Hanoi5

I was wondering why nobody mentioned Hillary saying she wanted to arm the Kurds.

Exactly. If the defender doesn't have anything to think, why would s/he think? You don't think unless you have a choice of plays, isn't that an assumption declarer can take (at his own risk, I suppose, but notheless it is there).

Declarer's trump suit is: JTxxx AK9x He starts with the Jack, small, Ace and the defender seems to be deciding what to play and then produces a small spade. Declarer decides to play for the drop (3-1 could be more likely on the bidding). The defender now discards. - What would a Director do in this scenario when called by declarer? - What would be an extenuating circumstance? (For example, the defender is not a good player, the defender is a beginner, the defender thought he was void in spades and was trying to decide what to discard when s/he found the spade) - Should a defender who thought s/he was void and then found a card say something like 'Sorry, nothing to think about' or maybe 'Is it my turn? Sorry'

I thought this was all a show. How did you guys 'noticed' BL opened anything on third? And more importantly, when? Is the captain to blame? All I can say is that I now understand why we Latinamericans are so dramatic... Good luck in the matches ahead, I hope they are many.

It is clear that if declarer prohibits the lead from the MPC suit the defender cannot lead it if he retains the lead. But if the defender wins the trick of the MPC suit (for declarer made him play the suit), is he obliged to continue leading the suit or can the defender switch?

As we are about to turn the trick over, a defender asks his/her partner if he doesn't have a card in the suit led. 'No' comes the answer. The defender asks again and receives the same answer and then tells his/her partner to look again, and the defender finally finds a cad in the suit that was led. Is this too much asking or is it legal?

I think the question hints at a crossruff.

I was gonna say that East was 2=6=3=2 and therefore the Queen should be with West but counting the points makes it even clearer.

[hv=pc=n&e=s6ha3dakq952cak83&d=s&v=e&b=3&a=3sppdp3np?]133|200[/hv] 4♠, 4NT, 5NT, 6NT, Pass... What's your choice?

Let's say I play Gardener NT overcall, so the opponents open 1♠ my partner overcalls 1NT which could be Strong as in a NT opening or weak in any of the unbid suits. Opponents continue bidding (and I know they have the strength of the hand, so partner must be weak), am I obliged to tell them my partner has the weak hand? Do they get any reddress if they miss a slam if they say I knew my partner was weak? Is this convention too destructive to be played at Club duplicate level? Let's say we have agreed to open in third position with almost any hand. We have this in our CC, and we alert it (do we need to). We have also agreed not to double for penalties when partner opens third hand (as it may be a funny opening). Do we need to add this to our convention card, alert it or anything? Is it legal?

Playing 2/1 there is a need for a 'catch-all' bid after a 2/1 sequence. Some people play rebidding opener's suit to be the catch-all bid, for all the hands you can't do anything more useful. Going to the three level, like in 3♣ in this case, shows a much better hand, 14+.

Double sounds good but the hand's distribution is ugly. We may pass and double 3♦ later but that could be showing some clubs or not understood as strong. 3NT right away also sounds plausible, though the lack of a club stopper seems bad; we could try passing and bidding 3NT later. Is thois MP's or Imp's? Maybe double is better for Imp's and NT for MP's.

Totally? Hahaha. Kxx or Kxxx onside with the ruff and you're going down, man.

[hv=pc=n&s=sq753haqt732d73ca&n=skjthj96dt4cqt953&d=s&v=b&b=7&a=1h2d2h3d4hppp]266|200[/hv] Playing teams against not very good opponents you receive a ♣4 lead (3rd and 5th) and the small club from dummy draws the King from East. You play a spade to dummy's King drawing the 2 and 4 from them (standard count but they might forget to signal). You try the ♣K and discard one of your small diamonds losers while they play the 6 and the 2. Time to tackle the hearts: -Do you finesse or play ace and another? -A priori it seems the finesse would win 50% of the time (which would also bring an overtrick) and playing Ace and another will only get and overtrick if the King is singleton offside but you don't risk the possibility of having a spade ruffed when trumps are 2-2 with King offside or the already mentioned singleton King offside. -You play the ♥9 from dummy and East plays the 4, does anything change in the calculations? How? -Do you take into account the opponents level to decide whether or not they might find the possible ruff? -Do you take into account the fact that at the other table they may not have the diamond discard?

Generally speaking you will not find opponents willing to intervene to your KC question. However, if they do, people usually claim to play D0P1 or DEPO and apparently that's enough. But it ain't. I believe most of these counters were designed to treat the interference over the old Ace-only Blackwood. Not many good players continue to use this convention, so I wonder how do you deal with the KC interference. I know D0P1 is better when they interfere with a suit BELOW your own and DEPO is better if they go over it. Are R0P1 and REPO even needed? Isn't it better to just respond when they double your 4NT or kickback? How about continuations? Is it better to use D as 0-3 and P as 1-4 and then the next step is 2 without the trump queen and then 2 with the Queen? Or just the old double 0, pass, 1, next step 2, next step after that 3, etc?

Do you mean that BBO is recycling hands?

Pass or Double. Being all white, Double.

[hv=d=n&v=0&b=1&a=1cp1dp1hp1s]133|100[/hv] Is 1♠ artificial? Is it natural? Does it depend on whether you play XYZ or not?

I think it's crazy that you even compare yourself to Dean Pokorny. I would really like to know who could have felt offended (besides Cherdano) by any of your posts. You certainly took a rather timid or incredolous (or lawyerfull?) stance towards the recent cheating scandal. But your bridge comments were always of a conservative view and very good to read. You had an antagonist figure in Cherdano who was always behind your every comment (apparently) waiting to say anything against whatever you said. Great! What a boring life when you have no enemies! Sometimes people create them in order to add some spice. It would be sad that you went away for this reason. So I hope you reconsider your position and continue writing and helping bridge players get better.

Why only two options? 4♥ should be forward going, I'd say, so why not show my diamond control? Also, what would 4♥ be at each step of the way? If that's all partner wanted to play s/he could have bid it earlier.

Charles De Gaulle was right ;-)

Then you haven't seen Fisher-Schwartz record in Israel.

I agree the WBF has to maintain certain degree of seriousness when it comes to accusing pairs, etc. However, don't you think the WBF statement was badly made? Don't you think there should be an acknowledgement of the damage caused by the cheating and the good in Boye's crusade?

The recent statement by the WBF signed by Mr Harris is the 'drop that overflows the glass' (I know it's the straw that breaks the camel's back in English but I like the Spanish version). So much so that now we have Fisher-Shwartz using it like a banner. What is even more troublesome is the fact that they could get away with their behaviour by focusing on the wrong way that it was brought to light. It's like those caees you see on TV where the killer gets away withthe crime because the cops forgot to read their Miranda rights. Terrible indeed. In fact, there's another sign of trouble ahead with their case: they have just asked the IBF to 'explain' to them or give them more time in order to 'understand' what they're being accused of. Could there be something 'lost' in translation? Maybe the words board and tray do not exist in Hebrew or they are the same or something. Can you imagine what would happen if they get away with it?

[hv=pc=n&w=sqt43hqjt874dk3c6&d=e&v=0&b=14&a=p1d?]133|200[/hv] Would you intervene with 1♥ or 2♥?