sceptic

I've noticed the following: it is very hard to learn bridge online, it is extremely difficult to know how to play the cards correctly, it is very hard to play the cards correctly, when no one points out your mistakes. Some people can't take advice given in the right context, so we rely on some excellent teachers in BIL who try to help us on our way to being better players. (call them saints if you like). I do not think card play and signalling etc etc is as easy to learn as a convention, but there are some excellent teachers that try to help us all improve in BIL now to my point if you did not think there was one. This is an interesting statement and I may be on the edge of misappropriating the use of the forum, BUT, I [disagree] 1/. NOT TRUE 2/. WHAT DO YOU EXPECT IN A BEGINERS INTERMEDIATE LOUNGE? 3/. LACK OF KNOWLEDGE OR PERHAPS IN NEED OF GUIDANCE 4/. WHAT IS A CUE BID? 5/. WE PLAY IN BIL SO WE CAN DO THIS SORT OF THING AND LEARN TOGETHER AND PLAY TOGETHER AND IMPROVE, WE ALL WILL IMPROVE IT TAKES TIME. [last of post deleted]

with this had why would you bid 3 spades, would preference for hearts not be a better bid given a poss misfit?

I hope it will be a seperate thread on its own server, I have a huge contribution to make to this thread.

I like bergen raises, I play reverse bergen , can some one clarify for me that 1Spade 3 Heart is indeed a mini splinter (I actually thought it was just a splinter bid) wht does the term mini splinter mean as opposed to a normal spilinter as 1 Heart 3 Spades could then be deemed a mini splinter on Hannies understanding

lol, no my p made it ;)

[hv=d=w&v=e&n=sqjhakjt82dakjtc4&w=s43h96d96532ckq63&e=st86hq74d87cj9852&s=sak9752h53dq4cat7]399|300|Scoring: IMP[/hv] West North East South Pass 1♥ Pass 1♠ Pass 3♦ Pass 3♠ Pass 4NT Pass 5♦ Pass 7♠ Pass Pass Pass couple of quick questions please. 1/. how would you bid this 2/. what would you bid after 5 diamonds 3/. how bad or good a call was 7 spades ( I was confident that my QJ were very good cards in this sequence and that grand stood a chance) 4/. what % is this slam Thanks in anticipation of some interesting answers

just play basic and concentrate on playing and defending, conventions are fun, but it is no good getting to the right contract if you keep going down, nor is there giving overtricks away

Hi all, I have problems trying to find partners that wish to play 2/1, with the conventions that I like or that I know(or even conventions that I am comfortable with), I know a few people that I like playing with but there are no guarentees they are always about to ask. So what I was thinking is getting a list together of like minded people that agree, to play 2/1 with bergen raises 1403 etc etc.the important thing is set basics. (this does not have to be limited to 2/1 and the conventions could be set over a discussion, I am using that as an example) all it would be was a pool of people that play the same system and you could invite anyone of them and know what you are playing. I know there is BB basic and BB advanced, but I have yet to meet someone that automatically reverts to this online. the important thing is, the agreements set are what you play. This way if your regular p is not about and you fancy a game you can invite one of the people on the list and your agreements are set already, saves time etc etc and may be a good way to meet new friends

2 hearts - pass - pass - x can partner bid a minor suit over this sequence if they have 4 spades, I ask as the reason I was given for not bidding 2 spades was, that it was a bad suit 9873 or something like that.

Spot on Mr Hog, I consider myself in this catorgory (not out to impress) but I list conventions I have learnt, you are correct, take Lebensohl on my convention, I am learing it, but if I don't list it I never get the chance to try it, I should have a statement on my profile saying conventions I am willing to try, please expect the odd disaster (but alas there is not room to write every think down I would like to and I doubt most people would bother reading it anyway.

I think ratings suck for some of the reasons given, rudeness etc etc. But there again, an afwul lot of people want them, I am not convinced that they want to know who is the BEST player in BBO, but more to find the level of pick up partner and level of Opps. Justin has a made a point that is indicative of BBO Please don't take this the wrong way Justin (no offence intended, BUT, I have never seen you open a table and not lock it, you are just as fussy (on occasions) as who sits at your table, may be not for ratings but for your enjoyment, you want to play against (most of the time I think, not that I pretend to know what you are thinking) people of a certain level. That is an ideal for us all, I would always want to play against better opponents than myself (I have an advantage over Fred and Justin here) a far bigger pool of people to choose from ) May be take expert off the ratings system and replace it with adv, adv+, adv++, adv+++ or int, int+, int++, int+++ and describe intermedaite with a much broader description in BBO as I am sure more belong there than anywhere else

I missed off, in my humble opinion hehehehehehehe

if you play undisciplined weak twos, you have to have a method to find out just how undisciplined they are, so ogust looks good to me. on the other hand opening weak twos (ougust style) with 0-bad 12 and that is quite good fun, not many people would try it though which is a shame, I like it. Ougust has to be the way forward I think on undisciplined weak twos, So in answer to that first question, YES YOU HAVE to bid there as you have no idea how weak or strong your pard is

ok I logged in this morning and it never worked for me either hahahaha, I will come up with a another bright idea asap :)

see my post it may cure your problem, I think it is a password issue

I know how to cure your problem (I hope) It appears you have a bum password, if you click the password recovery, when you get your email from BBO, you can then change your password and you will remain logged in all the time http://forums.bridgebase.com/ind...act=Reg&CODE=10

PCL I get this everytime I clear out all my cookies and forget to keep the BBO one, just resend validation email and you wont have to keep logging in. I have to do it a few times as I forget how t do it usually, but if you have the email from BBO just click the links (as usual I know what I mean, it just does not come out crystal clear on occasions)

How do you advertise for a team game if you do not use the lobby chat?

[hv=d=n&v=n&n=st7hqj9874dt95c65&w=saqj8642hdkcqjt73&e=sk93haktda643c982&s=s5h6532dqj872cak4]399|300|Scoring: IMP[/hv] West North East South - 2♥ Pass 2♠ Pass 3♥ Pass 4♥ 4♠ Pass Pass Pass I am curious, about this psyche, 2 spades, I thought psyches only applied to opening hands or this another hole in my bridge knowledge. I would also like opinions as to whether this is a good psyche or not

if you make a WJO does this not take space away from your own bidding, if so why do it, if you can make a normal overcall?

This leads me to another question, the small from doubleton lead, was unusual for me as I try not to do it. I was not trying to decieve, but could see no other lead I liked, in fact I probably led it as nothing seemed to be nice, as it happens it set opps, but more so because they played me for 3 of that suit as opposed to 2. Would this be classified as cheating or would it incur penalties if a director was called to the table?

dunno what you have dome to this version fred, but it seems very crisp and responsive

K thx

I was aksed if I should alert leading low from a doubleton, I have no idea, can some one enlighten me on the basic requirements for alerting leads etc Thx

Fred, I know you are rather busy these days, but if you are bored one day, can you change the news box that opens when you first go into BBO, so that it opens in an IE window on its own as opposed to opening it in the news window (totally selfish reasons for wanting this, I just prefer looking at the screens that come up in IE), that way I can use the back button Thx