hotShot

Well i think this is a serious problem. There are doping cases in chess, why should we thnik bridge is free of it? There are drugs to -enhance the ability to concentrate -help you keep your temper after a faulty board -enhance your stamina -help you relax between the days of a multi day event. Just think of a evening session after dinner when 60+ boards have been played in previous sessions. Winning a few boards while all the others are still busy digesting. This can make a difference. To answer your questions: 1. Drugs might help you to play more boards the best you can. 2. There are resons to loose concentration even in short matches, anything that helps you to regain that contentration will help. 3. Any pill that has a "don't drive warning" can reduce your ability to play bridge too.

Lets forget the alert issue for a moment and ask yourself what explanation should be given. 2♣ shows 3+ ♣ and may contain a longer suit. Could the hand contain a 4card ♠ suit? Would you bid 1♠ over 1♥ with 6542 and ♥ support or would you bid a minor e.g. 2/1 GF. Could the hand contain 4 cards in ♥, of cause it can. Is a delayed game rise impossible? So what difference does it make that there might be a 4 card ♦ suit? Now lets assume 2♣ is alerted, is it artificial? No it's not. So please state how the knowledge, wheather a natural 2♣ shows 3+ (with maybe a longer side suit) or 4+ cards, makes a difference for the defence. Without a good explanation why this makes a difference, i don't see any damage. What is your jurisdiction on canape style bidding? Do you alert the first bid, the second bid or both bids?

Weather forecasts are best for a small area and a short time ahead. Sometimes the weather situation is stable for a few days, but often it is not. So predictions for the same day are usually correct. Predicions for tomorrow are quite good. But from the 3rd day on you should treat it more like a trend and not like a prediction. At stable weather situations predictions of 7 days are possible.

@Paul: I think you are wrong, it's just about 65% accuracy. @Frances The main problem with the weather forcast is that it is averaged over a wide area. Yesterday e.g. we could hear some thunder and some aereas less than 10 miles away were flooded with rain. We here haven't had a bit of rain for the last 4 weeks. So what would you say? Do we count rain or sunshine forecasts as accurate?

Search this forum for the link to "linconverter"

If it is "Windows 98" this might be a problem, because USB devices work much better on "Windows 98 2nd Edition" A DSL modem connected to the computer via USB, should be no problem at all. It is possible that the Internet Explorer opens the connection automaticly when trying to acces a website. If you want to use BBO you probably need to open the connection manually.

Not true: 1M-4M is usually played weak, since with good hands you'll take the slow road. I guess you mean that there is a wide agreement about what 1M-4M means, and that is just what i said. Not true: with opening strength in natural systems, you shouldn't support to 4-level. What is partner expected to do with a strong hand? Blacky isn't everything you know. That's why many players use 2NT to show inv+ hands with support, so 1M-4M in natural is weak! In precision, it can be a lot stronger! Minimum opening strength (or less) means less than 12 HCP, sorry i did not notice that this could be read as having opening strength as a minimum. Playing precision, you can do it as a sacrifice with 0HCP. I've done it in the past with success: my LHO had 15HCP, and was V while we were NV. Bidding was at 4S when he had to come in, so he passed. They had 3NT laydown, I went -2 in a 4-4 fit tnx to great distributions and matching hands. It is saver to sacrifice in a system where the opening bid is limited, but it is discouraging in a natural system too. I grant that it is a systemic weakness (of e.g. SAYC) to be forced to open almost gameforcing strength hands with 1M. But the risk of partner bidding on, is limited by the frequence of these (extra) strong openings. So it won't happen to often. SEF, FORUM-D and BENJI-Acol use a semiforcing opening bid to reduce this problem. So I onsider the differences in understanding this sequence to be small and not compleatly different.

I like your Monty Python attitude, but 4M shows fit and the intention to play 4M in both cases. So please enlighten me where it is completly different.

1M-4M means the same in almost every at least half way natural system. It is usually not a invitation to slam. It is non forcing and it shows a limited hand with "minimum opening strength" (or less) , (usually good) trump support and often distributional strength (to compensate the missing HCP). Playing precision this is even more obvious , because 1M is limited.

Communication experts say that 80% of any communication is non verbal. This is why poker player try to develope a "pokerface" not to give information away. Many bridge player don't have that kind of self control and submit information about their holding. A lot of he top player can use that information, it is called table presence.

When the bithrate started to drop in the second half of the sixies, experts started to discuss how to solve the problem. Most politicians are unwilling to solve problems that could reduce their chances to be reelected now and if the benefits of their efforts will not come prior to the next election. (Someone else might benefit form their doing.) This is why they wait until a problem hits them like a baseball bat, in the following phase of disorientation they pick the most popular suggestion (which is often not the best) and hope that this is good enough to ensure their wealth. Public welfare is something than only few politician have on their mind.

So any sequence starting with NT is not a good base to evaluate ZAR-Points. There is at least one local organisation that order the use of 4321 HCP for filling the convention card (it's in the national condition of contest). Since it is not possible to give reasonable HCP descriptions of ZAR-Points, you can't use them there.

Well the 4-3-2-1 system is pretty defensive. It was introduced in the "Champions League" and is european top club standard. It was used by all half finalists (Germany played an "offensive" 4-3-1.5-1.5 version) and the success will bring others to play it too. Each worldcup has brought something new to the worlds attention and this year it is this. Analysis of lots of games have shown that the midfield is the source of most dangerous actions, having a majoraty of players there helps to suppress opponents attacks and can support own activities. We will see more of it.

Posting email adresses in a public forum is punished with spam mail flooding.

I must admid, I never tried.

Send a E-mail to TD@.....com The number of tables you can handle depends on a lot of things. Good friends with the same bidding philosophie and perfect internet connection won't need a TD at all. A handfull of troublemakers, bad internet connections and you will have to sub yourself out to get the work done. But i would say 10 to 15 tables should be fine, once you know what to do. 20-60 tables are usually manageable, but 2-3 slow pairs, someone playing a forcing pass system or a few disconnects and you will wish it were fewer tables ....... You find a friend who has TD rights too, and ask him.

Balanced hands are no problem, this is why i selected an unbalanced hand. There must be a way to bid hands with 4M-4m 4M-5m 5M-4m 5M-5m 5M-6m in a way partner can understand.

In my view dbl followed by an own suit shows a very strong hand (almost GF), so i think it's forcing. But i think this is not standard on BBO or SAYC.

You have to balance the given information and the information that is worth knowing. The very weak hand usually does not have information worth hiding. A very strong responder might want to avoid the transfer. Allthough the NT opening is very descriptive, there is still a little FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt) left about openers hand.

Well our favorites are no longer possible :P. We will have to reconsider.

Brazil is out .... France Germany Italy Portugal European in the end

Maybe because the requiements to play football are far less demanding than those for volleyball (at least if you don't leave at the beach...).

So you can't reverse with[hv=s=skq54hqdakj2ckq53]133|100|[/hv]

The appropriate bidding here is: 1♥ - 2♣ 2♥ - pass Some may argue that 2♣ is self forcing, but i think it is ok to pass with a minimum hand and because 2♥ should also show a minimum hand. 2♠ from north is a huge overbid (and as you know from other threads I'm willing to reverse "weak").

1) 1♠ over 1♥ 2) pass, reopening helps opener to reach a better contract.