easy

Last the European Team Championships vugraph presentation was done by e-bridge . I didnt care for their interface but it was better than nothing. Will Fred or another BBO person be in Menton this year to do the Vugraph for the European Championships(hint, hope, hope)?? How about in November in Monaco?

One of the forum members mentioned that they doubled the opponents in 3H on a hand and the hand was made. Some have expressed the opinion that his double was a no brainer. I dont see it as such. So i thought i'd start a new thread to discuss the pro and cons of doubling the 3h contract. Before getting to the discussion of the hand let's recognize that sometimes doubles are made for pschological reasons as opposed to just basing the double on your hand and the information received during the bidding. You r playing against a person you know always overbids, or plays the hands poorly or some other intangible. Putting those issues aside let's examine the merits of double with this hand the hand i believe was AQT K987 AKxx xx You have what looks like 4 tricks in your own hand, 4 annoying trumps and pard has forced the opponents to the 3 level with a balancing bid in your short suit. Surely pard can contribute 1 trick on the defense. Thus it must be clear to double 3H ......correct? Well i'm not so certain about that. in the face of the fact that rho has bid all by themselves to the 3 level without any support from partner would give me pause for thought.Remember rho knows he's missing those aces and kings also. What do i know about rho? is rho a sound player? Expert?Novice?world classs?The better my rho is the more i'm going to consider not doubling. I have a maximum nt yes but what has pard? Was pard just trying to push them a tad higher or does he have decent cards. My hand is not an uknown to pard, i did open 1nt . They know that as well as i. Perhaps i should pass and see what pard has to say.It seems to me when you have limited your hand the double decisions rest in pards hand. I have eaten lots of penalty doubles in my bridge career but the ones i hated the most were when i had to return to my teammates and read off -530. What do we gain from the double. +100/300 as opposed to +50/100. yet we are risking -530/-630. My general rule of thumb is that if i dont think they r going down at least 2 i leave them alone. Maybe im just a chicken but i wouldnt double.

There are zillions of treatment with regard to lebensohl. some use it over weak 2's. over reverses, over strong jump shifts and in the original form over bids over an opening nt. (And surely in other situations that im no aware of) in another thread it was mentioned that in the auction 1n p p 2H p p 3c? that lebensohl applied. My first reaction was HUH, but then after i thought about it i decided ok it's a possibility. It could be useful to differentiate between a 4-6 point hand and a 7-8 point hand (assuming 15-17 nt range.) I personally dont play lebensohl in the balance seat therefore for me 3c simply says i have a shot at makeing 3C. But....... i dont play 2n as natural. I play that is a hand with the minors. such as x xx kxxxx qjxxx, or some other confiiguration that i chose not to bid with over 1nt but wish to compete after opponents have balanced. Do most play lebensohl in this balancing situation? And what about the auction 2s p p x p 2N is this lebensohl or to play? I play its natural what do u do?

Well lets clear up a few thing here. First of all i agree that BBO is a very pleasant place to play and it is that way because people try very hard to be civil and polite to one another. Frankly i read your paragraph with regard to the 12 year old several times and i have no idea what point you're making. So i will address the skill level comment I would never attempt to judge a persons skill level based on one hand. Was steve insulted when booted from the table...yes im sure. should he have been booted because he made a bad bid. No he shouldnt have. However if after several hands it is evident to me (the table host) that the person's level of play is not what i advertised for it certainly should be my right as the person that established the table to ask that person to leave. This should be done politely and in private. "what makes the table host the final arbiter of someones ability" Because in these situations someone must be and the power of the boot has been assigned to the table server.It is unfair to the other players that joined the table expecting a certain level of play not to do so. Would you prefer that the 3 players leave the table and setup a new one leaving the presumed weaker player there by themselves? Wouldnt that hurt the weak player's feelings equally? ok enough said , from this point on ill just have to agree to disagree :)

What exactly are the rights of the Table Host/Server I think steve is right about the rights of the table host with regard to asking someone to leave. Many times i have not seen a table with a skill level i felt was adequate and therefore opened a table to play with players of my level. If a person opens a table (table host) and advertises for expert opponents, 3 others sit ,2 "experts" and 1 novice (to use an extreme example) it seems perfectly reasonable to ask the novice to leave. If one doesnt have the skills that have been requested why should the other players be forced to play at that level. At my home if i have an invitational only party must i allow a gate crasher to stay! If i am serving a table (host) the table is my home.It seems ludicrous that the person that started the table must leave so that they dont offend someone. With regard to language problems....yes it's certainly possible that the person that has been asked to leave may not understand the language of the table. Does this mean that the table host's right to have an enjoyable time of bridge is negated... i think not. Is it an insult to ask someone to leave because their skill level is not adequate? Not in my opinion. How can the truth be considered an insult?

