sceptic

Party at my house next month if you want to drive down, I love celebrating 50th's :P

happy birthday H

banning psyches, Why this argument goes on is beyond belief, I have lost count how many threads have the same discussion, BBO TD's can do what they like (within reason) BBO rules, perhaps someone would like to post them here and show what part of having a TD's permissions and not being able to ban Psyches are covered in BBO rules, surely having permissions and being able to do it, is a BBO rule? As for the game of bridge, it is a pastime, hobby etc for most people. The rules are so dam complicated, not so many people want to learn them, they have a hard enough time learning to play and bid, let alone get into something so complex as understanding the nuances of all the different bridge laws (I doubt they are actually laws, as I can't see many people prosecuted for disobeying them) And online, who actually has the rules for online bridge? Don't be sensitive; just avoid the TD's and Tournaments you don't think much of. Why keep bringing up the subject. 10 people playing 5 a side football, 1 fails to show up, so they play 5 on one team 4 on the other, they are still playing football. I think this is the same for bridge, they ban psyches, and it is still bridge Why some of you get off on your high horses about TD's that are just running a tourney that is for fun, defies belief..... Leave them alone, I don't see many of you running tourneys for the masses, most of who just want some relaxed fun.. try it someday you may enjoy it Some of the TD's that discourage Psyches are doing it by popular demand and time constraints on line..... remember online tourneys can not be managed like you can face to face ones

I bid 2 diamonds, unless pard knows I will bid 2 hearts with 3 cards, then use what ever methods available to determine what kind is 2heart raise I have made

what tourny what date?

I am happy that you are interested in our opinions. However, it will take some two or three years for the EU/WEU/OSCE/EC/etc bureaucracies to formulate a POV and sorting out how to pay the bills. Hopefully by that time the crisis will be over. I think you are seriously understimating Europes ability to drag it out before they have to make the wrong decision

people posting here thinking we are meanies, thats a bit harsh, I do not think you are being a meany, I think you are full of your own self imprortance and are ungrateful for what you have. I appreciate that on occasions the sub issue can be hard work to manage, I have run a few tourneys myself over the years, I can honestly say that the thought never crossed my mind, that other TD's are poaching my subs I totaly agree with matmat's last three posts(included the sarcasm), you appear to have (imho) an attitude that Fred and Uday don't do enough to support you and that you are not receiving the adulation that you deserve (possibly even crave) There is however an answer. change the rules of your tourney..... 1/. No one who plays in one of our tournaments, can play in anyone elses 2/. At the end of each round, please cheer and congratulate the TD's with gusto (we will allow chat to tournament at the end of each round for 2 minutes for this to happen) 3/. please sign our petition to BBO Bigwigs, telling them we expect more from them and they should be grateful that "I" (the Royal "I") have made BBO the great site it is today, with out "me" (the Royal "me") this would never have happened 4/. Anyone that reads this rules is disbarred from becoming a TD unless you sign a document ensuring you never run a Tourney within 31 minutes either side of MY tourney This should resolve you rissues JT

maybe not but you seem to imply that they do poach, which I find quite odd, as why should you have exclusive rights to subs ..... I think you do BBO an injustice here, they have given you all the tools to do what you please, they listen to what is said and act upon it, when they can (I am sure there are good reasons when they don't) how can that be tolerance and not support I think the words " ungrateful (can't think of an appropriate word to fit here)" springs to mind

another interesting little snipet to consider, on one side someone wants to deploy loads of defence missiles, maybe Russia wants to show it is not scared of a little tussle and maybe it is a rather tactful warning to the world as all eyes are not too far away and maybe Russia wants to stomp on someone that has been a pain in its butt for some time

so you would deny them the opportunity to play in a free tourney as you think you own them? starting a free tourney 10 mins after yours is hardly a crime and I am am curious, how many tournaments have you actually cancelled through lack of subs as a percentage of the amount you run? just for arguments sake, what time frame do you consider good manners to run a free tourney next to one of yours?

