jade

I simply bid 2!D if I do not have a 2 suited bid available. I also expect the auction not to die there, though it might. I am intending on bidding spades later

One reason we have the divisions - and keep in mind that girls are certainly allowed to play in the youth and junior teams - is that the Sports Accord and Olympic movements require Seniors, Open, Junior and Women's competitions.

To be fair, I cannot remember if it was an 8 immediately after 9 tonight, but they were awfully close together. Thanks for replying.

And I had both 8 and 9 card !s suits again tonight. Bizarre.

The frequency seems to be increasing. In one 16 board set I played from 8:45 to 10:30 PM central time, I personally held both 8 and 9 spade hands. It has been a bizarre run lately, especially over the last 3 months. Granted I play a very large number of boards, but in my 52 years of competition, nothing like this. Granted this happens more often in the casual room. Thanks for commenting.

While I do not profess to be a mathematician or statistician, I have been playing a very long time. The frequencies of particular shapes seem to be happening more frequently than I personally would expect. Let me be clear here, this is entirely anecdotal and I am hoping that somebody with the knowledge and skill to evaluate the hand patterns could verify that everything is normal.

After 50 years of playing a number of Staymans, I remain convinced that Garbage is still the best way to go. That being said, I am also convinced that Stayman followed by 2S needs to be 5+ Spades invitational without regard to the number of hearts you hold.