shyams

Sometimes it feels like all of politics is smoke & mirrors. If there is any correlation to the outcome of the Presidential election, I am not bothered. I am happy that Trump is gone. However, the idea that the establishment will gladly manipulate the people en masse is worrying.

I would replicate the line suggested in smerriman's original (pre-edit) reply. I would guess that the exact sequence of play is what matters. Our plan to cash the spade Ace has to be done early and in a manner least likely to arouse suspicion in the "blockee". So I would win trick 2, lead low trump to the Queen, lead low spade to the Ace. This probably gives us the highest chance of East failing to unblock (or West, if West began with ♠Hx).

I think there is a difference between the situation described by Cyberyeti about initial low uptake rates in some British communities and the points made in the US media about low uptake rates. The UK vaccination programme is entirely run by the NHS which has precise information on the progress of vaccination. The NHS is a centralised service which (hopefully) simplifies their ability to crunch the numbers across geography, ethnicity, age groups, etc. So whenever there are lower uptakes in certain communities, the NHS would be able to state is as fact using their MIS. This is how many of us had heard about lower uptake rates and had seen the Govt. use celebrities and influencers to push up those rates. The concerns raised in the USA about lower vaccination rates are very likely to be based on opinion polls and surveys. It is not impossible to imagine a proportion of GOP supporters claim "I will not get the vaccine" to a pollster but actually go and get vaccinated when one is made available by their insurer or health authority. I also imagine that a decentralised system for vaccination exists in many parts of the US which (probably) makes it difficult to read the broader statistics.

So this was board 1 of the 8-board weekly free tournament. The format is MPs, human declares, robot opponents. [hv=pc=n&s=skthaq7dkjt754ca2&n=sqh952da982cj9753&d=n&v=0&b=1&a=p1s2dp3dp3nppp]266|200[/hv] West leads ♠3 to the Queen, East's Ace and your small. East now returns the ♠J which you win perforce as West follows with ♠4 and you throw a heart from dummy.When you cash the ♦K, East's singleton ♦Q falls. The problem is whether you would finesse in hearts for the overtrick and risk going down in your contract. If you wish, you can play four rounds of diamonds ending in dummy (I chose to do this). East chucked a club, then a heart and finally a spade. West threw a heart followed by a spade. If it matters, you next lead the low heart from dummy as planned and East produces the ♥J. The moment of truth -- finesse or not?

Diana, There was one board in the current set where play begins at trick 2. If possible, I would suggest that the play begin at trick 1 instead. i.e. maybe start where South has to follow to the trick but South's choice does not affect the real problem. When I played this board, I almost didn't realise that trick 1 was already done and that I was about to play to trick 2.

The above post of yours automatically should make you eligible for joining the next tournament. AFAIK the requirement to be included is that the person has to login to BBF in the past 12 months. You have obviously done that otherwise you wouldn't have been able to post :) PS: I don't work for BBO. If I am wrong, someone from BBO can post here to correct my assertion.

A small sidetrack inspired by this ( ) "Drop the -wegian. Norwood -- it's simple" B-) :)

Board 1 in the latest instalment is super elegant. I feel bad that I played an entirely different contract than what was (probably) intended. I posted this during my session. I'm looking forward to the remaining boards.

Awesome! I watched on twitch for approx 20-30 minutes. I think he was in his 6th set when I started. It was good fun to follow along.

Open 1♣ with an intention to show the NT-type hand via the next bid.

Who from the forum advised such an overcall? When?

If you click on the trick counter on the left frame (the one where you see one vertical and one horizontal card with the count of tricks so far), the last trick played shows up. This is only visible until one has played to the next trick. If one is dummy, the option remains active and it also allows the dummy to review earlier tricks.

Options 2 thru 5 seem to be based on this being a 30 HCP pack (i.e. ♥ honours are discounted + partner has no wasted ♥ honours). Hopefully partner will know when it is right to raise us with such prime hands; I feel a 2-level bid is enough. I do realise that I might be in the minority here but if I were West I would negative dbl even with a boring hand like ♠Kxxx ♥xxx ♦Qxx ♣Qxx

2♠ is automatic, no? Partner's double makes it highly probable (almost certain) that our side has a spade fit. So I bid it.

