Bridge for Beginners and Beyond -

Bridge for Beginners and Beyond -- Expanded & updated 16th edition.

A teaching and learning manual for beginners and intermediate players.

Bridge for Beginners and Beyond (© August 2007, orange cover) is a comprehensive guide to good bridge for beginner and intermediate-level players. It's designed to teach the game to newcomers and help current players build on their knowledge of the basics, improve their skills and refine their bidding systems. The book is used by bridge teachers in Champaign-Urbana IL and other communities, and can also be used as a self-teaching guide.

The new 16th edition is 101 pages (14 more pages than previous editions) and includes updated bidding recommendations, more quiz and practice hands, and a new section on playing Internet bridge. Format is 8.5" x 11", spiral-bound.

The book begins with the bare basics for those who have never played and progresses to more advanced topics suitable for intermediate-level players. Each lesson presents the "how-to's" and "why's" in a concise format for easy reference. Lessons include General Rules sections that summarize the basic principles for each aspect of bidding or play, Quick Reference charts that can be used as bidding guides, and At the Table sections with many quiz hands to test your skills.

Bridge quotations and cartoons appear throughout the book. There are also new features on bridge trivia and history.

The book is organized into 20 lessons plus a "Quick Facts" reference chapter and sections on specialized topics:

Why play bridge? -- an overview of the mental, physical and social benefits of learning and playing the world's most popular card game.

How to use this book -- tips on how to progress through the lessons and practice your new skills.

Quick Facts -- point-count and other numbers to know, bridge vocabulary, scoring table, tear-out bidding "cheat-sheet".

1 - Getting Started -- the purpose of the game, introduction to bidding and play, contract requirements, how tricks are won, the roles of declarer and dummy.

2 - Opening Suit Bids -- opening 1 of a suit with balanced and semi-balanced hands.

3 - Responding to an Opening Suit Bid -- choosing the suit and level for a response to partner's opening bid.
New: Frequently asked questions and answers about responding bids.

4 - Opener's Rebids -- rebids after opening 1 of a suit with a balanced or semi-balanced hand.
New: The Rest of the Auction: Guidelines for responder's second bid

5 - Notrump Bidding -- opening and responding to 1NT and 2NT, the notrump opener's rebids, the Stayman 2C convention.
New: Updated bidding with 15-17 1NT and 20-22 2NT openings.

6 - Hand Evaluation -- determining a hand's strength by its distribution, suit quality, honor combinations & positions. Guidelines for when to make "light" opening bids.

7 - Bidding Unbalanced Hands -- describing strength and distribution, choosing opening bids and rebids, using the "reverse bid" to show extra values.

8 - Special Opening Bids for Unbalanced Hands -- strong and weak two-bids, strong-and-artificial 2C opening, preemptive three-bids and four-bids, sacrifice bidding.
New: Expanded section and practice hands for Weak Two-bids and the strong-and-artificial 2C opening.

Special section: Bidding Summary -- quick-reference guidelines and tables that summarize which bids and which auctions are signoff, invitational and forcing.

9 - Overcalls -- making and responding to suit and notrump overcalls, strong cuebid overcalls, balancing bids.

10 - Doubles -- penalty doubles and takeout doubles, responding to partner's takeout double, the takeout doubler's rebids.

11 - Competitive Auctions -- bidding over an opponent's overcall or double, using redoubles, evaluating trump fits, using the "Law of Total Tricks" to make competitive decisions.

12 - Declarer Play -- planning the play in suit and notrump contracts, establishing and cashing tricks, unblocking plays, developing long-suit winners, how to finesse, a table of common finessing combinations.

13 - Opening Leads -- standard guidelines for leading to suit and notrump contracts, plus advanced tips on choosing your opening-lead strategy.

14 - Defense -- second-hand and third-hand plays, bracketing, Rule of Eleven, unblocking plays, communicating with your partner by using attitude and count signals.

15 - Counting the Hand -- how to collect information from the bidding and play to make logical deductions about the unseen hands; card-reading and memory strategies; tips for defenders, declarers and dummies.

