I just tell netfucks to go fuck themselves.
When I go to Vegas, I blowhole piles of money gambling.
20 HCP, 2NT easy peasy.
Funny, I had two 2NT opens at duplicate this morning. Neither ended well.
You have a decent chance of 8 tricks off the top.
I have never learned anything about bridge. The questions might as well be in hieroglyphics.
When I was a high school senior, my father tried to teach me how to play bridge, as he felt it was an important social skill for being a college student (which, honestly, it probably was, when he was in college, in the late 1950s). I told him that I already had a good social skill for meeting people: playing Dungeons & Dragons.
So, my answer to the poll question is: “I cast Fireball.” 
Are you sure? The room is 20’ x 20’.
Yep. I mean, from reading Hornblower I know a bit about Whist, which is related to Bridge. Oddly, my Father was a Bridge Master, went to national tournaments in vegas, etc- but I never learned the game.
I was a mean Poker Player, tho. I won a charity tourney at a game Con, vs 70 nother players. Got $100 iirc in gift certs to use in the hucksters rooms. Mind you- when I tried to play in vegas, I could just barely break even, and that was due to three suckers at our table of 7. So, I was better than amateurs, but not vs pros.
Bridge used to be HUGELY popular. I don’t know a single person today who plays. Guess people still do from the responses above, but it’s interesting how much its popularity has decreased.
There’s an Agatha Christie story where a man was killed in a room where the only other people were playing bridge. Interesting story, but I zone out every time they starting talking “bridge.”
As it turns out there were only 8 tricks available in hearts, but 9 in no trump. I suspect many placed the 3 no trump game ( we did and made 4 due to defensive mistake). A heart bid in this actual case might have sent things in the wrong direction or alerted the defense to declarer’s 5-card heart holding, a better hand count, and thus a more accurate defense. A very good board for us!
Just about everyone in the huge crowd at this popular tournament is a senior. Easily over 500 people playing in the Convention Center there yesterday.
I was going to say, my mom plays—at the Senior Centre. And she worries if she has to skip, because there are barely enough people to keep it going.
We had a thread here on bridge, not too long ago, and that was the consensus from discussion there: it still has its players and fans, but for a lot of us, it’s a game which our parents played.
For my parents, their social circle consisted of:
- Relatives
- People they knew through their bridge groups
- People they knew from the golf club
Nice!
We play 19-21 HCP for 2NT…in one of my hands this morning, I had a doubleton and 20 HCP, but my partner had 4 points and a doubleton in the same suit. Bah.
I did not say it in the second bridge poll hand I posted, as there is no way for North to know this at the time.
But, unless North gets off to the right opening start, the hand is unbeatable.
I love “trick” bridge hands such is this one in “Moonraker” (the book - not the movie). James Bond is South, playing 7 clubs redoubled.
In my case I am almost 63 but feel like I am half that-an old guy the other day even called me a “young man”; haven’t been sick with anything since COVID began 5 years ago. In a “normal” world (assuming any exist for the sake of argument) I would gladly pony up. In this one with all the lunatics and environmental degradation I’d just as soon take my chances with the next world (since the question already presupposes magic in the form of some genie or such).
The other issue is my doing so would actually be rather selfish of me, since that money could be given to my relations or donated somewhere.
For me, it’s a game which, as a child, I played with my parents. (I don’t remember who we usually had for fourth; maybe one of my older sisters, or a visitor. And isn’t there a version in which one of the hands is played by its partner, to make it possible to play with three?)
I remember enough so that I understand the questions; but not enough that I want to figure out how I should bid or how I should play. Especially since I never got beyond a beginner’s level, and haven’t played for probably close to sixty years; I’m pretty sure I’d do something ignorant.
Bridge was still quite popular in my college dorm in the early 80s.