Elianna

I was just able to sign-on. Are you sure your internet is ok? Keep your network status indicator open while you try logging on, and see what happens.

I was completely apalled, and was curious how other people felt. I'm still upset that Rove and that other guy who ADMITTED to giving Novak the name weren't even indicted.

Me I guess. I am also in the process of blue-->green. And funnily enough, I have the same situation: Dad blue (silver, really) and Mom green. I still think that my eyes are on the border, though. B)

Depending on what I wear and the light, they can appear blue, gray, or green.

Where in Los Angeles? I know many people at different levels that you could try playing with in West Los Angeles, and I can put you in contact with people in other parts, hopefully. Please email me: eruppin "at" gmail "dot" com. (replace the "at" and the "dot" with the appropriate symbols) Let me know how experienced you are (how long you've played, what you've played, etc), and I can try to match you up! :P

I was directing last night, and south held KJxxx xx AJx Jxx. Her partner opened 1D, she bid 1S, and her partner rebid 2C. Here's where the fun comes in: South bid 2S. After a 3d bid by her partner, she came up with the genius 3NT call. I was thinking that this would get slaughtered, and sure enough, after the expected small heart lead, dummy came down with -- Ax KTxxxx KQxxx. So the full hands were: [hv=d=n&v=n&n=shaxdktxxxxckqxxx&s=skjxxxhxxdajxcjxx]133|200|Scoring: MP[/hv] She ducked trick one, then won trick two with the A. Almost immediately, she took the diamond finesse towards the J, which held. Running the diamonds (which were E-3, W-1, btw) East manages to pitch his third AND LAST heart, while south for some reason holds onto an extra spade, and so their hands are: [hv=e=saxhdcaxx&s=skjxhdcjx]266|200|Remember, North has KQxxx of clubs.[/hv] Declarer plays a club off the board, East wins the A! Then cashes the A of spades, and the hand is over, score up 630. I know why I lose at bridge, I would never have managed to get that score! :)

What Adam is saying is that in his style, if you rebid 1NT and have only two clubs, it is IMPOSSIBLE that you have 3 hearts, since you would have raised hearts initially in Adam's style. And his suggestion is that even if you wouldn't raise hearts initially with three, you can refuse to bid 2D, and bid 2H with three (by agreement).

You can reserve the four seats for x,y,z,w, so no one can try to sit there.

So the reason I decided to play that 2C is natural, 2D is reverse drury is that you're slightly more likely to have a hand that would like to bid clubs naturally (because in our system, 2D is a weak two). Some of the drawbacks are that it's harder to open in 3rd on complete junk (loss of the 2D response over 2C to announce that). But I don't mind this loss. :)

Well, this is the drury that Adam and I play. In fact, it's the drury I play with everyone that I play drury with. B) I am not sure of our followups, but I'm sure that I will be told later on what our agreements are. :)

I have never heard of what you refer to as the North American method, I have always considered 2♠+2 to be two overtricks. For Roland's suggestion, on the score sheets used in most bridge clubs I've been to in US, there is one column labeled 'contract' and one labeled 'tricks' where everyone writes exactly as you describe. I don't think this was true in Los Angeles though. I actually prefer the = method better because it relates the tricks taken to the contract, but whatever. To the original poster, I have occasionally but not often in North America heard green used to mean not vul, but almost always have heard and used white. In Los Angeles, whenever Adam tried to be cute and write 2s+3 for taking 11 total tricks, I'd get called to the next table over confusion about how the score doesn't match the result. Josh is correct about how the score sheet looks, though. In fact, before I was directing, I was told that it was a REQUIREMENT for scorers in ACBL to write the number of tricks as the odd tricks making, rather than the overtricks. I've been told many things that aren't true, but I know that it's definitely the standard here in LA to write it like that. I believe it's a result of people who still calculate the score by counting the tricks, multiplying by the correct number, and then adding the value (50, 300, etc). It is a lot more intuitive in this method to write the odd tricks, rather than the overtricks. eta: Los Angeles is not in the interior of the country.

version of SA. Even I can actually remember this part. It's another part of our system that I feel that I forget sometimes.

I was on the other end of such an occurence. Playing QTxx (dummy) opposite xxx (or some such thing), I led towards dummy. for some reason, I was CONVINCED LHO had the AK, so without thinking, I played the Q. And without thinking, RHO played the J. (He was expecting me to make the right play of the T, and he just played too quickly.) He had AKJ, btw.

Opponent DID have a black 2-suiter. However, the opponent never considered bidding 7C (otherwise she would have done it to start with).

As I have to tell my teenagers (who have a developmental excuse not to grasp this subject): just because someone disagrees with you, doesn't mean that they don't "get" what you're trying to say. Try to argue with specific points people have made. Continuing your arguments in vague generalities not only convinces no one, it just makes people more stubborn in not agreeing with you, because it makes them believe that you don't HAVE counterarguments. As it is, I'm not sure that they're wrong.

Hi. I was reading your rules section (in english) , and there are several references to "GOD". Is this an acronym in Polish? It didn't translate into English. Or maybe it did. :) But it seems funny that we would actually have to report our scores to God. :)

I take it that ftl doesn't stand for faster than light? Have I been watching too much BG?

I think that the operative phrase is in the first paragraph: To me, "should" is the operative word. The rest of the quote just tells one how to use it. Even the note says that it's the responsibility of the bidder after the skip bid to maintain an even tempo.

The ones who left when the Shah fell call themselves "Persians", and this includes my students. They're not citizens of the country Iran, they are categorizing themselves by ethnicity. I'm sure that many that live in the country of Iran prefer Iranians as opposed to Persians. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persian_people

Players like bitching about things. You just need to let it roll off. If there wasn't this, I'm sure that they'd find something. The one thing that ALL bridge players seem to be good at is finding something to complain about. They then greatly enjoy making snide comments, and it's your fault if you get mad at them. It's really a diversionary tactic from something they did wrong. Get to be around enough teenagers, you learn how to deal with it (or to choose which ONES need to be dealt with:)).

According to my students, celebrations last 13 days. So happy New Year's everyone.

Oh come now, I'm sure that you've encountered many people that bid like this at a table! :)

So I was curious about this, and emailed Jeff Goldsmith. He referred me to Law 73D1, which he said clearly says that any inference drawn from your own hesitation is UI. Now that I see that law, I agree. For those of you who don't have a law book in front of you: (I added the emphasis)

As others have said: pros: distinguishing between 3 and 4 card support. cons: Many people don't discuss followups, so the auction after the support double is unclear. Also, you can't find, say, your spade fit after the auction 1m-1H (2m)-x. Adam and I play takeout doubles in support double situations, but we DO play support redoubles.

In second chair, all white, no special agreements (not playing any two-suited bids). You hold AJT9xx -- Jxxxx xx. What do you bid? Is there a second choice, and what are your reservations?