Just to help you all understand what is going on, the Russians suspected Georgia of having WMD, so quite justifiably they invaded, lets hope they don't screw things up as much as other seekers of WMD have done in the Past. another similarity (forgive me if I sound a bit sceptical here) does this producer of WMD have any oil?

yup can't disagree with that

I was laughing, too, which obviously proves it was exceptionally funny :P OTOH I disagree with Wayne's assertion that the fact that some people think drunk people are funny, is funny. the last funny was meant as odd funny as opposed to funny HAHA

from a very limited experience of live bridge, My thoughts are they are not in it for the $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$, imho the people that run them do it because they like doing it. it looks like a lot of hard work for little financial return. So I am not convinced it is for moenetry gain. in a small club, if you eject all the jerks, you would probably, struggle to make complete tables, it seems to me the jerks help fill the tables , once you go down the road of banning people for infringements, however valid, then you may as well shut up shop, small clubs seems to have a lot of people that just want to get out a few times a week and play bridge, now from what I can see and from limited conversations with older people, a lot just play bridge to keep thier brains ticking over, something the younger ones seem to forget or not realise, also if all the old fogeys and jerks were not playing in these clubs, there would not be a club. I also think that most people (certainly younger players) leave a local club to play in better clubs because of the standard of play, not some rude jerk, which I am sure they could handle at the table. Jerks come in all shapes and sizes and more importantly all walks of life, you come accross jerks all over the place, learn to deal with them and learn to live with them, they may have some excellent qualities, bridge etiquette may not be their strong point, but I am sure they have some side of them that is worth knowing, if you just bother to look hard enough

personally I think 4 hearts instead of 4 clubs would get you there, you are in a game force auction and can still stop in the agreed diamond suit

So you think it is acceptable for people to lie? Posing as someone with bridge ability who plays a particular (reasonably well defined) system and then demonstrating an utter lack of this ability is obnoxious at best. Right... and they do so while branding themselves as "Experts" or "World Class" or "Advanced"... quite the social thing to do, to misrepresent ones bridge experience and prowess, to build up a pick up p's expectations and then demonstrate a complete and utter lack of knowledge and cardsense. What great manners. Mat you define your self as beginner on your profile, which you are clearly NOT, I do not understand your double standards here! I also think that the way some people come accross in the posts in the beg int forum, is obnoxious, they start rambling on about things, that are at least advanced if not expert, showing off their bridge knowledge, rather than trying to be helpful. Fred is probably the best contributor to the forums, he generally has an excellent way of helping, whilst keeping his ego out of it, Francis is another that seems to contribute with no ego at all. I think maybe some of you should read your own posts and analyse them, most people that have advanced on their profile, will never be advanced compared to he likes of Jlall, Fred etc, that does not mean they are not advanced as per BBO's Suggested rating. SAYC is a system that is poorly defined or at least limited and does not cover as much as it needs to (I am sure you can look through the archives and see the general concensus of expert opinion about SAYC) I doubt any ranking system is perfect, but for the majority of people on BBO, it is what we have available, so why not live and let live I am sure you are happy playing with your friends on BBO, I just find it odd, that some of you have opinions on just about everything BBO related, usually not very popular opinions

What is the point of this? probably an attempt at being funny. no probably about it, I was funny, (officially sanctioned by other forum readers that have passed comments) your trouble is you appear to take life to seriously, I have seen examples of certain members here thinking some one is funny when they are drunk. sigh now that is funny in itself.

Actually cars do not dissappear, they have to be removed You can not have looked everywhere for it, as it has to be somewhere You have not lost it, it would appear to have been stolen I find it hard to believe that , you are "only sure your insurance covers it" If you read the small print on the policy, you would know for sure if it is covered. On a positive note, I suggest getting a bike until the insurance pays out or if you are lucky, someone finds your car and it is returned to you in the same condition it went missing or as in the case of my car that was stolen and returned to me, It had a respray (quite a good one) and they had fixed the tracking and put a new tyre on it Sometimes from bad things there is some good come out of it, hope you are as lucky as I was, or the insurance pays out more than it was worth