Players!! We have hundreds of non english speaking players here on BBO. I would love to have their input with regard to European/south american/asian bridge systems, events etc. But i see only 4 posts on the international boards. Anyone have any ideas as to how to encourage our international players to get involved here? Maybe we should get the "yellows" ) post the announcement of the forum in french, spanish and italian. (those seem to be the predominant international groups here on bbo.....other than our many Bulgarian stars LOL)

Anyone here planning to go? Im going to Menton in June for the European Bridge Championships now it looks like i'm going to have to plan on monaco in november. I love the tournaments in Europe even if the cards used in France are funny looking. The Valet and the King are not familiar sights to us members of ACBL land. Funny story. Tina Tess went to play at the world champs in lille many years ago. They had never seen the french style playing cards and the very first day her pard held the king jack of spades and when declarer led low to the queen she played the Jack under dummys queen.lol Well for the next 10 days tinatess had to stop looking at her pard because every time her pard had a king she had it stuck a little higher in her hand than the other cards to remind herself that it was a king rather than a Jack. LOL

Dont give udca up so easily steve. I resolved the issue ages ago.......... my pard and i return normal present count. ie: original 4th best. For me this was the easiest thing to do. It may not be consistent with my other count signals and leads (3/5 in suits) but there is no confusion. with 2 left we return the highest and with 3 left we return the lowest.(assuming of course that that is the correct bridge play)with 4 left (original holding of 5) we return original 4th best. For those that have never thought about it all of these returns r indeed present (remaining) count. ie low high with odd , high low with even.

I know that Versace and Lauria are back playing with Angellini (i read that on italian web site) are you aware of something that is not in print? However they are still playing on the Italian National team with duboin, bocchi and ferraro and hopefully the split up wont impact their play at our nationals.

remaining count and present count are synonymous and is the normal approach (i think) to giving count when following suit. I think what you r telling me is that when u r playing upside down signals u return upside down present (remaining) count? Certainly not unreasonable. But is that a partner ship agreement or std approach with upside down signalers. (my favorite method of signalling btw)

Darn i forgot about the poles. you're rite they should definitely be included. Who are they playing with/for this time.

What card should be returned by the partner of the opening leader. lets assume partner has led a spade and you hold A742 You win the trick. Now playing 4th best leads you should return your original 4th best card (the card your would have led had u been on lead) ie: the 2. Had u been on lead with your current holding you would have led the 4 (i know we dont underlead aces but for purposes of discussion lets forget that for now) When using 3/5 leads does that mean that we should return the 4??? Our original 3 best. Ok now lets add another factor in the mix... present count. Does that apply when returning pards lead.Or just when following suit on subsequent plays of the suit? if leading 4th best returning ones original 4th best is indeed present count. (when playing std count signaling methods) Again using the above example after having won the A the return of the 2 shows an odd number of cards. The return of the 4 would show an even # of cards.but if playing upside down count and attitude the 4 would give the correct count signal. Does that mean we should play upside down signals when leading 3/5 and std when leading 4th. Help!!! The more i think about it the more befuddled i become.

I don't know for how long but many european experts are leading low from 2nd & 4th. ie. from 82 the 2 is lead. I guess that also holds true for Q2. I'd be interested in hearing the reasoning behind that style.(my 1 guess would be to preserve ones doubleton honor) and does this lead convention remain true when leading partners suit? How does one's partner know whether you're leading from Q2 , Q52, or Q542. When analyzing partners opening lead must you really use the rules of, 11,12, & 13.

Anyone care to hazard a guess as to the 3 strongest team performances spring natls? My guess would be Nickells(always tuff), Jacobs(italian champs) Cayne (long overdue) but im biased ( i have friends on all these teams) lol Anyone know for whom helgemo is playing this time?Cayne? How about the Shugart team? What will their lineup be?

i actually play multi but that doesnt really solve the problem of 2 suited game forcing hands. Although pard may not have a fit in my first suit we may still make game in my other suit. But lets forget about the above for a bit. Most players here in the States havent even heard of the multi2D bid therefore that treatment would not be available for them. I was gearing my question toward those people that play std american style bridge where their only strong bid is 2C. (btw what do you do systematically with a x neg. in both majors)

