[Zelandakh]

 mycroft, on 2014-August-20, 11:37, said:

Pet peeve: it's either spelled with double p's, double l's, and double t's, or "H-A-M-I-L-T-O-N"...

What's wrong with "P-O-T-T-A-G-E"?

[fromageGB]

 Zelandakh, on 2014-August-20, 11:57, said:

What's wrong with "P-O-T-T-A-G-E"?

Looks like a double T to me.

[aguahombre]

 mycroft, on 2014-August-20, 11:37, said:

Pet peeve: it's either spelled with double p's, double l's, and double t's, or "H-A-M-I-L-T-O-N"...

Two p's and 4 e's, actually.

[blackshoe]

 mycroft, on 2014-August-20, 11:37, said:

Pet peeve: it's either spelled with double p's, double l's, and double t's, or "H-A-M-I-L-T-O-N"...

Or "H-E-L-M-S" or "P-O-T-T-A-G-E".

[chasetb]

 blackshoe, on 2014-August-20, 19:13, said:

Or "H-E-L-M-S" or "P-O-T-T-A-G-E".

I have never heard anything about Jerry Helms also independently around the same time coming up with that defense structure.

I would expect it to be 'to play' in all situations, unless a longtime partner can prove to me it has a better meaning/usage.

On a side note, at a very weak club game it once went P - P - 1♣ to me. I held a balanced 25 HCP hand, but luckily partner (a very weak player) and I had the agreement that 3NT was 25-27 HCP whether opening or overcalling, so I bid it. Everyone passed, and after the opening lead partner put down an 8-count with two Kings and a nice KQTxxx suit (was missing K Q J J overall). I immediately congratulated RHO on attempting to psyche me out, and made 7. This was tied for top with one other pair; everyone else made 6. It also turned out his wife had more HCP than he did!

[barmar]

 mycroft, on 2014-August-20, 11:37, said:

Pet peeve: it's either spelled with double p's, double l's, and double t's, or "H-A-M-I-L-T-O-N"...

I knew I should have just said "capp".

[blackshoe]

 chasetb, on 2014-August-20, 23:15, said:

I have never heard anything about Jerry Helms also independently around the same time coming up with that defense structure.

Helms wrote a book, Helms to Hello, in which he describes the evolution of his development from the basic convention, through a modified version (think "modified Cappalletti"), to the final "Hello", which uses transfers. Still in print, if I'm not mistaken.

"Pottage" is, iirc, Julian Pottage, the English player and writer.

[whereagles]

(1NT) 3NT is usually defined as majors where I live.

Opposite a random it's anyone's guess.

[Cthulhu D]

On a side note I floated this with partner and he said that he was fairly sure that it was a big majors hand, but that gambling 3NT was possible and concluded that it should probably be majors but he's not sure what he'd do at the table. I was surprised to realise that we

 blackshoe, on 2014-August-20, 01:18, said:

I tend to put a meta-agreement in place with most partners: if we haven't discussed a call, it is natural. I might be willing to agree something else, like "if we haven't discussed it, take your best guess" after several years playing with the same partner and some strong evidence we're usually (always?) on the same page in such sequences, but it would take a long time to get there.

Yeah, we have something similar, but we approach it differently in club games (particularly pairs games) vs something for which there is a prize. There our agreement in club games boils down to is it's natural unless on the balance of probabilities it is not. In a serious event it's natural unless it is overwhelmingly unlikely to be natural, e.g. (1S)-5S. I'm much more willing to take chances in a pairs game that doesn't matter other than the 0.2 master-points for winning, vs a two day teams event where I don't want to have to explain that I decided to do action X completely undiscussed and it turned out we had different perspectives on what is 'obvious'

Indeed, I think that not taking the chances in the random club game is wasting the random club game. That's the time to find out exactly how bad a hand you can bid 2C with over a 1D opening.