sceptic

1/. 4 spades I am max and pard has shown he needs help so better to play in his suit 2/. 3 diamonds, I think it shows the hand a bit better than 3 spades and lets p make a fair contribution to the decision of where to go next, 3 or 4 spades or something else like 3nt 3/. if it was AKxxxxxx I would bid 4!S AJxxxxxx I would bid 2 or 3 spades depends on how much I had been drinking 4/. 4 spades and expect it not to make hoping they bid 5 5/. 3 clubs and I think it is ok in beginners intermediate section.

Just out of curiosity, I really am out of my depth here, but a few things I find odd about ACBL tourneys. Why do the ACBL, not run longer tourneys, or is hrothgar right,they are just revenue generators When you look at the scores some of the JQKA listed people have, it would appear that they only have the J Q K or A because of the amount of tournaments they enter. as their scores are tiny it is just the quantity of them that add up to a lot of masterpoints. Also this is may cause offence but it is not intended to I am really curious thats all. Why do some experts adavanced etc etc advertise to play in ACBL if the partner pays? they seem to solicit in the partnership room waiting for some one to pay for them. (I go there to find a p but most expect others to pay) what does this say about the people that do pay for them ? are they just hoping to get a good score beacuse they expect the pard they are paying for to carry them? and what do the ones that solicit their skills get out of it in the long run?

I think it sucks when they do, but saying that, if people like playing with a playing TD, who am I to criticise. Also there would be fewer tourneys available if they could not do it, I am just glad I am not a yellow when the complaints come rolling in LOL.

would it be possible to only cover the finalists

One thing I found was that those from a far, wanted a few days meeting people and a few days in London doing their own thing, with theior friends, but I suppose it is up to the organisers <_<

1NT 2C 2D 2H weak scramble for either major 2S NF 5 S 4H invitational 2NT game invitation may or may not contain 4 card major 3C/D natural game force, generally slam-ish 3H/S smolen, showing 5 of the un-bid major and 4 of the bid major, GF 3NT to play 4C Roman gerber (0314 or 1430) then 2 minimum and 2 maximum 4D 5-5+ majors game forcing and non-slamish 4H key card for clubs 4S key card for diamonds This is the agreement I have with my reg p, we agreed this 4 months ago, does thisRoman gerber constitute a good use of the 4!C bid (in your opinion)

I see on another topic, the general consensus is Gerber is not a good convention. I was told 4clubs is gerber after NT so based on the following, can someone explain to me why Gerber is so bad As I really cant see how you can confuse this bid as anything else but Gerber 1NT - 4 C = Ace ask 2NT - 4C = Ace ask 1NT - 4NT = Quantative 2NT - 4NT = Quantative surely it must have some use???????

I think it is a splinter for hearts

despite the pros and cons, it would be nice to make your own decision, I vote for the ability to do it

Hi Dean, I have seen what you are talking about organised from Yahoo social lounge, where the opportunity for likeminded people to meet and play bridge, drink and eat and anything else they want to do really. I know of about 4 or 5 in the US over the last few years and 2 in Canada have attracted about 30 - 40+ people, they were held in a hotel and took a fair bit of organising. I my self organised one for yahoo social In England 2 years ago, I had 25 people in total attend, most for the weekend and most stayed in the hotel where I had organised it (Milton Keyens). If you are going to organise one or (I know one may be in the pipeline in the UK next year) I found a few lessons were learnt. Get a hotel with a website and tell people to book their own accomadation (this is suprissingly simple to do and efficient) Book a hall or large function room (consider how many you expect to turn up. this was the most costly item I had to conted with) Hire tables, bid boxes etc from ur local club or the English Bridge Union do this I believe) Then you need to talk to people to generate interest. If you need to cover the cost of the hall/room and card tables etc, put a costing to the people you are inviting. Also make it available to people that want to day visit and not stay overnight. I think a week is for hard core and generally viewed as too long (what if you have never been and dont like it) I think a weekend (fri sat night stop over and sunday depart) is ideal, from the sucess of this you can look at longer options. I had people come from all over, Austria, Denmark, US, so it may be worth booking it somewhere near London as a few stopped on afterwards for a bit of sightseeing. Timing.......There is never a right time, people will always say can you make it a few weeks early or a few weeks late.. decide on a date that suits you, if you are organising it, this was the biggest obstacle I had to contend with... you CANT please everybody.

I run a few tourneys and team games, mainly for people I dont know. I generally have a good turn out, or what I consider a nicce amount to manage. I give out messages occasionally along the lines of if you keep messaging me I will replcae you with out warning or if your p gets replaced and you dont understand why, he has probably been rude to me, I am probably not the most diplomatic person in the world and I do not suffer fools gladly. I have been in a lot of tourneys and I have seen some behaviour that I dont personally like, Rigour, you have described some of the things none of us like, don't quit running tourneys if you enjoy it and it is a minority of idiots, just be a bit more ruthless in who you black list, and state to people that you wont tolerate certain behaviour, I have had some very positive comments from people about some of the things I do. I have given out these warinings and then when I do carry out the threat I announce it to rest of players, you even get some thx for your efforts in the process. I have even had a few get someone to ask why they were balcklisted and they agreed to change their behaviour. when I see tourneys run by cascade and xx1043 and ACBL I notice a distinct lack of subs needed, my personal belief is that over 50% of disconnectios in BBO are deliberate and just Black list these people, eventually you will get down to a manageable amout and you can run pleasant tourneys, some people have the decency to say they want to leave if they ask even if the reason is my p is an idiot, I say nothing and sub them with no hard feelings. I think we should be a bit more descriptive in what constitutes disruptive behaviour and how you will deal with it, my answer to everything is if they are a pain, tell them what you think and if they dont like it replace them also ask them to avoid your tourneys if they cant comply with your requests. I agree with your last comment a lot, some of the rude people would not say boo to a goose in real life, but dont let people like that distract you from your pleasures

