jdeegan

:) A brilliant post, imo. Little niceties like this decision are important and a too little discussed part of the game. I happen to be a Queener but will feel like a schmuck if LHO bids 3NT.

:) I don't like to take issue with anyone who has won a national championship, much less a world championship, but I am having difficulty seeing the logic in doubling. I have 16 HCP, but only two sure tricks against their 10 trick game. They could easily have all of the rest of the deck's high cards and KNOW IT from the bidding. Sure, LHO was under some pressure, but SO WHAT. At this juncture, his info is better than mine. More to the point, what master move is partner supposed to make after I double? I really think the double is wrong. What does it gain compared to what does it risk?

:) I usually tell my partners that I will signal attitude and count if and when I think they need it. Sometimes I don't see the need when it exists, but I don't believe in helping declarer by signaling too much. An occasional psyche by flagging a non-existent offside king can't mislead partner who is looking at his onside king. Be hard to endplay.

:ph34r: Club stop?, we don' need no stinkin' club stop

:huh: 4♥. Partner rates to have either ♥AKJxxx and one outside card or six hearts missing one honor plus two outside cards. Hmmm..... both produce ten tricks in hearts. Even five ♥ AKJ and two club cards behind the bidder produce ten tricks in hearts. Pard might even have the ♦ J. So, why screw around? Just bid it. Opponents may slide into 4♠ on this auction, hehe.

:huh: dink (slang) - same as tap when used as a verb. Sometimes used as a adjective as in: "spades was our dink suit". telephone number (slang) or just number - a large penalty - usually from a doubled contract round hand - same as square hand - 4-3-3-3 shape relay bid - asks partner to bid the next highest suit transfer bid - a specialized type of relay bid world's fair (slang) - a monster josephine - old name for the 5NT grand slam force - named for Eli Culbertson's wife Josephine Then, we have the whole family of coups which include: Grand Morton's Fork en passant schmuck Also, one of the first things to teach newcomers so they can begin to translate the apparent gibberish that passes for conversation among bridge players is the correct way to relate a bridge hand: suits are given in the order of ♠ ♥ ♦ ♣. Insignificant spot cards may be omitted. Example: "Ace fourth, king queen ten fifth, stiff and three small" for [hv=s=sa862hkq1086d7c865]133|100|[/hv]

:P Be of good cheer. You are simply ahead of your time. As my late, sainted mother (God rest her soul) used to often say to me: "Sonny, if you are too drunk to drink, you are too drunk to drive."

:unsure: Pretty good summary of the wacky world of indies. As a recent veteran of 1500+ hands in six months, I can add one additional "X" factor. Even opposite a BBO starred player (and that doen't even include that ONE particular guy) all you can really count on is a good dummy player, and a defender who won't do anything really dumb. Bidding has to be rudimentary. Outcomes of a typical short match have a very wide variance. I play indies only to keep my game sharp for the occasional live tournament, so the wild and wierd oucomes have become a source of amusement.

B) NF. Get serious.

B) 2♥ (if you still play old-fashioned [i.e. 6-bagger] weak twos) is a possibility assuming you think you are too heavy for 3♥. You are only fibbing about the deuce of hearts as opposed to an extra black king.

B) ♣ small. "Gather ye rosebuds while ye may." A♠ is a risky second given an auction and form of scoring that screams for safety. IMHO a trump lead sucks. If they are 4-4, it does no good and might compress a trick. If they are 3-5, then LHO has long ♦ for pitches. Even in a best case, you are giving up a tempo. Old bridge adage: never lead a trump unless you have a good reason

B) Just a note to put BBO self ratings in perspective - and I greatly favor BBO's decision to self rate - as opposed to OK Bridge's Lehman ratings which, imo, ruin their club. I am more than happy to proudly rate myself an Advanced player. There is clearly a tier of players who are better than I am, but who fall short of being world class. For whatever reason, one of the BBO workers analyzed six months of my hands on BBO. My play was almost entirely in indies with pick up partners. Evidently, my results were better than 70% of those who self-rated themselves as Experts and (I am assuming) played under similar conditions. I don't mean to criticize these 70%. Many BBO players come from odd corners of the world where it is hard to make such evaluations based on local or even regional bridge events. If you have won the last four club tournaments in Plovdiv, Bulgaria (not a small place by any means), it is obvious you must be something, and Expert sounds about right. One of the great things about Bridge and the internet is that we are creating a world community of like-minded individuals. In three to five years we will be texting away using real-time translation software. In five to ten we will be jabbering away at each other using translation voice. "Ping, you idiot, how could you bid 3♠ with that piece of s**t!"

:unsure: I am unsure as to what BBO rating I should use - advanced or expert. Could you give me some help, please? Some relevant facts: 1. Have played duplicate for over 40 years with a 20 year hiatus - 1975 to 95. 2. Have about 1450 masterpoints - 1000 before 1975 3. Play occasional Regional tourneys and have been to three Nationals since 1995. No pro partners, not even Gerard. Placed first, second or third in regional pairs and open swiss events (flight A/X and/or unrestricted) five times since 1995 - about 10% of my outings. 4. Placed 17th in the 2006 Silver Ribbon Pairs - my only outing in a national rated event ever - my pard was a good player, but had only 500 masterpoints. 5. Play quite a bit on BBO (100 to 300 hands per month), nearly always indies for IMPs. Usually plus IMPs for the month, maybe 0.25 per hand on average. 6. I count hands when needed. Find most squeezes, endplays, etc. Able to solve one, sometimes both of Kantar's play problems in the ACBL monthly bulletin. Try to keep up by reading Bridge World, et. al. Your vote and comments invited.

