fifee

Just had a similar discussion with a partner. If you have 2 fits and one partner has extra length in one of the suits, then by all means, bid slam in the suit where you have possibly equal holding or closer in length holding (54). For pitches, obviously. If you can get to the slam level by cue or serious 3NT, or RKC for 1 or 2 known fits, then no question that the ♠ suit will be more likely to offer pitches. South knows the ♦ fit and should steer the ship into the right port. :D Patty :)

Today I wanted to look for a particularly interesting hand that I had played early this summer. I could not "see" any of the hands that I had played before July 1st. Does anyone else have this problem? Is there a "reset" button that wipes out hands played which I might have clicked accidentally? :) Patty

I think the "my hands" page is great ! Can we sort by partners? I would like to look at just the hands played my favorite partners. A longer time would be great so that we could get a perspective on how we were doing together. Would be nice to be able to ask for statistics overall and with individual partners, too. ;)

Roland, I think the multi language coverage is terrific but I think it should be left to the people who use this coverage to tell us if it is advantageous to them and if it is worth all the time that you and the vugraph coordinators invest. I am not qualified to speak to excellence of service, those people who use the service should be the ones to vote on that issue. Why would anyone vote indifference? Its obviously a valuable asset if there are those who benefit by it. The question is: does this put too much of a burden on our volunteers? I think we are all here because we love the game and we love to "enhance" our bridge experience and our friends' with the best possible technology available. Kudos to our vugraph volunteers from Roland to all the vugraph coordinators and operators. They are "in the trenches" and we all appreciate the effort and the truly amazing result. Who would have thought this possible 15 years ago?

86 - 85 posted at www.acbl.org

5C, 2C a close second. Never 3NT with no stopper in their suit. 3H might ask for pd to bid 3NT with a stopper in their suit, but would prefer discussing that before using it. Always uppermost in my mind.. no matter how perfectly descriptive your bid is, if partner will not understand it, its not worth a hoot.

At NT, I prefer Queen lead asks for unblock if you are holding the Jack. I would lead Q from KQT9 or something similar.

The press release from the disciplinary hearing can be found at : http://www.eurobridge.org/competitions/05T...ns/28TuePg3.htm It's a sad day for our sport when something with these ramifications happens. There are plenty of lawyers standing in the wings these days and reputations and careers can be at stake. Why not rent rooms at casinos for major bridge tournaments? They have interesting entertainment other than bridge games and they have the hidden cameras in the ceiling.

♠A1074 ♥1082 ♦AJ ♣AKJ6 ♠KQ63 ♥5 ♦10732 ♣9754 I hate to sound like an old fashioned girl but if you try to change your style to fit these obscure cases, then you will fall on your face more times than you succeed. Opener has a 17HCP and a 7 loser hand. Since when does that qualify as better than a 1NT opener? Balanced hands need more points to make them look good to me than unbalanced hands. Added value to NT openers for me are: *mediocre 5 card suit, add 1/2 point *decent 5 card suit, add 1 point *well placed honor cards (protected/and or combined with other honor cards) add 1/2 point *good middlin cards - lots of 9s and 10s and not too many 2s and 3s - add 1/2 point Can even subtract a 1/2 point here and there for strongly negative features. Back to this hand: For every game you make with this opening hand across from a 5 HCP partner, there will be 10 or more you go set in.

Of course. But 4D may probelle you past the 4 level faster than you may blink. You may survive the 4 level, but not the 5 level. Marlowe If you have ♠xxxx ♥KJxx ♦x ♣xxxx, and opps have 9 or 10 card diamond fit, then you partner must have 2 or 3 diamonds. What else can he have to double again? Lots of controls and tolerance for the other 3 suits? My point is this: if partner has 2 or 3 diamonds and is doubling a 2nd time in immediate position over 3♦, he must have a rock crusher and is probably thinking penalty double or one of those - do something intelligent doubles. He will love your stiff ♦ ! Since we are vul and they are nv, I would venture 4♦ asking pd to bid his best major. Since I had not moved over 2♦, I am sure partner would not take this for a slam try. :P

If RHO has 55 or better in D and H, then S could be 51 or even 60. I don't want to be in 6S with a 7 card fit. I like 3D showing a strong Club suit. Can raise partner's Spades next, if he does not respond well to my Club showing bid. I almost never splinter with 3 card support, it always leads to trouble for me ;) I agree with you and I would not bid 4C because no matter how descriptive the bid is, if partner does not understand it, it is not a good bid.

1. I bid 3S, tell partner the good news that we have a fit. IMHO Not good enough for an advanced cue. 2. Partner rebids 4D and I will bid 4S. Even though I have 4 Diamonds, I have none of the top 3 honors. If partner has a true "big 2 suiter," he might rebid 5D to clue me in. At which time I will bid 6D ;)

I vote for 1S opening. If opps bid 3H, then partner might double or pass waiting for me to double, then I cue 4H. Partner should get the message here. Too many tricks for opening 4S. Namyats is ok but like 1S better.

