dogsbreath

leading 9 or 10 from 9xxxx or 10xxx or ..(etc) may cause unexpected loss of a trick (especially where the suit is distributed 5-4-3-1) .. i think 2nd highest best from that holding. I dont like top-of-nothing or mud from a suit bid by partener .. nothing is perfect but i prefer small from xxx or xxxx ..since it gives p some help with the count.. especially dont want partener to direct the defence towards giving me a phantom ruff in this situation. Rgds Dogsbreath B)

ty for explanations/opinions.. I had overlooked the 'leakage' risk ..still it would be neat if it was configurable ..so we can switch it off when the kibbers are allowed to say what they like ;) Rgds Dog

Aw Ben!! that long post all leading up to a boot in the dummy for the poor old Acol player :P Didnt notice opps complaining the other night when they tapped my little 1nt for 1100 :D Anyway ..there are very few Acol players in the UK or anywhere else ..they nearly all play Benji 'Acol' which is just SAYC for the hard-of-hearing and not a 'real mans' system at all :) And ..TD's must have their little jokes.. my partner & I were awarded Avg+ on a board a few weeks ago (IMPs pairs tourney) .. later I noticed we got -4.5 imps for our Avg+ ;) ..what sense does that make? Rgds Dog

No serious criticism of TD was intended.. sry I posted when I did.. had only a limited time available to play and was invited, so 7-min per board looked attractive.. but I've played in enough tourneys to know better and that something generally goes wrong :) Watching the late finishers its easy to see why .. good claims not made or rejected and long delays between boards.. I suspect they are wasting time looking at 'Movie'. However it would be nice if some TD was brave enough to try a really strict timed tourney, if it's possible ..maybe we are just subject to so many possible delays that it's not and the only sensible thing is not to enter if one's playing time is limited. TY ALL lovely TD's ;) :D Rgds, Dog

I have considerable sympathy for TDs but they also make their own problems.. I played tonight in a tourney advertised particularly as 7mins per board ('miss blue' was TD).. the 1st and 2nd rounds were stretched to 20 mins and remaining rounds were at least 16 mins ...once again the slow players are allowed to trundle along at their own speed ignoring all requests to hurry up. THIS IS NOT ENJOYABLE.. please advertise when tourneys will be allowed to drift along aimlessly so i can better spend my time elsewhere. We MUST have SOME tourneys where the slow players are IMMEDIATELY booted ..why must we all suffer for a few? Alternatively , those who cant stand the pain must be allowed to leave without penalty. Rgds very cross Dog B)

agree (mostly) with Misho .. also I think pass is too encouraging ..suggets I have a spade control. X warns p of no S control but he can still go on. Rgds Dog

anyone know why 'chat' now defaults to 'chat to kibbers' .. is a small but very annoying 'feature' when kibbing at a 'bounce' game with friends.. (happens if y just type rather than clicking 'CHAT' button) rgds Dog

Any takers for opening this hand 1NT? .. the suit texture isnt so wonderful and you do get the general texture of the hand across. Rgds Dog

Hi all ..Doggie here :lol: ..never noticed this 'thread' before ..so maybe I sh add my knot.. (anything to make up ground on the site's ace 'posters' (ben,alex etc)) Real name ..martin devlin ..which is not usual in Ireland, but does lend itself to numerous variations including 'nilved nitram' backwards :P I've been playing on BBO since the days when if we got more than 30 tables some of us had to play on the verranda!.. but still quite a few 'old-hands' here before me and still here today. i started playing Bridge at uni in Belfast and played Junior and Senior camrose for N.Ireland. Havent played seriously for years until recently , am fortunate to have a good 'live' partner at present ..diane greenwood, who will be representing Ireland in the Ladies team at the upcoming Europeans at Malmo. Is great fun to meet some of my BBO friends/opponents 'live' ..so far have met Orla (Irish but living in Germany), margaret aka 'haggis' and OliverC , not to mention Ron Lel ('The Hog') whom i met and played against in Oz in the 80's . Never played 'sayc' or 2/1 before BBO ..apologies in advance if you get me at a table :) All welcome at my table .. Rgds Dog :blink:

I see little point in barring kibbers.. however I am pleased to notice that the 'thin end of the wedge' surfaced again in this thread :D .. does no-one ever use the 'thick' end ..indeed does such a thing exist? ..maybe it belongs to that group of objects that have only one side ..like football nets.. if a player shoots and scores ..the ball 'hits the back of the net' .. if it narrowly misses, and hits the goal from behind , that is also the 'back of the net' :) :D Rgds Dog :ph34r:

