csdenmark

Normally nothing is used. Rarely to play conventions in Precision or any strong and well defined systems. A rebid by opener of NewSuit(help-suit)/2NT(ask short) are both game try. Thank heaven you don't play with me. Immediate 2NT response is 16+HcP, any. A slam try.

Not much point in starting with Precision. Beginners don't understand the basic principles because they are defined as an alternative to something they don't know. They need counting, judgement, general knowledge of interference handle and defense. Last but not least playing technique. The variety of Goren books are still and I think for many years the solid fundament for newcomers to the game.

You need to spend a lot less time trying to design buttons that prevent players from being able to leave your table and a lot more time thinking why it is that they want to leave in the first place. In all seriousness. You are NEVER going to get the wild/chaotic world of the Main Bridge Club to all follow your dictatorial pronouncement of the week. I don't even understand why you would want to. Create your own club where you and like minded individuals can play. Create your own set of rules. Be happy. But please stop trying to force me to do things. You are welcome to disagree with me Richard - No problem. Questioning my motives are unacceptable and will cause our conversations to stop.

Agree Tood it would be an enormous improvement of software if set-up of tables in MBC would have the same options as those for tournaments. I think most people playing tournaments knows quite well that the majority of tournaments make no sense understood as a competitive event. They simply try to escape the problems which has been created for MBC by the introduction of tournament set-up. My assumption is that there are much more serious persons available than those we often see in MBC. We certainly don't know how many but I don't think the non-serious persons are a minority. I think we need to deal much more with the topic of pick-up partnerships. We need to see to that FD will evolve in a way which make pick-up partnerships less vulnerable to annoying misunderstandings. We need a way to make targeted announcements for a decent partner to that person who needs a partner.

Richard - Main Bridge Club is NOT a feeding line for serious bridge tournaments. The team matches looks to me as having no meaning - the same I think is the case for individual tournaments. OK we agree if those 2 examples are what you call 'informal play'. Much too long Main Bridge Club has been stephmotherly threated because of the false assumption that it is not serious. We must have a total stop for all suckings away from MBC. From my perspective serious bridge is more connected to Main Bridge Club than anywhere else. A simple button will be able to enforce convention card to be mandatory. All tournament set-ups with intensions to be serious are waiting for that too.

Does FD support some type of text function where a partnership can disclose meta-agreements? For instance, instead of coming up with every instance a jump shift by responder occurs, an FD note pops up that says Not exactly. You have 15 lines in front page to make such a description. I don't think that will be possible for pick-up partnerships. I think it might be helpful for development of FD if you will be able to come up with some thoughts about that. To me it looks very important.

You and I are not sponsoring organizations. In isolation, our opinions are completely irrelevant. Whether or not we agree is also irrelevant. What does matter is whether or not actual sponsoring organizations like the ACBL or, for that matter, HomeBase decide to formulate policies. In isolation, our opinions are completely irrelevant No they are not. Organizations are groups of indivials sharing the same kind of basic views. Without active individuals organizations are only monsters. That's what you very often have accused ACBL. But I am very happy for the position of ACBL that convention cards are mandatory for their events. I would very much welcome the ability for software to be helpful enforcing the rules. They have no other options today than spot-checks. The other organizers have probably even less options to enforce. It is important also to be aware that MBC is formal play too.

Agree Richard. Why did we need 4 years to agree on that?

What I question in Luis' statement is this: I see a LOT of confused players alerting things they shouldn't and I see a lot of (****) players demanding explanations about bids that don't need any explanation. BBO rules: I know Luis is teaching beginners. I think a sentence like this: People think that playing online you have to alert what you have in your hand for your bids when they are not natural. is not to come up with. Luis knows that it is very difficult, even correct of course, deliberately to lie about your holdings you look at yourself. I have had problems with that too. Deliberately lies are not what you have in mind if you think you need to alert in order to explain a bid. I would have been pleased for a statement like this: Try to make solid agreements before you accept a partnership. Use a default convention card. For continuations outside specific agreements try to agree on pure natural. For clarification - I don't have the problem myself - I let FD handle according to rules.

