ArcLight

>1. What does Lebensohl have to do with this? RHO made a lead director when its about impossible for him to be on lead. TYO. To me, pass is vague but probably denies a stop. Ok, thats what I had hoped. With a stop I bid 3NT or maybe even redouble. >2. Who cares what partners pass is? The auction is over. We dont get another shot here. Afterward we'll discuss whether or not my pass shows diamond tolerance. He had xxx in Diamonds and 3♦ X was down 1 when we held 28 HCP. :) The overcaller had AKJxx in diamonds and 3NT would have been down off the top had the Doubler lead diamonds and his pard unblocked the Q.

> your pass meant you were willing to play 3 diamonds doubled. Partner's pass says that he is also willing to play 3 diamonds doubled. Really? Then what should you bid? Your pard has no major, you have no fit.

Imps Unfavorable LHO passes, pard bids 2NT (20-21), RHO passes You hold ♠Q x x ♥Q J x x ♦x x ♣K x x x You bid Stayman 3C, do you agree? p 2NT p 3♣ p 3♦ X ? What do you do? What does pass mean? p 2NT p 3♣ p 3♦ X p p p What does pards pass mean?

>1) What kind of trades are there where you put up zero cash and are not subject to margin calls? Cool, can we play too? A forward rate agreement where you agree to settle up at some time in the future. Of course you expect the counter party to be AAA and sane. The point is you aren't buying something that requires you to pay cash on the spot, such as an option. You are entering into an agreement. Bet the farm!

Why is 3♣ horrible? I thought the requirements are 19-21 total points (HCP + Length) and isn't taht what South has? Admitedly the Jx in hearts may be worthless What am I misunderstanding? > I know the most misunderstood auctions by weak players are jumpshift auctions; they are very complicated, Any further comments on typical Jumpshift mistakes?

OK, this explains how he hid the trades. No securites were excahnged at the time, just an agreement to do so at a later time (a futures contract) >>Since those bets greatly exceeded the amount of capital he was allowed to put at risk, Kerviel entered fictitious and offsetting trades in Societe Generale's computer system that appeared to minimize the odds of big losses, the bank said. The trades were purposely chosen to avoid detection because they did not require cash contributions and were not subject to margin calls, which would require putting up more money if the fictitious bet soured, it said.

How can one hide 75~ billion USD in trades? Even if you hack the system, you have to pay for the securities, or pay margin. And if its an exchange of securitoes, wouldn't the counter parties say "Where are the 80 billion in securities you owe us"? How could this have bene kept quit for mor than a few weeks. >no, it's a conspiracy... a closer look will probably find that this same trader was in nyc the week before 9/11 and was seen doing "something funny" at wtc 7 Why do people blame the rating agencies? The best and smartest people don't work for the rating agencies, they work on Wall Street on in hedge funds. Plenty of them took huge losses, so why expect the rating agencies to have better models? (I'm not saying the rating agencies shouldn't have looked more critically the last year before the meltdown started. ) 2. Who are all the investors who bought tens/hundreds of billions of securities without understanding them? Would having more rating agencies (i.e. competition) have helped? They would not have gotten any business early on. If the buyer pays a fee for a rating, rather than the seller, how will buyers be able to afford the ratings? Its expensive to do the analysis. Would you trust a small independent company? How would anonymous buyers team up to split the costs of paying a fee to a rating agency.

>1) I would just bid 4H. This might make, or might induce LHO to do something, or w/e. Justin, do you mean you would overcall 4♥, or overcall 1♥ then bid 4♥ after pard advances 2♣?

