hotShot

If you leave out stupid misplay, your chances to score in an IM match are: - collecting overtricks - playing a higher ranked suit or NT - bid and make close games and slams - hope that opps close game/slam fail The first 2 may not win you many direct IMPs, but they apply pressure to your opps to make a "big" score. The pressure increases in short matches and towards the end of a set/match. Your opps will have to take greater risks to (over)compensate your lead. So the question is: Do I bet on a close game with 42% chance and hope that opps fails, or do I bet on several 91+% chances. Remark: The ♣ suit can not split 2-2 according to opps bidding. So the possible splits reduce to 3-1 and 4-0. This reduces the chance to make the overtrick to 83% and the chance to make 3NT at all to 91% (4-0 wrong sided).

Europe has been a place of ethnic and religious wars for centuries. Verbal attacks, riots have been first steps on this way. So may be we Europeans are more thin-skinned about them.

I think the difference is which individual is protected, the agitator or his victims. The laws we discuss here deal with attacks against ethnic or religious minority groups. My impression is that the agitators right of free speech has a higher value in the US, than his victims right not to be subject of insults, slur or threats of violence.

Would you consider sentences like the following voicing an opinion, or do they actively encourage committing a crime?

Does the US laws on free speech include: - to abet someone to commit a murder - to abet someone to intentionally hurt/injure someone - to abet someone to to steal or destroy someones property - to abet someone to discriminate someone because of his race, religion or .... Because this kind of speech is illegal in most European counties. European constitutions value the protection of a persons dignity and health over the free speech of others.

One "reasonable" way to get to 6NT is: 1♠ - 2NT 4♥*- 4NT *good 4 card side suit 2of3 top honors ** - 6NT **2of5 After this sequence 5♠, 4♥, 2♦ and 1♣ = 12 Tricks in NT. Now let the experts tell you why openers hand is not a 4♥ bid.

If you are using Vista you can use the command: mklink to make BBO save the deals to a different drive. If you are using XP, it should be possible to establish a junction.

How many chances to gain IMP's do you get in a 7 board match if your opps are of comparable strength? 93% seems to be a reasonable IMP to gain. And without deep thinking, you will expect that 5♣ will be in trouble too if the ♣ split 4-0.

If you don't have a 4 card major, you can: - pass weakish hands with 3334 shape - rise ♦ with 4+ ♦ cards e.g. 3343 shape - bid NT only with 8+ HCP so that 2NT should be save this solves most of the problems.

I found that an interesting comment, because my impression is the opposite - the main advantage I think I gain from playing a weak(ish) NT (12-14, sliding about half a point depending on vul) is on the hands where I don't open 1NT. And it's those hands that make it hard for me to adjust to playing a strong NT - my instincts are all wrong when one of us opens 1 of a minor and there's competition. So perhaps both Frances and I are thinking about what happens for us when playing an unfamiliar range. The competitive auctions become less comfortable for each of us without the experience we have from having played a lot of hands using our preferred NT range. Could it be that Frances is playing in an environment that is dominated by weak NT, while you are playing in a strong NT environment? I suspect that any significant advantage is more likely to be caused by opps that are unfamiliar with your methods (here NT range), than any technical merit.

I think there were some episodes teaching Acol on the dutch television in the 80th.

If you for on "Rob F"'s Profile and search all posts by this user you get: This is the closest you can get to a post number.

If you think "blame", is to strong a word to use for North, lets just say: North has to take full responsibility for the missing ♥ stopper. South has 5 loser 2♠, 1♦ and 2♣. By promising ♥ values, North created the impression that he has less values in ♠, ♦ and ♣. Since low ♦ values can easily be wasted as well opposite A2, 6♣ seems out off reach and even 5♣ might not be save. South can expect North to have a ♠ honor, making his KJ to a save entry. South can also expect North to have his share (2+) of the missing 6 cards in ♣ and since 3 of the missing cards are honors North is likely to have one. This makes 3NT look about as risky as 5♣, perhaps even less risky if partner has 2♥ stopper.

South overbid with 4NT. He was limited and should know about his wasted ♥ values.

