doclands

The BBO client not only reads in the pbn file but it also creates an lin file with all of the hands in it as soon as you open up the pbn file! I use this all the time to convert pbn files produced by my own hand generation programmes so that I can use them on BBO for partnership bidding practice. It is stored next to your original pbn file, with the same name but the lin extension.

Hi guys Are there any analysis programmes out there? I know that Deep Finnesse can tell me what can be made double dummy and how for a given hand but that is as far as I get. The more involved the better. If you do know of any programmes, or other things that Deep Finnesse does, what sort of things do they do? A few posts on this forum have mentioned 'running an analysis' - what was meant by this? Many thanks doclands

I'm interested in suggestions as to style in the following type of situation : you have agreed a minor at the 3-level and are in a game forcing position. What do you play a new suit at the 3-level as and why? - a cue (shows extra values) - a stop (says nothing about values - could be either (doesn't show extra values unless 3N gets removed???) We currently play the latter but find that it was always a cue and the lack of knowledge of extra values can cause problems.

We've played Keri for several years and find it much preferable to Stayman etc. Those passing after 1N - 2♣ - 2♦ - 2M should be bidding 2N more often and only passing suitable hands - the idea isn't to pass whenever you are minimum and have 3cd support! We even play the Keri 2♣ sequences after a 1N rebid. Lots of pluses and few minuses. It does help that neither of us plays with any other partner in real life! Cheers doclands

Hi I use Keri over 1N. 1N - 2C (forces 2D and creates several uses for a lot of bids) 2D (forced) - 2N (GF) 3C = no 5cd M and not 4333 of any sort (now 3D asks for 4cd M and 3M shows 5cd M) 3D = 4333 (any 4) 3M = 5cd M I will do a fairly full keri if it is wanted but I am going on holiday for 3 weeks so it will have to be later. I have to analyse countless hands from county teams matches played by our teams of 8 and time after time they lose out by not using Stayman on 4333 when partner opens 1N. I often do 40-48 boards for 3 teams of 8, so 12 pairs so I get a lot of feedback and that is my experience. I know some will disagree but that is what is great about bridge :lol:

Your question was when not to use Stayman. A common failing is to not use Stayman when you are 4333 - failing to realise that partner doesn't have to be 4333 as well - more usually partner will be 4432 and the extra trick and trump control is there. If you have a system which can find whether partner is 4333 then use it and play in 3N when both hands are 4333. Also I suggest you think of playing in 3N when you are 5332 and partner is 4333 and you have a 5-3 fit - but play in 4M if it is the 5-4 fit. Does point count come into the equation and very poor trump suit and soft and hard values - of course - nobody said Stayman was easy :). Good rule of thumb - always play in your 8 card major fit unless you are both 4333 or 5332 opposite 4333 unless you have an extremely good reason for not doing so. One hand being 4333 is not a good enough reason, but unfortunately many think that it is, sadly including many of our county team players ;)

Hmmm - hate to say this, but the line looks routine which makes me a ) a genius b ) an idiot c ) psychic

Well the auctions show (i) 2 places to play (but not the minors) so ♠ and a Minor (ii) the minors ( I am not allowed to use ( followed by b followed by ) lol - it produces a funny face). I have an identity crisis - who am I bidding 4♥ if pard opened 3♥ seems normal so I am therefore not the partner of the 3♥ opener. 4♣ or gambling with 3N if the bidding has gone (3♥) - p - (p) - to me ... so I am not the doubler Perhaps I pulled out the 3♥ card by mistake and I am the opener ;) I need another drink lol.

Many thanks inquiry - problem solved! :D

Thanks inquiry, I looked at that and can load a pbn but no way to save it - or am I missing something?

Hi guys Is there a bpn to lin file converter? I have scoured the net but failed, with the exception of a DOS based programme. I have a programme for generating hands with the parameters I need - 100 hands instantly with fanunes opening bid etc. etc. great ! but I wrote it to produce a final pbn file. If I want to use handsets for teaching purposes or bidding practice purposes on BBO I need to be able to change them into lin format. Any help appreciated. I suppose I could write a programme to do this as well but the format is quite messy, so no point in re-inventing the wheel if someone has already done it :) Cheers doclands

2C*- x - p - 2S END * natural 11-15 and good 6cd suit (not a totally unreasonable pairs auction) OR 1C - p - 2C - x p -2S END (again not an unreasonable pairs auction) I like the post - good to see a more unusual topic :rolleyes:

I dble = any game try - or a hand I don't know what to do on lol (plus I play Lebensohl). Nothing is perfect but I prefer to eliminate as many guessing situations as possible. John Armstrong used to say, get your own hands sorted out first and use anything left to try and get a penalty - but there's usually not much left lol.

