bid_em_up

I admit when I initially read the senior kibitzers comments the other night, I missed the fact he was referring to bidding the grand slam. Comments were flying fairly quickly at that moment in time. :) I thought after the splinter, the small slam would always be bid and that the senior kibber was questioning the validity of bidding six which seemed reasonable opposite any hand that has shown some values (via the pass of the double) and the splinter. The grand is a different story.

Stayman does not require an alert. Garbage Stayman, Drop dead stayman, trash stayman or whatever other name you choose to call it by does not require an alert.

This is a terrible sequence, imo. What is the point of 1S? If this hand would just make his limit raise via whatever methods he has available, the auction would stop in 3H.

The problem is that after double, there is going to be the same 5♣ raise. But then, if you bid 5♠, it is easier for PD to carry onto 6♠. I agree about not making a direct 5♠ call with only 10 tricks, but I won't sell out to 5♣. .. neilkaz .. (3♣) X (5♣) p (p) 5♠ (either pass or 6C) 6♠ seems reasonable to me.

I could be mistaken but I think if you do it this way, they will not get the message until the next time they log in. Delivery would be preferable when that person finished the tourny, if possible somehow.

Duck the 2nd club. You should end up scoring 4 clubs, 3 diamonds, 1 heart and 1 spade.

Knowing that I am outnumbered, I think I can make a fairly reasonable case for pass. Negatives for 2S 1) This hand isn't as good as it initially looks. 2) No aces in hand. 3) All values are slow. 4) Flat distribution. 5) Would prefer to defend 3H/4H than play 3S/4S. Probably not a good idea to encourage partner into bidding 3S or 4S. 6) Wasted heart values. 7) Do not want a spade lead vs. any contract by the opponents. 8) We already know that partner is short(ish) in hearts, if he cannot reopen (either with X or 2S) after 2H p p, it simply is not our hand. 9) Partners 1S overcall could be fairly bad given the nature of overcalling on just about anything that most seem to play today. Positives for 2S 1) We have three trump. Support w/support, right? 2) We have 9 hcp (although 3 are likely wasted). 3) 4S might be a good sac over 4H. 4) It's more fun to bid. Passing is boring. (Ok, so I made this one up.) Sure seems like the minus's outnumber the plus's for 2S. The only way 2S can be absolutely right is if you are playing a sound overcall structure. However, I certainly don't expect to change anybody's mind. I'd probably even bid 2S myself, :) but there are certainly a lot of considerations in favor of pass.

does that mean that ~1.3% of deaths are vehicular? No. Yes. I don't know. :) The NSC's report considers a lot of things to be "motor vehicle accidents" Animal rider or occupant of animal-drawn vehicle Bus Occupant Car Occupant Air and Space Transport accidents Construction Equipment Pedestrians etc. There does not appear to be a category specifically for "drivers of automobiles".

"Tougher drunken-driving laws, stricter seat-belt enforcement and safer cars combined to reduce the number of people killed in car crashes to 1.48 for every 100 million miles traveled in 2003" This is not the same as saying any one individuals odds of being killed in car crash are 1 in 1.48 million. (And that's not even considering that it says 100 million miles, not one million). According to the National Safety Council the odds are 1 in 6,498 that you will die in a motor vehicle accident (in the course of one year) and 1 in 84 over the course of your lifetime. But, "One year odds are approximated by dividing the 2003 population (290,850,005) by the number of deaths." http://www.nsc.org/lrs/statinfo/odds.htm Of course, this same info lists your odds of dying by legal execuation as: 1 in 4,847,500 in the course of the next year, and 1 in 62,468 over the course of a life time, while the real odds of it actually occuring are probably actually nil. Unless, of course, you are planning to commit some kind of capital crime in the near future (and then only if done in a state that has the death penalty). :) Your individual odds would vary based on your driving habits, number miles travelled, etc.

Two hikers on a trail came around the bend to find an enormous brown bear about 75 yards up the trail. The bear spies them and begins running toward them at a full gallop. One hiker drops his backpack, sits down, throws off his boots, and starts lacing up a pair of running shoes. The other hiker says: "What are you doing? You will never outrun that bear!". The first hiker replies: "I don't have to outrun the bear. I only have to outrun you." Later on, having managed to escape the bear, the two hikers were further down the trail when one of them was unfortunately bitten by a rattlesnake in his privates. The other hiker pulled out his cell phone and called 911 asking what he should do for his friend. He was informed that he needed to make an incision where the bite occurred and suck the venom out. The unlucky hiker asked excitedly as the other one hung up the phone "What did they say?" To which his friend replied gravely, "They said....that you are going to die."

Bring out the holy handgrenade! :) Ni!

