pbleighton

I would double. I don't see any other call as being close, though it could easily lead to a bad result. If you pass in situations like this, they will steal you blind. Peter

"For those who are saying it was too strong for 2♠, do you open 1♠ or pass?' If I were playing a system where this bid was too good for a 2S bid, I would open 1S. For me, there are no hands too strong for a two bid which aren't strong enough for a one bid. However, there are hands which are strong enough for a two bid, but which are inappropriate for a two bid, and which must be passed. What is "inappropriate" varies widely by partnership, even more than what is the minimum hand strength for a one bid. I would open the hand in question 2S in both of my current partnerships without any hesitation, the majority in this thread would not. Peter

"Huh When you are making a decision to preempt or open at the 1level why not consider vulnerability?" Opening in the the first two seats, you should have your minimum hand strength, whatever that is, and however you define it. IMO vulnerability should play little or no role. You either have it or you don't. For preempts in the the first two seats, you should never preempt with a hand that is good enough to open at the one level. OTOH, vulnerability definitely plays a role in deciding which hands to open preemptively, and which hands to pass. This is true even for me :huh: Peter

"Perhaps he has, if you say it is true, it must be true." Very nice. A excellent example of your powers of persuasion, and your skill with the English language. "But currently he is averaging about .31 IMP per board on BBO. While that is an enviable win rate and I am green with jealosy, it is a tad short of 1 IMP per board." Justin (and I) used the past tense. Please pay attention to the posts you are attempting to respond to. Let me explain something to you. There are many levels of bridge ability. You obviously think of yourself as a good player, and compared to the the average duplicate player, you may well be. You may be the stud of your local club. World-class players, on the other hand, are further away in ability from strong club players than the strong club players are from the club duffers. You apparently don't realize this. I'm guessing it's because you like to think of yourself as a near-champion player, and don't want to admit to yourself that you are not. Of course, if I am wrong, you may list your national and international victories and top 3 finishes, and I will stand corrected. Another issue: your age. Looking at your profile, I was truly shocked to find that you are 64. From your posts, I was guessing that you were a socially maladjusted under 25 year old. Obviously, I was wrong about you. BTW, this isn't meant as a slap to our under-25 contingent of posters, who are generally quite well behaved. YOUR parents obviously brought you up right. Peter

"The # 1 reason for losing boards is obvious bidding and play errors. Not judgment errors in close situations, just plain doing things that are obviously wrong. No matter what the field or who the ops are, if I play with few errors I usually (not always) win. If my partner or I make a number of obvious errors we lose (almost always). I find a definite correlation between how well or how poorly partner and I play and my win/loss averages. You have to play pretty damn well and you have to have a lot of gifts to average 1 IMP per board in any venue of bridge. Maybe there are players that can consistently do that, but I have yet to see one. Perhaps you might give me the names of several so I can study their bidding and play?" Justin Lall (jlall) stated that he had done it. He is a world champion, I believe him. Peter

Just saw it. One of the best movies I've seen for a while, a great character study. If you saw it, what did you think? Peter

"Play team games with people you know and trust. Alternatively, create a pairs tournament for a group of friends." Richard: these may not be options for Wayne :P Peter

"Let me summarize my opinions on the subject ONE MORE TIME. 1. Cheating does occur in bridge .. all bridge (not all players cheat) 2. Cheating can be reduced 3. Efforts should be made to reduce cheating wherever possible That is all I am saying, that is all I have ever said. If that is an attitude, then color me sour." Let me quote you: "I get a real insight into bridge player's mentality everytime I ever post to one of these threads" "For the social animals that cannot play without playmates in the sandbox, allow kibbing for rubber bridge and total points games." "If the answer to all 3 of those is yes and 3. the player has played over 1000 boards in the past month, I guarantee you that player is cheating in some fashion." "Now before you strart pounding your keyboards in rage as what I am saying let me tell you how I know this to be true. I am ( or was ) a computer programmer (I wrote the original World Series of Poker Simulation) and have a lot of experience doing monte carlo simulations and odds calculations for casinos and gaming companies. I have run simulations of millions and millions of trails to test the probablilites of all kinds of propositions. So when I say I detect a pattern of bidding, leads, and plays that go against the odds, I know of what I speak." "These measures were taken to REDUCE cheating. If you think otherwise, you are INCREDIBLY naiive." "If you enjoy a social crap shoot where the outcome is totally meaningless, HAVE AT IT." Consider yourself colored. The attitude I will color you with is "rude, insulting, and arrogant" rather than "sour", but you may color yourself with that as well, if you like :P Peter

That's quite an attitude you've got there, Wayne :rolleyes: Peter

"Heck I want you guys to howl loud and often....just vote for us to Win...whatever the heck that means.... " I vote for us to avoid tragic unwinnable situations, and I know exactly what that means... "I do not question those that really had to face this issue in real life." A war crime is a war crime. No question about it. Peter

