G_R__E_G

I could be mistaken, but I believe that the ACBL requires that at least 12 boards be played if there are to be any masterpoints awarded.

Is the Meckwell defense to 1NT openers legal in all ACBL events? I can't see there being an issue with 2♣ or 2♦ calls because they're the same as DONT. The 2♥ and 2♠ calls are natural (natural is still legal right? ;) ). The 2NT is the same as Capp. so the only one I can see being an issue is the double with its 3 possible meanings. I was under the impression that calls including and below 2♣ did not have to specify a suit so my thoughts are that it is legal but I recently had a tournament director tell me it was not. Any thoughts?

I'd vote for Faith No More's version of War Pigs.

For those interested - this unit is about to launch in three additional formats. Here in Canada the current version retails for $399.99. The new models will be $299.99, $349.99 and $499.99. The biggest differences are memory and warranty. There will also be a variety of colours available for some of the units. I happen to work for the only retailer in Canada that is carrying this little gem so if you want to know anything else feel free to ask.

Here is the link to the document they are referring to. Grievances

The USBF has published their decision. USBF Minutes

I need to be honest on this - my immorality is far from "brand new". :huh:

Yes, absolutely. For instance I'll widen my no trump opening range from 15-17 to 13-18 if I have the ♦7 just to increase the chances of being declarer.

Cool. First Mother Nature is going to give us immorality and then she's going to come live with us. Gotta go - I need to call my wife and get dibs on the middle spot in bed. PS Where in Canada are you shubi? I for some reason feel compelled to be aware of this information.

Hi Fred, The new version picked up automatically and allowed me to log in with my ID without a problem. Regards.

I'd open 1♣ planning to respond 1♥ to a 1♦ response and planning to respond 2♥ to a 1♠ or 1NT response.

I've never heard this problem before either Justin - thanks for posting it. I'm still struggling with some of the explanations on Wiki, as the basic "I'm either losing 50% or gaining 100% so I'll switch" seems to make sense. Anyway, the bottom line to this whole thing is.... To hell with the math - I'm switching. I feel lucky today. :)

There are a number of interesting "solutions" listed here: Two Envelopes Problem

I'm hoping some of you math geniuses can help me with a project I'm working on. We now have a program here that importers/distributors of retail products help to pay for the eventual recycling of the packaging materials they put into the marketplace. Various types of materials have different prices per ton. They leave it up to individual companies to determine their own methodology for determinging these numbers as long as we can defend our methodology. If we can't defend it they force us to pay based upon retail sales which tends to not work out in our favour. What we did was weigh all of the packaging materials from a sample set of products in each of our product categories. The 2000 or so products we report on are divided into approximately 30 categories so we are not just looking at a random group - the products are similar. When doing the calculations we took a sample group of a least 5% of the items from each category as it was felt that this would give a reasonable statistical representation of each category. The government agency we report to is "okay" with what we're doing but they are asking how we determined that a 5% sample size is big enough. Is there a mathematical calculation that I can do to give the accuracy of my sample? Or is there a backwards calculation I can do to determine how big of sample I need to hit a particular accuracy? I'll give an example category as this might help: Portable audio has 57 skus. We weighed 3 of them and found the average weight in grams for 5 materials in these 3 items. Overall for the year we sold a total of approx. 40,000 of these 57 skus and therefore multiplied the averages by 40K to come up with overall weight. Any help is much appreciated (and helps justify my being on the forums at work B) )

The topic of bridge on TV has come up again in another thread. We just started getting a new channel here in Canada on our Starchoice satellite called CGTV (Casino and gaming television). The content seems to be mostly poker related but I was interested to find the other night that they were broadcasting "Charles Goren's Championship Bridge". It's a show that's obviously from before my time (I'd assume early '50's). It was fun to watch just to see how they did things back in that era (both from a bridge standpoint and a TV production standpoint). I'd recommend checking it out if this channel is available in your area.

