Y-1NT happens all the damn time and limiting that 1NT rebid is critical. If opener is limited to 13, partner can pass much more aggressively. A bad 11 count won't be worth an invite which might be to high if partner has opened a terrible 11 count. We play a semi forcing 1NT so you're not obligated to find a rebid if you've opened a real piece of cheese. You can get opener to show his hand type to responder without bypassing 1NT. We play Kaplan Inversion with transfer responses to you can go 1H-1S-1NT (balanced or clubs). Then responder is in charge of the hand and can pass this frequently. Transfer Walsh is really nice because again opener can show his hand type and safely stop in 1NT when it's right with a high degree of frequency. Any particular suggestion is fine, just being able to stop before you overbid critical. Outcomes at the table are mixed - it's pretty swingy and combined with our hilarious overcalling style we often end up playing in some pretty anti-field contracts.

From my limited precision experience if partner had 4 spades he's going to re-open with double. If he even had 3 he would have probably stretched to do so the first time around. It would help here to know what the agreements in competition are, assuming a really simple new suit is game-force and double is 5-7 semi positive, P knows you are either a total bust or have a penalty double, so he would have tried to reopen with a double if plausible. So I agree with bluecalm, partner is probably 2-1-6-4 and they have volunteered to play in a 4-3 fit when the hearts are breaking 5-1 rather than letting us play in our 6-1 diamond fit so let them have it.

I'm only saying here is how to ask a question, if you're not asking a question the advice obviously doesn't apply. Maybe I could clarify with 'if you're going to ask a question of the 'what should we do here' variety then this is how you should ask it' If you want to discuss whether you should ACOL or Std American is the best system for beginners it's a different thing.

Post two should be here 'here is how to ask a good question' It should cover making a good topic line - When creating a topic, select a subject that is informative to new reads such as 'How does hand evaluation change in competition? Or "What is the minimum standard for an overcall of 1 of a suit" Outline how a question should be asked - the question itself, any relevant hands, any follow up points. Remind users when stating a question they should provide relevant information about their general system. Deciding how to respond to partners 1C in competition depends on things like 'do you play ACOL, SAYC, Polish Club, Precision or 2/1 GF? What is your NT range and what is the number of cards you promise when you open 1 of a major' Here is how to display a hand so people can read it

I've seen a few people around here playing 1M - 2C as GF clubs or 3 card limit raise in all seats. It's a classic for a billion options all being called 'drury' so it needs pretty extensive discussion.

A profile designed for playing pickups with may not reflect actual expert practice. Got some established expert partnership convention cards without drury?