:P Lots of good candidates. Early rock 'n roll examples: 'You Ain't Nuthin' but a Hound Dog (Cryin' all the Time)' Original: Willie Mae Thornton Cover: Elvis Presley 'Act Naturally' Original: Buck Owens Cover: Beatles

B) 3NT. Good problem. To see its solution, consider the following points: 1. Q9x in spades is almost a sure stopper if you play the hand - even when LHO has ace or king third, the suit blocks. 2. Your 16 HCP are opposite partner's advertised 10+ HCP, so the high card values for game are there. 3. All suits are stopped 4. The odds greatly favor that either partner or RHO holds the ♥ king 5. One spade, six hearts and the AK of clubs are nine likely looking tricks in 3NT. You may also have a diamond trick or two Don't risk things getting out of control. Just bid 3NT. If pard is unusually strong or unusually weak for his bidding, then he will bid something, and you will find an escape route.

:) It's hard to believe there is anyone out there so stupid as the driver. He must have slept through his drivers ed classes. The ritual for getting a traffic ticket is something everyone should know. The officer was well trained. I would have tazered the jerk until he shut up.

:) The guy who made the comment (privately to me) was playing with someone who had a star and rated himself world class who had just gotten a zero in a 60 table duplicate by going down two in a three notrump contract. He had: 1. opened an indifferent 14 HCP one NT playing a 15-17 range 2. forgot to hold up in our suit 3. misguessed a two way queen by finessing into the dangerous hand You gotta love bridge players self-rating themselves. Still, it beats the alternatives by a mile, imo.

B) Players who act according to their interpretation of the opponents' presumed UI do so at their own risk - no further discussion needed

B) Does this just mean rainy day, bad? He must have been commenting on our day here in Zenith City. I need to talk to Odus about this. Aw, s**t Odus is dead.

B) Translation from French. I think it may be an idiom. 'niveau Mondial ...terrible'

:P "4" 2♠ or Pass are both better bids, the choice depending on table feel and the state of the match. Double is pretty sick, but I can think of sicker ones, like 3♥ or 3♣. My ex-partner, Odus Toole, used to favor bids like 2♠ right up to the night I killed him for it.

:) Never preempt over a preempt! I can memorize with the best of them. The thing is that this hand and another (alas forgotten) similar hand make me wonder if this maxim really makes sense facing an old-fashioned weak two bid (not strictly a preempt) in today's LOTT, bid'em up atmosphere. What makes sense when one holds a good six or seven bagger with roughly an average count in high cards? [hv=d=e&v=e&n=s43hq102dkqj875ca6&w=sk8hk8d6ck10987532&e=sa7haj9754d10432cj&s=sqj109652h63da9cq4]399|300|Scoring: MP 2♥-3♠!-P!-4♠! P-P-P[/hv] To me, bidding 3♠ felt right, so I did it (boooooo.....). This discombobulated LHO who has a difficult hand to describe. Partner, thinking it was our hand, bid game. This goes down two tricks, but -100 was a top for us since it was undoubled and E-W can make +130 in clubs. The trade off here is whether to use a single jump overcall as strong or weak over opponents' (old fashioned) weak two bids. Is a weak two bid more like a one bid or a three bid? So far, my count is 2 to 0 in favor of treating it like a one bid. Any opinions?

:huh: Playing IMPs, 15-17 NT, and '4 way xfers' (2♠ response shows clubs and 2NT shows diamonds) my regular partner and I tackled the following hand:[hv=d=s&v=b&n=saq76hk9da972ca107&s=skj94ha107dq4cq986]133|200|Scoring: IMP 1NT-P-2♣-P 2♠-P-5♠-P ???[/hv] Does north have a better bid than 5♠? What does south need to bid 6♠ on this auction? Do you have a recommended auction with these cards and this system? It turns out that by guessing the clubs, south can just eke out 11 tricks in spades on a hand where the lie of the cards is friendly. What do you think about 4 way xfers over 1NT openers (I loathe them)? Is that the problem here? My own preference is to play 2♠ over 1NT as Baron. Bidding all suits up the line with an eye toward slam. This auction would start: 1NT-P-2♠-P 3♣-P-3♠-P 4♠-P-??? At this point responder would know opener had 4♣, 4♠ and a moderate 1NT opener. With a good 1NT opener, south's second bid would have been a space saving 2NT. With a bad 1NT opener, it would have been a 'fast arrival' 3NT.

[hv=d=e&v=e&s=sqj109752hq4da9cq10]133|100|Scoring: MP 2♥-????[/hv] :huh: Matchpoints versus a competent pair. Your bid?

:) You are describing an upside down lottery situation. In the more usual 'right side up' version you have an eensie, teensie chance of winning a very large, 'life changing' prize [say $1 million] combined with a near certainty of losing an affordable amount of money [say $1]. Lotteries are goldmines for those who sponsor them because the playing public will routinely invest $1 to win a prize with an expected value of 60 to 70 cents. In 17th century Jamaica, English settlers faced an 80% mortality rate from tropical diseases within five years, but a near certainty of becoming wealthy sugar planters if they did survive. Enough Englishmen took the bargain to turn Jamaica into a successful sugar producing colony. Big gamble [your life with a high probablity of loss] versus big reward [if surviving, you become a wealthy planter]. The situation you describe is a big gamble [your life with very low probability of loss] versus small gain [near certainty of a modest profit]. We never see this in real life because it is ass backwards from what does attract people to make a gamble. Most people who study these phenomena attribute all of this to the fact that individual human beings have difficulty in assessing the true probability of outcomes that have less than 1 chance in 20 of actually occuring - see: Friedman & Savage.