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What is the best way to avoid unnecesary shape shwoing when we dont need them ? Im about to start a relay system again, last time i really didnt like it that we were relaying too much with hand of no slam interest just wasting time and giving shape and in good days stoping in the obvious game at the end. I know there is the weak relay, using the next step to show weak hand asking partner to answer only if he got extra, is this the best way today ?

Thanks for the info, there are 2 problems, there is a new edition of the book and second this book cost much more in many places other then steve himself.

How did you get the book ? did you by it directly from steve ? how much did you pay for it ?

How is knowing that opener have 5 card suit helps the opponents even 1/10 of what it helps partner ?

In the French team trials in 05, I thought we saw a pair playing their 1♣ opening as showing exactly 4♠s. Anybody remember this? I saw one from egypt a year or 2 years ago on ecat.

Did you play your system ? How did it work ?

Thanks for the comments. My feeling now is that it could help but doesnt worth a 1 level bid. Im considering some kind of 6/4 or 5 system with fantony 2 level. So with 5 card ill open 2S while with 4 cards or 6 ill open 1S. could be use for H too but need to decide what to open with 5-4 in the major (the short or the long)

This is good, and since i like it i want to be able to use this benefit but not lose the 5 card major opening benefits especially when the opponenets prempt and responder need to know if we can bid to the 3 level or not.

Funny but this is exactly what motivate me to have 2 bids showing spades. You say in your system 1H-2S could be 8 card fit or 7 card fit and this is a very important factor for the competitive decision of your opponents, if you got 8 they should many time overbid you to the 3 level if you got 7 they should let you play. On the other side your 1H-2S could have a 9 card fit and then you fooled yourself when you wont bid to 3S over their 3X. My idea solve this and keep the gain. The responder know the exact trump fit and will support to what even he want while the opponent dont know the fit. with 3/4 i can bid 2S over 4 card only opening and parnter wont have to think of bidding 3 spades if he got 5 cards like he might do in other system fearing a 5-4 fit exsistence. The responder hold's all the information and can use it and sometimes not use it he is in control.

Did anyone try to use the 1S to distinguge between 4 card spade suit and 5 cards suit ? so 1S would show 4 spades while 1H would be 5 cards ?

Im reading revision and think rebid by opener can be better used. Im talking about 1H-1S 3C and also about 1H-1S 3H In most precision 1H-1S-3C is max 5-5 in revision its 6-5. 1H-1S 3H is usually max with good 6 card suit. the revision file explain that playing 5-5 isnt a good idea because you end up playing 5-2 fit too many time, on the other hand 6-5 are rare. The jump rebid of 3H i like even less because you have good suit and about 14-15 hcp when you might be facing a 0 hcp and a misfit. What im saying is i dont think you can jump without a know fit or an extreme hand and therefore i suggest playing those jump as showing fit for example mini splinter. So 1H-1S-3C would show a short club. 1H-1S-3H could be some kind of picture jump. This is much more freqent and will get us to good games and partscore depending of partner honors in out suit. IT might also free 4 level splinters for other use such a void splinter but thats not as important. What do you think ?

Thanks for version 2

Its NF unless you have different way to show weak one suiter hand. The weak hand here is more important to show then the forcing one.

double show 4 spades, if you dont have 4 spades - pass.

Might sorprise you but i dont think talking on messanger is necessarily cheating and i dont think its necessarily wrong. Cheating is playing against the rules and the rules is there to make sure the game is good for everyone. If im playing with a friend online, and i open 1NT and he bid 2♣, on messanger he remind me that we play truscot, i dont think this is cheating because i think this is only making YOUR game more fun i dont think it would be fun for you to see us making mistake playing in a stupid contract going down. Im sure you would prefer us bidding normal. Yes if i would tell my partner on messanger, "play spade" then it would be cheating, but i would never do that because i dont see any fun in that. When i say something on messanger it will at most be as we had FD, and calling FD cheating is definetly wrong since its was made by BBO. I think most of those "cheaters" dont cheat.

Well i think banning policy has to change somehow, i was banned twice for doing nothing bad, my sean is letting a guy log into his account from my computer once more then a year ago. (i thought by letting him use his use i cant get any problem) since that day im resposible for his actions. Wheever he decide to be rude and make problems i get banned. This guy isnt my friend, has nothing to do with my computer, i never kick people off my table of log off in a middle of a hand. I hate what he does and i told him this many times, i think he need to get punished seriously not a few days out of main bridge club. I love BBO and do my best to help in any way i can, getting banned make me feel like my own family hate me. I didnt post last time i was banned becuase i dont want you to think im posting this only because im banned, im posting because i think this policy is problematic and unfair and need to be changed.

In principle i agree, what i hate most is when i give away a trick and the declarer say TY. Yet there are players that always say WDP when their partner make his contract no matter what happend at the table, so they will still say it if it was a diffence error. The other type is me, i usually dont look at the play when im dummy and when im back i might say wdp especially if i remember thinking it was a hard contract when i put down the dummy and left.

How do you calculate the results for the extreme scores? What you describe is Butler scoring. I agree its very close, the different is what you avarage, on butler you avarage the score, and on crossimps you avarage the imp. reading all you wrote on this thread i agree with you. On a field like BBO main club there should be a cut off, if you say that cut offs extremes only exist on butler then im with you on suggesting to change it, but if crossimps has some advantage then i think there could be a way to get those advantage and still cut extremes, i think its only a technical problem to do it which isnt that hard.

CrossIMPS are calculated as the average result of team games teaming you up with every other pair that is sitting at the other direction at the other tables. You can't leave one away, without loosing the base of your scoring system. I would just cut the best result for each side and do the normal cross imp. Do not compare the extreme results. Yes its not prefect but its better the no cut. And again this isnt my idea, this is how imp results usually done. You might think i just didnt understand what corossIMPs mean, but you are wrong, i just think its not that hard to elimiate the 2 extreams even at crossimps.

I dont understand why there is no cut off from both sides on from the result like on most imp bridge tournaments.

You can read few pages of the book here mp defence Its great that somebody finaly wrote abook about this topic which might be the hardest field on the bridge game. I remember reading it and thinking the analysis of the hands isnt complete, reading it again now it seems fine so i dont know my my previous problem was. Hope more authors will write about mp defence. Eh??!! Try Kelsey's "Killing Defence at Bridge". This covers MPs, Imps et al. Perhaps you know the book by the author: Oswald Sitting, "Sitting on De Fence" I think mp defence deserve alot more, i also think it doesnt get it because its too hard to write about. declarering at mp isnt as hard, you can calculate the chances and play the best chance even if this isnt the safty line to make, however at defence you cant see the cards and need to calculate the precentage based on what partner might have, this is almost impossible.

Shouldnt it be possible to right click host name and get the normal options ? (sometimes the host isnt playing) btw if this kind of posts is only annoying let me know and i'll stop my QAing.

You can read few pages of the book here mp defence Its great that somebody finaly wrote abook about this topic which might be the hardest field on the bridge game. I remember reading it and thinking the analysis of the hands isnt complete, reading it again now it seems fine so i dont know my my previous problem was. Hope more authors will write about mp defence.

IMO this ahould be GF, qith invitational hand you have to find another sequence, just like after 1M-2X-2NT-3M. however unlike after 1M this isnt slamish at first because after a minor opening there are more better games issuse to solve first.

I dont have the join option when i right click a name. 4.91 version edited: now its ok again, not sure what happend, ill try to change conditions and see if anything changes.