bid_em_up

I cant imagine seriously considering anything other than double. Yes, partner may leave it in and it makes. Yes partner may bid and go for a big number. Stuff happens. But X is the most descriptive bid, imo and over the long haul, it is the winning bid (also my own opinion and apparently many others as well).

I agree and would like to see this as well.

He ain't the only one. Melvis is male. She is a he. Lets try to keep our facts straight without jumping to conclusions. That seems to be a frequent problem of yours. #5 Nobody has really jumped your case. They have again attempted to explain to you why what you suggest isnt necessarily an accurate way of analyzing this problem. You apparently have the misbelief that anyone who disagrees with you is attacking you. I do understand what you intended your original point to be, however, which is why I have refrained from posting until now. I wont say that I agree with it, but I understand what you meant. Of course you do. Admit it. Everyone would like to win and win big. :huh: I'm sure Ben could provide this. However, BBO forum posting rules generally prohibit naming names especially where doing so could open a discussion about that particular person. The three Ben provided are fairly well known players and would be easy enough to find by yourself. As a BBO yellow, Ben is bound by certain rules which should prevent him from disclosing any further names. He really shouldnt have disclosed the first three, imo, but I understand his doing so since it was an attempt to help you understand how it might be possible for someone to maintain this sort of average and they are players that noone could possibly challenge about their ethics. He will not because he cannot. You're absolutely right on this. He is prohibited from doing so by BBO rules. But not because he cant find any. Gee, this sounds familiar. This particular forum (The Water Cooler) isnt quite as strict regarding BBO policies about attacking others ideas. Noone has actually attacked you, only your idea. Try learning the difference. (Side note to Ben or Moderator, why does this thread continue to update itself in the General Bridge Discussion forum after it was supposedly moved?)

Just click the links now that you have them and then bookmark the pages. :)

Damn, and all this time, I thought it was "kat" Ben, Wayne and I have had this conversation before (see here). Mr. Statistician Extraordinaire (remember he claims to have written the original World Series of Poker) cant seem to comprehend this one simple fact.

I dont think this is going to be possible because I believe that the hand isnt actually recorded into myhands until it is successfully finished (ie, a result is established for the hand).

Both vul, your partner opens 2H (weak) in first seat and RHO passes. Partners preempts are known to usually be soundish in first/second seats, and will normally not hold 3 cards in the other major. You hold: [hv=s=saxxxhdak9xxxcaxx]133|100|Both Vul Imps[/hv] Its your bid. Do you make a call and if so, what is it? Any comments as to what call and why are welcome.

If the hands are correct, I pass and pray my partner can find a reopening double.

Some other things that havent been touched on. Some should go without saying, but.... 1) Get a good nights rest the night before (no playing midnite zip swiss or watching late nite movies). 2) Do not eat a heavy lunch OR dinner. 3) Watch your alcohol intake (if you drink at all). 4) Arrive early. Get your entry with a fair amount of time remaining prior to the start of the event. Find your table. Have your CC filled out ahead of time. In other words, when you get there, be prepared to PLAY. 5) Make sure you use some of the extra time for a potty break. There is nothing worse than having to hold it for the first six to eight boards because you need to go and cant get a break. It also disrupts your concentration. :) 6) Spend some of the other extra time reviewing your CC. You dont need to study it in detail, just refamiliarize yourself with it. 7) If you happen to spot a flaw in your system that needs to be corrected, above all else, DO NOT attempt to change it now. Wait until after the event is over. 8) I have always found it to be of crucial importance to play for at least AVERAGE on board #1, unless you have real good reasons to do otherwise. A disaster on bd #1 can set the tone for the next several boards, if not the entire session. I have had many a good game destroyed by this. This is not saying dont take advantage of a gift (if one presents itself), but do you best to bid/play for average to average plus. 9) Do not discuss hands during the session. Save the mental energy for later hands. 10) See #9. 11) Above all else, try to have fun. Opponents who see you and partner enjoying yourselves, are inclined to let their "guard" down as well. Their mistake. Oh well. Also, if you are not having fun, you are less likely to concentrate or play well. 12) Lastly, if you have a disaster, do your best to forget it and keep playing your best game. Crying over spilt milk, so to speak, accomplishes nothing except to distract you into spilling more milk. As always, jmoo.

