bid_em_up

Really?

In standard SAYC or 2/1, it is forcing. That said, in most of my partnerships, I prefer it to be non-forcing. Forcing hands can bid 3C (checkback) to find 3 card support for responders major.

It was imps. Sorry for the omission.

Thanks to all who answered. I posted this in the Beginner/Intermediate area, because even though the contract may be going down, it cannot pay to double, and I thought it was a good example hand to show why not. Herein lies the crux of the problem. The world class opp (or at least he claimed to be, who am I to doubt him?) doubled with this hand. He happened to be right so he gained an extra 50. But he loses much more when he is wrong and since double does tend to be lead directing, he may give the contract away on a diamond lead. (They didnt lead a diamond, however). And as is suggested, it may well get xx'd and make. Oops. I was totally amazed when he doubled.

You hold: [hv=s=saqxxhxxxdaxxcj10x]133|100|Not vul vs. vul.[/hv] Dealer, your RHO opens 3♦. The person holding your hand passes. Your LHO tanks, and finally bids 6♣-p-p-? How about it? Do you feel lucky punk? Well, do ya? (LHO is known to be a decent player, not prone to flights of fancy....he is expecting to have a reasonable shot at making 6♣ for the bid). Explain your reasons on why you should or should not double, please.

er, correction. 22nd Amendment, US Constitution "Section 1. No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once." So they can only have two additional elected terms, if they served two years or less of a prior presidents term, making the maximum in office ten years. If they served more than 2 years of a prior presidents term, then they are only eligible for one more elected term (at any time). As a side note, of the current living presidents and former presidents, only Jimmy Carter, and .....you guessed it, George H. W. Bush (the elder Bush), are currently eligible to be elected to another term in office. All others have been elected to two terms in office. It is also unclear if a former president who has served two terms could be elected to the Vice-Presidency, and then assume the office of President if the elected president should resign, die, etc. The 22nd amendment does not address this issue and I think the US Supreme Court would have to decide whether this was possible or not. So far, it has not been tested.....but it could be if Hillary were to attempt to name Bill as her veep.........

No. The maximum any US president can serve is two elected terms (whether or not they are consecutive terms). The only possible way to serve more than this would be to be promoted (ie, impeachment or death of current president) from VP (or Speaker of the House, or lower succession order) to President, and then they can then be elected to two terms of their own. Theoretically, they could then serve a maximum total of 12 (see post below) 10 years. They could, also be promoted as above and serve that term out, win the election once, lose the next election, and still be eligible to be elected to one more term in office, so that they end up serving more than 8 total years in office. Or they could be promoted, serve the term out, and not win the next election. Then they would still be eligible for two elected terms in office. The key point is they may only serve two ELECTED terms in office. (At least that is my understanding, I could be mistaken). EDIT: I was, see next post. :( :D

In the last 2-3 weeks, claims processing appears to be taking more time than it used to. Sometimes, I thought it might be due to the fact that opponents simply couldnt see the line or were taking their time to review it before accepting. Until last night, that is. Playing against knowledgable opponents, even the simplest claims (ie, nothing but high trumps remaining in hand) would take between 45 seconds and 3 minutes before they would process. By this I mean, I would claim, and wait, and wait, and wait, before the claim would be accepted and the next deal generated. This really started being a problem right around the time of the full release of the new version of BBO, and I was just wondering if changes were made regarding claims processing at that time, or if it could be related in any manner.

Are you volunteering?

You have to split them somewhere, else I could logically get you doubling with xxxx xx xxx xxxx: simply by reducing one card one spot at a time: it would take me a while, but I'd get a hand down from AKQJ AK AKQ AKQJ to 5432 32 432 5432... and only a hair splitter would claim that any of the changes made a material difference :rolleyes: I have previously several times mentioned that changing a 9 to a 10 would change my call on some hands. The point of polls like this is to define where, for each of us, the hair is to be split. Half of us so far find it between hands 2 and 3, and I agree. To me, the decision is close but clear. Anybody else notice how Mike gracefully avoided stating which hand he would actually double with? :P (Although, I think he is implying hand #3) Hand #3 for me. As far as what if major suits were reversed, hand #4 is closer, but I would much prefer it to be: xx AKxx Axx Q109x instead of Ax of spades and 98x of diamonds. Can't have the perfect hand all the time, though.

