jdeegan

:P Some people have certain urges which no one can gainsay. Controlling such we could celebrate, but for the the common good we just have to look the other way.

:P I can't imagine cutting slack for a child molester. Even death row inmates feel superior to the "short eyes".

:P It's a bit of a crapshoot, but I'm an instinctive 6♣ bidder. It was my first thought, and it still looks good. My spades are nice, but not very long. 6♣ is good opp the ♠ king and the KQ of ♦.

:P My sentiments exactly. Having a special convention to handle this particular hand in this particular auction makes no sense because it comes along so rarely.

:P With 7+ playing tricks and three aces one can hardly characterize W free 3♣ bid as inappropriate. E with a decent 11 HCP and ♣10x bid a normal 3♠ angling for 3NT. At this point W had an easy 3NT bid. Instead he made a 4♥ call based on reasoning I cannot even begin to fathom. Instead of a pedestrian 3NT down 2 undoubled, he went for a telephone number. Are you sure these guys aren't novices?

:P Two comments on the actual hand: 1. Imho, E is more than a bit light for his initial 2♠ call - not really disciplined. However, having overbid the first time, he shouldn't cue bid a likely useless ♦ ace (RHO has six+ ♦ and I have five, and pard jump cue bid the ♦ suit looking for a ♠ slam on probably less than 30 HCP combined). 2. I am still not fully understanding Timo's point that E has absolutely denied the ♣ king. I'm in favor of bidding 5♥ followed by 6♠ just in case E does have second round ♣ control. I don't see how it can hurt to let pard know I have been looking for seven the whole time.

:P You are telling with the redouble: a) I don't have spades with you. b) I have four decent hearts behind the doubler, so don't sweat bidding 3NT. c) If you have some modest heart holding and some high cards, YOU figure out how 3♥ redoubled will play. Your hand is thereby closely defined by high cards and major suit distribution (probably 2-4). Let partner figure out what to do and place the contract.

:P I can see starting with 3♠. If pard bids 3NT, I guess Pass since it's MP. Over other rebids - 5♦. I do want to encourage pard to bid six if he has plenty of extras.

:P 5♣. Too good to pass. I may make six, but I hate my stiff ♥ K and only having three trumps. Should have 11 tricks opposite ♣ KQxxx and another queen because of either a long ♦ or ♠ and a heart ruff. How to envision 12 tricks is harder. To some extent I am trusting the opps bidding saying they have at least some high cards. This is why I HATE my ♥ king.

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:P Good problem. The one thing I wouldn't do is to mastermind the hand by blasting some number of clubs because pard's hand is unlimited. This leaves double, 3♦ or 3♥. Splinters are supposed to be picture bids, and I don't have the right picture. Imo, double (for penalties and made more or less in tempo) is best since it uses no bidding space AND shows a ♥ control, 3♦ a close second and 3♥ a somewhat distant third. The only problem with dbl is that some partners on BBO might not consider it as being for penalties. What else it could be escapes me. I can show my ♦ control later. Pard may have something like: AKx Qx J9x QJxx and we can make six. It also facilitates getting to 3NT if pard has a double diamond stop

:P You are a hopeless dopehead. See you soon!

:P If properly prepared, you should have a nice custard if you leave out the avocado. Including the avocado shouldn't ruin it, I wouldn't think. Some almonds, nutmeg or caramel might help. Putting the whole thing in a nice pie shell also might help. Why avacado?

:P The technical term is "haircut", as I am sure you know. Just who lost and how much is hard to tell from the outside, but at least it was mainly the people who imprudently (probably having been misled by their agents) loaned the Greeks the money in the first place and not the mostly innocent third party tax payers in the various Euro bloc countries. Imho, a heads I win, tails you lose banking system does not have a very long expected life. Neither does a socialist banking system. Maybe by sticking to the basics, the Euro may have a chance after all.

:P Pass. Opps are in a forcing auction. Listen and see who has what.

:P Not an expert, but I can tell you that even at 14.9% he is no bet. He has been falling like a stone after some public appearance gaffes. My wife is probably the best barometer. She is a nice SMU girl & CPA from Dallas who wanted to vote for Hillary in 2008, and her best friends thought that electing GW in 2004 was "important". Now, she thinks Perry is "creepy". I guess country just ain't that cool anymore. Too much testosterone is interesting, but not an election winner even in these precincts. The only thing that is clear to me is that Perry is done. I did see that Steve Forbes just endorsed Perry. Knowing Steve, I don't think this bodes well for Senor Perry.

:P 2♣ OK you could be in a 4-2 fit. So what. The odds are against your trump suit being inadequate, and even if so, the auction is low and the opponents won't know what is happening either. 2♣ shows your values and your suit length. Don't play scared bridge just because your bidding system is a poor design for competing for part scores.

:P Couple of random thoughts: 1. Pard doesn't have enough to double the first time with the plan to bid later. 2. Pard has a good enough hand he feels the need to double later in order to protect our equity. This strikes me as a rather narrow window: ♣ AK, ♥ AK and maybe ♦ K???? That hand will usually set 4♠ by about 2 tricks and counts to 10 tricks (more or less) off the top in 5♣ with decent prospects for an 11th trick somewhere. The decision does seem rather close between pass and 5♣. Kinda depends on the intangibles imo. Who are the opps, what is the state of the game, how does the table feel??? Given no input there I guess I would be inclined to pass but only by a little.

:P Pass, wtp? Except for your 7-bagger, everything is wrong with your hand - the stiff K in ♠, the soft minor suit queens.

:P There is one example I know of. The original Kaplan-Sheinwold system (circa 1958) included something they called a "controlled psyche". It was included in their book How to Play Winning Bridge pages 55-61. It was defined as 3 to 6 HCP with no singleton or void or outside ace or king. Its purpose was partly lead directing, so needed a lead value and enough length in your suit to survive after partner's raise. Vulnerability was not mentioned.

:P On the surface, 5♠ is either 'pick a slam' or a try for seven. Of the two it has to be 'pick a slam'. So I bid six of my strongest red suit or 5NT if they are equal. I can't imagine what pard has.

:P Pass. Whatever partner wants, I don't have.

:P In my world a double says lead our suit.

:P I am going to need three things: 1. to hold trump losers to one. Possibilities are 2-2, 3-1 or 1-3 with stiff honor or KQx(x) on my left. 2. to guess the ♥ suit - my initial inclination is that the ♥ ace is to my left since they didn't lead ♥, and LHO opened the bidding. 3. to find a tenth trick - either two ♦ ruffs in dummy OR set up a fifth round ♣ winner OR find both ♥ onside OR find both ♣ onside OR a squeeze. How best to combine chances? Obviously, start by winning the ♣ noting RHO's spot card (giving up the ♣QJ onside except for the squeeze possibility), and playing the ♦ king. I don't have the mental capacity to enumerate all the possibilities from here, so I would just take it a trick at a time. 2-2 trumps and the ♥ ace onside appear to be my best possiblity at this stage, and I am not going to do anything to eliminate that play for the contract. I also fancy setting up the fifth ♣.

:P Me too. Pard doubled hoping for ♠ tricks. Declarer is marked with 10 major suit cards on the bidding and one known club. Only two cards are unknown. They could be in the ♠, ♦ or ♣ suit. At least one of them is very likely to be a ♦ since the 7-6-0-0 split is relatively rare. I don't want declarer to make 10 tricks via 5♥, 2♦, 2♣ and one ♠ ruff. Even if his 13th card is a ♦, a ♣ return will not give up a trick declarer can't get anyway.