Hi SoTired, welcome to the forum :D My first 2/1 book was Max Hardy's "Two Over One Game Force." It was dry and hard to read and I don't recommend it for an introductory course. The book that I much preferred was "Mike Lawrence's Workbook on the Two Over One System." It is available from his site at http://www.michaelslawrence.com/Products/twover.html. $11.95 Mike also has a CD ROM called "The Two Over One System" available on the Bridge Base site in the Shop Bridge! section. Fred Gitelman wrote the program that walks you through the basic principles of 2/1 from the opener's and responder's point of view. You are quizzed to see if you have mastered the theory and sent back for review if you have not. Moves quickly and is very informative. If you buy it from Shop Bridge! you are supporting the BBO site. $34.95. Certain that your friend will feel comfortable with 2/1 after assimilating this info ;)

In answer to your 3 Questions: 1) In RKCB, do you show the Queen with extra length without a guarantee of a 10-card fit, or is there a method to separate a "yes, I have the Queen" from a "No, but I have an extra card" response? I agree with Luke Warm. You have shown 6 card suit, so do not show the Q here because of "extra length." If you have not promised 6 cards, then by all means, show the Q even if you don't have it or if you know your side has 10 trump, then show the Q. An experienced partner will know if he is looking at the Q that your bid shows extra length. 2) Do you play that a Queen ask guarantees all the first round controls? No, I don't but I do play that asking for Kings guarantees all the 5 major Key Cards and either the Q or extra length since this bid is looking for grand slam. 3) What method is the best for continuations without asking for the Queen? I prefer the GoldWay method of RKC. After Ace asking bid and response, cuebid your cheapest king past 5 of our trump suit. Then partner cuebids his cheapest King. 5NT can be used by either partner to say, this is not a King but I have previously undisclosed assets that would be of help in grand slam. Cuebidding Kings up the line without passing 6 of our trump suit, of course, until ome of us has knowledge of 13 tricks, works beautifully.

The wait is long between rounds but we can always spend time reading email, studying or system notes :P Playing from home makes it hard to find a 2 to 3 hour uninterrupted time for a tournament for me.

Support Doubles are usually on through 2♥ only for most partnerships. If I was interested in setting trumps and investigating for slam, I would cuebid the opponent's suit to tell partner I am interested if they overcall at the 3 level. If they overcall at the 4 level, then we do our best to overcome the bidding room that was eaten up by the overcall. Depends upon the hand, naturally.

Takeout, we pre empt ourselves with mini NT sometimes, so negative double here will get more mileage than penalty.

I just visited http://music.yahoo.com/musicvideos/ so that I could hear some Garbage :D I listened and watched the video Bleed Like Me. A bit dark for my taste :P I have stumbled onto American Idol while surfing and never heard anyone who could carry a tune, but Justine is so cute, who cares?

Tenerife site is at http://www.eurobridge.org/competitions/05T...fe/Tenerife.htm Bulletins and results available there.

sceptic wrote: Sceptic, do you and your partner have agreements that double by you is negative, penalty, showing extras or ? And do you have agreements that in competition, new suit by unpassed responder is forcing one round? Apparently, your partner assumed this and you did not. BTW, Chamaco, 2/1 is off in competition for most partnerships. I miss the penaltyish doubles :D

Would be great to have vugraph at Roland and Fred's table ! Thousands of vugraphaholics are waiting :P Count me in if you need help :D

I think TD's should not simultaneously play and direct tournaments which are open to the public. Too much going on for everyone to have their questions addressed competently. Private tournaments should be allowed to post their own rules and disclaimers. This would cover English juniors who would like to hold their own tournaments and other groups who are like minded.

Mike, I agree, entertainment and knowledge are my goals and BBF does give us lots of food for thought ! Keep those synapses firing ! Serious 3NT is a great convention and so is Last Train to Clarksville but I would not want to see it as part of BBO Advanced because I don't think either are agreements to play with a casual partner. Too easy to screw up and cause a catastrophe. I voted no to these but would be happy to include them both with any regular partnership. awm, I agree with your post: Good judgement at the table is more important than complex agreements, but I would like for BBO Advanced to address some basic responses and rebids and treatments and set some limits there. bearmum, great idea !!

Qxxx J98xx K QJx If partner opens 1D, do you respond before he rebids 2C? I would envision this auction going: 1D p 1H p 2C p p Cannot bid 2S, because this is game forcing (reverse by responder). Cannot bid 2NT because for me this shows 11-12 HCP (BBO Advanced defines 2NT as 10-12HCP). H not good enough to rebid, but if I had 6H or better texture, I would. So I would pass 2C by my partner.