The_Badger

By the way, what's South doing passing on the first round of bidding? Waiting for a re-opening double from partner? There's plenty of hands where North couldn't make another squeak.

I truly despair. God help America! Your president, Donald Trump, doesn't seem to have an iota of intelligence when it comes to international diplomacy. The latest: Trump tweets that Kim Jong-un is the "Rocket Man". Name-calling at this highest level of politics, with so much going on, borders on total stupidity, in my opinion. Just ignore the vile outbursts of Kim Jong-un, Donald Trump. Getting involved in a Twitter spat just isn't helping here. Donald Trump still thinks he is on TV talking to an apprentice. For goodness sake grow up and realise that the whole world is looking towards you for strong and imaginative leadership: this isn't a school playground scenario.

Partner can't have the ♥AK as he would led ♥s, so what has he got? 8 card ♥ suit due to vulnerability. ♦ lead is probably a singleton or doubleton at most. Why hasn't he led one of the other suits? Mmmm.... Both you and dummy are both 5-4-2-2 so what does that leave partner and declarer with? If partner has led a singleton or doubleton, he will be 8-2-(3 or 2-1). What's that leave declarer with? 8 or 7 card ♠ suit headed by an honour. 3 or 4 ♦s. The lead is important as partner can't have a higher ♦, so looks like declarer has at least good ♦ intermediates. I think I've seen this defensive scenario before in one of Kelsey's books. No entry to dummy, except on the opening lead, but declarer can't get back to hand to draw trumps and is locked in his hand thereafter, and that means he has to lose two ♦s if partner has led a singleton. So covering the lead won't help you one jot, whether it's a singleton or doubleton. So you have to duck with the East hand whatever ♦ declarer plays. That's taken me a good 15 minutes to work out. Phew!

Always remember this incident but can't recall the vulnerability, mine or partner's hand. It was in the Swiss Teams at Brighton. Husband and wife opps. Partner opened 1♣ Precision, overcalled by LHO 2♠, me No Bid, passed out. Opponents had overcalled 2♠ on a 4 card ♠ suit and had 4 card support! (I do remember that.) Psyche, cheating or what? Director was never called as the hand was played slowly, and by the time it was finished everyone was moving and changing seats.

For the life of me I can't see how there is any problem with describing this hand and keeping the bidding open using 2/1, SAYC, Acol, Precision, Polish Club, Blue Club or any other respectable system, or am I missing something?

Even bigger LOL. The East/West bots don't even Dbl. 6♠

I agree. But it's only one guy calling the shots here. And it's really easy for Kim Jong-in to play the tough guy as well as he isn't paying the bill either. And he's now got a nuclear arsenal that he's prepared to use. If he really cared about his countrymen, Koreans in both the North and the South, he wouldn't be goading the US and their allies to attack. He'd be sitting down at the negotiating table and finding a diplomatic solution. And we all know that's not going to ever happen.

I was tempted to do a Kaplan and Rubens evaluation on all the hands (for what it's worth) but declined, as I followed the general rule that honours in long suits, and honours stacked together usually increase a hand's K&R value. But obviously, there's the semi-pre-emptive value of opening lesser hands with 1♠ in first seat, non-vulnerable, that has to be taken into the equation too. An interesting poll so far.

Thanks. I've used a criteria of 10-15 HCP. All hands are 5-4-3-1 so as long as they have at least 10HCPs I will open. 5-4-2-2 shapes are more problematic, I feel. Only hands less than 10HCPs where I've opened is AQxxx Kxxx xxx x and KQJxx QJxx xxx x as all the honours are in the long suits and there is an easy rebid.

Let's put this another way. Today, in London, a terrorist bomb failed to detonate - thankfully - but caused people to be injured. We know (to a certain extent) who the enemy is, and they have done this before, so both Europe and the USA have procedures in place to try to prevent it happening. North Korea flies potential bombs over Japan. They don't cause injury, but if they had a warhead, and had landed and detonated in a town or city there would be casualties. We know who the perpetrator is, he has done this before, so both Europe and the USA should have procedures in place to try to prevent it happening. Europe and America try to capture or terminate ISIS members. With North Korea we sit on the fence and allow Kim Jong-in to continue to laugh in our face. Why?