As was I (I was declarer). I knew there was a reason I posted this here. :P You'd also mentioned the skill level of the opponents coming into play as to what to read the club lead as. That was the main reason why I was so certain it was a doubleton - I know the guy. As Frances points out there is another way to take care of the clubs - the main thing is declarer can't ignore the possibilty of a defensive ruff. Thanks for the help - I'll change it (the background too, although it's quite clear on my system).

I've been my local club's webmaster for the past 2 years (ever since I decided to create a website for us) and I've also recently become a director as of last month I've taken on managing the club as well. I have a very full-time job, a French-Canadian wife who needs a lot of my attention (if you know what I mean :P ), four kids, several pets as well as other hobbies and therefore I don't have a huge amount of time to invest on working on the site so please don't be too critical if you wish to critique the site itself. I've decided to try my hand at writing some instructional deals that I've called "Lesson Hand of the Month" that I am posting on the site. While I'm a very competent club player I'm certainly not the expert that many of the readers of these forums are; hence the favour. Would a few of you be so kind as to have a look at what I've posted and give me some honest feedback. The other thing I'm really hoping for is that if I happen to make an error in my analysis I'd really appreciate if one of you could spot it before one of my club members does. The address for my site is www.midlanddbc.com . Your welcome to post feedback here or e-mail me through the "contact us" link on the site. Thanks, any assistance is greatly appreciated.

I also might add that your partner is only legally bound to pay off "The Beer Card" if your CBF dues are current.

I quit 2 years and 3 days ago cold turkey and I'll be happy to share my secret with you. I can't promise that it will work this well for you but I have not once in these two years been tempted to have so much as a drag of a cigarette and that was after being a heavy smoker for 20 of my 35 years on the planet. You are obviously a competitive person or you wouldn't play bridge. Find someone to quit with you that you wouldn't want to lose to. That's it, that was my secret!!! My wife suggested months before New Year's that we quit on New Year's Day. I went along with "the joke" and said "Sure, no problem." Throughout the Fall and into the holidays she'd often remind me that we were going to quit on New Year's. I'd always say "Sure, no problem." Midnight came and she said "That's it - no more smoking." Still going along with "the joke" I said "Sure, no problem." The next morning the wait began for her to have a smoke so that I could have one too. It's been two years now and I'm still waiting for her to have one. I'm sure she too is just waiting for me to have one - but that's not going to happen.

In Canada, we work on a parliamentary system. We have 308 "ridings" in the country. Each of these ridings elects an MP (Member of Parliament). The winner of these goes to whichever candidate garners the most votes, even if the margin of victory is one vote. Whichever of the political parties (we have several official parties but only two of them have ever formed a government) wins the most seats forms the government and the leader of that party becomes the Prime Minister. If the winning party wins 155 seats or more they have won a majority government, if they win less seats than that then they have won a minority government. If there is a minority government (as we have right now) the other parties are able to put in motion a non-confidence vote to force another election. The system seems to work well, we always have a clear winner, although when it's a minority their power is always tenuous at best.

I couldn't agree with you more. Not to worry, the stopping is only temporary until my medication wears off again. :)

Sorry folks, the wheels started turning and I feel the need to punish all of you: High Carp Points - A fishy way of evaluating your hand. Funesse - A finesse that makes when you really needed it to. Squeezy - A simple squeeze. Retoke - Illegally playing a card of the wrong suit because you got high (it makes more sense if you're familiar with the song). Lead out of turd - A crappy choice of opening lead. Blockwood - Asking for aces preemptively just to keep the opponents out of the auction. Backlash - What you get from your partner when you mess up this squeeze play. Transfir - Your partner forces you to bid a suit and you've got tree of dem. Okay, I'll stop now.

A little typo by Frances in the main area made me think of a new one. "Peempt" - When you can't really decide which level of bid to make so you say "Ah piss on it" and chose one.