wyman

Suppose opps use an unfamiliar convention, so that you are not sure of its legality. When is the correct time to call the director? I'd assume you call as soon as you have info about what the call means, but I'd understand if you weren't supposed to call until after the auction. What's the procedure if opps are using an illegal system? As in OP, suppose we hear: (1S)-P-(2C!)- <director> Can 2D ever be substituted?

If this is correct (haven't checked), it's way way less damning given that they've used the deals in many club games.

Correct, of course. Thanks for the addendum.

If partner were to pass 3S, W has a snowball's chance in hell of being allowed to have his 4H call stand after E explained 3H as weak. edit: W is, however, allowed to forget their agreement. You were not misinformed, and 4S-1 is probably the correct ruling.

@ Q1: In the sense that it's entirely irrelevant to the discussion. Presumably, the issue at hand is whether or not it's ethical to prescribe puberty-delaying drugs to TG children. The child's parents could be gay, straight, or inter-species, and the problem doesn't change. @ Q2: I have a really hard time with a lot of these issues, but I think that out of the whole pile of putative solutions, puberty-delaying drugs, if safe, at least buy the child a few more years. I'm not saying this is a good solution. I'm just saying that it has to be easier to solve the problem of "what potentially life-changing decisions can we make with a 15 year old" than "what potentially life-changing decisions can we make with an 11 year old." Again, I don't envy the parents. Or the child.

It didn't even strike me that they would capitalize the first two words of the article; I only noted that it wasn't the first. Thanks for the sanity check; previous rage about that redacted.

My point is that if this were two straight parents, people would be just as flabbergasted, but article titles include that the parents are lesbians as sort of an ad hominem attack on the parents; it's intended to invoke more shock and awe because "omg lesbian parents" and "omg they want their boy to be a girl." It's even in all caps in the story posted. It's just silly. I have mixed feelings about the actual issue of hormone therapy for transgendered children, and I'm happy to write it off as a question that is "above my pay grade." All I know is that I don't envy parents put in that position, especially given how much others seem to blame them.

That they are lesbians is, imo, a red herring.

I would X with 5 rags and bid 2S with a more robust spade holding, but yeah same idea.

I wondered this recently also, as I played against a woman who was back and forth between her tissue and the cards all session. And the tissue was on the table when it wasn't on her nose.

Blah. Then I would probably, for similar reasons, play low and win the Q of diamonds. Then play a low club toward the K.

Not only this, but since this is pairs, if you're gonna play a club to the K, you can win a high diamond in dummy concealing, to RHO, the location of the DA. Now if the club ace is on your right, RHO will consider a diamond return, which gives you another tempo.

We don't know your hand, so we can't tell you whether X is appropriate.

Director need http://i.imgur.com/Gn0Or.jpg retraining program

1C followed by 2N for me.

With more vanilla systems, I would bid Stayman, raising a major to game and delayed Texas (4H-->4S) over 2D. Since that doesn't appear to be an option, I'll just Texas to 4S and be done with it. Second choice is the 5-5 GF, no slam interest route. I don't have a strong preference between the two.

SK for me also. wouldn't surprise me if something else is right though.

Ok I'll bite. Can you provide some statistics of what you've seen so far?

Phil, what if you held 5432 / KQ10x / xxx / xx ? I ask because you gave both the "i would always bid 3S in case partner bids 4D" but also "I'm not worried about getting doubled, because my spade cards are good."

I always bid 3H here. It's the most flexible, and if the opps have a surprise in store for us, I can always bid 3S later and still be at the 3-level. I am not worried about what to do over 4D (I would pass). If I were strong enough to push on over 4D, I'd just bid 4D now.

this makes my head hurt They've clearly not discussed this situation; there is no agreement. Period. South took a gambling action. North took a gambling action. Even a stopped clock is right twice a day. I don't see the problem. And I hate -- probably much more than the next guy -- getting jobbed by opponents who don't disclose their agreements or who have been playing together forever and know every mannerism of the other and "guess" correctly several times a session.

Just to clarify: partner cannot axe 2H; his X would be t/o (I'm coming around on the "it should be penalty in this auction, because he has 2S and 2N as takeout" idea -- it just didn't fit into the meta-agreements we had already discussed, so I'm treating it as t/o for now).

Haha. Not this time. This is actually from a bidding contest, so if you have plans to do any of the more popular monthly bidding contests (for example, the September or October ACBL Bulletin or Bridge World), please don't read the spoiler until you're done. I doubt you'll repeat the auction, but I'd rather not post the hand without spoilers. In hindsight, I should've spoilered/disclaimered the OP. So sorry about that.

This was more-or-less my intent. It was one of those "There's no way 5D is a good MP score, so I need to do something, but I'm not sure what." My thought at the time was "5N will be pick-a-slam, since he could have a 6th H or D. So I'll bid 5S, which still needs to be pick-a-slam, but it hopefully suggests spades as a 3rd option. If he passes, we're still doing better than 5D." But I can see 5N being natural as well.

sure, this is possible also. My apologies for using the word 'exactly.'