FM75

1♦ - partner forced you to respond. Or, 2♣ and pass partner's rebid. Partner should be declarer (He/she plays the hand better than you - saving your marriage :) ). (Hope partner does not take it as Michaels when he/she has doubled.) If LHO bids another suit and you hear another double, pass. LHO and P have the cards. P is well placed.

Haha. Tomorrow the penultimate pairing will be getting some media attention. It has some history. Woods, Scott And the ultimate pairing has no major wins. So they will be talking about that as well. Westwood, Mahan.

LOL. Perhaps a better question is whether they even have different behavior in the different forms of the game.

Beijing = UTC +8 USEDT = UTC-4 USEST = UTC-5 British Summer Time = UTC+1 Feel Free to quote this and add time zones if that helps.

"I believe" is the key to this sentence. Belief is usually a very strong indication of lack of knowledge or even the intent to research. (If the belief is not politically correct, it is often labelled 'bias") Antics with semantics: I or we believe. He, she, or they are biased or prejudiced.

Precision with agreements over interference. 2♦ 16-19 hcp and any 4441 Does south bid 2♠ over a strong opening? If so, with 0-7 partner bids cheaper of 2 4-card or longer suits. 3♣ 3♠ by North?, 4♦ partner will have to figure out that I have a singleton spade from bidding and correct to clubs, if necessary. After 4♠? pass and let partner decide best fit. - 5♦ maybe doubled and off 3 max. -500 vs -620 (or + 100) At least we don't double, since we know that we have no defense against spades.

Maybe you should consider some other alternatives: 1C - 1x pass = 0-4 - Having partner guess, seems wrong IMO X = 5-7(8) any other bid is positive response 1C - X as above, except XX replaces X 1C - 2x pass - then partner can take action based on his hand and any RHO call X - balanced, pick a range that you like with your system etc.

Strain = NT, HCP = 29, E(tricks) = 3 Huh? Does that mean we get 9 tricks, 3 tricks, or the formula is garbage for NT? (The assumption is that e = 0, because this is a large sample case). Or does it mean we expect 6.5 +3 = 9.5? Strain NT, HCP = 40, 6.23 trick, 12.73 tricks? Strain some suit, HCP=40, trumps = 13, 19.23 tricks or 25.73 tricks? Strain some suit, hcp =11, trumps = 13, 16 tricks, 22.5 tricks? I suspect that the "average" is closer to making 7 tricks (1 suit) than 16 tricks. If the formula does not predict the simple cases, toss it in the garbage bin. (Ok, I studied physics, and expected the friction free limit of a formula including friction to reduce to the friction-free formula.)

I have a nice retina display iPad, retina mac book, and iMac with 2 displays.. But I would far prefer to play with real keyboard and a mouse on the browser version. That said, I did predict at least a year ago on BBO forum (or maybe in email to Fred), and before there was a mobile BBO app of any kind, even demo, that it might very well be the wave of the future and that it was time to kill Flash. Personal computer (including Mac) sales are declining, and phones and tablet sales are soaring. The trend is continuing. But Flash is still alive. Old PC version is dramatically different from web version, which is dramatically different from mobile. Not only in appearance but in features! On top of that, the tablet market does not support the "hover" and right click popup menus. We live in interesting times. Maybe the next versions of web and mobile will allow us to speak our bids, alerts, etc. and stop using our hands. Maybe our chat will be audio instead of text, though reading a foreign language IMO is easier than listening to one. One interesting note. I have yet to see anyone complain that hands played are not stored on their mobile device! Or that their CCs are not there. Nobody seems to want to chat to lobby on mobile. Should the web version look exactly like the mobile version, only bigger? :)

Probably we need to know more. For example, does 2♦ deny a 5 card major? Does it deny 5 card clubs and 4 card major? What did my double show? If I make a forcing pass, what are partner's options?

The game - Video Bridge - you are guaranteed a hand with HCP equal or better than the other 3 hands. http://www.bridgebas.../client/vb1.php The payoff matrix: http://doc.bridgebas...ire_Bridge.html You start with $100. Before any deal, you can pay $1, $2, $5, or $10, and get paid off at the rates above. What is the optimal bet size over a series of games? Note: If you had to put your entire pot in play on each deal, and were betting on a coin toss, where the payout was 10% to the winner, you would lose 1% per round, on average. In BBO, you can only bet your entire pot if you have $10 or less (or maybe it is 10, 5, 2, 1, or less than 1). Further, you have a choice, of the 4 different antes.

As if the IRS did not have its hands full with the scandal, and the automatic budget reduction, now they have to figure out what to do about homosexual unions with respect to 2012 and 2013, since they now are qualified as married under the regulations. They may be faced with amended claims looking for refunds as well as faced with potentially collecting the "marriage tax" and penalties and interest. Normally they are guided by the wording of bills passed by Congress - but here they likely will get little help. Not sure how this relates to racism or gun control though.

Yes. Or the option to play partner's hand when you become dummy. This probably should be moved to a BBO discussion.

The perfect information objection to Zermelo's theorem is not applicable. The set of all possibilities is clearly finite and enumerable. 6.35*10^11 deals * 4 positions for dealer * 4 vulnerability conditions * some number of scoring methods * a finite number of possible auctions. So let's put number of scoring methods at about 5 for argument's sake, making the product of the middle three 80. Now we have: 5. * 10^13 times the number of auctions. Anybody know off hand the number of possible auctions? There are 36 possible opening bids. Starting with: pppp ppp1cppp ... ppp1cppXppXXpp1d...7NppXppXX ... 7NppXppXX :) This is a nice challenging problem. How many auctions?

You meant children are NOT ALLOWED TO CONSENT, which is a legal construct. There is no slur, but in your eyes. I will expand a bit more. Morals are a community construct. Without a community to decide them, no man can be moral or immoral without resorting to a fiat construct such as religion. But what is religion, but a community agreement. One can of course construct a moral code. Just like one could construct the postulates of geometry. Then one can - based upon that initial construct derive conclusions. 1) The conclusions can be no stronger than the quality of the postulates. Note - an age old problem in geometry hindered the progress of physics until Einstein discovered General Relativity. 2) You also may run into Gödel - which I won't bother to discuss further - but it shook the mathematics world. 3) Any moral code must be inseparable from its community. 4) Debating moral correctness, being a community construct, can't be won by logical arguments - but only by some sort of referendum, in which some majority will always decide and which will have disagreement by some minority. 5) This is far from evident to most, who will continue to construct arguments based most commonly upon their biases, but who nonetheless will couch the argument as a logical one.

Movies can be sent from the web version, by windows, mac, linux, and probably even tablet viewers. They can be played by the same. It uses handviewer. If broader ability to use is the sole criterion for being better, then the web and handviewer are the hands down winner! :) added http://www.bridgebase.com/help/v2help/handviewer.html

Marriage was invented by religions long before the US existed as a state. The US recognizes freedom of religion - up to some point. If you doubt this, then research what Utah had to agree to in order to become a state in the union. The US recognizes freedom to not be religious - at least as the Supreme Court interpreted the Constitution. The idea that laws are "independent" of religion is just a tad preposterous. The only way to do that is substitutes "morals" for "religion", but what are morals? At what point does the state draw the line on morality and why? Should pedophiles have the same rights as homosexuals and heterosexuals? I would not suggest that it should. But expecting to win the argument on logic won't happen.

