glen

How do I vote for East - can we use touch screens?

Well actually you should have said it once less (for goodness sake), since here we are talking about Fantunes one bids (which promise goodness)

The only thing that sells less than bridge books are poetry books. To save trees optimally, its bridge poetry: And I never, never finesse with nine What, never? No, never! What, never? Hardly ever! He hardly ever finesses with nine Then give three trumps, and one trump more, For the cardy Captain of the Ninafitlore!

You have described this as "silly" and "waste of energy", not exactly "do whatever you want" is it for you? To answer the single question, so you know what you are doing, and can pass smoothly. Certainly if you are playing in the world championships with no pre-prepared defenses, you should go natural here and not "devise some ingenious defense based on whatever words that happen to come out of the opponent's mouth at the time" (that is some mouthful you wrote). However if you do have pre-prepared defenses, select the best one from your inventory, and make them play your ballgame with your familiar sequences and agreements, while they are left with their unfamiliar sequences.

asking one question is "spending too much energy"?

I should add the story of what occurred more than once when we played 1♣ much like the Turkish pair. Partner opens 1♣ I alert RHO asks I explain "artificial, either a standard 1♣ opening, but not a hand that would open 1♣ and reverse to 2♦, or a standard 2♣ opening - 22+ artificial, often balanced. Over 98%* of the time opener has a standard 1♣ opening" * from our simulations with Bridge WorkBench Now RHO digests this, studies his hand, considers options, studies his hand some more, and finally passes. You have something like a 3=3=4=3 4 count. You sign for the telegram from RHO, and then pass 1♣, allowing LHO to determine the UI considerations. And that's why I would ask if 1♣ was 100% forcing, never ever passed.

I agree (and as I noted the cc implies 1♣ is forcing), but the first question I would ask this pair if I sat down against them would be: "is 1♣ 100% forcing - never/ever passed?", just to ensure we could employ the right defense against their opening.

It actually does not state it, just implies it by stating 1♣ is natural or 22+ - one would hope an opening that can be 22+ would be forcing. They use 1♣-1X;-2♦ to show the strong hand type, as I discussed in system mods above.

Here's an example of a standard system modified for no 2♣ opening - the pair was on the strong Turkish team in the open world championships: Turkey: Koksoy-Ozgul.pdf

My wife and I have been playing BRASS for close to two years - love it but this is from the inventor and I hope you hate it since I don't want to play against it - put generally you need to have more hand types in 2♣ to make it useful. 2♣ Brass: Brass Another option: 1) Put all 2♣ hand types into 1♣ - opening is now forcing 2) Put all very strong, but less than a game force, ♦+♣ hands into 1♦ 3) Play 1♣-1♦ as diamonds or negative 4) Play 1♣-any;-2♦ as standard 2♣ opening like 5) Use 2♣ for something else - for example since everybody likes Flannery, use 2♣ as Flannery, as little as 10 points (since 2♦ can ask) - this is ACBL GCC legal but you might want to call it Clannery

My opinion: 2♠ and 1NT 2♠ at IMPs (or if 1NT is forcing) - 2♠ will often be okay as a contract, and 2♠ will move us towards a possible game - my partnership will need to be able to investigate 3NT as a possible contract - do Meckwell still play 1♠-2♠;-3♠ as "interested in 3NT played by responder"? 1NT at pairs if 1NT is semi-forcing or non-forcing - we may miss game after 1♠-1NT;-2X-2♠ (opener treating 2♠ as a doubleton if 8-10) but staying low can be good at pairs, and we get to 1NT when it can be a great pairs contract

Lately the Onion has been in fine form, especially their video segments. Now the written crew score with a shot at everybody's fav target, M$: Microsoft Ad Campaign Crashing Nation's TVs Check out the warning signs graphic insert.

I should clarify - if you play EHAA "anything goes" 5 card seat weak twos in a very strong event, the results are often not pretty. If you play them as 5 card weak twos, but must be at least 8 points and have some shape, you'll do fine: responder now has an idea of the playing and defending value of your hand, and you will not be giving out too many 200s to your take-every-last-trick opponents. Likewise a Bailey weak two, even though not too shapely, at least puts responder in good position to judge what to do next - see: Bailey Weak Twos (Evan Bailey's Bridge Site)

I agree, the mixed pairs is a different kettle of fish. That said, the Hacketts were playing five card weak twos in the worlds.

I liked the bye part

likewise the users that begin with $!*%!_ are the "anonymous" silverlight logins

Buffett: I'm Buying If Gretz was playing for the Sens now, he could just skate to our net

disclaimer: Canuck, watched debate but can't vote I don't understand why the McCain camp decided to bring up Joe the Plumber. Several problems: - Joe wants to make (net I gather) over $250K a year - most will consider this better off than they are and will not be concerned with Joe - anybody who has had a large plumbing bill will not be impressed with a plumber that wants to maximize his income - the video of Obama talking with Joe results in a 4:50 commercial for Obama, and McCain bringing up Joe will drive viewers to this video

I think it is unfair for Gromoeller to introduce facts on his very 1st BBO forum post, thus ruining our chances for this thread to be record breaking.

August 08 NY Times article on Prof Nouriel Roubini: NY Times August 08 Dr Doom Nouriel Roubini Today's interview - long, but real stuff: October 14 2008 Nouriel Roubini video interview About the prof: Wikipedia Nouriel Roubini

I'll ignore the classless comment... Here's the cc from Canada's Bowman brothers (Seniors squad): Bowmans cc ACOL anyone?

I hate scoring adjustments for time problems, and I dislike the pulling of boards. I like a yellow/red card type of approach, that invokes non-scoring penalties. For example, a table is late: each pair at this table loses seating rights (deciding who plays who) for the next match where they would have seating rights, unless this pair is not played in that match. (exchange match for sessions for long matches) A pair is late twice in four or less matches. If on a six person team, must sit out the next two matches, and must submit a report explaining on what boards and why there was so much time taken on the two matches (they can blame the opponents, but must document this attempted blame, and until they report, no play - blank or short reports not acceptable). A pair is late three times in six or less matches. If on a six person team, must sit out the next three matches, and must submit a report explaining on what boards and why there was so much time taken on the three matches. If the team is on a five person team, at least one of the two must sit, and the team loses any seating rights for matches with the other late player. Once a pair has been late twice, but must play even though they would normally sit out (by rule above), because the team only has 4 available players (a 4 person team, or other team members unavailable etc.), they can play, without seating rights, but must play a default convention card for the matches they would normally be out for.

Canadian teams are blogging at: www.cbf.ca/WorldEvents/2008/FirstMindSports/ In particular see Open Team NPC David Willis's (not the David Willis with the newspaper column) blog at: davewillis08.blogspot.com/

Nice summary of the W.B. interview on clusterstock (good name as we are clustered stocked): Warren Buffett Interview W.B. can certainly cover a lot of ground and make a lot of sense.

I liked this quote from: CNN/Fortune: What Investors Should Do Now As noted in the article and elsewhere, investors should look for companies with: - low debt (debt-to-capital ratios of 10% or less) - modest valuations (price/earnings ratios of 14 or less) - solid earnings forecasts (earnings-per-share growth of 10% or better for both 2008 and 2009) - dividend-paying In other words, the show me the money companies