If Joe is willing to admin a pairs ladder then we wil just have to figure something out. I understand Oliver is totally strapped for time now, Ian can't be the only person in IAC with spreadsheet skills. It's too bad that it didn't work out with Ian, but since it seems as though it hasn't, I will try to find time to investigate other possibilities. If anyone has suggestions as to people who might be both capable and willing, they'd be most welcome! It would be a treat for the members to have something ready to go by late August or army September if we can manage it.

Short answer is because if p opens a simple raise doesn't show the strength of my  hand.  P is minimum and will pass that and I don't want that to happen. It's been a Very long time since I played any sort of Goren and not entirely sure what I learned, literally at my parents knees at the weekly bridge game, even was strictly Goren, but certainly closer than any other system I've run into.

Certainly p's opening is within the parameters of point count, if a tad aggressive given the weaknesses in the hand but iirc Goren wasn't a shy bidder., In any case with such an opening I'd expect p to pass anything reasonable asap. Therefore I have to show I have extras somehow, and encourage ongoing dialogue. So then I'd expect my clone to say something like, oh really! Tell me more about your hand, maybe we ve got game somewhere!b and..we are still at a low level so we can get out if needed.  So them we explore for a fit , likely ending up in some number of dia., because  of the fragile other suits.  a huge difference in the games is that in rubber bridge it's generally a very bad idea to go down. Sacrifices are not generally a winning strategy  as they often are in duplicate. BuI just as in duplicate, getting into the bidding as soon as possible is.

As I said it's been a VERY long time and quite possible one or either of my parents had developed a twist or two that worked for them, until I came to BBO I'd never had a "lesson" in my life.

 That's just the way it was, not any sort pride or shame. I didn't even know there was such a thing as duplicate.  Joining BBO was definitely a shock! Thank goodness for BIL in those days with people like Susan Doty shepherding innocents into the shadowy world of conventions! Sorry Oliver you were (and still are) way beyond my ability to follow into the mysteries of Precision! I tried to leap from knowing NO conventions to understanding your notes on Lebensohl and got somewhat traumatized, like trying to teach a grad 5er physics, it didn't take, even with the best of intentions!

Many of the people who used to be members joined for the team matches, specifically the series. Certainly that was true of the Indonesian players, one of whom has gone on the earn a star! and also true of a whole lot of Turkish players. The Indonesian players were university students who graduated and got busy in other places with careers. We lost the Turkish players because of the language barrier, they had had a woman who had coordinated their memberships and kept them organized, she spoke superb English, most of her players spoke next to none.  When she became no longer available nobody had the language skills or interest / ability to do what she had done for them. The Chinese players were fairly briefly involved with interclub matches, those also collapsed due to language and scheduling issues.

I suspect the best approach would be to try to find someone in those areas who a) speaks English and b) has an interest in coordinating interested players and events with us. Language barriers are a problem as people without a fairly good command of English wouldn't even know of IAC, nor understand how to join or why they should.

The west coast hasn't been particularly responsive in the past to efforts providing events at times designed to accommodate them. A few....but it takes more than 5 or 6 to run a tourney or team match.

well done to make it;  the bots  like to wax enthusiastic on very little encouragement ( or points!) from time to time. They also have patterns of play,  when you can almost count on them to make certain plays. Not rising with their highest card in third seat is a fairly frequent one although you can't rely on it by any means.

  And I can certainly relate to  your comment about it generally being a mistake to try to be clever..  certainly is something I have to try to remember at times. That elusive 1 time that it works is like the gambling addict in the casino winning $10 , all that's needed to plunge onward from time to time in spite of the 99 times that it bites.

one of the things that's delightful when it works,  is planning who you want to have leading to you especially when you know the probable lead is going to finesse their partner for you. Or for that matter  putting the lead into the hand that  no matter what they lead they will be setting up a trick for you, whereas if you take the trick you may well be setting up one or more tricks for them. It doesn't always happen of course, partly because I am not good enough to know where everything is, or to organize things to work that way even if I do,  but it happens often enough to be highly gratifying.

in a team match, partner and I have played a few hands together  but not regular partners by any means.   This hand came up .  Imps  we are vul vs not.
  Me
  KT75      K843    AJ85    9

Partner
  A        J2    k      AQJ875432

I look at my hand & like it,  I have three chances to find a fit with partner so I allow points for the singleton and open 1  
Opps  pass throughout.

Partner looks at HIS hand and goes WHEE! 2 I instantly have a problem.  I can't bid a major because I think we are not in a 2/1 auction therefore it would be a reverse. I decidedly can't rebid  .  So I bid 2NT.   P thinks we ARE in a game force auction and therefor happilly bids 3 .  Now my hand  looks to me like something you shovel out of a barn. P has nothing but a long suit,  and I certainly can't support that.  So..  I pass.  P is upset but polite and we each quietly think thoughts about people who don't bid according to how WE were taught 

Even so, I don't know how I would have gone on from there anyway.  3NT?   is there any rational way to find the slam that happens to make because of the lie of the cards? And what % of people play that  ANY  2/1 auction is forcing rather than only those starting out with a major suit bid?  I would think that normally there would be other options available to responder but with this hand he obviously could only bid .   How many people would open with my hand in the first place and is that where the trouble all began?

The other table the auction started out exactly the same way except that after 2NT  responder bid 4 ,  opener bid 4    responder leaped to 6 making.  I don't understand the 4 bid unless they agreed  they were in a game force auction  but there it is.

I've had a couple of messages regarding people looking for partners to play in the ladder.

Perhaps anyone looking for a partner could post a short message here about what they play etc., and see if someone contacts them. Anyone posting is not committed to playing with anyone who invites them but they certainly are committed to responding to invitations, whether a delighted yes or even if only to say they don't think the partnership is compatible. That's only courtesy.

It would be great if we could get more partnerships going for the ladder, so please give it a go if you've thought about playing in it but need a partner.

would this be a matter of playing for the Q to be where it was because otherwise it very likely won't make? the Q is an interesting question simply because it wasn't played over the J but  as Oliver said nobody is going to lead the T from QT and if these were GIBS they LOVE to lead singleton trumps.  So you can draw the trump successfully and run the but you still have a problem. Can you really afford not to draw trump  in case  North has a single or void like you do in ? 

I'd assume the a better bet than the simply because you are only missing one honor instead of two, is that a sensible thing to think? Once you've pulled trump and run the   I'd probably take the K and then finesse north for the Q. If it fails, no matter what south leads back you have the 12th trick. so going down only 1.    I wouldn't have the first clue how to play the in a 7 contract, missing both the K and the J .