BunnyGo

I would open 3♣, even if I were playing gambling 3NT.

Every fancy play, and every basic play come down to this: Count how many tricks are left; count how many tricks you need; count how many tricks are guaranteed. If you're short tricks, see where you can get more (be it finesse, knock out an ace, or other fancier plays). If you have the necessary tricks set up, see what can go wrong (enemy trump still left, blocked suit, lack of transportation to dummy, etc.) and take what actions you can to stop the danger. The rest is commentary (it's hard, and a lifetime to learn and still screw up, but the above is the start to all card play, IMHO).

I assume that 2♥ is any hand with 4 hearts and 11-16 points? If so, I think I still pass, but it's close (of course, or you wouldn't be posting). I think that this auction is likely similar to any other table (1m-1H-2H-??) and that at these colors I don't have the strength nor safety, even if I have the shape. If West were a passed hand (or 1H denies strength) then it's more likely I'd compete, but he could have a GF hand himself here, and I'm about to get doubled a set, fun times.

http://www.redbullstratos.com/live/

I'm guessing it doesn't know how to check for a club stopper, and assumed you didn't have one based on the double (not that the assumption is correct).

my thoughts exactly. The underbid by North is probably intentional given the failure of south to cash the diamonds, so that leaves North as expert or better and south as intermediate. East shouldn't unblock for little to no gain, probably advanced looking for a cool play, or maybe expert. West seems fine, little to go on. Likely: South = Int North = WC East = Adv West = Exp

People can do quite well with Acol.

Second.

Facts have a well known liberal bias.

There's nothing to do about this, except for spending a few billion dollars redoing our cellular infrastructure. Sadly, every time your train changes from one cell tower's radius to another, you'll get temporarily dropped, which will mess with BBO enough to drop you. Sorry for the bad news.

It's GIB, but I still play for the drop and just take my plus. There's a chance it wouldn't cover in this situation, so I'll not risk the contract. In a club, I'm never finessing here. West pitching strongly suggests that he doesn't have Jxxx, and since E has 3 hearts 3-4 diamonds 4 clubs, either West has Jxxxx of spades or xxxx(x) of spades. Not worth the finesse. I see no squeeze.

The clubs don't run.

You can play that way too--you just have to agree with your partner whether you lead A from AK or K from AK. As cyberyeti says, it's now popular to lead the A from AK, but I've played otherwise too.

Yes, you are "leading a card under the Ace" and are "leading a card away from the Ace", they are different slang for the same thing. None of these are "never do", but the first two rules are "only do if you're sure it's your best option, because it usually isn't." Basically, if you have a suit: Axxx, don't lead any of those cards. If you have AKxx, you should often strongly consider leading the A or K. Cheers, BunnyGo

1{ Yup, a club. 2) I lead the king...it's not unlikely that the opps have a stiff heart, and trick 2 will be my only chance to put a lead through dummy for partner after that. So I lead the K to retain the lead.

I assume that this is just one partnership bidding with no interference. I rarely play kickback, but whether I do or not, this auction would be quantitative without a heart fit. I play the following general structure (I can't recall its "name") after 1N-2C; 2H-??: 3S = anonymous splinter and 3NT asks 4C = slam invite with 4+ hearts 4D = 1430 4N = quant no fit Some players switch the meaning of 4C and 4D, I don't know why one way is better than the other. If the auction had been 1N-2C; 2S--?? the only change is that 3H is the anonymous splinter.

Yes, I wondered whether I should teach rubber scoring or not. It certainly can be more fun with just friends to play for small stakes or a beer or bragging rights, or something--but of course I'm not allowed to encourage any of those things (except bragging) with my students.

Your question was whether we could continue to have the most powerful armed forces in the world while cutting military spending by 25%. Considering we already have a head start on research and spend as much year to year as countries 2 to 15 combined, yes, we could cut spending and cut the military and still have one more powerful than everyone else. The hard part--as you're insinuating--is whether we could do this and continue to have bases in Germany/Korea/Japan/Taiwan, let alone the wars we're currently fighting without more input from our allies: no, we couldn't. That said, I'd like to see the rest of NATO chip in a few bucks towards their own defense. Let China control the stability of the world for a while, let Europe kick in a few bucks--hell, let them pay us to do it for them.

bid 2♠, and when they don't accept it, pass.

I couldn't read this headline without thinking, "that doesn't sound like Ben."

In no particular order--and I'm sure something will come up later: Magnetic Fields, 69 Love songs Michael Jackson, Bad Billy Joel, The Stranger Ennio Maricone, Soundtrack to The Good The Bad and The Ugly Radiohead, OK Computer (In rainbows was pretty good too) The Offspring, Smash Nirvan, Unplugged They Might Be Giants, Flood Greenday, Dookie, Bon Jovi, Bon Jovi There should be some other artists on there, but that's a first pass from the gut without too much thought---probably left off something I'm going to hate myself for later.

I don't think any of us want to see you around here for the next week. Go have fun; congratulations!

Ouch...I thought you knew me to be a better teacher than that... Thanks for all the suggestions--I'm glad we all agree that mini-bridge or whist is a good place to start--make it fun and they'll find reasons to learn to count and find the extra tricks, and that after a while introduce a minimal/natural system.

That's what han's for---he's the sheriff!

Thanks Richard. That's sort of what I was thinking at one point, but managed to get convinced to try something else. It certainly sounds the most fun for everybody, and keeps the focus on card play.