JRG is correct in his note on the 'rejection' problem.. some of you may not have experienced this, but when y get a flood of requests it is currently impossible to do anything in the way of giving explanation to those refused.. Setting table invisible etc doesnt help much of the time ..because often dont get enough warning of a player leaving ..or dont remember (my problem). The 'accept/reject' dialogue box seems to always have 'focus' ..so other actions are difficult. Also puts host in position of having to choose.. Also I rarely remember that I have become host 'cos of the original host has left. Dont know what the possible solutions are, from a software point of view. I would prefer to leave my table open (unrestricted) but this has caused problems also ..i have a list of people that i dont encourage to join 'cos i know they leave abruptly if they dislike something . I also feel uneasy if I dont accept the first player 'cos a latter request looks more interesting ;) regds Dog :rolleyes:

..but frowned upon by fish

When does the clingy long-toed one get back from holiday? I haven't had a good laugh on here for ages ;)

hi I think there is a 'cultural' thing here .. weak no trump 'works' well against pairs who are accustomed to strong NT and v-versa. weak nt works well in Acol, but very few play 'pure' Acol .. benji acol is indistinguishable from SAYC and is purely for wimps. Real men play 10-12 NT with mandatory redoubles. (twice the frequency of 12-14 NT !! .. now lets play poker ) Rgds Dog

hi .. Slawinski's "Systems in Defence.. is not only hard to get hold of but may cause permanent brain damage if you DO get hold of it (i've got it:)) If anyone has a perfect solution to this question it's news to me .. I've always prefered primarily distributional signals on the basis that if you dont have a count then you are defending in the dark .. but you DO need preference on occasions ..maybe 'Smith' helps here .. If you cant devote unlimited time to your bridge, I guess you gotta find a workable compromise. Rgds, Dog

Hi.. i tried again after the tourney ..was 'Double Dummy' entry i chose 1st time. However , unable to reproduce the problem. Only difference I am aware of is that 'viewgraph' was active when i re-tried, was inactive on the first occassion. Will test again later. Rgds Dog. ;)

duck a C looks automatic ..make on either black suit 3-3 and when one hand guards both blacks. rGDS Dog

..more! all buttons inoperative! had to exit and log-in again. Rgds Dog

hi ..something odd in 3.7.0 .. click on 'Explore Bridge' .. click on problems (cant remember exact title).. nothing happens ..no buttons operative. Return to lobby ..now click on 'Explore Bridge' ..no result at all ..click ignored. (possibly other key-combinations produce same result ..will test again later (tourney about to start ;) ) Rgds Dog.

Hi all ..i would appreciate a link or other reference to 'Smith echo' ..like a lot of other stuff i hear different stories from different folks and would like to read a definitive version. I agree in general with the comments about use of 'brain-power'... having not played any serious bridge for years i played in trials recently and played > 260 boards over 2 consecutive weekends.. was a bit of a shock.. much harder than playing long sessions on bbo where p will accept a 'sry p' for the odd blunder. When i was learning bridge there were a number of very strong players in this area (N.Ireland!) ..who played what they called 'in-suit' signals.. ie any 'unusual' carding sequence was a signal .. (eg: holding 8763 ..following 6,3 was routine (playing std carding) .. 8,3 7,3 7,6 7,3 carding potentially carried different meanings) not knowing any better, i assumed this was routine bridge technique but it draws no response from most partners here on BBO. any comments? Regards, Easter-Bunny-D :P og

I'm not getting any better at bridge.. it's nice to know that my keyboard efforts will eventually get me 'expert' poster status! Rgds, Dog B)

dear doofik.. i was offsite for 2 weeks and returned to find a serious dispute in progress. I didnt & still dont know what it was about, but was concerned that ANY of these valued BBO members should be considering quitting. ..and what 'retribution' can there be for letting these individuals know that we would all be worse off without them? My 'position' is that we'd all be better off getting rid of abusers of TD's, mid-hand leavers etc .. not those that contribute significantly to the site. Regards, Dog.

Dear Alex.. It is possible to make a loud farting noise by placing one hand in armpit and moving arm vigourously up and down .. but I dont know anyone who claims this has improved their Bridge, or impressed members of the opposite sex. Rgds Dog :)

Michael, I hope this 'rumour' is unfounded.. if not I would like to add my support for you to remain within the BBO community & express my thanks for your work to date, esp as regards the Abalucy club. I hope this has nothing to do with the recent unpleasantness that led to two other well-known BBO members to consider leaving. I asked them to reconsider but would be greatly upset if this was interpreted as 'taking sides' .. BBO can ill-afford to lose respected players & contributors like yourself and I extend the same support to you .. Thanks, Dog

Hi ..Slothy .. what is 'techtonically' ? did you feel your plates move? :D