wank

sb is probably right. people normally lead their singletons at the speed of light. however, i wouldn't call a lead from ace king to provide much evidence. ideally the director would observe west in action and see how quickly he does lead a singleton. personally, i try to lead singletons in normal tempo, but don't make such a great effort with ace-king leads (naughty). in all likelihood the variation in tempo worked to the advantage of east west. as we know, they need to take care in such situations as it generates UI. east obviously has a logical alternative of winning the ace and returning one. i don't know what they do in really easy congresses but a lecture on the importance of tempo would be a good way to stop them being put off when they play in proper tournaments.

[hv=d=n&v=0&b=1&a=1sp3c(natural%20invitational)p3hp3sp4c]133|100[/hv] Should this be forcing? I passed, thinking partner was probing for NT, and found out we had no diamond stop so parked the bus in part-score. I'm thinking partner should have something like kxxxx akx xx QJx. The sequence seems akin to overcalling, getting supported, cueing the opps' suit to check for a stop and then signing off. Partner actually had a 5422 21 count and we scored up with -2140. This was actually in danger of being an amusing board as they had a PRC 'guess' in the trump suit to make 7 or -2 (you can safety play for 6), so we were close to scoring +9 for missing game. I think if partner wants to go slamming in he should just raise to 4c, instead of tarting about with hearts. All the other good players I asked though said partner's sequence was forcing. I'm unrepentant. Comments?

even playing acol 3s should be forcing imo (yes, i know very well that most acol players would play it as invitational). i bid that as i'm lacking any useful forcing bids (not the first time an acol player has encountered that problem). if north cues 4c and 4h, south might go back to clubs for slam, but this is rather double dummy.

yes i bid. if lho passes, i don't want partner bidding a minor, which he surely will do (if lho can't move again, partner must have some modest values). anyway, i have a decent hand in terms of playing strength especially if lho leads a heart (though yes, considering our lack of minor honours, he likely has a ak/kq combo in the minors)

i bought the first surface pro. i think it's very good. i will get a new one eventually.

1nt - it should be better with your hand declarer. i don't normally overcall NTs with such a shape, but in passout it's fine because partner is going to have some hearts too. hate 2d on balanced crap.

interesting. do you have some example links?

i assume you like impugning other people's ethics. actually i know you do because you do it often enough.

misplaying for an extra chance i presume you mean.

wtf was north upto in the bidding?

i pass and expect to write down a large number in the plus column at the end of the hand.

where's the cheating? declarer ruffs a suit at t2. defence have perfect count in the suit and on our convention card it says in such situations we give standard suit preference with an even number and reverse with an odd number. easy to understand and easy to verify afterwards that we weren't fibbing, no?

why is there no 4s option?

easy pass. partner has too many black cards.

Why are these banned in most jurisdictions? Are they considered to be too powerful? It shouldn't be a problem of disclosure as they're quite easy to understand.

FYP east west can't go plus on this deal if south is happy to content himself with a raise to 2s

happiness is a function of comparison to others. without people worse off than ourselves we would be less content about our own situations. the corollary to that is that you can't eradicate poverty. no matter how high you raise the wealth of the lowest in society there will be someone above them to compare against. perceptions of what constitutes poverty are thus on a constant upward trajectory in line with extensions of the benefits system. in various parts of europe your local council must by law provide you with a home in addition to whatever monetary benefits and allowances you get for being unemployed, disabled, etc. would someone with a private apartment and a small but steady income have been considered to be in poverty in the past?

brighton is by far the biggest event in england (upto 170 tables in play at the same time). it goes on, with varying levels of attendance, for 10 days. it's got a bit of a jamboree element to it - there are speedball games starting at midnight and the light midweek schedule allows for some extra-curricular, largely liquid based, entertainment. the midweek tuesday includes the national u25 pairs championship which might be of interest to you. i've no idea if this will turn out to be well supported or not. i think this is the first year it was held at brighton. i suspect attendance will be much better than in previous years, because there's nothing important on tuesday afternoon, whereas previously it was held during one of the easter london tournaments and precluded people from playing in the main event. if i understand correctly, you've recently started playing at the acol after only previously playing in a small club. it was probably very different in terms of atmosphere and the ability levels of the stronger players. there is a much bigger gap if you try a national congress. personally i like national tournaments but find club bridge tedious. i've played national events in most of europe and i think the ebu tournaments are the best run, though there are some elements i find annoying (having to complete 2 huge and almost entirely worthless convention cards for example). the entry fees are a bit of a joke considering the lack of prize money, but if you're still a junior you get some sort of discount. i live abroad now so i'm rarely able to play in london, but i'll be coming back for at least part of brighton (definitely not the first weekend). if you decided to turn up for some of it, i'd be happy to give you a game midweek. anyway, i would definitely suggest giving it a try if you can.

i would pull it, but I would always have been planning to pull it. if i had bid 6d originally, it would only have been with the intention of being 'pushed' into 7 and hoping it dissuaded the opps from sacrificing. as for an original 5NT, if you ignore the prospects of the opps have a cheap sac in 7, inviting is still not a great option - yes partner isn't 100% to have the ace of diamonds - because there are too many hands where partner would reject the invitation where 7 is cold, because the invitational bids available are so ill defined. imo it's much likely that we'd miss a good grand than go off in 7.

i was referring to an 8 card fit in clubs. if partner is 6322 4c is going to be a failure.

4c. it seems like our best chance of a fit. it's only when partner is 6322 that we don't have an 8 card fit. of course it can be wrong to play in your best fit anyway, but that's life.

i do double with 54 in the majors sometimes but only when i'm very minimum and don't want to make 2 bids even at a low level. here i'm happy to bid twice if need be so i overcall.

traditionally, 1NT - 3any was natural and game forcing. the suggestion is you could start with the diamonds and then introduce the clubs. of course if you have one of the more modern alternate meanings for a 3D response, you obviously can't do that.

people concentrating too much on declarer's play. declarer wasn't taking a totally pointless line - she very possibly needs exactly 4 diamond tricks. if she strips south of outside cards, she can make 4 diamond tricks by a first round deep finesse then conceding to the king and waiting for a diamond return at the end as some others have now said, the director should have put more effort into finding the real extent of north/south's agreement or experience to ascertain how accurate north's description was. of course the word 'usually' is rather grey, but if it turned out north effectively means south won't have a 4 card major unless she has 2 of them, i would say that's not 'usually' enough.

2h. if i had 3 and a weak hand i'd have raised directly. if i have 3 with extras i can jump now. i like to open 1c with good 5-5 hands in the blacks, not that 2s now should show this, but our current shape with weaker reds.