who gives a rats ass? Obviously Doofik does and we sould respect that. I dont think it is his ego, I actually believe he or she is genuine and finds someone a pain in the butt'. as for paretto's law 80 % of all statistics are 20% out and the other 20% are 80% out, so we should not take much heed of the mathamatics. Boot on sight buttons would be great, but Ben has a point, it would make it a difference, sadly not a positive one. At the end of the day Doofik learn to ignore the idiots, if you have them blacked and on ignore enemies, does it really matter what they say, if you ignore them they will eventually go away, they always do

I voted for 2spade rebid, I think think this hand is worth an extra few points, also I think that it conveys the state of your hand better, After another possiblle club bid, you have a 3rd suit to bid, definately worth stretching to a reverse bid in my opinion

(tongue in cheek) I don't think that would be a good idea Earl, I can see no advantage of abandoning a Tourney with a bad score if some one is going to credit me with it anyway, I may just have to stay and play it out. Also that way the directors would be able to work out who deserts the tourneys every time they gat a bad partner or a bad score. That would make my life difficult

Ben you have nothing to apologise for LOL, I am sure yours was unintentional. Ron, you are welcome to a heart felt apology, if you care to explain why? 1/. did you mis spell my name twice accidently? 2/. was it that I just singled you out and not everyone else? 3/. another reason? I could hold a poll and see who thinks I should apologise to you and who thinks you should apologise to me for calling me septic? But that would be childish and I would not do something so silly (mind you it would be fun)

Actually dropping the c from my name is the sort of thing that I find sad Ron, it is deliberate and very childish :), but there we go that reflects on your character (or lack of it) not mine. I still stand by my personal thoughts that yes I would love to be able to boot some of the unpleasants from my table and I did read the original post. BUT I see Bens point about causing a bad environment and I am willing to agree maybe that is why I come here and not yahoo as he is right. it is a worse environment (in my opinion) And we do have the option to Black people out, which does work to the extent that we don't have to listen to them. As you are probably aware from my posts I am not the most fluent of authors and some times I don't explain myself as well as I would like to, but there you go, that does not make me a bad person haha. Doofix was refering to tourneys, as he quoted about, when the director was called, I have the misfortune of generalising my statements

BBO has a great function, remove a player. it would be nice to have remove a kibber function also. There is nothing worse than playing bridge and having some one you dont like sitting over your shoulder. I probably would only ever use the function once or twice (that is not true, we had that function in yahoo and I loved using it) it is a great function and one I am sure a lot of people would like it. you ask some one to shut up or politely ask them to refrain from making comments, they ignore you and BINGO you can boot them, yup we need that function here. May be even if they are blacked out, they cant sit at your table, that would solve doof's problem. I vote listen to Doofik, If you dont like someone or they make you feel uncomfortable, why have them at your table

what is law 76 please?

9 diamonds looks right to me, not 100% sure that is best play but that is my take on it

[hv=d=s&v=e&n=saq76hdakq6cak972&w=sk3hkq4d8532cqt63&e=st85hat8732d94cj8&s=sj942hj965djt7c54]399|300|Scoring: IMP[/hv] West North East South - - - Pass Pass 1♣ 1♥ Pass 2♣ 2♥ Pass 2♠ 3♥ 4♠ Pass Pass Pass I opened this hand, I have a few questions about my reasoning for opening as I did, your comments would be appreciated 1/. As far as I was concered this was an extremely strong hand, and my partner was either going to bid hearts or the opps may bid them. 2/. 3 suited hands generally get me in trouble and I find difficult to bid from a 2club opener 3/. I had every confidence that my pard would not leave me in club 4/. I would get the oporrtunity to reverse or show a very powerful hand in the auction and thus lose nothing by not opening 2!C anyway comments please, feel free to bash me if you like, I am quite thick skinned LOL

I think as a TD they should be able to kick someone out of their tourney and as for the statement "and get away with it" I am not sure in what context that should be taken. Why on earth should someone run a tourney (sometimes quite hardwork) for strangers and be expected to put up with some pompous crap (some of the players can be complete jerks, rude etc etc ) and not have the right to boot them.... I think the people high on the ladder have got it right :))

yes it was until some one took them time to give me the Lin Conveter and explained how to use it. pffft, don.t critisise, HELP

why not when It worked ok here?

I would hope my pard realises I had game values and 5/2 in hearts would be ok better than 4/3 in spades

how would you bid it with a weak NT and how would you bid it with precision?