seems to me that sayc is just what people on BBO use as an easy way to agree a basic bidding system for pick ups, regular partners usually tell ops they play sayc so they dont have to type out loads of info for a few games, it is quite acceptable I think for people to do this. 90% approx of BBO people just seem to play for a social reason and just want to while away a few hours having fun with friends, spending 30 mins discussing conventons and how they play them seems like no fun at all with a pick up p Serious players like a lot of forum posters probably spend hours discussing the ins and outs of the game and that is thier idea of fun. I am not decrying this at all, seems each to thier own Ken, your comment "How come so many say they play bridge and so few actually play anything resembling bridge? " is your opinion, one that is probably common in the forums.... NOT everyone wants to be a good as bridge player as your self... I am sure you have shelves and shelves of throphies in your house, possibly an extension had to be built to house them all. I even think you maybe the sort of person that would write a best selling book about bridge. I for one just like play for fun, knowing I will never reach the dizzy heights of some one like Justin, I am sure there are lots of people about that (prob a majority of bridge players) just want to improve to the next level (how ever you define it) AT the end of the day, we play with people from all walks of life and cultures, SAYC is an easy enough concept to grasp on BBO, it just means 5 card majors... who actually really cares if it is not played properly, most of the posters here think it is a poor system and limited Kvkmak, do you play SAYC and if you do, do you add any conventions to it to cope with system flaws or omissions and if so, do you alert SAYC when playing it

how would you bid it then?

[hv=d=n&v=n&n=sjh43dqt532ckq873&w=sk93haq92dakj84c4&e=s72hkj765d96cat65&s=saqt8654ht8d7cj92]399|300|Scoring: IMP[/hv] West North East South - Pass Pass 3♠ Dbl Pass 4♥ Pass Pass Pass I x'd intending to bid 4 diamonds over 4 clubs, is this ok?

[hv=d=w&v=a&n=st43hakj943da92ct&w=sk82hqt8d3ckq8643&e=sa75h75dkjt5caj92&s=sqj96h62dq8764c75]399|300|Scoring: IMP[/hv] West North East South Pass 1♥ Pass 1♠ 2♣ 2♥ 3♣ Pass Pass Dbl Pass Pass Pass

[hv=d=e&v=e&n=sq87h9843da975ct9&w=sa63hak76dkt43c54&e=skj4hdq86caq87632&s=st952hqjt52dj2ckj]399|300|Scoring: IMP[/hv] West North East South - - 1♣ Pass 1♦ Pass 2♣ Pass 2♥ Pass 2NT Pass 3NT Pass Pass Pass

[hv=d=w&v=e&n=sqt94h74dak973cj5&w=sakjhakq82dct9864&e=s73h9dqt8652caq72&s=s8652hjt653dj4ck3]399|300|Scoring: IMP[/hv] West North East South 1♥ Dbl Pass 1♠ 3♣ 3♠ 4♣ Pass Pass Pass

no one promises that exactly as far as I am aware, but I also do not think that anyone promises, that if large institutions have financial problems, the government should bail them out, I always thought a freemarket was what we lived in, all I can see is a subsidised market place, subsidised by us all Why not let Fannie and Freddie do what everyone else has to do when they get in financial difficulties, sell off their assets for what they can get for them, though, I do not think they have much to sell off, in comparitive terms, after all they are a middle man, and we all know, cut out the middle man and things become cheaper and as for the guarentees they provided to the people they sold the loans off to in the first place, well if they can't pay or back them up, the investors lose out, which to my way of thinking is tough luck, you took your chance and it did not pay off, that is what it is all about "risk" Risk is • noun 1 a situation involving exposure to danger. 2 the possibility that something unpleasant will happen. why did these people not insure against (or did they not need to because they know the governemt would bail them out) Why did some one allow them to have so much exposure that if they failed, (through no fault of thier own if you want to look at it like that), they would drag the economy down with it (or at least be another factor in worsening the situation. All the investors that brought the bundled mortgage packages, have a protection that if the mortgagee defaults for what ever reason, F&F guarentee to pay the investors thier percentage, taking out a fee for doing so......... Where was the regulation that covered how much equity they would need to have in place to weather out a recession or major slump in the economy