Lobowolf

Just a club game, but I like it...after an opening bid by us and a 1♠ overcall, my partner and I cruised into 6♥ (red) without further opposition. Out of the blue, it went 6♠ on my right. Partner bid 6NT, all pass, and went down 4 on the lead of a small spade. Partner had the stiff queen, and I had three small. His explanation was that he knew 6♥ was on, people wouldn't be sacrificing at other tables, and we wouldn't beat 6♠ enough; so with the 6NT bid, at least if I had the ace or king of spades, we'd salvage our slam. All correct...the field was in 6♥, making, 6NT would have made if I'd had the king of spades, and 6♠ would have gone for 1100 at best. Unfortunately, I didn't have the hoped-for king of hearts, but we were dead as soon as they bid 6♠, partner sussed it out and tried for the only chance.

Are you in a profession that offers a good or service that's priced without taking into acount the price that the relevant market will bear?

Agree with Phil wtp lol

Playing Saturday, at one point, partner opened 1♠ and I had AQxxxx and out. In the last round, a regular partner of mine came to our table. I said "Weird hands today, huh?" He said, "Yeah, two 12-card fits." I said, "Yeah, I don't remember the last time I put down ace-queen sixth as dummy." I sort the next hand...xx x Jx AKQJxxxx. Partner opens 1C in first seat and goes on to declare 6 clubs. New record?

Bad hand for attitude leads.

I realize there's a lot of personal connotation here, but to me, something like "2S seems clear" or even "2S. No second choice" comes off as a lot less arrogant.

Just hard to picture that it's something like Grant (insert your favorite unanimous "Great player and a classy guy" choice here) would be saying, if he were contributing. And we could use more like him.

Without being thrilled, I'll try a spade on the first and a club on the second. The auctions suggest a major, and my crappy hand suggests that partner's suit is going to be better than mine, in both cases arguing for spades over hearts. OTOH, given that partner has values, I'll let myself be swayed by QTxx on #2. Not much help is required to get productive things going in the club suit, on top of whatever partner has in the other suits.

Stick it to The Man.

I think if we're going to narrow it down to one "key point," it's the formalization of which suit is designated the obvious shift suit, and the minimum strength required for tolerance. In every case, no matter how apparently vague or ambiguous (i.e. "unobvious") it may be, both partners know exactly what the obvious shift suit is; they also know what the minimum requirement is to suggest that shift.

I think the "agree with" posts (assuming the post being agreed with expounded on the reasoning) are fine, and even useful in that they show that the explanation reflects more than one person's opinion. I usually find "wtp" to be on the obnoxious/arrogant side, and "lol" even moreso.

Fair enough, but political cartoons and insensitive comments are drops in the bucket, too, in a "big picture" perspective.

lol Not in the "I'm mocking you" sense, but in the "This comment really struck me as funny" sense.

Yes, but as a choice of "their side's" racists, Coulter's a wacko entertainer; Jesse "Hymietown" Jackson was a presidential candidate, and Al Sharpton was a featured speaker at the 2004 DNC.

From what I've heard (and seen), rental markets are rockin'. Not just apartments, but houses. Yup, it's just as hard if you don't have a job, but there are a lot of people who DO have jobs, but couldn't afford their wacked-out adjustable rate mortgages. Their housing values tanked, so they got out without a big chunk of equity, and now they can afford reasonable payments, but not a down payment, particularly in the new credit environment.

I believe Murdoch is a heavy RNC contributor. Sensationalism and controversy is yet another angle... See, lots of possibile implication by mentioning Murdoch!

That doesn't really seem to say 'nuff, to me. Assuming he's related to Rupert Murdoch, is the implication that he's a racist, because, well, all Republicans are, or for some other reason, or is the implication that it's not a racist cartoon at all, because he's been outspokenly critical of the stimulus plan, and probably sees it as something a trained chimp could have written?

What's that thing about the 5-level again?

Let me preface by saying that I don't think it's a funny cartoon. Not because of any racist or insensitive connotations; just because it isn't. But I see where it was kind of trying to go...it just didn't really work. It's akin to the "Jim Cramer vs. a trained monkey" blog, where a "trained monkey" (actually a random computer) outpicked Cramer's stock choices. Same idea...his picks are so bad, a trained monkey could have done it. Similarly, the stimulus package is so bad... If there weren't a stimulus package, or something as huge on the national news front, then a New York paper probably would have used the dead chimp to make commentary on the personnel decisions of the Yankees, or something. Conversely, if McCain would have been elected and proposed a stimulus package, the same cartoon could have been run as is, and nobody would have looked twice, because unfunny cartoons aren't newsworthy, barring potentially-racial angles. It wasn't inherently unfunny, i.e. non-comedy, in the way that reading physics is unfunny. It had the comedy formula; just bad, open mic night comedy.

The death of the chimp sorta takes a lot of the funny out of it, but come on... even if you take the racial AND the insensitive out of it, not funny AT ALL? Something so stupid or so easy that it could (must?!) have been done by a trained monkey, then a trained monkey gets killed, and... Really? Not even a little bit?

Spade for me, also. Could stink, but so could everything else, and a suit behind the spade bidder is better than a suit in front of the spade bidder. Stiff honor with partner makes it decent; doubleton honor could make it much more than decent.

...and the moral of the story is duck with Kx...smoothly!?

I like watching Emeril Lagasse and Alton Brown. Self-imposed dietary restrictions (I'm about 98% vegan) prevent me from getting the full benefit of the genius of any of them, but for any other BBO vegans...she may not be a celebrity, but if you're in So. Cal., check out one of Tanya Petrovna's Native Foods restaurants. Yowza.

True. Although... if you listen to the little ditty at the beginning of the sitcom The Big Bang Theory you'll hear "nearly 14 million years ago...". If Sheldon, one of the characters on the show, a severely OCD theoretical physicist, heard that, he'd have a fit. :( "Nearly 14 billion" is an overbid. Science has definitively established the age of the universe, within 100 million years.

It's a self-selecting sample illusion...you're more likely to hear about the ones that work, and the ones where the trump are 3-3 are more likely to work. Sounded good, anyway.