16 - Slam Bidding -- evaluating strength and controls, Blackwood 4NT, Gerber 4C, using cuebids to find aces and bid slams.
New: James Bond, the Duke of Cumberland Hand and The Curse of Scotland

17 - Refining Your System -- New-Minor Forcing, game-try bids, four more uses for cuebids.

18 - Popular Conventions -- Michaels Cuebids, Unusual 2NT overcalls, Jacoby Transfers, Negative Doubles, Jacoby 2NT Major-Suit Raise.
New: Texas Transfer & Drury 2C conventions

19 - Duplicate Bridge -- duplicate movements, scoring, using boards and bidding boxes, filling out a convention card, sample convention card, matchpoint and team-of-four strategies, alerts, duplicate customs.
New: The most disastrous bridge hand ever played (the Bennett murder trial)

20 - More Learning Opportunities -- recommended bridge books, software, websites and free online clubs; suggestions for individual practice; techniques for developing your memory and "card sense".
New: Internet Bridge -- how to choose a club and play online (free), the SAYC (Standard American Yellow Card) bidding system, printable SAYC convention card, online "lingo".

The book is available direct from the author for $12.00 (USD) plus postage (new USPS rates effective 5/12/08):
To U.S. addresses -- $4.80 for Priority Mail for one or two books (2-3 day delivery) OR
$2.30 for one book sent by Media Mail (2-6 day delivery, depending on distance from Illinois).
If you would like to purchase one or more please contact me thru the blog site and i will send you alink where you can buy online or buy by mail.
Have a great time playing bridge.

Thanks,
In His Service
Jerry Lemieux

Hi I thought this would be a very eye opening article on how we are becoming the laughing stock of the world and our country.
Yo, first couple!

---

Posted: April 06, 2009
1:00 am Eastern

© 2009

OK, Barack and Michelle – it's my turn now.

As long as you seem to be on the road of informality, throwing tradition, etiquette, proper diplomacy, protocol and common sense out the window and replacing it with 21st century casual, I'm taking the liberty, as an American citizen, to give you a message from my heart: stop it!

For two people of your political and diplomatic level, your breezy disregard for proper behavior is embarrassing.

Just a reminder: On Jan. 20, you were sworn in as president of the United States of America and your wife became first lady. It's a huge responsibility on many levels, but the most obvious involves what we see and hear.

Judging by what we've seen and heard lately, there are problems.

Remember "hope and change"? That campaign rhetoric got you elected. It was the philosophy of wishful thinking.

Hope – that you would maintain the dignity of the office and change – that you'd do what's right for the country.

Apparently we'll have to keep hoping because we got change, and it's not good.

We've been treated to you repeatedly criticizing and apologizing for our country on foreign soil in front of world leaders. Then, to make it worse, you bowed to the Saudi king, a full, from-the-waist, bow!

What was that about? Bowing signifies subservience! You can make book that the Saudis and all the Middle East understands that. Barack, the president of the United States of America is not subservient to anyone.

That bow was inappropriate and demeaning to your office and to all Americans. You should be ashamed, at the very least, embarrassed.

Another issue: While speaking in France , you said America has "shown arrogance and been dismissive, even derisive" toward Europe .

There you go again – groveling and apologizing for your country. Is it your genes, your religion or were you brought up that way?

Is demeaning your country a way to gain respect?

Then, there was the visit with Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip. There are guidelines to how to act and what to say, and they do not include hugs.

I realize that's part of the touchy-feely mentality of the day, Michelle, but really. You do not touch the queen; she's not your neighbor.

I know we're told she put her arm around your back, but she did it after you made the first move. She did it because the woman has manners and didn't want to embarrass you.

Or perhaps, like your husband, you don't know how to be embarrassed.

Oh, and when you pose for pictures with the queen, you should know that Prince Philip stands next to her. It was really unseemly for you to push your way next to her and force him off to the side. You should have stood next to Barack, allowing Philip to stand next to his wife.

You got a lot of attention for your wardrobe but really, J. Crew casual for a state visit? I like their clothes but a skirt, (wrinkled at that) a top and sweater are inappropriate. Your incessant choice of sleeveless dresses is tiresome; I am tired of armpits and muscles.

