pbleighton

Here: Peter

4S. When in doubt bid game. Peter

Interesting atricle in the WP. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...7081401722.html Peter

Ah, so you cherry-pick your intelligence estimates. You could be a Republican President!!!!!! Peter

So Mike, are you saying you're not buying CIA information? They say it's 75%. :) Peter

China will pass the U.S. as an economic power fairly soon, at least as measured by GDP. China doesn't want an economic war. They are a huge exporter, one of the biggest beneficiaries of a stable world economy. Of course they try to influence other countries. All countries do. BFD. Peter

Hell yes. Peter

Ron, we play double as penalty. If there's no runout, we could miss game. Interesting suggestion, Adam. Basically Jordan in another context. Peter

Do you play this as preemptive or invitational? If preemptive, can you invite? Peter

It depends on your agreements. It sure would to me, in one partnership, where it would be routine, but not in any other. That said, I wouldn't double 4H with this hand, since 2S can be a yarborough in competition. Peter

The king will score if the ace is with the opening leader, which is likely playing fourth best. Always play the king against a NT contract. Against a suit contract, people usually don't lead the ace without having the king, so you should play the jack. Peter

Oops, asleep again. Peter

It sure is, and opposite partenr's possible 5/6 hcp it is forcing to game. In the given auction 3H makes no sense, without an agreement which I don't play. Peter

Partition is a dirty word in Washington, but I agree with you, Helene, this is probably the best realistic scenario. IMO it won't start happening until after (probably quite a while after) the U.S. leaves. Peter

I agree with Adam. Peter

In that case, I would stick to 15-17 (or 14-16, or 15+-18, or whatever). I've played systems where the 4th seat had a different range (or vul/not vul), and once in a while there will be a mixup, wiping out whatever advantage we were looking to gain, as Cherdano said. Peter

This is a meaningless question when you divorce it from the system being played. Peter

Again, Mike, how? Peter

5C for me too. Peter

Bush's motivations become irrelevant the moment this war criminal leaves office. His successor (Democrat or Republican) will leave Iraq a mess. We will blame the Iraqis for the whole thing, of course. Peter

This is your fantasy, Mike. The rest of us are more reality-based. This obviously offends you. Tell me how we can *win* another country's civil war, please. Peter

Yes. I'm not sure why Mike and those who think like him need to assign *winner* and *loser* status to entities in the conflict, when it's quite clear that there will be no winners, just groups who have varying degrees of loss. Peter

I am no Meckwell expert either, but I believe that a lot of their however many pages of agreements pertain to competitive auctions, especially the strong club auctions. I read somewhere that they are the only strong club pair to actually win IMPs on their strong club hands. Peter

So Ken, are you the Eric Rodwell of 2/1? Peter

6C, because it feels right. Peter