croquetfan

[hv=pc=n&s=s42ha7653dj754c94&w=sqt3h94dkq63cak65&n=skj98hkqt2da2cqt7&e=sa765hj8dt98cj832&d=w&v=b&b=4&a=1n(12-14)d(15%2B)2c(clubs%20%26%20other%20suit)ppp&p=s4stsjsac2c4cac7h4h2h8]399|300[/hv]

thank you. I did not know how to use the standard format, so I will look up how to do that. Thanks Rainer for displaying the correct layout. then I will display the exact layout. Bottom line is partner screamed at me for not shifting to a trump. "obvious to a beginner"

I was berated by partner for this hand. After 1NT on my left (12-14), X by partner (15+), 2C RHO described as 2 suiter clubs and any other: I held ♠ 42 ♥ A7653 ♦ J754 ♣ 94 Right or wrong I passed and led S4 to this dummy ♠ QT3 ♥ 94 ♦ KQ63 ♣ AK65 ten from dummy, J, A. declarer led a small ♣ to dummy and returned a H to his 8 which forced my A. Partner is a strong player. What now?

Catssup can you please erase that apostrophe!

absolutely. But I think some feedback to vugraph organiser is nice. thanks for your reply.

of course the feature pair would need a stationary seating

I often watch vugraph but find pairs presentation less interesting because you often see a succession of different players coming & going. It would more fun if the vugraph was watching a single pair (I'm sure there are some pairs who would be happy to be shown) as the "feature pair" They would not need to be the top guns of the field, rather a strong pair playing some unusual methods e.g. forcing pass, polish club etc or known "flair" players like Zia. It would be great to watch over the shoulder of one such player & see how the other pairs cope! If a barometer score or par score was shown after or during each hand this would be very entertaining.

thanks barmar. I can't see why the option is set this way! If you make a flase claim accidentally it is rejected. If you accidentally concede, it's a disaster.

If you are playing against robots and have nothing left in your hand but winners it is still possible to accidentally concede all the remaining tricks. This is very annoying and has caused me to lose my 25c more than once. WHY on earth is the default setting "I concede all the remaining tricks"??? If the default was "claim all tricks" and you accidentally clicked it the claim would be rejected - no problem.

sorry missing something here. when the KH drops the Q, RHO still has A10 of trumps over the J?

I love playing robot tourneys but they are so often undersubscribed. The 55% 12 board matches are a great challenge & fun but often have 0-3 players. I think a problem lies in showing entrants' names: if you see 1 or 2 world class players entered you could view that as a challenge, but most players would see it as a donation of $1 to these players. If the 55% tourney just showed the number of players I feel participation would jump, an that could snowball. IMHO I would like to see anonymous entries for all robot tournaments: you can find out how you did against the experts at the end of play!

GIB seems to have a problem over preempts. I played a robot reward today and GIB passed what I would consider clear takeouts, costing millions. If LHO opens 4C -p - p - what should I bid for takeout? GIB passed my X with a singleton club and they made 11 tricks.

the key phrase is, I think, "making them feel welcome". When I first started playing club bridge I was told they will eat you alive (that's fine, losing is not a problem) and that they are very cliquey- a lot of sour faced old people making you feel uncomfortable, unwelcome, "mind you p's & q's etc. The sad fact is there are a smattering of these sour-faced grumblers in every club and they need to be told that they are putting potential new players off. Bridge is in a similar position to croquet: both marvellous games that are seen by outsiders as arcane, outdated, quaint, old, boring, too hard, too easy. I take every opportunity in conversation to extol the virtue of the 2 greatest games in the world: I don't care if I am mocked, laughed at or ignored: I have introduced lots of people to both games. Every bridge player should do likewise. ps try association croquet. don't just settle for playing the second best mind/skill game there is!

thanks barmar. I have usually logged out and in to try to fix it, didn't think of calling a yellow. Happened to me recently in a bingo and was still frozen (waiting for defender to just follow suit small in cold contract, no thinking involved) when logged back in so I used a redeal.