This is the root of all evils. People think that playing online you have to alert what you have in your hand for your bids when they are not natural. Absurd! As some posters have said you only have to alert what a bid means when you have an agreement with your pd, the agreement can be either implicit or explicit. An example of an implicit agreement is when you repeat a bid that was made in your partnership before expecting pd to remember what the bid showed the first time, then you can alert and say what the bid is supossed to mean since you do have an agreement about it. Let's say you get x, xx, Axxxx, KJxx. You pass as dealer and after 3 passes your RHO opens 1♠ in 4th position, you bid 1NT as minors since you are a passed hand, do you have to alert and say "minors" not at all unless this has happened before with your pd OR you have discussed what NT bids by passed hands would mean. I see a LOT of confused players alerting things they shouldn't and I see a lot of (****) players demanding explanations about bids that don't need any explanation. Luis You are on safe ground here Luis? http://bridgefiles.net/pic/BBOalert.JPG

Not sure what the "decent people" comment means, for me people(my friends) changing flags are a practical "problem" for me. In the lobby I have displayed only the countries where I have friends and/or partners I play with. This is a problem,I have a couple of friends who change flags almost every day,and never use their country's flag, so I never see them. :) I do wish some day our friends can be shown regardless of lobby settings. Brandal I have settings something like you except I only have friends displayed. All else filtered out. 'Decent people' is a simple eufemism for persons fit for bridge - those able to conduct thinking themselves.

Theory is basic - without that all else will be nonsense. Practice is the way to test theory - some few have access to use computer simluations for that too. Practice is especially important regarding defensive and interference handle. Theory is weak on these topics and 75% of bridge is about those 2 crucial topics.

I am a Greek Cypriot living in Egypt. Three years ago I lived in Singapore and next year I might be living in Venezuela or Mali for all I know. ;) I always use the flag of my country of origin. Why should I be forced to wear the flag of the country I live in, especially when I don't speak the language. Furthermore, why should I have a mark on my profile saying I'm not logging in from France for instance, but logging in from Timbuktu. Most people don't have their real name, email, or bridge level on their profile so why is their "real" flag becoming an issue now. mrdct who gets miffed if the Santa Lucia player can't discuss cricket with him because he's actually an American who took a fancy to the S>Lucian flag, is going to be changing his flag when on vacation. When he logs in to bbo with a Singapore flag and people chat to him in Hokkien or Singlish, he will need time to explain why he is wearing a singapore flag, and why he doesn't speak the language.(if he doesn't). This is just one example of how it could get uncomfortable and inconvenient for some. Personally, I would not want to have to explain on a daily basis when approached by Arabic speaking members, why I log in from Egypt but don't speak the language, or have to explain why I am here. In my view there are more important things to worry about. :) In my view there are more important things to worry about Correct Rona - display of sign-up info will satisfy you and most else. There is a fairly simple solution which will solve 95% of the problem. It is something like today but so that default is sign-up info each time you log-in. In exactly the same way as software now is forgetting you last time logged in as 'invisible'. Then those who want to fool others can do so - in an awesome way - but such matters little for determinated persons. Decent people will then easily be able to blacklist those. If you are asked for basic personal info - it is an act of hostility to to refuse or to provide false info. On BBO you are asked - on most other playing sites you are not asked.

But then I cannot play in "Polish only" individuals anymore. And that's sad because they are in my opinion the best indi's around... We both know the reason for such a set-up Gerben. In fact it is so that especially here software is supporting decent behavior. I am convinced that tournament organizers will be very happy to enable a serious person like you via a custom file. Also IP address does not work. I am living in Germany but that does not make me German. I know that many BBO users don't live in the country they are from Certainly not - therefore the sign-up info to be displayed. If I go on holiday somewhere and play bridge from an internet cafe or somewhere similar, I want people to know that I'm English, so therefore I still want to have my English flag up Certainly - therefore the sign-up info to be displayed. ------------------------------------ I wonder what has ever caused BBO to play the game of the fools. No matter the reason, it is never too late to be wiser and it is never too late to correct.

I actually find it quite silly how people use flags other than their own on BBO and would like a software modification that cross-checks the person's flag with the location of their IP address. If they aren't same, the software could put some sort of marking on the person's profile that indicates they are using a flag from a country that they aren't actually in. If people are reluctant to disclose their real country of origin for whatever reason, they still pick the UN flag. Would anyone really want to associate themselves with a place where 25% of the male population are convicted rapists? Completely agree Dave. I have never understood why BBO gives that simple and silly option to persons bored of bridge. The correct solution is simply to display sign-up info with no option for change.

strong hand (5 controls) without majors, especially when opener relays with 2NT Mauro - the strong option is probably a borderline slam. You need to know whether this or that. Only opps. are interested to know anything about the holdings from opener. Over the strong response: You need to conduct some asking. As you have no interference it is likely you have a major fit 5-3. You need to know at least whether 5 CTRL is 11 or 13 with queen ask. You need to ask 3card stayman. You need to ask shortness. Over the preemptive response you only need to know length, maybe min/MAX. 2♥=Pass/correct 2♥-2♠=Signoff 2♥-2NT=Strong 2♠=GF,any 2♠-2NT=5 CTRL. Now asking 2NT=Invite 2♠/2NT-3♣♦=6cd 2♠/2NT-3♥♠=7cd 2NT-3NT=Strong

How about as Bocchi-Duboin? 2♥♥=Pass/correct 2♥♥-2NT=Strong They use that structure for Multi 2♦ as weak 6+MAJOR or 20-22HcP,bal

2. Can you delete the entries at all? Sometimes you touch the "vul"-button and have two 1!D-openings for example. How can I now define only 1 opening for all and reset the rest? Enter the string in edit mode with OK. Now you press 'delete' on your keyboard and accept. Now the the bid you entered and all continuations are deleted. You can do so at any stage for a string. with my P i made a FD-convention card but somehow the bids after 2♣ dissapeared. Check whether there are any continuations entered. If after intervention then you need to copy/paste your bid into an interference string too. If somebody has the file i would be thankful for sending it to extrasolid@gmx.net. I could send back our card. Download BBO full version.

Yes there are. Just open and you can navigate through whole FD-file.

Ray argues it will make us rethink what it means to be human Certainly not Mike - but likely the context in which we are. A world of difference. Your oracle sounds a bit strange I think Mike. He seems to be far of tracks compared to scientists normally quoted in my part of the world.

Google desktop search is too bulky for me. Never have the patience to let it build the index, even in b/g Andy Google desktop search is very good. You need not to wait for index, such it generates by itself at times your computer is in stand by. In a few days your whole computer is indexed. But the advanced search by Google is for WEB only. Regarding this topic Google seems not to work at all as it like Windows, Windows Explorer only search for the most standard file extensions.

Looks like Google Search has the same kind of problems as those described by Uday for Windows. I downloaded from the Wingrep link provided by Gerben. That looks like working. I got 20 hits of strings for content inside the string named Hamman including this one which one I know have the name 32 times. C:\Bridge Base Online\hands\usafrance.lin

Of course you can only search on *.lin, which you did, and get a couple of hits but how fun is that . I have also found this a bit annoying, especially when surfing through old vugraph files Always fun to have hits LOL But you are quite right - I suspected something more than just a search tool for a file. I cannot see a good solution. Maybe upload the files to WEB. Then search within the domain via Google advanced search. Looks like the options are there. If somebody has an address for a LIN file on WEB it ought to be easy to test. --------------------------- Above looks like working. Try Google advanced search. Search for Hamway within domain bridgefiles.net. Set for search in text. You will have many hits for that. Same I think you will be able to have for LIN files. I have none uploaded so I cannot test that right now.

Cannot be right Ben. I tried to search for Hamman in this file: "C:\Bridge Base Online\hands\usafrance.pbn" . It returned I think about 8 positive results, all like this which was 1st result: [North "Hamman"] I think Denis is right. What you found was a PBN file, note the name ""C:\Bridge Base Online\hands\usafrance.pbn" PBN File format is quite different. See the names are stored quite differently in pbn files... here they are stored one per line like this: [West "fred"] [North "andych"] [East "inquiry"] [south "csdenmark"] Notice the difference. And importatly, the quote marks are handled as spaces by the windows search routine, so if you search for text Fred and the text reads, It will find fred just fine (periods are handled well too, it is just strings that are not easily identified as words that are a problem). I suggest you do this claus.... Click in start menu in windows Click search (I think it is find in some earlier version of windows choose all files and folders Enter *.lin for the file type Enter csdenmark under "a word or phrase in the file" then press search... And think about the hundreds or thousands of lin files you have on your computer and see how many YOU find, I dont know exactly what I am doing here , but this file I found 32 hits. I have no search option clicking start I think. I entered instead Windows Explorer. searched for *.lin and found 913 hits for that. I chose this one: "C:\Bridge Base Online\hands\usafrance.lin", opened in Wordpad and via search option I got 32 hits for Hamman First hit found in this line: pn|Wolff,Multon,Hamman,Mouiel,Levy,Meckstroth,Mari,Rodwell|pg|| Voila - happy for the result - but I don't really know if that is what we are talking about Ben. Have I found new options for LIN-files or misunderstood something?

Cannot be right Ben. I tried to search for Hamman in this file: "C:\Bridge Base Online\hands\usafrance.pbn" . It returned I think about 8 positive results, all like this which was 1st result: [North "Hamman"] I think Denis is right.