What position, Adam, and what vulnerability, and under English Bridge Union or American Contract Bridge League regulation? (Apologies for being pedantic but there are some hands I would, and some I wouldn't, and I am sure that are some that will result in the director being called.)

I haven't polled as I don't play Precision regularly these days, and it would be better to get responses from players that do, I feel, but I am a fan of constructive raises of a major to the 2 level with 3 card support and 8-11 HCPs or thereabouts. So given that 1NT is presumably forcing in this auction - not all Precision players play it that way I acknowledge - responder could have anything from a 5-7 count with 3 card ♠ support, or a 8-9 count (or possibly marginally more) with just preference 2 card ♠ support. It all depends on style, I suppose.

Just led the latest: Second missile fired over Japan island of Hokkaido. What now? I read what Noam Chomsky says about North Korea. I read what he says about the USA. I try to look at what is happening in North Korea from a different perspective. But facts are facts, and talking is talking: firing not just one missile but two is aggravated provocation. At what missile number do we actually say 'enough is enough'?

Just block their IP address, Diana. At least they will have to purchase a new bit of computer kit to carry on, and that is inconvenient in itself. (Yes, I realise people can access the internet through phones, shared computers, etc. but block those IP addresses too. In the end they will get the message loud and clearly.)

Lol. Little ol' ladies playing bridge can be sneaky :) (And I'm sure men can be too.) I remember playing an 8 board team match in a tournament and losing 20-0. Comparing scores with my teammates, my partner asked our other pair "What happened there?" quite bemused. Bertha, our captain, a lady of pensionable age herself, but quite formidable (as a lady and a bridge player) and quite junoesque said matter-of-factly, "We were zimmered!"

You're right, Ken. Yes, that is the modern treatment. I checked a few references myself. Even Wikipedia agree that the priority now is to show 3 card support over bidding NT with a stop. Once upon a time, the FSF bidder was looking for a no-trump contract with a partial stop in the 4th suit, typically something like Qxx. How times change.

This is why the XYZ convention is used these days, so that hands like this have the space to bid and find slams as on these two hands. Fourth suit forcing does traditionally ask for a stopper in the suit bid, so bidding 2NT instead of showing 3 card support with 2♥ isn't as bad as it seems. Other than that, yes 6♣ is a non-science (not a nonsense :) ) bid but why blast when you have all the time in the world to describe your hands in detail?

Oh, I forgot to say: Welcome to the forums :)

My understanding is a finesse is 50% - obvious The chance of a doubleton is around 41% The chance of a 3 card suit is around 37% and those 4-0 splits come in around 10% With 9 cards between the hands, it is usual to play for the drop as opposed to the finesse of the Q

Most players above intermediate level would follow smoothly and play low when the ♥J is led :)

Well spotted! Though (on a daft Badger note) maybe all of them are over 6'2" and they need a longer photo than most :) Though I am also a bit concerned with your compatibility with these players too. (Only joking, smerri!)

I just found this on the internet, Ken. Interesting reading. https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2017/9/8/16264376/stopping-a-hurricane-science

Surprised West didn't bid 3NT instead of 4♥ to throw a spanner in the works. Or even 4NT... As for saving, anyone's guess. My rule is that you tried to save once, but never twice. But....North might have bid 7♣ without your intervention. I'm going to trust that North has her bid and a massive minor suiter with 7-6 or 6-6-1 with the ♥A as distribution. So, yes, 7♥ it for me. At matchpoints it's only one board.

The responder is only showing preference with 3♥, I feel, not actually agreeing them as a trump suit. I personally can only see 4♣ as a cue bid as opener has a massive hand, just a shade light from a 2♣ opener.

The strange thing is that the IPCC and other organisations monitor these tropical storms that turn into hurricanes for thousands of miles. They can see a hurricane forming usually West of Africa in the Atlantic. Given there is no land masses or islands between Cape Verde and Barbados, and hurricanes extend upto 15-16 miles into the atmosphere, an atmospheric bomb dropped into the hurricane's eye containing a cloud seeding substance such as silver nitrate could possibly stop or certainly reduce the hurricane in its tracks, by making it rain over the sea, breaking the structure of the hurricane at source.