jdeegan

:P The North American term for this situation (as most of you know) is "equal level conversion" (ELC). Reverse the club and diamond suits and one can bid 3♦ over pard's 3♣ response to my TO double w/o showing a ton of high cards. With 4-6 in the black suits and moderate HCP, I think almost everyone would bid 3♣.

:P Thank all of you for an excellent thread. I am an old-time player essentially out of the game for many years but now trying to learn how to use "last train". Fortunately, much of it seems intuitive. One question: on the auction 4♦, 4♥, 4♠, 5♣ I would intuitively think the 5♣ bid showed first round control + of course some kind of ♥ control. I guess if the opening lead is running up to my hand, a ♥ control could be as little as Kx.

:P Not playing fit showing jumps (not a bad idea, though, imho), I would have started with a humble 2♣. After that, getting to at least 4♥ is automatic. Six ♥, probably not, but making six is far from certain as well.

:P Several thoughts: 1. Transfers are less useful with a weak NT. You are not protecting a very strong hand. 2. The Soloway/Marshall Miles responses to the 10-13 HCP 1NT are tons of fun, but they are keyed to a particular aspect of the mini-NT: only 5-x-x-x and x-5-x-x hands are opened with 13 HCP. All other 1NT opens are 10-12 HCP. 3. The watershed issue on interference is whether to focus on escaping or trying to penalize the opponents. I always preferred the latter, but you and pard have to have confidence in your defense. Getting +1100 will usually do terrible damage to your opponent's game.

:P In SAYC, Precision and 2/1 (the main systems played here in the colonies) 2♥ always shows 5+ cards. You can always find your 4-4 ♥ fit (if it exists) after partner's rebid. Your advisor was correct in his/her reasoning. Because of the space used up, you need 10+ HCP and 5+ ♥. You really don't need the 2NT response because you can always temporize by bidding 2 of a minor with: 2-4-4-3 or 2-4-3-4. Save the 2NT response to show a strong ♠ raise. With 3-4-3-3 you should be trying to find the right level in your eight card ♠ fit or NT. Temporize with 2♣ or maybe ♦ if your ♣ are three small. Next support ♠ to the correct level or pass partner's 2NT rebid or raise to 3NT depending on the strength of your hand. If it does go 1♠ - P - 2♣ - P 2♦ - P - ??? now you can bid 2♥ just in case partner is 5-4-4-0.

:P No real debate in my world. Usually you open 1♠. The big and fairly frequent exception is a good playing hand w/o enuf HCP to warrent a high reverse. Examples: AKxxx x Kx J109xx is a 1♠ opener - you are basically giving up on the anemic ♣ suit. AK1087 x xx KJ109x is a 1♣ opener. You don't mind a ♣ lead. Even vul you are safe to rebid ♠ up to the two level even opposite passing partner. AKQxx x Ax KJ10xx is a 1♠ opener since with 17HCP you can rebid 3♣ as a high reverse.

:P Right on the borderline between 1♣ and 1NT. It really depends on partner (weaker favors 1NT), state of the match (hard to get to makable 6♣ after 1NT opener), and our system (easier to rebid 3♣ playing SAYC).

:P As a former New Mexico resident, you are no doubt familiar with the 1947 Roswell Incident which is celebrated every July 4 in the town itself. May your anal probes be painless.

:P Oh si yo little brother. My European ancestors have been in America since 1680. This place was never "empty" in any way shape or form. Europeans eventually conquered the place, but it took 250+ years. The so-called Columbian exchange did help Europe in the 1600's, but not that much. The European Enlightenment and the scientific and industrial revolutions started in the 1600's despite cold weather and economic hard times. Once those got going they spread to North America, and the Cherokee were screwed.

:P As a third generation US oilman, I can assure you that if you can't make a mutually satisfactory deal with "the locals" you won't be in business for long. In the US about 25% of gross wellhead revenues goes to "the locals". In very rich fields like those in Saudi Arabia the percentage is 80 to 90%. There is a uranium mine in northern Niger complete with a railroad connected to the coast. Reportedly it uses too much water in a VERY dry part of the world, so I believe I heard it had been shut down. That said, in many parts of the Sahara deep tube wells can tap a large(although probably not infinite) reservoir of underground water. There ought to be a way to satisfy everybody involved when it comes to water or money for that matter. Remember that with the end of the Cold War and the dismantling of many nuclear weapons, the market for uranium oxide has been terrible. That may be why the mine shut down.

:P The French Foreign Legion based in Corsica takes care of problems that may arise in the wastelands of the Sahara. Problem. Solution.

:P My Aussie cousins and my English roommate from years ago are and were not afraid of guns. It's nice when a certain difference of opinion can be settled with fists (or in the case of the Aussie cousins some kind of Thai martial arts). The one thing that seperates the Aussies from the Americans is a wee detail. In Oz after the unfortunate Tasmanian events, the population turned in their guns (for the most part). In the U.S. there ain't no way. Do you want to disarm Arizona, Texas, Harlem, Detroit, et.al.? When guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns.

:P The classic error of the doomsayers is to project a growing population assuming no improvements in science and technology over time. This incredibly stupid mistake is blind to a 500 year history that has featured both rapid population growth and incredible increases in the quality of life for nearly everyone - esp. in the so-called First World. That said, population growth in almost all of the economically advanced nations has ended and shows clear signs of reversing in much of Western Europe. Why? No one really seems to know. Who can say what happens between a man and a woman in the bedroom? The pre-existing patterns of population growth and economic development seem to suggest a global peak population of 10-12 billion according to most demographers. If nothing goes wrong, this should easily be sustainable along with a nice improvement in the quality of life from one generation to the next as science and technology advance. Most younger male bridge players are much smarter than average. In today's world that can make them serious alpha dogs in the gene pool sweepstakes. Don't fall for the doomsayers' classic error.

