keylime

Happy birthday to one of the few good men left in this world. It is truly an honor to call you "friend". I hope today is a special one for you.

Merry Christmas from Falls Church, VA (I noticed y66 is from these parts potentially). My prayer is for hope and joy to radiate into each and everyone's life with the singularly life-changing event that is the birth of Christ. In my family, Christmas Eve is the day we come together and forgive each other in love, similar to Yon Kippur for our Jewish friends (I think, someone check me). So, I forgive those who have caused me anger and hair pulling and scorn, and let us be of good cheer this day. Now, the Christmas "shoutouts": To Fred, for your dream has become realized. Blessings to you, Uday, and Sheri. To Roland, for making VuGraphs fun, entertaining, and a learning experience. Blessings to you. To Larry Lowell, for being not only my great friend, and great bridge player, but simply, great. Many blessings and love to you and Nancy. To Angela and Allan Ferguson, life is not the same after leaving Nanaimo. I will return, I promise. My love is yours always. To Frank and Leo Caudillo, for bringing me into the NVBA unit and making me comfortable. To the my lady friends of BBO (Beaner, Ann, Suzelbee, Playa1, Ana, Helene, Sybarra, Dianas, Anna, and others), thank you for your grace and charm. Blessings to you and yours. To my guy friends (jmc, Gerardo, KC_Steve, Nik, Steve-o, and others), a good beer choice is never far away. To Mikeh, God your insights are deep, even tho you're an atheist. :rolleyes: To Phil Clayton, one day we'll meet, and actually play bridge darn it! To Ben, you're too far away now man... To Gerben, Han, Arend, and the youth movement - I'm old. Damn. To Patsy and Jeff Parker, your friendship and love is truly without limits. To the Valley Bridge Club in Baltimore, everytime I drop in, I am welcomed as a long, lost son. Thank you for healing me after my divorce, and for reminding me that true love is genuine and sincere. Lastly, and most importantly, to the love of my life, who inspires me to overcome daily. The joy in my heart overflows. Darling, thank you, for being you.

HB bud - have a good one.

Happy Birthday Han - hope you're having a really good time tonight.

I like Keri, just because of what it does.

1. Aspire to get to the round of 32 in the Open Spingold. 2. Gain the next rank I need to achieve. 3. Play more with Larry.

Same thing with cars, Boxing Day and after is great.

I go for the safety play here. I'm in a good slam in the right strain. Win the AS. Then, AC, and club out. I have excellent chances to develop the heart suit and diamond suits.

Mike, I got to admit, there's a certain sexy feel to your structure there....

Precision for me with canapé - what I play currently.

I love 3H. 3Nt tho is attractive too.

I currently drive a 2008 Hyundai Elantra, electric blue. Very pretty car. At least Jen thinks that... What I really want to drive...depends on mood. '68 Stingray Corvette, '73 Ferrari 512BB, 1982 BMW E30, Aston Martin DB9, '57 Maserati 200Si (yum), and of course, an Audi TDI Le Mans car, and a 1996 Audi A8, the car that saved my life. Confession: Seeing Jen drive up in that Corvette....another thread for that!

4♦, and my pard should thank me.

2S raise with me agreeing with my partner above. Controls are right, suit lengths are right, but it's just a touch too spacey for me. An almost reverse.

Pard passed. He/she doesn't have it. I'll enjoy the overtrick.

I bid a spade, because I know where I'm going. I'd make sure that you had a way to make a forcing call after 1H-1S-1NT or things thereof (a natural and forcing 2C fits the bill here) for these reasons: 1. We have values in spades, and it allows partner to make a more informed rebid. If we started with a forcing 2C bid, pard may have to rebid 2H on more hands than instead of a lower level 1S response. Imagine a 4-5-x-x that is like, 12-15 points, and trying to find a rebid over 2C. 2. I like five card suits for my 2/1's. 3. Allowing partner to limit their hand immediately is a key to accurate slam bidding. If partner has a 1NT rebid, then you're happy to raise to 3, table the dummy, get coffee and smile knowing pard should rack 3NT with overtricks. If they jump rebid tho, then you're thinking really big. With a 2C rebid, you lose the ability for pard and you to limit their hands as cheaply as possible. 4. Lastly, if pard owns a lot of hearts, it's easier for you to evaluate. 1H-2C-2H doesn't help us understand the nature of the hand as a 1H-1S-2/3H does.

I might make an appearance for this.

3♣. I know where I am wanting to go. I have a good five card suit. I may need to play in clubs to get a pitch on the major suit fit.

Larry and I need some work at teams ourselves and need to start auditioning for our teammates

I'm very lucky that my club I play in on Thursdays, is staffed by only tourney-rated directors, two of them national directors. Rulings are fair and unbiased.

I still remember when Barry White and then a couple of years after, Lou Rawls, passing...

This is one of the main reasons why I play 4cM with canape now - this handtype gave me nightmares....

Fred, The responsiveness was also unexpectedly good. I zoomed in and could see the alerts and such without issue. I just got my iPhone (an early birthday gift) and was happy to see this.

4♠, expecting a shootout.

Even tho I'm minimum on high card points, I am control rich - 5 of them, and coupled with a potential double fit in hearts/spades, I'm thinking about now what the first bid is, but bid 2 and 3 here on this hand. The forcing NT that Mike alludes to, does have some value here because you can hear more about pard's hand. If they rebid 2S for example, then it's a straight drive to game. If you here them rebid 2NT, then...hope you have good methods!