TimG

I'd guess more that he has 8 tricks, plus some hope for a 9th. He might have just 7 tricks with the opponents cold for 4S. Anyway, I don't think it is nearly 100% that he has this made in his own hand, but when he doesn't the opponents can likely do better than the available penalty by playing in spades.

I can't quite make out what it says in your image, but that area of the screen says: Welcome to your control panel Your personal profile, this section is optional Your Date of Birth Your website url Your ICQ UIN Your AOL identity Your Yahoo identity etc. when I make those two clicks.

where? my controls//edit profile info I can't find it. well she told you literally the 2 things you need to click...try harder? :) I clicked those two things and see nothing that says "custom member title". I even used the browser search function and it can't find "custom" either.

where? my controls//edit profile info I can't find it.

Am I simply overlooking something? I can't find anywhere in my profile to put my real name. I can find fields for webpage, yahoo name, DOB, location...just about everything except actual name.

There are some in the US that would like to make the Ten Commandments the Law of the Land.

You're going to have a dispute with yourself and you'd like to settle it by your own rules? I doubt anyone would deny you that pleasure.

Or, he'll think that responder had extra length and treated it as a queen. More likely, they'll simply think we screwed up. (Not that I really mean to be defending my approach, which was at least partially in jest.)

I got nine...

I suppose partner had something like ♠Axxxxx ♥Txx ♦xxx ♣A.

Show spades and diamonds, drag partner to 7NT, and hope I get a chance to redouble.

From time to time, I have played that responder's 2NT rebid is forcing, just like a new suit would be. (This is not something I have made up; Matt Granovetter, for one, has written about the method, I believe.) It seems useful on this hand: 1D-1H 2C-2N 3S... would pinpoint the heart shortness. Identifying the shortness is often helpful and makes responder's hand quite a bit better in this case.

Can the defenders, when in with the heart, take three club tricks without setting up two club tricks for declarer's side? Two clubs, three diamonds, three hearts and one spade gets you home. I think the spade kings needs to be onside.

Anyone besides me think that any move over 4NT commits the partnership to slam?

Is it really takeout?

I like south's auction. But, I would differ from Richard in one regard: I think that once 4N is pulled, the partnership is committed to slam. Responder offered to play in 3N, then opener offered to play in 4N -- there's no reason to pull to 5C just to play 5C. It would be nice if responder had available a rebid that showed values for game and the unbid suit stopped -- 3N seems to do the trick -- but, it seems that in today's game there is an almost religious need to check for a 5-3 major suit fit before settling in 3NT. I imagine that explains the choice to bid 2S instead of 3N. Once 2S is chosen, 3N over 3C seems automatic. All in all, the auction seems fine to me.

That's sort of my point. When a golfer submits his score for handicapping or plays in the club championship, he understands that he must play to the real rules rather than his normal foursome's casual rules. When a bridge player ventures away from the club into a regional event, they want to be able to play under the same casual club rules. A regular club player might not want to face transfer advances of overcalls, or Multi, or any number of conventions they are unfamiliar with. The casual golfer seems to accept that "playing up" means a change in the rules, the casual bridge player does not accept the same. Or, maybe the comparison should be to the courses on which big tournaments are held. You don't see the PGA tour on your 6100 yard municipal course, they are generally played on the best (toughest) courses around and are generally much longer. Every-so-often, there is grumbling about how long a course is, but you don't generally hear players complaining that because their home course is only 6100 yards, they shouldn't have to play a tournament on a 7200 yard course.

I'm sure a majority of golfers do things like adjust their fairway lies, take the occasional mulligan, and whatnot. If 1000s of these amateur golfers decided to enter the PGA's Greater Hartford Open, should the PGA change their rules to accommodate these amateur rules? (I know: the GHO isn't really "open".) Bridge is unusual, perhaps unique, in that almost all the top events are truly open to anyone who wants to enter. So, either the rules for open competition must be "softer" to accommodate the masses, or the masses must play by the "big dog" rules. Organized bridge has taken the approach of softening the rules (in this case tight system regulation) in order to make the majority of players happy. It seems to me that, where system regulation is concerned, the ACBL has been very conservative -- more conservative that most of the rest of the world. This conservative approach, which may have started out as a way to protect the amateurs, now effectively conditions most who come up through the ranks to favor the conservative approach because it was what they are familiar with.

In my experience, that is something of an oxymoron.

Wouldn't it be the other way round: How did abortion become illegal in some places (and not others)? Wouldn't the default be that something is legal if it is not expressly made illegal?

What about 2 weeks? 3 weeks? 2 months? 3 months?

In this one, I don't think it can wait (and DF agrees): .....T .....- .....K83 .....KT43 98 Q965 62 - .....Q .....- .....QJ .....AQ875 (Sorry about the formatting.)

I think you are a trick behind: declarer has ruffed the opening lead (T1), crossed in diamonds (T2), finessed in trumps (T3), ruffed the heart return (T4), and cashed a high spade (T5). That leaves an eight card end position (with one fewer trump in each hand than in your position). I do agree, though, that a diamond discard is probably needed to cut communications.

If they said it was a takeout double, it was a takeout double. :-)

Couldn't you say the same about many efforts to prevent change? Those who are expert (happy, rich, successful, whatever) in the status quo environment will benefit by keeping the status quo. But, isn't it possible that sometimes the status quo is actually good and maintaining it a worthy endeavor? Maybe the ACBL's system regulation policies are aimed at protecting the game of bridge and this just happens to simultaneously protect top tier players...as well as protecting middle and lower tier players.