It seems more players seem to be getting savvy to the techniques of robot reward. 7000 points used to just about guarantee a win but now you can come 3rd or worse with 8000. occasionally you can get lucky and win with 5000 in a small field. is this true? are there statistics on winning points totals?

I have been taking note of GIB behaviour since my last post and it's true. If GIB opens 1 major and you make a limit raise, it always goes to game, even with a 12 count. I think this spoils the fun because it becomes a matter of luck, hoping GIB will open 2S and you can raise to 3 or hoping it will preempt. Someone said you can avoid the lines with 3major. that's pretty rare. I think robot reward is a bit of a lottery with this flaw. I have made a limit raise with 18 points and still seen the robot go to game!

I think it's unfair that internet connection speed has an influence. Even though I am using ADSL, I have seen players posting a gams or slam result before my GIB has made a bid. Surely there is some way of evening out the speed to level the playing field e.g. a timer that makes all bids take 5 seconds minimum and all plays 1 second. Maybe you won't get in 23 hands anymore and there won't be scores of 10000 but it would be fun.

Yes it's best to avoid lines with 3H or 3S but there are never those perfect lines with all games and one 1 level contract. always a partscore somewhere and that's the trick. BUT if you make a limit raise needing that elusive 3H/S partner always goes 4 with a 12 count! BTW I love Bingo. I hope GIB is thick-skinned because I call it some pretty nasty names.

tearing my hair out playing Bingo! I love Bingo and do quite well but it's so hard to stop in partscores. Usually end up needing say 3H so start preempting with 4 card suit and 17 points, but GIB always wants to raise to game with about 8 points! Surely you would never raise with 2 soft tricks, so I think it's a real problem with the program.

I have no idea how to use the hand viewer. I was playing in BBO express #9144 and was surprised by this: I held 74 AK73 J7 A9852 which I stretched to open 1C p 1D 1S by RHO. I doubled to show hearts which I guess is an overbid. partner (GIB) took this as penalties 15-17 pts, biddable spades. so it goes p, p and RHO runs to 2H. I pass and LHO corrects to 2S. GIB now X and I pull this to 3C. Partner corrects at last to 3H hooray. BUT RHO now bids 3S and partner bids 3NT. I know if I correct back to 4H GIB will bid 7NT or something so I pass and watch GIB go down 3 for a 57% score so I guess this must have happened at every table.

Exactly. that's why I like the way you can hover the cursor over multiple tourneys all about to start and see which ones are subscribed.Many times, I have been tossing up which one to enter and go to one, find no-one there or fully subscribed and leave that one and find the other one is already started. But really, it's about convenience: I get a half hour break at work, open bridgebase and see which tourneys are about to start... hover the mouse over a few: 2 players in that one 2 minutes to go, 0 players in that one... ah! random hands about to start 8 players, join now!

thnks Rain "Then if you enter the tourney you're in, you will see how many tables" but I am looking for a tourney to play in... how does this help?

I have played in a lot of robot rewards and manage to keep my head above water, but there are some players who are very hard to beat, such as old_schate, k3nzo, maskio etc. I think some of this is down to internet speed because sometimes players are onto hand while my GIB is having a long think about its first bid! I wonder whether BBO has thought about having a playoff of the top robot rewards players, maybe the top 48 as that's the max number at once. for this I would suggest that specs would be allowed, maybe even with some commentators. I know people will say that players would not like to publicise their tricks for winning (I have figured out a few myself) but I think that this would be a nice advertisement for the whole robot tourney scene - if there were more players, there would be more for maskio et al to beat!

why is it that every time you correct someone's grammar or spelling you get called anal? one thing's for sure, the plural of anal would not be anal's

I prefer the windows version when playing robot rewards because you can see how many players have registered by hovering the mouse over them. I really miss this feature in the browser version. it also seems slightly faster ... maybe GIB's bidding still drives me up the wall in either version