This post is why bridge is such a great game - lots of different views, which people believe are the right ones, or at least sensible ones - but more importantly these are views that people have thought about. How many different bridge paths have we all come along to get where we are today :)

One thing, which my comments were based on, appears to have possibly been missed. This was described as a club game with and expert partner - also my comment as to whether the original poster was also an expert was intended as trying to obtain necessary info to give an informed comment, not intended as criticising the post or poster (I now have a little pink warn thing which I don't thing was there before :)) If this is indeed two experts playing in a club game then it is an unnecessary risk IMO because of the two doubletons. By the way, what are the little pink 'warn' things?

Good hand - generates a lot of different views. Please note I said '-200 looks certain', not '-200 is certain' , I agree -200 is not certain :)

I agree partner may well have 1♠, 4♥, 4+♦ but the oppos have opened and responded and 7 of your 10 pts are in their suit, and another in Jx - where do you think their points are. -200 looks certain even if they don't double.

If you are as expert as your partner then why risk a terrible board - this will presumably happen at least at a few other tables, probably most, so take 3 or 4 out of 10 and get on to the next board. I prefer bidding 2C first time and then shutting up to even considering balancing but would pass both times. Bidding 2C is bad, balancing is very bad. Introduce a red suit singleton and now 2C is a bit closer. Good players don't need to strain to win at pairs - it isn't about getting the best score on each hand. It's about avoiding really bad boards and picking up 7 or 8 out of 10 on most of the rest because of your better play/ defence and general bidding skills.

World Fed says they are not encrypted - and that is true - they are as readable to the opponent as to the defender. When you make a normal lead, as a defender sometimes the cards you can see make it obvious what the situation is but declarer can't read it , and vice versa. They have been passed for general usage worldwide - as leads anyway.

a) is what we play in principle

Our full lead/carding system is as follows: spot cards - your lowest spot card show an odd number of cards with an honour or an even number without an honour (hon = AKQJ only!) - the highest spot card you can safely afford shows just the opposite i.e. an even number of cards with an honour or an odd number without honours Basically top or 2 higher honours A or K as you want to play them but K vs NT asks for count or unblock Q = standard Q or AKQ (so AK type lead denies the Q) J = standard J or KQJ (or AQJ if NT) (so K denies the J) interior sequences have 2 higher honours e.g. T from KJT etc. These leads are played throughout. These follow the 2 card difference principle - you can almost always tell what the Q or J lead is from before another card is played :) Signals are vital We play all signals reversed (upside down I think is the term most of you use) - they are more efficient than standard i.e. you can afford a clearer card more often. On partners lead we enc/disc unless it is known that we cannot have J of higher when we give count - exceptions AKx.. lead and Qxx or longer in the dummy - we give count AKx...singleton in the suit in the dummy and at least 3 trumps - we give suit pref Smith Peters In NT a peter on the first suit declarer leads shows we like the way the defence is going - (a non-peter is neutral or dislike) - exception - if there is a holdup situation in dummy's suit (possibly no entries), we give count In a suit contract we use the trump suit as a Smith Peter - exception - if we are known to be looking for a ruff - now a trump peter shows 3+ trumps Finally - discards We enc/disc (followed by suit pref if, say, 3 discards are made in the same suit - also suit pref if the suit we are discarding is known about. Finally, carding is no substitute - it is never ok to do the wrong thing because partner 'told you to' - partner should be trying to be helpful, he can't see what you have got, you have the advantage of knowing what you have, also to some extent what partner 'seems' to have and a brain to help you tell what is needed to set the contract, what is dangerous or safe or necessary or unncessary - so if you get it wrong it is always your fault :) In short, we tell partner what we think he/she needs to know at the time - but, we have agreed the more obvious situations and follow enc/disc in al others. We found that most of the signals match Fantoni and Nunes, the spot cards we got from their CC, the honour leads we have played for years. Whether building a system or putting together a lead/carding system, it is like packing a suitcase to go on holiday. You only have so much space and far too many tings to put in it. Whatever you do you will still have a bulging suitcase, some things hanging partly in and partly out and many things left out altogether. The trick is to make sure that you have it packed the best for you. All of the things you need most frequently are in, those that you wil never wear are left out, those that you cannot be left without are in and that which always tempts you, you take it and never wear it - that should be left out :). If you pick up the wrong suitcase from the airport the clothes will neither suit not fit - everybody's choices are different. Make your choices the right ones for you, not me! These are hints to get you moving in the right direction for you. The same with carding systems - look to see what you think is best in general (length, enc/disc, suit pref) and what you think are key situations when you should break from your normal method. Agree these with your regular partner - look at your list of exceptions from time to time to refresh your memory - you will feel better at the table defending with the knowledge that you re trying to tell partner what he/she wants to know - but none of this can replace the art of defending, it can only help.