:P 4♥ - I still have not figured out from this thread who is vulnerable and who is not. In any event, I gotta chirp a cheerful and prompt 4♥

:P 6♠ for sure. Odds associated with a grand slam depend obviously on the percentage of the time you can make it, but also on the chances that (some of) the opponents will fail to bid the high percentage small slam. In this example, you may think that bidding six is easy, but your HCP total is (as I recall) 31. Even in a tough field, some are likely to lose their way. The percentage contract is 6♠.

:P I have to join the 3♥ bidders. 4♥ is traditionally a transfer to 4♠ for LHO. Then what do I do? I'd sooner Pass or bid 5♥ than be an EZ money 4♥ bidder. I might (or might not) bid 4♥ later.

:P You have largely undisclosed extra HCP since you did forget to bid 2♠. Pard is sniffing for slam (probably). He/she is the captain of this auction, like it or not. Imho, bid 4♠ and await developments.

:P I love to take third seat liberties. Having taken them, however, pard should Pass, not raise one ♥ to two. You are not trying to kill the opps by opening light third seat, just trying to make their life miserable having to cope with an unfamiliar auction. Remember, when your pard passes one ♥ the opps don't know whether your ♥ fit is seven, eight or even nine cards. Plus, your RHO is in the balancing seat, and he/she didn't bid over pard's one ♣ or ♦ opening bid, so their hand is likely not ideal for balancing either.

:P I like your bid. In principle that sequence shows a no-loser 8 or 9 bagger and an outside ace. Imho, you are close enough.

:P Seriously, the Kamikaze 1NT opener is fully legal in all games, at least in North America. It can be a barrel of fun to play. Marshall Miles came up with a fully developed system for responder - a sort of two way Staymanish approach. At one point the ACBL had to decree that 1NT openers had to have at least 10 HCP - you could open a 9 or less HCP 1NT, but responder couldn't use any artificial bids, even Stayman. I first ran across it at a sectional tournament in Michigan in the early '90's where no less than Meckwell were playing it. Good enough for them, good enough for me. Then Marshall Miles published his response system in no less than the ACBL monthly bulletin. The dreaded Kamikaze has been largely discarded since because top level players have learned to deal with it. Still, it was fun in its day. Getting out of 1NT doubled could be an adventure in itself - e.g. Moscow Escapes, et.al. I still recall a Grand National Teams qualifier match from Jackson, Mississippi between two fairly good local teams where one particular board was a push - plus 1280 (I think that's one NT doubled and redoubled making two) at both tables. And, I wasn't on either team, just a kib.

:P It's a pretty good 11 HCP. It's the modern style for many top level players (e.g. Meckwell) to open these hands and sometimes steal the pot when the opps have a game. Watching these quality players on BBO leads me to think many of them tend to open even lighter when they are behind. Also, it is a proper 10 to 13- HCP 1NT opener (which Meckwell used to play in the 1990's). Also, AK, A is 3 quick tricks and everyone has always opened it (except maybe Al Roth back in the day). The practical issue with opening 11 HCP balanced hands is whether the rest of your bidding system can handle it. SAYC and 2/1 players sometimes get too high at 3NT (etc.) with 11 opposite 13 and other such disasters. Forcing club players (esp. Precision and its variants) seem to have an easier time since opener is automatically limited to 14 HCP from the start. Responder doesn't have to push as much. As far as the "rule of 20" is concerned, I think it was designed to help evaluate unbalanced hands. By the time it was invented I had already learned how to evaluate these hands from experience (at least as well as I was ever going to be able to). I tried using it a few times, but it didn't seem to add anything.

:P Two and One Half Men may be more than a tad vulgar, but it is consistently funny and belongs in the top 20, if not the top 10 imo.

:P The Penn State vs. the SMU situation is an apple and oranges comparison. Penn State has a well-established, long-standing top flight football program with more willing sugar daddies than they need (or perhaps that should be in the past tense given the scandal). SMU, by comparison, had been a second/third tier team that became a johnny come lately first tier team when their sugar daddies became flush with oil money in the late-70's. By 1987 the oil money was gone, and the scandal had made being an SMU sugar daddy no fun at all. No basis for continuing the effort.

:P Here in bigD we have an immensely wise local sports guru who goes by the nom de guerre of Grandpa Urine. His take is that all of the other conferences have at least a few token restrictions on the recruiting and retaining of student athletes. This is why the SEC is inherently better at fielding top level college football squads. Some examples of rules often ignored: (1) the student athlete recruit has to be able to read and write. (2) tenured faculty is not obligated to change the student athlete's grades upon request. (3) local law enforcement's first phone call must be to a designated university official whenever a student athlete is involved, (4) sponsors of student athletes must obey certain recruiting rules, and payments to student athletes must be in line with sports community norms. It is part of the cultural heritage of the South that most of the rules shown above, as well as many others I have not personally witnessed and hence not listed, are often ignored. The reason for all of this is something most Southerners understand in their bones, but it is darn near impossible to explain to outsiders (except, possibly in places like Northern Ireland) why it is a good thing.

:P Well I do agree with the first comment. If I HAD to use pictures (which I seldom do) then it is slightly better in terms of use than the pictures you use now, but only because it is a little easier to see which card is which. It's a decent enough effort to include as a third choice on the menu. From an aesthetic viewpoint it is a nightmare, imo.