North can't bid 3NT without ♥ stopper and some ♣. South ♣ will be of source of tricks in 3NT as well. For a ♣ contract responders promised ♥ values are wasted, so a ♣ slam is less likely to make. So from South view 3NT is a reasonable contract.

But only when you make them. There is still a bonus payed, only that it goes to opps.....

What have your opps agreed for further bidding? Anybody playing a weak NT has a strategy to reach the best possible spot after a penalty dbl. They sure have agreements and a lot of experience there. You can be sure that if you play 1NTx your side will miss something better more often then their side will lose big. If you play dbl as penalty, responder has pass, redbl and all the 2 level bids left for his constructive bidding. What information can your partner give you, if responder bids pass or redbl, when he is bound to pass to leave the penalty dbl in. So your partner loses a chance for constructive bidding as well. This leaves opener with all the 2 level bid and often redbl for an informed escape move if opps need it. Now that opps presumably reached their best spot, you get to bid again. How do you intend to get to your best spot now?

New people would get interested in Bridge if they see cool people play bridge on TV. So if the "smallville" stars or the "desperate housewifes" (or whatever TV show is considered hot) would play bridge in the show, people would get curious. A documentary on famous and/or successful bridge players would be interesting. And I think that it is possible to show bridge on TV. A mixture of personal involvement and what if analysis can do the trick. The viewers could see the card in advance the commentators could debate the best bidding and play in advance and the express excitement if the players choose a different pass at different tables.

Next time try unix2dos. If you Linux does not include it now, download it.

I'll bid 4♦, because I'm a simple soul ----- and because an unforced raise to 4m is Minorwood in my favorite partnership.

The bridge laws don't know "destructive bids". If you start to bid lunatic, this is covered by law 74. If you make a bid with a bridge reason (yes even a psyche has a bridge reason) it is allowed, if properly disclosed or covered by Law §40.A.3 . The sponsoring organization may allow or disallow certain conventions, but the question is if 2♠ isn't a natural call. If weak jumps and weak 2 openings are allowed, I don't see how this overcall can be disallowed. There is often a restriction in strength for opening bids (~about a kings worth), but since 2♠ is no opening bid, that does not apply. Since opps did not claim misinformation or a missing alert, there is not case. Perhaps "destructive" is used in GCC or midchart by the ACBL.

It is transmitted with the wrong mime-type. Select "save link as" and rename it to something that ends with .pdf , after that open the file from disk. Ignore the error message from the PDF reader.

There is an old thread where tysen2k discusses a lot of this. He posted most of this in rgb too.

I'm familiar bis the Lehman rating. Are you familiar with movement theory? The best movement is a 7 table 13 round Howell. Each pair plays each other pair, every board is played by all participants. We will score a MP-tourney. Now take 13 pairs of identical strength and one superior pair. Pairs of the same strength get the same result, the superior pair always gets the top, their opponents the zero. Since there are 13 rounds some pairs will play 7 times on the same side as the Superior Pair (SP) and 6 times on the other side, others will play six rounds on the same side and 7 rounds on the other. Since the SP gets the top (6MP) the other pairs on the same side score (0+1+2+3+4+5)/6 = 2.5 MP. On the other side SP-opps get 0 MP and the other pairs on this side get (1+2+3+4+5+6)/6= 3.5 MP. The top pair scores 2*13* * 6 = 156 MP = 100%. The lucky pairs play 6 rounds on the same side ( 6*2*2.5 ) and 7 times on the other side one of these they play the SP (2*0 + 6*2*3.5) => 72 MP = 46.15 %. The unlucky pairs play 7 rounds on the same side ( 7*2*2.5 ) and 6 times on the other side one of these they play the SP (2*0 + 5*2*3.5) => 70 MP = 44.87 %. So the best possible movement separates pairs of equal strength by 1.28%-points, just because of the seating. In a typical BBO tourney you don't play most of the field, the effect of the movement are much bigger. Especially the middle positions of a swiss movement a lottery. These results are useless for a rating.

Happy birthday Dwayne!