pgmer6809

Richard Pavlicek has made some attempt to quantify it tho. See http://rpbridge.net/ac01.htm It really is a good idea to visit his web site, as I cant really do it justice. But TL:DR here is an extract with his explanation:

Hey. Its nice to see that my changes to Dealer (Dealerv2) are actually getting used. ;) I call the new version Dealerv2 because of the many additions (as well as some subtractions) to the original. Most of my changes were motivated by the idea of doing simulations, and then doing statistics on the results. (see CSV report) That is why I added the ability to re-import into Dealerv2 hands generated by previous selection criteria. (Using the Predeal function) In my own simulations, I generate say 100 hands where one side has say a 9 card fit and 23 hcp. Then I re-import those hands into Dealerv2, one at a time, and for each one generate 500 hands for the opponents and solve for the number of tricks. This gives me 100 example hands, and for each of those example hands I now have a pretty good idea of how many tricks they will likely take on average. I can wrap this whole process in a shell script and let it run unattended. Its kind of fun. Just recently I added the ability to use Richard Pavlicek's library of SOLVED deals as an input source. If you are doing heavy simulations, having the deals already solved can greatly speed up the runs, maybe by a factor of 100. Bo Haglund's (and his colleague Soren Hein's) DDS is pretty fast but nothing is as fast as just looking up the answer. Of course if I am using RP's solved Database, I cant use the Predeal functionality so I need to modify my approach. JGM

Software for Bridge Simulations and Studies DealerV2 is a significantly expanded version of the program first written in 1990 timeframe by Hans van Staveren of Amsterdam. The original version is still used today by BBO for generating deals for bidding practice and the like. The code, binaries and documentation for DealerV2 are available on github at: https://github.com/dealerv2/Dealer-Version-2- The latest version of dealerv2 includes the ability to use Richard Pavlicek's library of over 10 Million solved deals. Having a source of __solved__ deals greatly speeds up studies of various kinds. More than 100x faster in some cases. The latest version of dealerv2 also includes a feature which allows the user to write his own extensions to DealerV2 functionality. The 50 page User's Guide explains how to use the many new features of DealerV2 to conduct simulation studies efficiently. The program has been written for, and runs on, Linux. There is no Windows port available at this time. However it will run on Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) without problems and the instructions for doing so are included in the documentation. Show_RP_DB is a program written in C, that can take deals from Richard Pavlicek's library of over 10 Million solved deals and print them out in a brief PBN format. RP's Library is in a highly efficient binary format that is not human readable. This program shows how to extract the deals from the library and decode them into something easier to use in studies and simulations. The tools to create RP's Library can be downloaded from his website: www.rpbridge.net. These tools run on MSDOS. If you do not have such a system, the github repo also includes a copy of RP's library. Because Github limits file sizes to 100 MB the library is in 3 separate pieces which can easily be concatenated together. The repo is at: https://github.com/dealerv2/Show_RP_DB JGM 2023/03/21

Thanks, Funny I tried to search RP's site (a great place to visit) but did not find the term. pgmer7809

I have seen the term 'Echelon Play' referred to in a few articles, but I am not sure of the correct definition. The Bridge Encyclopedia does not include it, nor does Wikipedia. It seems to have some relation to first trying one thing, then the next thing you try depends on the outcome of the first play. But why not just call it Combining Your Chances? Thanks

The common way for Dummy to evaluate shortness once a fit is found is to count 5 pts for a void, 3 for a stiff and 2 for a/each? doubleton(s). Bergen (among others) says that Declarer(aka the long trump hand) can also count for shortness once a fit is found, but the scale is different. But what if you are playing in a 4-4 fit? Can BOTH hands count 5/3/1 for shortness (assuming the shortness is in two different suits of course)

On GitHub there is a new version of Dealer with expanded functionality. Of particular benefit to BBO users might be the feature that makes it easier to enter complex shape requirements. The program is available for download from: https://github.com/dealerv2/Dealer-Version-2-

BBO allows one to specify certain constraints on the hands when using the practice tables. It uses Stevaren's Dealer program to do this. While reading the online documentation I became aware that there is a 'tricks' function in dealer that allows one to specify that a hand must take a certain number of tricks. Apparently it uses GIB (aka Bridge.exe) aka the Robot software to do this. I have a copy of GIB I purchased years ago, but I am not sure how to use this with the Dealer program, whether standalone (I have dealer running on my PC) or online with BBO. Has anyone ever used GIB 'headless' i.e. no GUI but just to analyze hands and printout how many tricks they can take?

I can go to a viewgraph broadcast but once I get to the table I don't see anything happening. Where the cards should be is just empty boxes and there is no audio. If I click on the menu button and choose the video option I can see the video feed (if it is available). I also have no trouble viewing deals from the Viewgraph archive. I get this problem in all my browsers; firefox, chromium, Webkit etc. Is there a browser setting I need to make sure is correct before the live vugraphs will show? I don't understand why I can view archives but not the live ones.

My account profile shows undefined completion rate for tournaments. But I can't find anywhere in my profile where it tells me how many i have done and how many I need to get a rating. I am using the 'desktop' web interface I think Where exactly do I find this?

I know that I can share a CC with my partner. My problem is that other people want to see my CC in advance of my playing them. Is there a way of emailing my BBO CC? or sending them a link to my CC that they can then access? Or best of all saving my CC to my local drive as a PDF and then sending them the PDF? pgmer6809

If you play a strong NT (15-17, 16-18 etc.) and you hold a 4333 hand in the middle of the range, say ♠AT9 ♥ Q62 ♦ AJT ♣ KQT3 and it goes: 1NT-2♦!-2♥- 2NT; MUST you show the heart fit? (either 3♥ or 4♥ as your judgement indicates.) Partner could be a flat 5332 hand or he could be more shapely 5422, 5431 with only invitational values.