Another not so minor point: The American economy is hurting. As the American first couple, you should support American designers and manufacturers for your public wardrobes; you intentionally avoid them.

That's a big mistake – for your role as first lady and someone who wants to look her best.

Speaking of that: Please remember the ever-present cameras. Did you see that picture of you sitting on a couch talking to French First Lady Carla Bruni Sarkozy?

She sits like a lady and you, with a short, tight skirt and oddly crossed legs, look like it's a coffee klatch. It's very unflattering and careless. You don't get a pass for that.

Then consider treatment of guests and gifts.

First, Tony Blair's gift to the White House of a bust of Churchill was summarily returned to the British embassy. Obama didn't want it so he returned the gift?!?!?

Michelle, please talk to him.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown was given short shrift during his U.S. visit, and his "presidential gift" was a set of videos of movies. Unfortunately, the format was incompatible for British VCRs!

As for the gift to the queen? An i-Pod loaded with show tunes, videos of her prior D.C. visit and Obama's speeches.

P.S., she already had one.

To cover that fiasco, CBS reported the queen requested that gift.

Does anyone believe that?

It seems "first couple" Barack and Michelle are having some rough patches in their new jobs.

The title of president sounds nice. It conjures images of the leader of the most powerful nation on the planet, who is accomplished, collected, smart, couth and savvy.

Well, no. The president of the United States and his wife are navigating through some difficult shoals in their forays with international leaders, and they've stepped in it big time to the everlasting embarrassment of this country.

We deserve better.

What do they teach at Ivy League schools? Clearly, nothing about manners, decorum, protocol or tradition.

And apparently, the White House department that's supposed to review such issues with the first couple – doesn't know what it's doing either. Word has it the new administration didn't know there's a State Department protocol office!

But then, when you think you know everything, why ask for advice?

Lest you think it's just me criticizing the Obamas, a British blogger came up with this description of them: "Classless. Thoughtless. Clueless."

I couldn't agree more. Wish I'd said it first.

=======================
thanks
Jerry

The Fallacy of Online Poker Gambling
By: Major Bet

Online poker gambling is fast and rapidly becoming the most famous gambling games at every available gambling sites on the internet. This fame that is currently being enjoyed by online poker gambling is possibly due to the enticement of poker players to play online and make easy money.

Online poker gambling is a game of skill and many people believe that they have the right set of skills in poker games to win the pot with less effort. Most people, however, believe that this is just the fallacy of online poker gambling.

A skillful play will never really aid gamblers and players of poker to win easy money at an online poker room. Why? Because winning money at an online poker room is beyond the reach of the gamblers or players of the poker game whatever is their skill level.

-- What They Say About Online Poker Gambling

The fallacy of online poker gambling has always been a debate immediately after it's sudden momentum in popularity. People say that the fallacy of online poker gambling can be seen in a way that poker websites offering poker games are allowing gamblers and players to lose their money much slower that they would not be able to notice their loss of money.

The skillful play that the top gamblers in the world are so proud of do not stand a chance against an online poker virtual gambler. This is one of the heated debates on the fallacy of online poker gambling.

It is said that in an online poker room, players and gamblers can temporarily win in one or more poker games but this is just the short run. In the long run, though, the gambling company that operates the poker gambling website is already devising a scheme. It will eventually aim to finally win all the money that the gamblers and players have recently pocketed as their winnings.

This fallacy of online poker gambling is not that noticeable because the poker game is a fast played game. The short-run in poker games will immediately become the long-run when a player or gambler plays enough card hands.

Every card hand that is played whether a player or gambler is losing or winning any particular card hand will slowly further the disintegration of the bankroll of every gambler or player. This is the fallacy of online poker gambling.

There is never anything that a gambler or a player can do or think about to save and redeem the money that was stolen from them. If one is to beat the fallacy of online poker gambling, one must stop playing online poker gambling.

-- The Fallacy Of Online Poker Gambling From Top Players

The most outstanding poker players in every part of the world do not play or try to play poker at poker gambling websites. Several top poker players, however, do endorsements for some poker websites, and this is because they are being paid for it.

Another reason for the realization of the fallacy of online poker gambling is that these top players believe that they can beat anyone on the game of poker. What they are confused about is that they cannot beat the house of an online poker gambling room.