IMPS, unfavorable how would you bid these 2 hands =========== HAND 1 pard passes, RHO opens 1♣ (SAYC) You hold: ♠A 9 x x ♥ A 9 8 7 5 2 ♦ Q ♣ 9 4 1. What do you bid? the bidding goes: p 1♣ 1♥ p 2♣ 2♠ ? 2. what do you bid? (What do you think opener has? A good hand with at least 4=5 in the blacks?) Pard held: ♠ x x ♥ K J x x ♦ A x x x ♣ Q x x 3. How should the bidding go from the beginning? What does it mean if you PASS? What does it mean if you bid 3♥? What does it mean if you DBL? ================================================== Hand 2 How would you bid this? Whats your plan? IMPS, unfavorable 1. You deal, what is your bid: ♠ J ♥K Q T 8 7 6 5 ♦A T x x ♣A The bididng goes: 1♥ p 1♠ p ? 2. What is your second bid: The bidding went 1♥ p 1♠ p 3♦ p 4♦ p ? 3. What do you think of the bidding? What do you bid now? 1♥ p 1♠ p 3♦ p 4♦ p 4NT P 5♠ P 6♥ 4. What do you think of 6♥ vs. 6♦? 5. How should this have been bid from start to finish?Responders hand: ♠ Q x x x x ♥A x ♦ K Q x x ♣ x x

Sure but big single suited minor hands already have three options: 1. Jump to 5 minor 2. Bid 3NT 3. Make a takeout double Years ago I did a simulation that involved a hand that might be suitable for a 4minor overcall. The results of the simulation suggested that 4minor was the worst option - bashing 3NT without a full stopper; making an offshape takeout double; and overcalling a 4-card major all worked better than bidding 4minor - there is just no upside. We I learnt about non-leaping Michaels it was the perfect convention to fill the void created by not overcalling on "tradional" 4minor hands. Wayne, What software did you use for the simulation?

Play it Again Sam by Martin Hoffman and Terence Reese Pretty good book of 65 mostly declarer play problems, where you need to draw clues form the bidding and use proper technique. On a few of the hands I disagree with the bidding. The format is the player in your seat makes some subtle mistake and your partner makes a caustic comment (this must come naturally for Reese :) ). You must find the error in technique. Some non simple squeezes that will be missed by Intermediates A good book for Intermediate and advanced players. (pretty cheap used on the net) ====================================== Find the Mistakes by Eric Jannersten 75 declarer play problems where declarer makes his contract (usually with overtricks) and you must identify how his technique was poor. The problems are displayed double dummy so you have to cover the EW hands. Actually you dont becaus ein the solution on the next page it says this line of play would fail with a different layout (presented on the next page) Good book for intermediates and advanced players. Some squeezes intermediates might overlook Both books are good for improving your technique and card reading.

I would say that >50 % of experts do not use this convention, but thats a guess. I would definitely say thats true in USA. How come ELC isn't more widely used? Is it becaus eif teh opps jack up the bidding and Advancer (the pard of the Dbler) bids at the 3 level, and you correct from ♣ to ♦ you may be too high? Why not use ELC? What are its disadvantages? In your experience how ha sit not worked out ok?

IMPS, favorable RHO deals and passes, you bid 1♣ holding: ♠K x x ♥K Q x ♦Q J x ♣K x x x Bidding goes p 1♣ (1♥) 1♠ <you play negative doubles 2♥ X* p 3 1: shouldn't the 1♠ bid show 5 spades 2. pard knows your support double shows 3 spades, so what does 3♣ show? How strong is pard? Whats his shape? Is he at least 5-5 in the blacks? Game forcing?

Is ELC (Equal Level Conversion) not widely used by experts?

Double playing ELC seems obvious. Justin, can you summarize or give a link to the old BBF article you read that caused you to overcall 2♦ more often?

For those who use Italian cue bidding, do you also use Turbo? Or both Turbo and RKCBW, and if so, in what circumstances?