Ok here is a question for all of u players that feel a 2h (double negative) bid over 2c allows u to pass partners subsequent 2 level suit bid. When the 2c opener has a 2/3 suited game force what do they do. For instance AKQx Akxx AKQx x or AKJ AKQxx x AKxx in both hand you have the potential for game or slam opposite 4/5 small in any of your 3 suits. It would seem to me that the system has to have some mechanism to allow for the above hands. I've never seen anything written about the 2h double negative but to me it just makes sense that a new suit by the 2c bid creates a force. But im willing to hear from those that play this stlye how they handle the above. Maybe if i see some cogent arguemnents in favor of said treatment ill even convert to it myself :)

I'm not sure i understand what u mean by the above. Perhaps if you provided an example we could agree / disagree. (although in general i feel most play conventions they dont completely understand) Is this what u r referring to? i hold AKxx x KJxxx AJx And the auction proceeds (no bids by opponents) 1c 1d 1H 1S are u suggesting that i bid some number of nt rather than fsf? In addition what is FSF for me may not be for someone else. Some play the above auction is natural and others play it is FSF. Which is better? I dont know. My contention is that if you are comfortable with a convention then that is the one you should play.

specific kings dont get lost after the queen ask. i play as follows, when i have the queen that pard has asked for 5 of non trump suit shows king in that suit, 5n says i have queen but no kings. for example hearts trump and i have responded 5c 5d by pard asks q 5h = no queen 5s = k 6c = k and no sk 6d = k and no ck btw for minor suit ace asking i use redwood.

Yesterday i was talking with a friend and we were discussing various aspects of Keycard Blackwood. He told me that he always asks for the queen of trump even when he is looking at it. My immediate reaction was "why would anyone do that" but i have a lot of respect for this guy so i kept my mouth shut and my ears open. He said he began doing it to give his students some practice with responding when they had the queen and he noticed some unusual results. 1. Once he asked and his partner said yes she had it. Well since he was looking at the queen he immediately knew that she had 5 plus trump and was now knew pard had enough trump to rough out a long suit he held. thus he bid 7 2. He bid a slam after his partner said no and an opponent with a stiff trump flew with his Ace (in a side suit) and took away the guess. when his pard asked why he flew with the ace the response was. "i knew u had the queen of trump 3rd and didnt want to duck the setting trick. Does anyone else have any ideas as to why asking for the queen when you have it could be beneficial.......or not.

In the world of online bridge (as we know it here on BBO) table talk is a must. Normally i play with my regular partner of 20 years. We havent discussed every sequence known to man ... but many of them. This is NOT the case with casual partnerships. In many cases partners dont even speak the same language and attempt to communicate in some third language (usually english) Therefore it is very difficult to come to an agreement with regard to conventions played. and how those conventions are to be played. (i have had bidding misunderstandings with various players when playing Stayman!!) I play here to enjoy a good game of bridge and not to rack up 18 imps on every board! When my opponents have an apparent bidding disaster i immediately ask for a redeal. I dont care if im about to earn some unusual amount of imps it's no fun watching the opponents play 6 Clubs in their 3 - 1 fit!! Personally i think it should be a standing rule (it is when i serve a table) that if the opponents are a casual partnership they should be alowed to announce their unusual bids to both partner and the opponents. YEs i know that is going a bit overboard but i want to play BRIDGE not take advantage of the bidding misunderstandings of opponents. Remember we aren't playing for money, placement points, or for the prestige of winning the bermuda bowl we are here to enjoy bridge and improve our skills. And if we are really lucky make new friends from all over the world!!

I'm not a world class player (wcp) and never will be but.... it seems a shame that those of us that arnt cant have the benefit of seeing what things are discussed in the world of high level bridge. Perhaps you mite consider allowing us to read the various threads that the wcp's have going without giving us the ability to respond / participate in the thread. I'm always interested in whats going on in the international world of bridge. I follow all the major world competitions, and have many friends / acquaintances that are world class players and i can tell you that just being in their prescence has helped me grow immensely as a bridge player. C'mon let us be privy to what the elite has to say ;)

I agree with wish # 4. I'm dying to be able to have the ability to indicate what i think of a player.... be it ability or comportment. Keeping hand/type written notes on individuals can get to be very tiresome veryyyyy quickly.I have 0 knowledge of programing but i would think if we can indicate enemy or friend an ability (as perceived by viewer) to indicate skill level cant be that far off.

I can usually tell when a person plays, whether they r using the function " automatically play singleton". The card is typically played almost as soon as the preceding player has played a card. I suggest that the program have an automatic delay of 1 sec or 1/2 second (or whatever time period seems normal reaction time for a human player) prior to automatically playing a singleton.