[mikeh]

foo, on May 17 2006, 02:42 PM, said:

EDIT: mikeh is a lawyer? That is... ...fascinating.

As a trial lawyer for 30 years, I have acted for and against people in just about every occupation imaginable in Canada. I have represented successful (and unsuccessful) business owners, medical doctors, accountants, university professors, authors, fire-fighters, police officers, teachers, janitors, bus drivers, taxi drivers, fishermen, forestry workers, pilots, nurses, labourers, judges, architects, engineers, politicians, teachers and so on.

One thing that I have found is that one cannot tell much about another person's character from their occupation. There are closed-minded, prejudiced people in all occupations, while some of the most intelligent, and interesting, people I know chose life-paths that left them in relatively unskilled and low paying jobs.

So I find your 'fascination' with my occupation as a lawyer to be.... fascinating

[jdonn]

mikeh, on May 17 2006, 04:26 PM, said:

So I find your 'fascination' with my occupation as a lawyer to be.... fascinating

I find your fascination with his fascination with your occupation...fascinating.

Sorry, I just felt left out.

[foo]

*Foo resists the urge to be dragged into a black hole of infinite fascination w/ fascination w/...*

"MMuusstt... bbrreeaakk... FREE!"

[foo]

mike777, on May 17 2006, 03:32 PM, said:

One of the hallmarks of the better player is the ability to LISTEN to an auction, to have confidence in the interpretation he places on the bids, especially those made by partner, and to act accordingly. Good players learn to value weak, but fitting hands, and to devalue strong but misfitting hands.

Part of the problem (if I may extrapolate from my own experiences especially when I was a player who thought (mistakenly) that he was already very good) is that the extent to which hands need to be revalued is almost always underestimated by most players... but they refuse to acknowledge that fact..

Dead in the Black. 1000% Right. Could not say it better myself. Etc.

mikeh and I may disagree on how to best handle this specific board, but the quoted statement should be taken as seriously as you are capable of doing so.

One theme I expect all readers would find common to the more thoughtful posts in these forums, regardless of whether they present the same POV or not, is that the processes of bidding, defense, and play are =dynamic= ones where best performance is obtained by constantly thinking and re-evaluating what you know and can deduce from the information provided so far.

[jdeegan]

How about:
2♣-P-2♠-P
3♥-P-4♥-P
5♣-P-5♥ all pass

Making five, losing one diamond and one club.

[keylime]

1H-1S-3C-3H-4C-4H for starters. It's very hard to get into slam with this hand; even harder to get into a slam that has playability. I'd be happy to play a comfortable 4H. I'm not a fan of 2C openers with this type of hand.