Many thanks cardsharp, I will look forward to reading that. Bluecalm, I have a very regular partner who I play this with on BBO - but thanks anyway. I was wondering whether there were any partnerships on BBO that play it. We locked ourselves in for 2 weeks going through Daniel Neill's reverse engineered notes - he went through 1000's of hands from world championships, europeans championships etc. etc. and worked out what he thought the bids meant. Here is a link to his work. Everytime they have a problem they add another layer of relays. We went so far and then improvised :) It can be played as a fairly straight forward system (if you are used to 'heavier' systems) and it is still extremely effective, natural and a joy to play. Here also is a link to their convention card. Also here is a link to Gerben's simplified version of Fantunes - we play our own version, mainly from Neill's notes but Gerben's is a good start.

Thanks for pointing out the typo Paul. I've had a fairly long email exchange with Slawinski about his leads. I hesitated before calling those I listed above 'Slawinski leads' and eventually only did so because that is what Fantoni and Nunes call them on their convention card. Slawinski used them as a signalling method initially. And, yes you are right the leads that are sometimes named after him are more like 3rd and 5th with top of nothing, almost, if I remember correctly. I described the leads I described above and he was pleased to find someone playing them - he designed them but never put them into practice. Whichever way I went those who had read the 'other' way would have spotted it :) All of which gets us away from my intention, which was to get some discussion going on the merits or otherwise of the methods I very briefly described :rolleyes: By the way, Roman Smolski translated and pubished Slawinski's book - no longer available. I asked Lukasz (Slawinski) if I could get a copy of Systems of Defence but he said it was no longer published anywhere and was surprised that I had found him via that route. He's a pretty amazingly inventive guy.

Does anyone here play the Fantunes system on BBO? We love it, but it took quite a while to fill in the FD convention card though :) It could be great to link up with someone else who plays this system, swap ideas, maybe even team up for a match from time to time. Also Slawinski spot card leads are excellent, far easier and more accurate than 3rd & 5th and 2/4. Add in Turbo, Last Train and a few other slam gadgets and you are well on your way. Seriously, though, I'm just trying to provoke a discussion on the great system and carding played by the world number one pair - yes we do play the things mentioned all of the time. I deliberately avoided saying what Fantunes and Slawinski are at the start - but here's an extremely brief summary. Very Brief Summary of the Fantunes System 1 level bids are 100% forcing, 14+HCP we play that 1♦/♥/♠ are 5-card and 1♣ is 1+ 2 level bids are 10-13, either 6+card suit or 5+cards and a distributional 2-suiter (5431 at least) 1N is 12-14 and may contain a singleton Slawinski Spot Card Leads These sound very hard to read but in practice are very easy! - your lowest spot card show an odd number of cards with an honour or an even number without an honour (hon = AKQJ only!) - the highest spot card you can safely afford shows just the opposite i.e. an even number of cards with an honour or an odd number without e.g. the 2 could be from: Kxxxx, xxxx, Qxx, xx! etc. the 6 may be from Kxxx, xxx etc. Play your normal lead when leading partner's suit. You often know whether partner has an honour when he leads so you will know whether he holds an even or an odd number of cards. "How do you defend using these - it's a nightmare" - just assume that partner has lead from an honour - if it isn't already obvious whether he has one it soon will be. If your response is - "this is silly and will do my head in" then read on! You are playing standard methods and partner leads a 7? This could be from - singleton - doubleton - 2nd from 3 small - 2nd from 4 small - bottom from Hxx - bottom from Hxxx and many other possibilities!!! Now THAT does my head in :rolleyes: