42

Roland mentioned already that he plays the guitar and I know of others, too, who are active "music makers". Perhaps we could found a BBO band? :) I for myself play only a little bit of this and a little bit of that (parents had no money for single lessons, later I was too lazy or too tired to practise); I wish I would have been more serious in this area. So I tried out flutes, guitar, piano, percussion. What I do since many years is singing in a choir (church choir for a longer period and now the choir at university).

What do you do with the thong, Jimmy? :) For me there are a lot of good things worth to be mentioned: - electric light - central heating - continental quilt and feather pillow - anti aging cream (although I fear it doesn't really help, but hope dies last of all...) - PC and internet - supermarkets - wheel --> railway and cars - redwine (occasionally...) - shoes . . . I like it cosy and comfortable :lol:

What is "relative"? When you stick your nose into my a**, then we both have a nose in the a** but I am in a relative better position.

:ph34r: :ph34r:

Funny! We, or better my partner does!, are completing (is that possible???? A lot of work...) a CC for our system and had right that sequence for discussion this morning. We play Polish Club, MAFIA (major always first in answer). The 1NT rebid shows 12-14. 2♣ is invitational or weak with ♦ --> forces 2♦ 2♦ is GF ----------------------- A: I was thinking that this shows a real balanced hand like 4333, 4432, simple invitation to 3NT. ---------------------- B: 4M5m-hands which need more judgement by opener despite asking for min./max. Perhaps this sequence very often leads to a 3m-contract? If I remember correctly it is described this way in "Bridge Conventions in Depth" by the Granovetters: a choice of contracts via the long way with semi-unbalanced hands + the appropriate point count. Opener is asked to judge, not only accept or deny the invitation. Does it make sense to use the short OR the long way to distinguish responders point range more accurate? That was a suggestion that I heard. I think, no. ---------------------------------------------------- C: 1m 1♥ // 1NT 3♥ D: 1m 1♥ // 1NT 2♣ // 2♦ 3♥ What is going on in these sequences? ---------------------------------------------------- All in all I feel very well playing XY-NT and XYZ, it relatively often comes up.

♥ Q. My feeling tells me ♠ Q but brain dominates today.

female: Kathryn Hepburn Meryl Streep male: Gustav Gründgens (Faust) Cary Grand 2 Kevins: Spacey and Kline Anthony Hopkins ------- Caren

3♥ is clearly preemptive and weak in our system since we have 2NT and 3♣ as invitation with 3 or 4 trumps. I can stand the 3-level and want to tell p that I am better than weak with an A and trump KJxxx. The question was only if a 4♥ bid is always really weak and preemptive or if it is better to say that 4♥ is to play with a variable range of points when responder is convinced that a slam is out.

Happy birthday, Jimmy!!! ♥ http://images.google.de/images?q=Geburtsta...nG=Bilder-Suche

You should come to Germany :ph34r: MANY good beers around here! My personal favourite is Warsteiner, next comes Paulaner Hefeweizen christallklar. All in all I like redwine more... Caren

Oh my God, I just watched a really stupid romantic German series :) But I couldn't stop because it played on a luxury sailing ship on a journey around Cuba. An over 60 year old lady found true love after a bad disappointment *sigh* I need to visit my psychotherapist again....SOON (the usual 3 minutes advice for 130€ ;) )

I'd just love a job like that. Doing nothing for 3 hours, then a couple of hours off (lunch included), back to doing nothing for another 3 hours, a couple of hours off (yawn!), and my day is over. Needless to say, Monday mornings would start Tuesday at noon. Doing this for 6 years must be heaven on earth ;) Roland In fact it isn't always heaven. We want to be important for others, be in contact with others, decide, be respected, have a status, get a "wdp" (may be in form of money). I was at home for a long peroid (there for the children who were more and more absent) but it wasn't always fun! BBO was not yet what it is today :)