Lets assume for a moment that 3N would be played by North, and he is likely to receive a diamond lead. Now he has 10 easy tricks, does he not? 5♣ 2♥ 1♦ 2♠, for plus x30. If the diamond A is onside, he can always score plus x30 anyway regardless of which hand declares 3N and the declarer at the other table already has an idea as to whether or not the Ace was onside or off. The question is, will he take the spade finesse trying for plus x60? Knowing that he has gained an extra trick on the lead (the Ace is offside), I see no reason for him to take the finesse and risk the overtrick he has already gained. If the spade is Qx offside, it will drop for him and he will be +x90, which we are never beating. Since this is BAM, it looks like the only way to beat the score at the other table is to take the spade finesse and later playing for the diamond Ace onside to make 6 (when the Ace is offside, I will still outscore 3N+1 by making 5, as long as declarer rejects the spade finesse at the other table). But what do I know?

That wasnt my interpretation of it, but you're probably in a better position to know otherwise. :blink:

Read Fred's post in the other thread regarding kibitzing being disallowed. http://forums.bridgebase.com/index.php?showtopic=16574&st=0 Where he says "Since it was largely aggressive lobbying by me that led to our recent change in ACBL policy (which I should note should be seen as an "experiment" and which, as Uday notes, is likely to soon change to allow some people to kibitz)...." This would imply to me that he sought and received ACBL approval (at least temporarily) to bar kibitzing from ACBL tournies, for what I think are valid reasons or concerns. To me, this would mean that they ARE being played in accordance with the Conditions of Contest regarding amending them. There are no PRINTED tournament schedules that I am aware of (at least not printed by BBO). I suppose one could consider the tournament description to be a "printed" schedule of sorts and the tournament descriptions could certainly have the notation "Kibitzing Not allowed" added to them. Would that make you happy? But seriously, in this environment, are you more or less likely to enter an event because kibitzing is NOT allowed? This "temporary" change in policy does not affect anyone's ability to play in ACBL games. They are not major events. They do not require you to be an ACBL member to play in them (only to receive any masterpoint awards). You are not prevented from playing in them due to this change in policy. And I fail to see how it is possible for anyone who wishes to play to be affected by this temporary change in policy to be affected by its non-publishment in the CoC (unless they were planning to cheat, and now they cant), until such point in time as Fred/Uday/Gweny/ACBL/whoever can come up with final version of the solution that actually might need to be published. And since it is Fred's site, and he, uday, gweny, et. al. ARE the tournament directors, and the CoC DOES give the tournament directors the right to bar ANY kibitzer for cause, "Any kibitzer may be barred for cause by the Tournament Director." if the cause is "we know for a fact that there is cheating occuring in our ACBL games due to kibitzing being allowed and therefore, we wish to bar ALL kibitzers at this time", then I, for one, believe they should be allowed to do so without having to make any amendments, published or otherwise, to the CoC. (And I'm not even certain that BBO even needed to seek the ACBL's approval to institute this policy, under this interpretation of the CoC.) jmoo.

Read the General Conditions of Contest for ACBL games, http://web2.acbl.org/documentlibrary/play/coc/allEvents.pdf (In the section on kibitzing) and you will note that any player may ban any one kibitzer from their table WITHOUT cause. All the player has to do is say, I dont want you here, please go away, and the kibitzer must leave. (A traveling player can only bar one individual for a given session.) Fairly easily enforcable in a face to face environment, but how can you do it online? The TD cannot make the kibber leave (there is no "bar specific kibber from tournament function" that I am aware of), so then ensues a heated battle between player, TD and kibber. Additionally, this would now go on at every table, requiring a lot more TD intervention, not to mention a hostile environment. Is this really what you would wish to promote? A player in a f2f tournament may ask that more kibitzers leave as well, but must provide cause for their removal and "I dont want them here" or "They make me nervous" are not generally considered to be sufficient causes for their automatic removal. But in a f2f tourny, if this request was made, most kibbers are courteous enough to observe a persons wishes and leave. For some reason, the same courtesy does not seem to apply in online games, for the main reason that it is "anonymous" play, imo and no real repercussions if the kibitzer(s) just flat refused to leave. Solution to problem, ban all kibitzers until such point in time a reasonable alternative can be provided (assuming there is such an alternative).

And you believed them? [hv=s=skxhxxxxdaxxcaxxx]133|100|[/hv] isnt an unreasonable hand for partner to hold. Neither is: [hv=s=skxhxxxxdaxxcaxxx]133|100|[/hv] Which plays better, 4♠ or 6♦ on either of these holdings? Yea. But none that I can share without offending somebody in the 4♠ bidding group.

