croydonman

Thank you Jillybean. Your sentiments echo mine. Maybe it's one for a 'poll' although I'm not sure how to set one up. Maybe also, it's a question of degree eg - - announcing that an opening 1NT is 15-17: acceptable? - announicng that an overcall of 1NT is Landy: dodgy? - enquring what discard system partner is playing after he has discarded: dodgy? - announcing that a particular bid is 'forcing': unfair? - announcing that a dodgy double is for takeout: unfair? (I've seen all of these at the table) Personally, I'm not after cheap points from opponent mishaps but I do think that it is a skill of the game to be prudent in the use of dubious bids (or plays) with unfamiliar partners.

OK Thanks for replies. It seems that I need to be more tolerant. I guess that my issue would be that because I don't do it, I may stand at a disadvantage. eg I might not use a double for takeout if I feel that there is a risk of it being inappropriately left in. Thus I reduce my bidding options whereas if I could just double and then say, "takeout, partner". Similarly, I might not bid 4NT if it's not clear cut ace asking or quantative whereas I could just bid 4NT and say, "Blackwood, partner". Anyway, I'll try not to worry about it too much - it's only a game after all. Thanks again for replies.

I come across the following two practices now and then on BBO and wondered what the community think about them. 1) Players making a bid and announcing its meaning 2) Players asking their partner what a bid means and (usually) getting a reply. Personally, I find both the above unacceptable as it wouldn't be allowed in a 'live' bridge club. I don't see that the absence of convention cards or regular partnerships should make a difference. (Even in live bridge clubs with convention cards, misunderstandings occur - it's a part of the game). The problem is that when I have pointed out to the tellers the error of their ways, they can get rather stroppy about it. Hence my post to see what others think on this subject....

Just tried out BBOFlash. It's a shame because I was thinking, "It's not broke, don't fix it" but then I read your messages on how it is in danger of breaking if the load on the servers is not reduced. Anyway, feedback from my first venture into BBOFlash: - When I typed my login name and pressed <tab> the cursor did not move to the password field - I have to actually click on the field to enter my password. - It wasn't initially clear to me what 'Interesting Tables' meant but I think that I now see that it means 'most kibitzed tables' - When I selected a table to 'join', it left the tables dialog box open. I had to close it before I could watch the game behind it. - I know that you are doing a mega-review of the layout so this might get picked up but I prefer the 'function' buttons (eg 'join') to be on the left of a list rather than on the right. In BBOWin, clicking on the host on the left gets you to the table and that's where my cursor is more naturally drawn to. Also then it doesn't matter if / when you lose details to the right because of small screen, wide columns etc - Not having the lin files automatically on my PC is a bit of a setback. I like browsing through them and using GIB to do double dummy analysis. A facility in "My hands" (BBOFlash version or Web version) to download a session of hands (rather than having to download them one at a time) would soften the blow. - Like many others, I think that the powerful 'casual browser' functionality of BBOWin (eg just going to the Main Bridge Club and seeing what's going on) must be somehow maintained. I love the way all the profiles come up as you hover around - no clicking required - and yes, I do sometimes use this method to choose my game; it's nice to read the descriptions and see who's playing before deciding what to do. So I'll answer your Qs on this subject now: 1) What is your attitude toward tables with "permission required to play"? Do you prefer these tables? Prefer to stay away from these tables? Don't care? Does it matter if you "know" the host or not? A) Prefer to stay away. Maybe not if I knew the host. 2) Do you tend to look at some or all of the profiles of the players at a table before deciding whether or not to sit? A) Yes 3) Do you sometimes join the table as a kibitzer and then try to sit or do you always just click on an empty seat in the table list? A) Sometimes. 4) Suppose you click on a seat in the Main Bridge Club list. About what % of the time do you see the message "Seat taken"? A) Say 40% 5) What is your best guess as to the average time between the list appearing and you ending up in a seat? I am not wondering how long it would take if you were trying to find *any* seat as quickly as possible. Instead I am wondering how much time you typically spend on this. A) Well, it might take me more than 5 minutes but that's through my own choice of being discerning and looking around first. If I put my mind to it, I think I could average less than a minute. 6) Do you filter the list so that "full tables" are hidden? A) Yes 7) Do you frequently experience seeing a seat you want "fill up" before you have a chance to click on it? A) Yes but I don't mind. It's usually my own fault for taking so long to think about it. I hope my post does not sound overly critical; I've tried to keep it constructive. I must close by saying a massive 'thank you' to the BBO team for such a wonderful site and application. I know a number of commercial business applications that are nowhere near as robust as your program. You have performed a major service to the whole bridge communiity. Thanks again.

