IrishToby

What does the barcode in the New York Times bridge diagram mean, or may be used for? Thanks.

Thanks for the response. I meant at the end of the play of each trick, the cards disappear very quickly before I have had a chance to absorb the play. I'm sure for many more experienced that is just fine (probably desirable). Would you consider an option to manually rather than automatically move on to the next trick? Thanks.

At least for me (a new bridge novice), a real need to have an option to be able to tap to have the hand move on at completion. All goes to fast for me to absorb! Looks great on the iPad.

Thanks for all the responses, much appreciated. I have downloaded the learning software and am on my way.

Thank-you. That is a very helpful and clear answer. I take it then that everyone plays with a convention of some selection else the opposition would have to ask every time? Is there a common or default convention? Or is it that there are obvious expected responses to bids that if followed cause no confusion or misunderstanding? Thanks. (I'm sure it is obvious I am completely new to bridge, I expect much will become clearer as I get down the road a bit.)

This is asking if I have the correct understanding of the use of conventions in contract bridge. I skimmed the contract rules, particularly under Auctions, and (unless I missed it) conventions are not mentioned. My general reading, and finding they are not mentioned in the rules leads me to conclude: 1. The opposition has the right to know what "agreements" my partnership has about what what our bids mean to us; 2. Conventions are a shorthand way of describing groups of approaches to bidding and what the bids mean; "we" may use multiple conventions (presumably not contradictory?); 3. We would be unethical (violating the rules?) not to follow the conventions we have identified to our opposition; 4. We may not follow an announced convention in a particular bid if we "alert" since it would be unexpected(?); (We must alert?) 5. The opposition may ask what a particular bid means to our partnership (asking the partner of the player bidding). I think I went down a rabbit hole thinking that conventions were part of the rules and must be strictly followed when announced, rather than a descriptive shorthand. As I have written the above it all seems clearer, unless I am told that I have the wrong end of the stick.

As a true novice I even hesitate to say anything! I decided to learn something about bridge only in the last couple of weeks. Never been much of a card player of any kind in the past, but now in my retirement years am trying to scratch an itch of interest. Please take these comments from that perspective. Truthfully, reading the above comments and trying to stand back and see a bigger picture, vague though I may be about what BBO is about, I found myself finding merit in some completely opposite opinions. To someone like me bridge is overwhelming to approach. I pulled a book off my shelf bought 30 years ago and not used (First Book of Bridge, Sheinwold) and started to work through it to try to grasp concepts and the most basic idea of what this is about. I searched google and among many sites, discovered BBO, which has impressed me greatly. I watched games and generally explored. I had no expectation of a fast learning curve before I started, good thing, because now I wonder about it all, though I continue to work with great interest and increasing understanding, if only at a very low level. So what does all that mean for the subject at hand? With no opinion about what it means for the bigger philosophy of BBO, some very clearly identified area for novices/beginners would certainly be helpful to me. I browse all over the place sometimes, because my approach to learning is to spend some time reading very widely about the subject to get a flavour of things, the lexicon, all the time seeing things that when, one day I understand better, they ring bells. But when I got down to specific elementary things and focusing on the basics, I find that there are vast (perhaps an exaggeration) areas where assumptions, short forms, code words etc. are simply assumed. I guess they are minus basic! Finding those things, which may be there but not easily found, is frustrating. (Although I often find other things on the way!) I understand very well why a novice/beginner is hesitant to post. We think that our question is something that any fool should know. Even the anonymity of our fake names does not sufficiently make us fear that someone might point out that in fact we are fools! To post to a general posting area where people of every level post only compounds that reluctance. At least in a novice/beginner area we can think that we have adequately acknowledged our lack of understanding from the get-go. The idea of leading a subject post with NOVICE QUESTION in general postings is a good idea, if posting there.