After a few deals, I was almost programmed to ignore the first three calls :)

IMHO, there is no easy solution out of the student debt problem. * Some of the arguments against carry weight --- e.g. what about people who decided not to go to college and instead work on upskilling themselves in non-college environments. * The arguments in favour also have legitimacy --- if the most valuable resource for countries is their people, it is not fair to allow them to suffer under the yoke of a large debt which (for many) will take a lifetime to pay off. * It is quite possible that the advent of student loans was what led to college education becoming so expensive in the first place. However, unfortunately, it does not follow that cutting off student loans will automatically solve the problem. IMHO, a key "problem" with student loans is their pricing (i.e. interest rates on such loans). I believe most student loans are priced at 6%-9% p.a. with compounding interest. There are also legal provisions whereby a declaration of bankruptcy does not void any student loan debt(s); these are required to be paid back regardless. If people are really on the hook permanently for their student debt, then perhaps the Federal Government should reprice all student loans downwards to (say) Fed Rate + 0.5%. If the Fed were to reprice all loans in a formulaic manner (e.g. pre-2015 rates remain unchanged, 2015-2017 at Fed + 2%, 2018-2019 at Fed + 1.5% and all subsequent periods at Fed + 0.5%), we could suddenly see a huge drop in loan outstandings even as not one dollar of principal is waived.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-56106824 The BBC and other mainstream media has been covering the potential troubles of one of the WallStreetBets protagonists (YouTube name "Roaring Kitty"). I post this here for two reasons: 1. I guess the mainstream media was reluctant to ever reference his Reddit nickname anywhere ("DeepF&%#ingValue") because they'd rather not! :). Interestingly, Brandon Kochkodin whose Bloomberg article I had linked a few weeks ago specifically uses the Reddit nickname in the Bloomberg article without ever identifying the real person behind the Reddit ID (It's quite easy to find out who DeepF&%#ingValue really is). 2. Call me unkind but I sense an element of relish (or schadenfreude) in the tone of most media articles on the lawsuit against this Redditor. DeepF&%#ingValue is one person who converted a $60k gamble into something in excess of $11 million from this one stock alone. My sense is that the media resents such success!

I found Lamford's post as most relevant. That South was misinformed most likely caused the reopening bid of 2♥. Everything after that is entirely West's own volition. West forced with a 4♣ bid to which East made a simple correction back to 4♦ and West decided that that's not enough and proceeded to 5♦. If all those actions by West are attributable to a BIT by East before their second pass, well then I'm lost for words.

jelly!

If you notice the small cards held by opponents in, if they split 4-1 you will definitely lose one more heart trick. Having already lost a diamond trick with the opening lead, you cannot afford to play any layout where you are saving yourself an extra one undertrick. You are correct that the odds favour a finesse as per restricted choice. However, after your restricted choice finesse has won, you will still have the following card layout in trumps, ..Dummy ♥94 .........East ........♥Q8 Declarer ♥A3 ... and you will find you cannot repeat a finesse to avoid a loser.

Dbl as South and watch as the E-W bots get their bidding system thoroughly muddled up?

I have a theory that a tipping point suddenly appears even as most TV pundits & media commentators believe no such event is on the horizon. I would be guessing too if I said that the Sen. McCarthy call has become that event which swings the pendulum in the "convict" direction. I am hoping something like that occurs. It would become more likely if Trump makes some rash comments to the press denouncing the GOP Senators or sends some inflammatory messages to them. I just hope he can find it in himself to do something rash over the weekend.

Agree with other posters. East should have bid on.

There is a tiny chance that the GOP Senators will confab and conspire over the weekend to gather the numbers to convict. Fingers crossed!! Hoping that the equation proposed by Bill Kristol of Bulwark works!

I read that Rep. Katie Porter of California's 45th District is no longer on the House Financial Services Committee. This appears to be a good development for some of the people who appeared before the Committee and found her questioning to be particularly brash. It took a while to realise this; it seems the NY Times did not cover this piece of news.