Warning, a somewhat morbid post, just before Christmas... My grandmother died yesterday at 91. She had been somewhat senile for a dozen years, had entered an "assisted living facility" ten years ago, had entered the nursing home part of the facility eight years ago, and had been unable to recognize anyone for the last six years, couldn't feed or bathe herself, etc. This was a terrible thing for our family, particularly for my mother and her sister. I heard of this via an email from my mother: "this a.m. the health center called me to say greggen had taken a turn for the worse and was failing rapidly. i did get to see her for a few minutes before she died, very peacefully. she will be cremated and her ashes buried in the winsted garden, as are my father's and several other family members. she was a lovely, caring person and i am only sad her end was so empty and protracted. see you all on xmas day, love, mom" I went by to see my mother this morning. She wasn't there, but I spoke to my father, who said that she wasn't in mourning. That had happened years before, and her primary emotion was relief. To her (and the rest of us), Greggen had already died, and the thing in the nursing home was a medically-activated husk. BTW, I realize there are those who see things differently, and I respect those views. I am not trying to be provocative (not always the case with me), but our family is atheist/agnostic, and this is how we look at these things. This is happening more and more, with our medical technology and state-paid benefits. My grandmother's savings were exhausted in a few years, then in the last six years of her "life", when she was little more than a vegetable, she cost the taxpayers well over a million dollars. I cannot endorse euthanasia, but as a society what are we doing? I don't mean this to be a U.S.-centric post, but to give an example, we have 40 million people uninsured, a large number of them children, and yet we spend our money on this? Yet how can we not? Look forward 30-40 years, with more technology and an aging population. What percentage of our population will be totally senile, kept alive in nursing homes, and at what cost to society? Thoughts? Peter

"Wow, 10k points - can I buy some of those?" Sure, hire a pro and go to lots of regionals :P Peter

"This has been repeated so many times it has been taken as true. It may be true but I have read some stuff that puts this back into the myth repeated so often it must be true. This would make for an intesting discussion if anyone has any new research papers on the subject." Try this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yule Peter

"Melviss666" may be a troll who's having fun with us. "666"... you devil, you! Peter

"Peter I have answered that question quite a bit here..." Where, I missed it? Peter

"We also probably play fewer 5 level major suit contracts, while bidding at least as many making slams as the average player (obviously we also do a lot of bad things as well... since we are not exactly household names :P )" Ah, but you're a household FORUM name. In fact, you're more than a name, you're a god! Well, a minor deity, anyway, not the big Fred in the sky :P If I get you right, in the 2/1 auction 1S-2C-3C-3D-3H-3NT(or 5C), 3D and 3H both show a little extra at least, and not too quacky, and the signoff limits the bidder to JUST a little extra? Peter

"While this hand is light in hcp (as someone observed, we have only 13), this is a classic example of why experts don't count points in these auctions: experts picture hands consistent with the bidding, and draw inferences. Here, partner has, as Justin pointed out, almost certainly got a stiff or void ♥ (no 3♥ delayed preference over our 3D) and he has slam interest once we showed interest ourselves... he bid 4♠. " Mike, as the decidedly non-expert poster who had the ignorance to mention point count B) , I have two questions for you: The (apparently poor) way I play is that a cue by pd forces me to cue if I have a first round control and can show it below game level. Thus, I read the auction as showing a minimum, or close to it, where the player was forced to show his first round control in spades. 1. What is your agreement on a cue bidding response showing extras, what level, how much, etc. 2. If you played my agreement, where 4S didn't show extras, would you still push to slam? Peter

"Cue bid of course." No "of course" about it, I know players who treat this as Gerber or I wouldn't have asked. Since I've started down this road, I bid 6D with only one key card missing, realizing it's my fault if it goes down. Peter

I would have passed 3NT. You have 13 hcp, pd is probably singleton or void in hearts, has wasted values in spades, and didn't seem interested when you bid 3D. What was 4C, Gerber or a cue? Peter

Pass. Pd will have six spade winners and the ace of hearts to start. Where are the other three tricks coming from? Peter

I suggest a Saturday or Sunday. Peter

I'd like to play, but my schedule could be an issue. When? Peter

Mikeh: Good post. Mike777: To reiterate my question, do you think the invasion of Iraq was a mistake? If not, why? Peter

"The amount of time required seems to vary dramatically. North Korea and Cuba are still kicking arround." Is it an accident that these are the two regimes which the U.S. has tried the hardest to isolate? Cuba, in particular, might well have been reformed by now if it weren't for the crazy U.S. policies. North Korea may be different, it looks like there is mental illness at work. Peter

"Bush told The Washington Post in Wednesday's editions that "you know, I think an interesting construct that Gen. Pace uses is, 'We're not winning, we're not losing.' "" http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/12/20/...main/index.html Who do you think is "winning" in Iraq? My answer is that for once I agree with Bush: no one is winning. Everyone's losing. Peter