These top players are witnesses to the fallacy of online poker gambling and are included in those people who clamor that nobody, not even the greatest poker player himself can make money while playing in an online poker gambling room.

Even the world’s champions from the World Series of Poker tournaments can never be skilled enough or good enough to overcome the house cut or rake from every money pot.

-- Conclusion On The Fallacy Of Online Poker Gambling

To further the debate on the fallacy of online poker gambling, ask anyone about the fallacy of online poker gambling and one will easily pinpoint a question of doubt.

People ask the question on how will human players be sure that their opponent is a human and not another online poker software visual. People have long noticed the fallacy of online poker gambling since a player or gambler could easily doubt the existence of human players online. The rest of the opponent could be simulations of the online poker software that are programmed to take away all your money.

Players or gamblers will be easily deceived and be initially laid out in a trap wherein they will win in the short-run but eventually will lose all their money in the long-run.

Article Source: http://www.hobbyarticledirectory.com

Major Bet publishes tips and tutorials about sports betting and football betting regularly.


Thanks,
In His Service
Jerry Lemieux
An Incredible Opportunity
http://theplanx.com
One Shop Stop
http://www.mywebcashstore.com/lemieux0435

This Article Below, Hits Home to me, since i am a type 2 Diabetic. I need to watch my diet to kep myHemoglobin A1C in check. I am lucky and blessed to have my Work insurance lower the costs for my medicines with reasonable Co-pays.

By LINDA A. JOHNSON, AP Business Writer Linda A. Johnson, Ap Business Writer

Diabetics are increasingly risking life and limb by cutting back on — or even going without — doctor visits, insulin, medicines and blood-sugar testing as they lose income and health insurance in the recession, an Associated Press analysis has found.

Doctors have seen a drop in regular appointments with diabetic patients, if they come back at all. Patients more often seek tax-subsidized or charity care. And they end up in emergency rooms more often, patients and physicians said in interviews.

Sales of top-selling drugs and other products used to treat and monitor the disease have dropped since the economic crisis accelerated last fall, the AP analysis found. There are even signs that some patients are choosing less-expensive insulin injections over pricier pills to save money.

Meanwhile, the number of people with the disease keeps growing — another 1.6 million Americans were diagnosed in 2007 alone.

People with other health problems also are cutting back on care amid the recession, but diabetics who don't closely monitor and control the chronic disease risk particularly dire complications: amputations, vision loss, stroke — even death.

Patients' frugality comes at a tremendous cost to the already-strained health care system. The typical monthly bill to treat diabetes runs $350 to $900 for those without insurance, a price tag that's risen as newer, more expensive medicines have hit the market. Emergency care and a short hospitalization can easily top $10,000, and long-term complications can cost far more.

M. Eileen Collins, 48, of Indianapolis, tried to scrimp on her medication last fall after her husband lost his job and with it their insurance. Without money for insulin, test supplies and other medicines, she asked for free samples and also got a few drugs through $4-a-month generic programs. But she stopped taking most of her drugs and cut her insulin doses in half to stretch her budget.

"I truly did not think I was putting my life in danger," Collins said. "I thought if I was just real careful with what I ate ... I'd be all right."

By Thanksgiving eve, Collins was vomiting blood and rushed to a hospital. Doctors diagnosed her as malnourished, anemic and in diabetic ketoacidosis, a life-threatening condition caused by lack of insulin and sky-high blood sugar. She spent a week in the hospital.

Her story is hardly unique.

Dr. Steven Edelman, a University of California, San Diego endocrinologist who runs a free clinic staffed by medical students, has seen a 30 percent surge the past six months in patients seeking free diabetes medicines and supplies, which the clinic has to ration. Many had been solidly middle class, but the recession took their jobs, insurance and even some homes.

"A third to a half of these people haven't been taking their meds at all," said Edelman, who also founded the advocacy group Taking Control of Your Diabetes.

Diabetes occurs when the body doesn't make enough insulin or doesn't efficiently use the hormone, which helps turn sugar from food into energy. The disease can be kept under control by monitoring blood sugar as well as exercising, improved diet, medications, testing and regular checkups.