Making stuff up is a poor way to solve problems (but an effective way to show the bias in your thinking.) http://www.uwyo.edu/...rd_spending.pdf "We also find no evidence of managerial myopia as corporate aggregate R&D expenditures are growing faster than aggregate profitability and the number of firms that undertake R&D has increased over the period from 1976-2010. " http://www.aps.org/p...02/research.cfm HOW R&D SPENDING COMPARES TO GDP: 2.79%: R&D as a share of the 1999 GDP, the highest percentage since 19672.67%: R&D as a share of the 1998 GDP2.61%: R&D as a share of the 1997 GDP2.87%: Highest R&D/GDP ratio in US history, in 1953 Use facts, research and mathematics to arrive at a prospective proposal. How much more efficient are natural gas plants than coal? How much do they cost to build. How fast can they be built? How much infrastructure needs to be built to deliver the gas? How much capacity needs to be added? Why do it instead of nuclear first? How much more efficient is nuclear than coal, natural gas, or yes even than solar voltaic with respect to GHG emissions? https://en.wikipedia...nergy_generated With the exception of hydro-electric, nuclear is the lowest continuous generation source we know. Solar PV generates nearly 3 times as much GHG in CO2 equivalents as generation II nuclear reactors. 16 versus 46.

Thread drift anyone? The topic was "Climate change a different take on what to do about it" Climate change and what to do about it... Not sure why the paste above was lost. It seems this thread is debating the concept for some 60+ pages - not discussing "what to do about it?" Is that because nobody is willing to offer substantive, concrete ideas? Ideas that could be "priced" and tested as to their ability to make a change? Because most would rather parrot their believes and quote the like-minded, rather than display their own creative solutions and subject them to critical analysis? Or is it just a lack of focus? This Winstonm guy seems to want to debate who the believers are and whether they are a majority. Or whether the "scientist believers" are a majority. Would he have been in the camp calling Einstein a whack job when he suggested Special Relativity 110 years ago - when nobody believed it, or General Relativity a few years later. Yeah - science is not political. You don't vote on it. This fact seems lost on most non-scientists. Here you go ---- Obama wants to abandon coal. It seems that natural gas is cleaner by about 50%... So what piece of our current electricity mix is contributing about 20% of total generation, kicks natural gas's butt by over an order or magnitude. Hint it could replace coal in about 2 decades eliminate fossil fuel in another decade - proven generation 365x24x7 with 50 plus years of history. Wait! Did I forget to mention that its GHG reduction, by replacing coal and methane, would reduce emissions by about a factor of 50. Did I forget to mention that the implementation of the engineering - which began in the early 60's - could be commoditized now, where then there were still significant scientific questions and it was still possible with 50 year old engineering and materials science? For you farmer and food fans - it also does not take food out of the mouths of folks hoping to eat. (That could be a minus, of course - but that is a story for another lifeboat.)

NP Complete. Google it. Get out of game theory for you answer. Its problems are too simple.

David Bird and Taf Anthias recently wrote a book on opening leads against NT. Synopsis: The auction matters.The suit held matters.Form of scoring sometimes matters.Few of the sequences were considered in the book.A passive lead may often be correct (i.e. none of the cards).I leave it to others to decide whether the authors are experts, but they took a "scientific approach" to arriving at their answers. I am by no stretch of the imagination an expert, or even advanced.

1♣ Forcing 16+ any shape except 20-23 4441 - (p) 1♦ 0-7 hcp (p) 1♥ Forcing either real hearts or preliminary to showing Balanced 19-21, 24-25, or 28-29 passed out. I expected another bid from you partner... He felt horrible (and really was rock solid in the system). Naturally it was teams, p had 4 hcp and I had 29 and several 6 level contracts were cold.

Steve, you can simply ask your opponents to turn FD off. You can tell by looking at their card that it is FD. Call a director, if necessary. Problem solved - at least w.r.t your opponents.

4 ♠ needs to be to play, X - penalty, 4N - bid best minor. 5m is to play.

You are partly correct. The web version and PC version treat the "announcements" (technically) differently. Players on PC version can elect not to see the announcements. So they see only their own. Opponents may also turn off seeing them. So they might not see legitimate alerts. The FDCC is very useful - if you have one - for working on PAs. Opponents should be in control of who sees - so for example - if 4 are learning a system everybody can see. And the FDCC should be able to distinguish between Alerts and Announcements. That said, this all seems unikely to happen. Yes, they should be turned off in tournaments and players using them need to understand the need to self-alert.