Oh I see. Thanks. Mind you there's free MBTs as well. Do they offer prize money? They don't seem to come up on the list much in advance and then there always seems to be the limit of ten players already registered. Anyway I'm enjoying the one dollar tournaments. I'm UK based and with sterling so strong against the dollar, it's great value for money...

Please can someone tell me what is the difference between these two types of tournament.

Just played my first ever Bridge Money tournament. Was not doing very well with one minute on the clock when I got a seven or eight card suit and so went for it with a second round bid of 7 spades. Now, in twenty seven years of playing bridge, I've never bid and made a grand slam. When dummy went down on this one I saw it was on a finesse (maybe even better chance but with one minute left I wasn't analysing any further). Unfortunately after about four tricks, the tournament ended. The opps' hands were revealed to show that the finesse was working but that was the last I saw of the hand. It didn't get saved on my computer - looks like it was just discarded. My question? Is there any way my glorious hand can be retrieved for posterity and perhaps for me to ponder whether given no time pressure, I would have scientifically found the slam? Or has the server discarded it and forever lost it in cyberspace? :)

Thanks for the response, Fred. My father wanted to be able to have 'original' BBO and FFBO completetly separate ie one with - French language - Tie in to FFB number and the other with - English language - Better front end and he wanted to use different psuedonyms for each one. Unfortunately, the FFBO changed the original BBO to semi french so they obviously share common files. Would there be a way to achieve what my father is asking for? Thanks for your support.

Already have and use BBO online as well as a few bits of BB software. My questions are: 1) If I were to install the FFB flavour of BBO ffbridgenligne, would I still have the option of using 'normal' BBO when I want? 2) Does it install a separate program and how to the auto-upgrades work? 3) Anything else I need to know re FFBBO? Thanks in advance for any assistance. CM

How many points does 2NT show after 1♣, 1♥,2♦? I thought that as it's a forcing situation then 2NT should be minimum (6-8) and non-forcing. This being different from a non-reversing situation: 1♦,1♥,2♣ when it would be more like 10 points (still non-forcing though). Interested to know what people think. Also, is French 5CM any different in this respect?

I would like a bit more flexibility in printing hands. AFIK the two options available in BBO at the moment are to export whole match to text file or print from within a movie which does a screen print. I'd like to be able to produce a similar layout to bridge columns in newspapers etc with just the hands, bidding and lead. I'm thinking that it might be necessary to convert a lin file to another format first but I'm not even sure of the best way to go about that. Before I go any further can I ask if anyone has any experience of doing this already? Thanks

Not so much interesting hand as oppose to interesting score: the top was 3hxx + 2 and the bottom was 5hxx - 2. Made me laugh anyway.... http://online.bridgebase.com/myhands/hands...name=Cad%20Bear

Playing standard French 5 card majors (not too different from SAYC), my partner would like to make 1C forcing; if partner has 0-5, he bids 1D (would have been ideal for a 20pt hand with six clubs and a singleton heart that I had the other day). Obviously this introduces a few knock-on effects and I wondered if anybody can point me in the direction of an 'official' discussion of this methodology if one exists. Thanks Marc

Just wanted to say a big thank you to all who replied - especially Fred - your informative response shows how much you care about end-user satisfaction. If only I got the same level of service from the various commercial (non-bridge) software providers I have to deal with on a daily basis... Needless to say there have been no further problems since my post so I guess we'll have to put it down to a few gremlins who had their day in cyberspace but have now hopefully been quashed. Off to the online store now to show my appreciation.

Thanks for your response. I meant BBO. It takes about 30 secs with the 'waiting for response from server' box and then gives up with a message like 'could not connect to server'. However no probs tonight and there were over 1200 logged on so not sure what the cause might be.