I assume everyone has heard the joke about the bridge expert and the client. Expert (who opened 1NT) slaps down the 7S card and adds "Should be good on a finesse." Client mulls it over an then calmly places the 7NT on the table. "Good, then you find it." Actually, I got this from Mike Lawrences True bridge Humor. Peter Pender (an expert) was playing with a client and bid 7S (I think) and remarked "There ought to be a squeeze in there". Pender had bid Blackwood along the way, so the client bid 7NT saying "Then YOU find the squeeze"

While Italian Style may be standard with true experts there is no way you should expect it from most self-rated BBO Advanced or Expert players. When I play in pick up games with "Advanced" players I am terrified when cue bidding because of all the frequent disasters I've seen. Even Quantitavive NT is frequently misinterpreted as Blackwood. The majority of "Advanced" BBO players are not expert cue bidders. And Italian style cue bidding requires some judgement as well. Its not always helpful cue bidding a stiff in pards 5 card suit, he may think you have the A or K and assume he has 4 winners. I think to use Italian style cue bisisng effectively one needs a fair amount of practice. >- eschew cuebidding altogether and just bid 7NT like a man? Only when pard has to declare, or in an Indy :) When dummy ges down you can say "I bid 7 because there ought to be some kind of squeeze". When pard goes down you can tell him he should read "Adventures in Card Play" to improve his declarer play technique :)

4NT was obviously misinterpreted as Blackwood. Quantitative NT is frequetly misinterpreted as Blackwood.

Pard has an opening bid and I have 12 HCP and 2 aces? I suspect declarer has the rest including a long strong heart suit. I will not lead a heart in case dummy is void and pard has Qxx in hearts. For declarer to make this bid, he must be void in spades, and have a second suit. If he is speculating with a hand like this he is down ♠ ♥ AKQJxxxxxxx ♦ x ♣ x What I am worried about is this: ♠ Ax ♥ AKJTxxxxx ♦ KQJ ♣ I lead the Spade K

In the Mike Lawrence 2/1 you rebid 2♦ with 5, you do not show a 4 card major yet. 3♣ implies a bit more than a minimum by opener. 4 Clubs or 3 good card support. Fit found, can’t stop in 4 of a minor. 2M is not a true reverse. Denies 5 diamonds, and didn’t want to bid NT.

How do I find it? I clicked on the link and see the ACBL website. But where is this Bulletin?

Off Topic! > have significant experience bidding. I have massively augmented my own bidding experience with that of others by doing things like reading the Master Solvers Club, reading World Championship Books, paying real attention to what I see on vugraph, discussing bridge (and actual listening to) better players than me... I was thinking of buying the Master Solvers disks from Bridge Base. But only if they are genuinely useful for improving my bidding, as opposed to curiousity pieces. Are they "excellent" for learning bidding/evaluation of a decent Intermediate level player?

I realize that! I just wanted to make sure I wasn't misundestanding something :( p p 4H p 5H (down 1) The 4H bidder ripped into the 5H bidder afterwards. I thought he was a real class act myself :) (4H) S x H KTxxx D Qx C AQxxx (5H) S x x x H A J x x D x C K J x x x 5♥ was meant as a slam try. Perhaps 5♥ was over enthusiastic, as he would ned his pard to hold a heart honor as well as Club fillers and a spade honor. 5H should make on a club lead, but "expert" declarer took a second round heart finesse that lost and we cashed two spades for down 1 Most played in 4♥ (making 5). A couple in 4♠ making

The pick up "expert" opponent opened 4♥. I was shocked. Even worse 4♥ was making because his passed pard had the AJxx in trumps, and a good 5 card club suit taht fit his. They went down because responder thought his cand good enough to make a slam try, and he made a slightly inferior play (finesse rather than teh drop missing 4 trumps while holding the AKJ). We set them 1 trick, when 4♠ was making our way. He was so pleased with himself for taking away our spade game. I was thinking that for each game we lose we would gain many more points in penalties over the long run. I frequently get "stolen from" by these "experts" and "advanced" players who make bids like this because I expect them to have more. They balance with 5332 hands at the 3 level and a so-so 5 card suit, with wasted cards (Qx) in the opponents bid and supported suits).