I wasn't very proper in describing my system (was in a hurry and doing 3 things at the same time as usually because my day is always much too short...). I edited the original posting and marked it blue, but that doesn't really change the subject, or? Sorry anyways!!! With the posted hand I felt I had a problem and decided to bid 3♣= 9-11 with 4 trumps, which comes closer to the hand than anything else imo. My immediate feeling ( :) ) was to jump directly to 4♥. Now, after 3♣, my LHO found a 3♠ bid and they ended in 4♠-1 while we had 4♥. LHO said afterwards that he wouldn't have been bidding after an immediate 4♥ :( So it is always also that tactical move which lets grow grey hairs... My partner voted for 2♥ with my hand = 6-9. I still don't like that (sorry p ♥!). The interesting question for sequences like the aboves is perhaps: is slam an option? We open 1♣ with 18+, so p is limited to 17. My hand is nice with 2 keycards, therefore I decided that slam MIGHT be on, it is too strong for 4♥. If I would be sure that slam never is on (never say never...) I jump to 4M? Is my thinking correct? Thx again :)

Hi! Playing 5crd majors, we recently had a discussion about what a jump to 4M promises exactly (you play for fitshowing --> 3♣=9-11 with 4(+) trumps, 2♣/♦=gf+possible fit, 2NT= 10-11 with 3 trumps or VERY strong, 3M = preemptive, 4M = preemptive): 1. 1♥ (pass) 4♥ 2. 1♠ (pass) 4♠ 3. 1♥ (dbl) 4♥ 4. 1♠ (dbl) 4♠ What is the highest limit for HCPs? Does the vulnarability change the ranges? What distribution besides 5 trumps do you expect the 4-bidder to have? What do you bid after 1♥ (pass) with: [hv=d=s&v=b&s=s42hkj97xd98xca8x]133|100|Scoring: IMP[/hv]Thx :P

- nip tucs (or whatever it is called: that one with the always "hot" surgeon) - Big Brother - those embarrassing talk shows with only stupid persons who discuss EVERYthing on tv - musicshows with "Schlagern" and "Heimatmelodien" (= this Oktoberfest sound...) - a lot of animated cartoons for children - most political talk shows tv sucks most of the time :P

active: walking (without those dumb sticks) Taiji tango gymnastic sometimes swimming passive: soccer handball snooker dancing karate Bi-, Triathlon

I was using an FD CC before but now needed to make some personal changes. I went through and it is one of the best things I ever used! Not only that I don't have to explain my bids during playing anymore (and I like giving the whole information....) which distracts and takes time, I can go again through our whole system together with my partner: talking about some things while drinking a cup of coffee isn't the same as writing agreements down together for using/showing them in public. There were some minor questions at the beginning, perhaps also due to language problems, but Ben answered them kindly and the rest was easy doing. I also like it when people use a CC because it shows that they don't "muddle" in the current situation, it is fair play imo (I don't imply that people who use non are unfair per default!!) Consequences: - I wish I had another life time for using all the fancy things that are offered here, learning more and more (as well as playing a lot) - I wish I could print the CC :lol: Thanks again, Fred and all your helpers! Caren

Sometimes one needs to be distracted from "to do's" or worse: http://www.indianchild.com/funny_quotes.htm http://www.groucho-marx.com/ http://www.vaterundsohn.de/englisch/index.asp http://www.baetzler.de/humor/humor_en.html#rcart German: http://www.jwdt.com/~paysan/bush.html There are millions more, I know.... :P Perhaps you have some favourite, too?

I very rarely watch TV, but when I do I like: Simpsons, Home improvement (Tim Allen), Emergency Room, I watched nearly all parts of Star Trek together with my son, Recently I started to watch the early parts of Gilmore Girls because my daughter told me it is a must, I liked the Bill Cosby Show, all about animals, (my favourites are tigers), soccer matches, especially Champions League, sometimes Motocross and Snooker a lot about sciences, some talk shows, depends on the guests, here in Germany we have a kind of talk show where a psychologist makes a short "therapy session", solving a problem. I like figuring out what the real problem might be when they start.