Uncontrolled diabetes can cause fatigue, blurry vision, excessive urination, gum problems, infections and wounds that don't heal. Damage to the kidneys, liver, heart and eyes follow. Often, much of that damage isn't apparent until a stroke or heart attack strikes.

Sales of diabetes testing supplies and drugs indicate how many Americans have moved beyond scrimping and are cutting vital expenses. Several doctors said they began noticing a shift in August or September, when the financial markets melted down and layoffs accelerated.

Sales have dipped for pricey brand-name diabetes pills, blood glucose monitors and even test strips, based on industry sales figures and interviews with the top two makers of testing supplies. The strips generally cost $1 or more each; patients using insulin are supposed to test at least two to four times a day to be sure their blood sugar is in a safe range.

Most diabetics typically can control the disease for a few years with diet, exercise and pills available as cheap generics. But eventually, those pills stop working well, and patients switch to more advanced — and more expensive — medicines.

Sales of the most widely used pill, $4-a-month metformin, are up 7 percent since June, according to the AP analysis of figures from health data firm IMS Health Inc. Brand-name versions of the same drug, costing 10 times as much, are down 9 percent, on average, since then.

By February, sales for nearly every other category of diabetes pills and insulins were down from a year earlier, most by double digits, IMS figures show. The only exceptions were a heavily promoted new type of diabetes pill, Januvia, and advanced insulins that tightly control blood sugar levels.

The sales declines come even as the number of diabetes cases grows, fueled by the rise in obesity. According to the American Diabetes Association, more than 24 million Americans have diabetes.

Even as sales of expensive pills have fallen, sales of advanced insulin injections are up 9 percent since summer. That could mean some patients would rather face a needle to save money, according to Brian Lasky, a research analyst at IMS Health.

"By December, people were making decisions in terms of, 'Do I fill this prescription or ... buy Christmas presents for my kids?'" Lasky added.

Johnson & Johnson, a maker of top-selling OneTouch blood sugar meters, testing strips and insulin pumps, reported a 2 percent fourth-quarter drop in U.S. sales for the category compared with the same period a year earlier, a large drop considering quarterly sales up to then had been rising at around 10 percent.

"We're seeing some signs that consumers and patients are becoming more frugal," J&J Chief Executive Bill Weldon told analysts in January.

Getting patients to stick to their treatment has long been tough. But rising unemployment has made things worse.

At a family clinic in impoverished Newark, N.J., so many patients simply stopped showing up after losing health insurance that doctors posted notices asking clients with financial troubles to speak up so staff can try to help.

"Sometimes you don't see (diabetes) patients for several months," said Dr. Cynthia Paige, medical director of the New Jersey Family Practice Center. They "don't understand what a nightmare uncontrolled diabetes is and how it's ravaging your body," she said.

April Bumpus, 31, of Woodstock, Ga., was laid off from her job in medical sales last spring while recovering from surgery, and her health insurance was canceled. By September, she had to switch from two advanced insulins that tightly controlled her blood sugar to cheaper, older ones that cause surges and drops. The advanced insulin would have cost $360 a month, the older insulin only $100.

"It makes you really feel like you have the flu" at least once a week, said Bumpus, who's more worried about the long-term consequences. "That does scare me. I can have a heart attack, I can have a stroke, I can go blind."

Emergency rooms increasingly are treating diabetics who haven't been taking medicines, according to doctors at several hospitals nationwide and the professional group for ER doctors. Many of the patients have blood sugar so high they are hospitalized for days. Free clinics also are getting a surge of diabetes patients desperate for help.

"There's an increase in just overall consequences of diabetes: losing a foot, losing a kidney, bad eyesight. At least six people come to mind over the last six months ... most because of the recession," said Dr. Nicholas Vasquez, who works in one of the country's biggest ERs, at St. Joseph's Hospital in Phoenix.

Vasquez and his colleagues view the desperate patients in their ER as harbingers of what's to come if the recession deepens.

"What we're seeing mostly is the first steps of people not taking care of their diabetes and starting to have consequences," he said.

Thanks for reading this very informative article. If you want to see more of these articles orany article please follow and comment his blog
thanks
Jerry Lemieux