My partner did open it 3N last nite. Ok, not quite the same hand but close enough (same suit, different hand pattern). I would too. Opening 3♦ is incorrect, imo. Partner will never play you for a solid suit after a 2♦/3♦ openingi, and is unlikely to bid 3N, since he CANNOT have a filling diamond honor which might make him bid 3N himself. If you're going to preempt at favorable, you may as well put as much pressure on as possible, imo.

I would treat all three as penalty.

Pass, wtp?

he's bad, but not as bad as the player who will take his seat when he leaves he's bad he's realllllyyy bad he's in contention for the worst player on BBO can't follow suit, even when playing online follows suit (not usually an online consideration but it means his computer works) can't count to 13 forgets to count to 13 can count to 13, but is too lazy to be bothered with it how many cards are there in a suit again? bids any hand like it was (and will be with me) his last bids his hand ignoring all information during the deal uses bids he has "learned" whether appropriate or not uses bids he has "learned", but never actually learned real meaning of bid ignores signals sends wrong signals sends right signals at wrong time wouldnt know a signal if it jumped up and bit him on the ass is wrong, but is so clueless he doesnt realize he is wrong is wrong and refuses to acknowledge it knows he is wrong but acknowledges it thinks he is right and says so, but is normally wrong is right and says so expert/is right and stays quiet (these two are equilavent in my book) :lol:

I bet you couldnt make 6♠ either. :P

Phil, this is kind of an impossible question to answer without knowing what 4 cards have you reduced yourself to at this point, and what four cards does dummy have remaining? If I understand the question correctly, declarer has shown up with 7 spades, 3 clubs, and 3 unknown red suit cards. The auction and information given (from partners diamond plays) indicates that declarer has 2 hearts and 1 diamond. I would assume you have void K A10 J and dummy has void AJ K 9 at this point, and you pitch the heart K (or the diamond 10, i think either works), since partner holding the heart Q is the only chance you have to beat this. If declarer has the heart Q, he has 12 tricks anyway. Otherwise, I am totally misreading this.

Somebody had a problem with the 4♠ bid? Geez.

Would you like to make a bet on that?

In either form of scoring, thank your lucky stars that you didn't receive a club lead (making the contract dependent on finding the spade K onside or picking up the stiff K offside). The percentage play is to play for 2-1 spades (78%) vs. 3-0 onside (1/2 of 22%=11.0%). Clearly playing for spades to be 2-1 is a 7-1 favorite, as opposed to creating two entries to dummy to finesse spades twice, regardless of the method of scoring.

Yes on both counts (the lead and the play). :)

I would if I had it......why do you think I am asking here?! LOL

Really? You play a simple raise of a preempt as forcing?

[hv=n=s83hk982dk973ck72&w=saq10742hqd6cj10986&e=s65hj1075dq1085cq53&s=skj9ha643daj42ca4]399|300|[/hv] Auction is: 1N-(2♠)-3♠-(p)-3N 2♠ was not alerted and explained as "sayc", whatever the heck that is supposed to mean. 3♠ is leb, stayman denying a spade stop. 3N is "I'd rather play 3N on this holding than 4♥" (I guess, ask my partner, she bid it.) 4H has no play as it turns out. Can 3N be made? (I really dont know, but I think you have chances.) Opening lead is the spade Q, take it from here.

Oddly enough, I am ashamed to admit what I actually did.....even though I know 5♣ is the correct systemic bid in our system. Figuring that opener would take a direct 5♦ call as preemptive, I attempted one of my few masterminds, and bid 5♦, expecting it to be doubled (and then redoubled by me). Needless to say, it went all pass......for a less than stellar result. :unsure: I also find it somewhat disturbing that 17/52 pairs actually managed to reside in some number of hearts (either 4H or 6H) as partner held: [hv=s=sjxhaxxdqj10xxxcxx]133|100|[/hv] I cant imagine anyone not overcalling 2D (assuming the bid is available to them) and I dont see any point in bidding 2H when the diamond slam is totally visible dependent on partners keycard holding. I suppose its different if you dont have exclusion available to you, though.