sceptic

What are your opinions on Bergen raises ? Are they Good? Are they Bad? What are the Pros and cons? What are the Alternatives?

How about adding conventions as a new forum title?

sigh, back to the drawing board

Ok, here goes, the biggest single issue I have playing this game is time. When the dummy comes down, I never seem to evaluate evrthing,, I usually see a line and take it, sometimes I see a few different lines and choose one to quickly, sometimes I cant see a line at all and just hope for the best. Now WHY do I do this??? 1/. usually as people moan I take to long 2/. pards and opps dissappear if the game is slow, there appears to be an awful lot of players that think this game should be played in 4 minutes a board do ather intermediates feel this is a problem and what do the experts sugggest I work on to increase my evaluation skills for playing a contract I always seem to see my mistakes just as the card leaves my hand (I dont usually ask for an undo in these circumstances as I believe you should live and die by your own mistakes

I dont think that opener has any length over 3 in diamonds anyway as he has shown 5 hearts min and 2 spades (I dont think AS stop is enough to bid 3nt) 3 clubs as ghe supported so that only leaves 3 diamonds max,

return the J spades logic behind this is opps have to cover with the QS Then East has to play away from the good Q diamond trick (no good if your p has the Jxx) or a heart trick, still no good if they make 5 hearts straight off they then have to guess where the J diamonds is ( if opps have them all there is no way to set them anyway) you have taken away their possible 4 club tricks as they then give you 1 club and the remaining 3 spade tricks + the one you have = 5 tricks so contract is down 1 hope that makes sense, (it seems to me to let opps do all he work trying to work out where the 5 points I cant account for are) east 14, dummy 11, west 10+ = 35

why is it when I bid like that I go down for -2200. This game is harder than I thought :)

I played at boian's table once with aconcerto and tobice. I can't judge which of them is the best expert, but I can say they are dam good ambasadors for the game and that must count for experts in my eyes, I have yet to meet a star with their head up their own backsides. ( I suppose I could try harder LOL) Bens partner misho also must be one of best ambasadors for the game (not forgetting Ben)(sigh a little brown nosing does you no harm hahahahaha) I don't really know how to sit at a table and assess someone as an expert, but I played against one (I think, can't remeber his or her name), but every time I tried something it went wrong, may be I am that bad or maybe they just have the ability to know what a intermediate is going to do incorrectly and takes full advantage of it. I think perhaps taking advantage of opponents mistakes is a very good judge of an expert.

I can generally tell an real expert (they are not as nasty and unforgiving as pretend ones) they at least seeem to have the decency to say good bye after the first one or two hands LOL :blink:

take a look at my last post Mauro, is this an example of what you are looking at, (I posted mine before I read this)

[hv=d=n&v=n&n=sqt653hajt5da93ct&w=sakjhkq2dt6caqj54&e=s98h87643dqj8752c&s=s742h9dk4ck987632]399|300|Scoring: IMP[/hv] West North East South - Pass Pass 3♣ Dbl Pass 3♥ Pass 3NT Dbl 4♦ Pass 4♥ Dbl Pass Pass RDbl Pass Pass Pass what do you make of all the bidding and is it a hopeless case from the start

ok, next question, I read (mike lawrence) saying never let opps play at the two level (I try and abide to this most of the time) would x be a good balance as opposed to the 2 spade bid????/

-800 I can't say any more, opinions as to how bad 2 spades was please. remember I have feelings :( [hv=d=n&v=n&n=skqj2h3dt53cq9872&w=sat83hj2d876ct653&e=s765hakt8dq42caj4&s=s94hq97654dakj9ck]399|300|Scoring: IMP[/hv] West North East South - Pass 1♣ 1♥ Dbl Pass 1NT 2♦ Pass Pass 2♠ Pass Pass Dbl Pass Pass Pass