All I know is that I would run a whole helluva lot faster if I was being chased by a bear, than I would if it was a rabbit. Heck, I'd probably even laugh at the rabbit. :)

Dealer 2nd Seat/2nd hand 3rd Seat/3rd hand Passout seat

I wouldn't concern myself too much about what this partner had to say when they: 1) open this 3♠ (its pretty awful for a 2S opening even, the shape is terrible but I realize some people would). 2) opens this type of hand 3S and then refuses to answer a keycard inquiry properly since because they know they lied initially and are trying to compensate for it by somehow thinking 5S is now simply to play. 3) apparently routinely likes to double (and redouble) any and all contracts at the drop of a hat. I see lots of -800, -1000, -1100, -1200, -1600, -1700 and yes, even one minus 2200(!!) in their results for the last month. This person obviously has some very poor evaluation skills (imo) or they just like to double and redouble whenever they get a chance. You should pass 5S, as you know from your hand that it is an impossible answer. jmoo.

Cuba? They win the world cup almost all the time. I'm far from an expert on baseball, but as I recall Major League Baseball doesn't permit its players to compete in the World Cup. Lots of good players come out of the carribean, but I'd be shocked if the Cuban national team was competive with top professional teams out of the US. Admittedly, the "talent" here in the US is spread across a large number of teams. Even so, all that money had (better) buy us something. Assuming that it is actually the World Baseball Classic that is being referred to, then yes, MLB players were eligible to play, see this link for the U.S. roster. http://ww2.worldbaseballclassic.com/2006/r...ex.jsp?sid=t940 However, Gerben is sadly mistaken in their opinion that Cuba is "the strongest team in the world". Yes, Japan won the event. Tommy Lasorda said at the time that the Dominican Republic had the best team. I'm sure he is more likely to know who really had the best team than either Gerben or myself would. The US team is a bunch of players assembled to play in a single event, they have not played as a team per se (and yes, this does make a difference) except for this one event. Many of the top MLB players chose to represent their home countries instead of playing on the U.S. team. The US team also included very few of the top pitchers on this roster, as most pitchers choose to rest their arms in the off-season. So the pitching for this event is nowhere near the level you would see from a real "World Series" type team. I seriously doubt Cuba would beat any of the top 10 MLB teams on any sort of a consistent basis. However, given that neither the U.S., Dominican Republic, or Cuba actually won the event simply goes to show how unpredictable baseball can be in a short (2/3) series.

Phil, Although I like (and somewhat agree with) your line, would you really expect LHO holding the AK(Q) of diamonds and a stiff spade to lead the spade initially?

Arend is playing Super Geeber apparently. I have a hard time coming up with why 5♣ is better than 4♣. Surely 4♣ is forcing? sure, but 4C could be interpreted as splinter. With kind regards Marlowe Be realistic please. How can the preemptor make any use of a 4C splinter? Whats he supposed to do? Look at his 6-11 hcp and 6+ hearts and think "yea, I guess since I have no wasted values in clubs I can consider slam"?!? This would be as bad of an agreement as agreeing to play new suit non-forcing.

Isn't this backwards? If the clubs are breaking, 3N is a lock with a likely 10 or 11 tricks. Given that the form of scoring is partly BAM, you will be losing the board even if the club J drops. I would take the club hook at this point as it is unlikely to matter (in terms of winning the board) if I go down.

Ok, now I am certain you are just messing with us.

Is everyone married to everyone else? No...but Rozanne didn't play on USA1 this year, so she wasn't one of the principles. If you're going to exclude everybody who used to play on USA1, might play on USA1 in the future or is married to somebody who might play on USA1 in the future, you're going to have a very small pool to work with. Whether or not she has played on USA1 in the past or future is not relevant. The action is being taken vs. the players on the current Venice Cup team members. As I said before, since he has a personal stake involved (either financially or emotionally), it could lead to the appearance of favoritism should he side with the current team. (Give us your vote or we kick your wife off our team). Even if he did not abstain freely, the BoD could force him to abstain according to the current bylaws/procedures.

1) pass 2) 3C. I have good values and a 5 card suit, if partner passes this he does not have extras, if he does, we can still find our heart fit. Dangit Vali, when are you going to learn to bid your best (and longest) suit first? :ph34r: (btw, one post in a year and half?!?) 2C and 2H are poor choices, imo. You are choosing to show a hand that could be xx xxx xxx xxxxx or xx xxxxx xxx xxx instead of the hand you actually hold. A really good 10 count with a doubleton spade. Much better to lie about being within 1 or two hcp for your bid, than showing what can be a total bust. 3) Pass. Even jokers make sound bids sometimes. If RHO is joking around, partner is also likely to be short in diamonds, if that is the case, he would have been able to take action in the direct seat.

I voted methods although I would prefer to give all the blame to South for overcalling this trash vulnerable.

Pass over 1S, 3D over 2N, double 3S if they still bid it.

I think it's better to finesse the diamond. If diamonds are 3-1, you're still going to make the diamonds win or lose. If they're 4-0 on the left, you can then duck a diamond on the next trick and still cash out. If they're 4-0 on the right, well, then you can change your mind when LHO discards. Finessing the jack on the first round doesn't make it more likely that you'll make the contract, but it doesn't hurt and significantly increases your odds of a couple of overtricks. You're right. Thats what I get for posting @ work. The main point is that it is wrong to win the spade Ace at trick one, removing the quick entry to the hand that likely will need it later.