Yea, thats what I think he's saying, anyway. Or something along the lines of having a partnership desk in the MBC where established pairs could register themselves for other established pairs to be able to issue invitations to them. Not necessarily a bad idea....

If 1-4-4-4 with 17 hcp, you would/should show the big hand with fit by bidding 3♦ at either your first or second turn, imo. Alternatively, you might splinter in ♠ if that bid is available to you.

I'm playing standard leads, why would I want to do anything other than lead the standard card? The 7♣ it is. If I think I need to portray the message that I really have a club suit, the 3 would be a distant second choice

I play this same method, and unlike neil, I highly prefer it. It did take some getting used to when I first started playing this way, however. When playing these methods, my partnerships will bid 4 card suits up the line, so a 1D response does not deny a four card major. I would expect partner to be either 1-4-4-4 or possibly 1-4-3-5. I also consider 2♦ to be non-forcing in this situation, if its of any relevance.

While I have seen multiple accounts of Alexander Litvinenko's death by nuclear poisoning, along with information on some of the places tested for radiation, and other people who have (supposedly) been inflicted with nuclear/radiation poisoning, I have yet to see any information suggesting where or how this might have been accomplished, or the materials to accomplish this might have been obtained. Not being a nuclear scientist myself, does anyone have any idea how much of this stuff would one have to be exposed to in order to suffer ill effects, and has there been any information that gives any idea to where this stuff was obtained, how it might have been transported, and whats going on here? Was it someone transporting radioactive materials to a government attempting to create nuclear weapons (ie, Iran)? Was it in connection with a possible dirty bomb? Just vial of liquid to off a spy who was no longer wanted/needed/trusted? I'm just asking because its possible the European media might have published more information on this than what is being given out in the US and am curious about this.

The answer to the question is somewhat dependent on your skill level and the skill level of your partner. It is my belief that the more advanced a player is in their skill level, the more likely they will treat this as a willingness to defend the redoubled contract. Otherwise, they should run. If you are 4-3-3-3, with 4 cards in their suit, they will either bid the next cheapest bid or 1N (depending on what is available and what their hand is). However, I also believe that most beginner, intermediate and even many advanced players will probably treat this pass as a weak hand with no real preference for any unbid suit. jmoo.

Note, its IMP pairs, and it is unlikely to make much difference whether you bid slam in either hearts or NT. I'm surprised that mikeh and ken are the only ones so far who makes any attempt at finding out whether or not partner has any values for the grand or not. Do your partnerships not have any methods of doing so? For the record, if you double, partner will bid 2N leb and now its your call. This is why I didnt like double at the table, because you can almost be certain that partner is about to pass 3C if you bid it, and you will be forced to cue 3S over this anyway. If you cuebid 3S, partner will bid 4D.

As others have suggested, I took the heart finesse immediately at trick two on the hopes that it either wins and hearts are 3-2 or a squeeze would develop on RHO, or that LHO would not hold the club A and continue with a second diamond. The favorite part of the hand comes when LHO holding the KQ♦, the Q♥ and the club A, won the heart finesse, and immediately tried to cash the diamond Q (instead of the club A). Dont ask me why. I dont know. :P

Ok, maybe I should have said, "My favorite hand of the week" :P

Same tourny, still playing with your favorite partner, Board #11 of a 12 board IMP tourny in which you are sitting in about 6th/7th in the field, you draw [hv=s=sakj109xxhkjxdxckx]133|100|[/hv] We are playing 2/1, I open 1♠, and hear a forcing 1N response. I choose to rebid 4S and partner tanks. RHO starts getting annoyed and demanding that partner bid, so he does and blasts 6♠. This is somewhat a STOT bid (state of the tournament), as we need imps to place higher and a pedestrian 4♠ probably isnt winning much. The opening lead is the diamond K, you win the Ace in dummy and RHO follows with the 10. Here's what you are faced with, what line of play do you take to possibly make this? [hv=n=sqxha8xxxdaxcjxxx&s=sakj109xxhkjxdxckx]133|200|[/hv]

As you sit down to play in a 12 bd IMP tourny with your favorite regular partner (meaning you can use whatever methods your regular partnerships happen to play), for the first board you pick up: [hv=s=sahakqj98xxdaxcax]133|100|Noone vul Dealer North IMP Pairs You are South Board 1[/hv] As you are preparing to open whatever strong bid your partnership uses, your partner passes and then that dastardly RHO opens 2♠ in front of you. Now what?