An interesting point I need to make, is that a lot of people that post here seem to always have a negative side to TD's, I wonder how many of you have tried running a tournament yourselves, it is a thankless task most of the time and the pay is crap (hahaha), if you are having bad connection problems, some of the moaners seem to do little to understand the pressures put on a TD when, you can't find subs and you have someone that is demanding the directors time, when he has a few more pressing issues to resolve. I realise that bridge rules are more complicated than I understand and I am percieved as one of the unwashed that should not be directing tourneys, BUT, it is an opportunity to give some thing back to BBO, all it costs is a bit of time. As for rudeness there is no reson for a TD to be rude, but I personally (I doubt many would agree) have been tempted to be very rude to some people, luckily I have always managed restraint. Some like myself just try to run a game usually with FUN somewhere in the conditions and usually stating that I am not a TD of any note, and that ACBL for $1 you can get better quality TD's. So the easy answer for all perfectionists (this comment is not aimed at Rona BTW) is to run some tourneys yourself and discover just how dificult it can be (sometimes it is so easy it is a pleasure). An alternative is just to avoid TD's you don't like. I DONT like the ideas of yellows policing my tourney and pointing out all my mistakes, or even having someone sit in judgement on me, it would make it unpleasant and would deter me from running them. If the day comes when you have got your way and only noteable experts run tourneys, I hope you will realise that will be the end of free tourneys, something I would hate to see happen.

also how does this had evaluste to become a 1 level opener?

imagine that wests clubs were in fact a good 5 card heart suit ( it does not transpose exactly so you can have the same 5 cards but use your imagination) and the void was in clubs. would you all be so happpy with east opening 1 hearts instead of 2 hearts ?

Hi all, I would like your opinions about this contract and how we got there. 1/. I like crappy weak twos 2/. the game raise bid interests me 3/. what do you think of 3 clubs instead of 4 spades here is the hand [hv=d=e&v=e&n=s98hakdjt98764ct3&w=skjt76hdaq3caq875&e=sq43hq96542dckj96&s=sa52hjt873dk52c42]399|300|Scoring: IMP[/hv] West North East South - - 2♥ Pass 2♠ 3♦ 4♠ Dbl RDbl Pass Pass Pass

q!H I would be happy with dummy does not have much so I think take the poss ruff with dummy away from them or the spade singelton I would prefer to make both A and Q clubs if poss so I would not lead them. I would never have thought about the 2!H as a lead

I was just reading about coded 9's and 10's can I have some opinions on the advantages and disadvantages of this please

http://online.bridgebase.com/cgi-bin/histo...5890&tzoffset=0 Hi I would like some opinions as to te play mistake i made, not so much the error itself as I know which card in trick 11, I should have played, what I am more interested, is what do you think the reason is that I never saw the right play, despite trying to count, etc etc Here is the hand, I hope the link above takes you to the correct page final contract 6 hearts (the bidding may be subject also, but it is only really the play that bothers me) [hv=d=s&v=n&n=shak32dat852caq74&w=skthjt9dkq9643c93&e=sj6532h854d7cjt65&s=saq9874hq76djck82]399|300|Scoring: IMP[/hv] West North East South - - - 1♠ 2♦ Dbl Pass 2♠ Pass 3♥ Pass 4♥ Pass 4NT Pass 5♣ Pass 5NT Pass 6♣ Pass 6♥ Pass Pass Pass

open 1 club and if it gets passed out (I would be suprised as opps must have some thing to say) then so be it, with out playing forcing club opener it is ok and at least ur p is sticking to your agreements and he/she must have a real crap hand to pass out 1 club

works fine for me

OK, I knew it would not be long before I played a hand so bad it was embarassing and here it is, I went from bad to worse, even after the crap diamond play I went to pieces and made it even worse, pick thge bones out of this one, I have a thick skin [hv=d=w&v=a&n=s874hak92djt8cj64&w=sq952hj8543d743c7&e=saj6h6dk95ckt9853&s=skt3hqt7daq62caq2]399|300|Scoring: IMP[/hv] West North East South Pass Pass 1♣ 1NT Pass 2NT 3♣ 3NT Pass Pass Pass it was played today look me up in myhands in touney 519 ACBL 2am contract 3NT p.s I dont know how to make a link to the file

if he is playing Lawrence style, I thought that did promise 6 spades, so my bet is 3!H looking for club stop for 3nt

Arc, may be we got off on the wrong foot, That was not a personal attack, I was defending the percieved low standards you have of BILies, or more to the point, I think your post was quite arrogant and if some of the people you have played with read that, I doubt they would want you sittiing at their table. BILies = people who don't get it right, people that make mistakes, people that need guidance, most important people that are learning. There is an interesting point from all this, though, I think play and defence is more interesting and more fun than conventions and I like to read about that side of the game rather bidding aspects Unfortunately, Ben would ban me if I made a personal attack, so I won' be making one against you (see edits ben did the earlier post...i was slow on this sorry guys, this was not a thread i was tracking - ben) :-)