Tango; my favourite at the moment, I watch it (or some parts of it) very often these days because I love Tango Argentino --> the interaction between man and woman in connection with the music The Matrix: good idea. Kung Pow. I also like non stupid Martial Arts movies Les Choristes Bread and Tulips Goodwill Hunting The Silence of the Lambs Life of Brian Harold and Maude: watched it perhaps 12 times over the years. Old movies with Katherine Hepburn Operation Petticoat British Comedies Die Hard; it is brutal but in a way fascinating, don't know why :P To say in general what I like: good sense of humor; something is wrong but the protagonist has and takes the power to change things into the positive; outstanding characters; the ending is not obvious after 2 minutes. What I really dislike are horror movies (there is already too much horror in the world), katastrophy movies, most Steven King movies (sick mind imo), stupid movies like Police Acadamy or so, movies where in the first 2 minutes 3 houses and 5 cars explode and 107 people die (except Die Hard :P ), teenage comedies, and and and

Between being a bank clerk (hated it!) and now being secretary at the Department of Mathematics at the local university I raised more or less succesfully 2 children. During that period I studied psychology for some time but quit because the children started to rebel. Now it is too late to start from scratch, I am not interested in examinations anymore. Bridge competition is already enough in this area... I would do it all again but if I would being told to do something else I would like to be a profiler or do something which has to do with music. In any case I must have people around.

Crime stories, many written by women (Eliszabeth George, Joy Fielding, Sara Paretsky, Minette Walters, etc.) Michelangelo (Irving Stone) Da Vinci Code Il Barone Rampante (Calvino) Cook books :P Lord of the Ring Avalon Le Petit Prince THGTTG (obviously..) Books with stories that play in former Egypt Books of German authors like Fontane, Mann, Goethe, Lenz, Frisch, Tucholsky Books of D.H. Lawrence . . .

Why do I have such a bad flu? Why doesn't it stop snowing? Why turn my mistakes into zeros whilst opp's mistakes are tops? Why is life sometimes so unfair? Why is love sometimes so unfair? Why are only the young attractive? Why do I have so less time for the many things I would like to do? Why don't I earn the money that I am worth? . . . "Watercoolers": I can have a break and I won't get it next week. And much better than losing a leg/eye/heart/head *oops* Snow is fine. The world looks clean and bright. Because I have a chance to learn it the hard way. Yessss.... Next chance to learn being patient, think about religion, and ... The worst and most painful thing without an answer. Because they shall get children who need time and energy. Ehmmmm.... perhaps bad timemanagement?? I have enough *caugh* Great place here :lol: It works! Cooooooooooooool! Caren PS: "There are nine million bicycles in Beijing That's a fact, It's a thing we can't deny Like the fact that I will love you till I die. . . . There are six BILLION people in the world More or less and it makes me feel quite small But you're the one I love the most of all"

I am not really a fan of matchpoint tourneys... But I try (just have a break at work :)): 1. pass, because p didn't dbl nor overcall, so I assume he sits on some ♥s or opener is strong. They are red. 2. I pass again: we are red, I am weak in HCP (I know... no argument for the young and wild and terrific declarers...), the suit is anaemic, I have the other M, the ♠s let me hope to be able to bid later if necessary. 3. ♥ is out because I don't want to play immediately a finesse for declarer who has 4 ♥s. I am too weak to hope for length tricks. ♦ is out because I have a little bit of hope to score the Q. ♣: hmmm, perhaps ♠: yes, because the lead goes through responder who promised the ♠s. Opener has at most 3, so p has at least 4. Since the points of declarer and responder are nearly equally distributed, we cannot really destroy communication but I can try to attack dummy's honours = entries for finesses against my strong p.

Let's start soon, I have the strong feeling that it would be only the first in a series :lol: Not me, but my p was yesterday short before to catch sth. by his screenopp (another match against a very "dry" international experienced player): my p just asked how the bidding went and that guy said, he forgot (they know each other since a lifetime and they are not really friends...). You can imagine that an interesting discussion followed. TD was there and prevented the worst. Good that we play with big screens (no foot contact or an upcoming event possible *hehe*). No, I just ran out of pass cards, normal ;) Before any match had started on saturday, one of our team members asked what the result of the first segment of the day was :blink: This pair went home early in the afternoon.... Bridgetactics can be really bad... do you know the Cola Coup? There was a good player, always dressed very elegant which was very important for him. To distract him before the match, his opp ordered a Cola, put it on the tableside of this gentleman and *oooops*... he did not really recover :rolleyes: To be continued....