lucky_dom

It's quite annoying to not be able to see the vulnerbility in the bidding box display things in chat rooms. It's also not great having to reload the .lin you are posting hands from after each time you display a hand. It would be nice to be able to post a hand with bidding all in one go for when discussing hands that you have played. And my final request is to be able to post half played hands :unsure: If you cycle through a hand to trick 4 or whatever, there is no way to send this to the chat room, which makes discussing plays tricky. Dom

A brilliant place to start is worth Learn To Play Bridge 2, by our very own Fred Gitelman. You can access it through 'Explore Bridge' -> 'Learn to Play Bridge' from the BBO lobby. Or you can download it from various places to be able to use it offline, but I can't remember where right now. It covers signalling starting from scratch, so is very useful to anyone starting out, even if you are going to switch to another method of carding afterwards (UDCA, 3/5, whatever). Dom

1NT - (P)* - 2!D - (P)** - 3!H - x * A double at this point would show a strong balanced hand, if you have 14-15 HCP you don't double (well, no doubt some people do). ** A double here would often be understood as showing diamonds, or asking for a diamond lead, so not really attractive. This leaves you in 3!H before they have had a real chance to double... Dom

Isn't it approaching suicidal to use super-accepts along with a weak NT? You could have 14 points between the partnership, not something to be relished. Dom

Ok, I've just re-read all that, and I think I had your position reversed. I thought that was how it worked already, and you were suggesting allowing auto-subbing, as opposed to auto-subbing being the norm and you suggeting invite subbing. Stupid me! ;) Dom

Because people would go for the auto-sub option and then go and make a coffee or start reading the paper and don't see that they've been subbed in until a few minutes after it's happened. For people who are sat looking at BBO the invite process isn't a problem. For people who are browsing the net or whatever, the invite process ensures that they don't end up being subbed into a tourney while not there. Dom

Couldn't this cause more problems than it solves if you are subbing in someone who has gone to make a coffee. Then you have to find a sub for them, etc. etc. ;) Dom

To do this you'd have to not allow the dummy to see all the hands in a tournament game.

Thanks for the advice Luis, however for the task I have in mind I need something that can deal and analyse hands! I want to compare the useable frequency of a weak 2 compared with an Acol 2. That's not something I can use my judgement to find out. Thanks for the link horthgar, I'll try it out. Dom

I see a lot of posts which have analysed the difference between ZAR points, and 5-3-1, and etc etc. What software are you guys using to do this evaluation? Something home-made, or is there an easy to use program out there that can deal with customised point counts and the like? I'm asking because I want to crunch some numbers on the frequency of Acol 2s as opposed to weak 2s, and I don't have the time right now to make something home made. Thanks, Dom

Marta, I apprecirate that giving out warnings can be useful, however a TD shouting out "TABLES 6, 9 AND 25 HURRY UP!!" when there is still time left on the clock is harassment. Giving a warning such as "2 MINUTES LEFT" is a very useful thing (when used in moderation!) and I wouldn't dream of asking TDs to stop doing that. Dom

Something I see worryingly often in tournaments is the TD hassling tables to play quicker when the round time isn't over. If you have 4 minutes left on the clock to play out half a hand, why should it matter if everyone else has finished? You should be allowed to take those 4 minutes, defense or declarer, to think properly about your plays, and you shouldn't be hassled to play faster. If the TD wanted shorter rounds, they should make a tourney with 6 minute rounds, or whatever is faster than they currently use. Dom

Also you can no longer see when someone at your table chats to the lobby (I don't have lobby chat on, so maybe you would if that were the case) which you could before.

Flame, I thought 10 was considered an honour when it comes to leads. So you'd lead low from 10xxxx or 10xx unless you held the 9 also. Dom

I think this is to stop people accidently saying things they shouldn't to the table (like, why did he bid 2♥, he's too strong for that, etc.) whilst discussing play with other kibitzers. Well, that's a side-effect, but whether or not it's the reason I don't know.

Thanks Dwingo, that answers the question

When kibbing at a tournament, I can see only the NS score card when I click movie. If anyone knows how I could see the EW score card, please let me know. If it's not possible, is this something that could be introduced. If you are trying to follow someone playing in a tournament, it is nice to be able to see their scorecard, but if they are seated EW, which can change from round to round, then you can only see the hands of the current board. Dom

Actually Gerben, I think that goulash deals are created by collecting the hands after a passout (still ordered into suits) and then cutting and redealing, rather than after a played hand. It was a common thing to do to try and liven up the bidding after a passout. Normally you would expect extreme 1 or 2 suiter hands, possibly with both sides being able to make game in one of the suits. Edmund, I would imagine that Fred uses a similar type of system to determine the goulash hand. Deal out all the cards, collect them in, and then deal them out again, giving a perfect reprensentation of a goulash deal. But I'm just guessing :) Dom

Claus, It can be easier to learn if you actually get to play some hands, and then discuss what you did and why you did it. If you play 48 boards all at once it can be very hard to discuss all of them, but if you break them into smaller chunks of boards, each time you can focus on the boards that needed attention. Dom

Not true! I was missing the last 3 episodes, and let me tell you, that's annoying :)

Ok Fred. Thanks anyway :)

Hmm, yes, something like this would be good for me. I like to mark the Acol players I have previously played with, so I can see if there's anyone online for game very quickly, but I wouldn't chat to all of them. It would be nice to have some people who floated to the top of the lobby list and were shown in a special colour on the tables list, but didnt make pop up things when they logged in, or have their table displayed if there are no spaces at it... Dom

It would be nice if one could choose to log chat from chat rooms and learning boards, without having to log all chat. Just a thought :)

Not sure if this is better posted here or in a new thread, but here it is: The bidding practise system is good, and the custom hands thing works well, but only to a certain extent. The following things would make it even better: The ability to enter a certain distribution, or minimum distribution. Eg. 5-5-2-1, or be able to say 10 cards in 2 suits. The ability to count Losing Tricks and Playing Tricks, as well as High Card Points. Erm, that's it really. If I could define those things I could practise Acol Strong 2-Bids, which would be very handy! However, I understand that this would probably involve a big overhaul of code (maybe not so much for having at least 1 6 card suit, or something like that, but definitely for valuing hands in other ways) and thus a large chuck of time. So just stick it down in the list, and I'll be happy :) Thanks, Dom

Well, since this is only a problem if you have records spanning multiple years, you could just manually archive your previous years records, thus stopping the problem :D This would be a solution that would take more work for you and less work for Fred...