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I no longer play competitive bridge - covid and disability has put an end to that, sadly - but I still read the occasional bridge book. One that caught my attention was "Under the Table" by Avon Wilsmore: I had to order it specifically from the USA. I was in regular contact with the late Alan Truscott, a naturalised British-American, the New York Times bridge correspondent for many years, 25 years ago, about The Great Bridge Scandal that occurred in the 1965 Buenos Aires Bermuda Bowl World Championship where a British partnership was accused of cheating. (I will name no names because, in my opinion, they do not deserve to be mentioned.) To summarise briefly, the pair were accused by the USA players of cheating, the World Bridge Federation found them guilty, made them forfeit the matches they had won, yet a subsequent enquiry by the British Bridge League found them not guilty. I was told by a couple of middle-aged high-ranking British players when I was playing in my college days (the 1980s) that Alan Truscott was jealous (!) and wanted to ruin the reputations of the partnership involved. Which I find incredulous! I never questioned that until I finally read Alan's book, and it was plain to see that this pair, even though they had been fine bridge players, added an extra dimension to their game by resorting to illegal methods, namely finger signalling. Which brings us to Mr Wilsmore's book which reads like a detective story, finally putting together all the clues that the Italian Blue Team cheated for 20 years before table dividing screens were introduced. The Italian Bridge Federation at the time just swept the accusations under the carpet, and the WBF didn't have the gumption to sanction these players totally, and that was that. Reading Wilsmore's book just makes me so disillusioned with the game I used to love. Add to this Boye Brogeland's and his friends' dedicated commitment to root out recent cheats in the game, and all I can say that something now needs to be done about all this retrospectively. It's about time the WBF cleaned up its own act and actually had the balls to remove all the Blue Team's record from its history, and I am not an American player with a gripe about what happened. I am disgusted that the incident in Buenos Aires was swept under the carpet by the British judiciary, and it seems that the Blue Team's victories will still be on the record books also. In my opinion, they should be voided. That might upset some Italians, but if you agree that cheats should benefit from the game then you stand alone. There will be some that will say that these players who have allegedly cheated are mostly deceased, and one mustn't speak ill of the dead, and that they are no longer with us so cannot defend themselves. But having read Wilsmore's book, it is plainly evident to the honest bridge playing professional that time and time again something untoward was happening, and the systematic and perpetual abuse of the game was, at the time, quite sickening. It wasn't a case of a one-off, but even cheating as a one-off is cheating. At least Boye Brogeland knew that what was happening was destructive to the game and took decisive action. It's about time the WBF acknowledged that they erred constantly during the Blue Team's era, and wiping their Bermuda Bowl (and other) victories and placings from the record books would at least send a clear signal that cheats will not be tolerated in our game. The title of this comment "Partner Will Understand" is a reference to Wilsmore's book, where it is evident that "partner will understand" what is going on (in the auction or play) because illegal methods are being used to convey information.

[hv=lin=st||pn|helene_t,~~v3fakebot,~~v3fakebot,~~v3fakebot|md|3SJHAKQT63DKQT852C,SAT87H9D94CKJT542,S643H852D63CAQ763,SKQ952HJ74DAJ7C98|sv|o|rh||ah|Board%201|mb|P|mb|P|mb|6H|an|strong%20rebiddable%20!H;%2032+%20total%20points|mb|P|mb|P|mb|P|pc|D9|pc|D3|pc|DA|pc|D2|pc|D7|pc|DK|pc|D4|pc|D6|pc|HA|pc|H9|pc|H2|pc|H4|pc|HK|pc|C5|pc|H5|pc|H7|pc|D5|pc|S8|pc|H8|pc|DJ|pc|CA|pc|C9|pc|SJ|pc|C2|pc|S3|pc|S2|pc|H3|pc|S7|pc|HQ|pc|C4|pc|S4|pc|HJ|mc|12|]400|300|[/color]comments[/hv] Over the last couple of months I have noticed substantial improvements in my ability to bash the robots. Since I discovered that you can challenge a robot, I have been able to practice play and bidding against GIB more systematically since I don't have all the noise from a field full of other humans. But I wonder if it is actually a good idea. Maybe it will just teach me some bad habits that are diffiult to de-learn when playing with and against humans at the club. For example the above hand. Opening 6♥ works more often than not against GIB because GIB, when defending, relies heavily on inference from the bidding. Psyching the responses to Stayman is another example which we discussed recently. The same strategy might work against humans, at least to some extent, so maybe the main reason for not doing it at the club is that it puts partner under a lot of stress when she has to try to explain our de facto bidding agreements. What do you think - how similar is robot-bashing to human-bashing in terms of which strategies are effective? Am I overthinking this?

While reading over the above comments it occurred to me that if it is Constitutionally legit for Congress to legalize abortion nationally then I suppose it is Constitutionally legit for Congress to forbid abortion nationally. I usually avoid expressing a legal opinion on anything, quantum mechanics is much easier to read than SCOTUS legal arguments (and more interesting), but this seems clear enough. I have mentioned before that Barbara Bush once expressed her view that abortion is something that she would never do but she had no interest in imposing this view on anyone else. A very straightforward approach that I like. My own thinking, on many issues, is that I will lead my life, making my choices, and let others lead their lives making their choices. Sometimes it is necessary to interfere in someone else's life but my default choice is not to. About the same as the Barbara Bush view only she said it better. How to handle the current legal mess? Beats me. Maybe there could be a Constitutional Amendment requiring people to mind their own business.

I rarely totally psych the bots - seems a bit cruel But it can be fun from time to time

It's like doing laps in a swimming pool or reciting Latin verbs (I'm reliably informed). Good practice and a bit soothing. I play a close approximation of GIB 2/1 IRL and find practicing with robots (with the non-best hand mode to reduce the psyching advantage in daylongs) handy for improving my card memory.

I don't think it really works with humans at all, given the disclosure issues. GIB will never learn from your psyching, while after a single use with a human partner, you already have a problem.

I call it "Wereldconventie", which is the Dutch name for the same treatment (though there are minute differences - (3♣)-4♣ shows ♦+a major). I don't really care about the name, just make sure to discuss on which auctions it applies, whether or not it is forcing to game (it should always be), and what the minimum strength is on which you are allowed to bid it (my opinion is 'any hand that is uncomfortable passing at the 3-level', about an ace weaker than standard).