smerriman

If it's not covered that appears to gift me an extra entry to dummy and solves all of my problems, so I just play a heart to the ten now and make whenever East has the (non-singleton) queen. Unless East is clever and did that specifically to get a heart ruff in which case I concede.

Like HardVector says, it seems logical to play East for ♦K and ♥Q, but even assuming those two cards you still have entry issues. Start with a ruff, ♠A, ♦J, presumably covered, and draw trumps. If diamonds are 2-2, all is fine. If diamonds are 3-1, finessing West for the ♠J wins if that is onside, but loses if not. Playing the top spades wins if they are 3-3, or if East has ♥Qx. Not sure which is more likely. I'll probably go with the latter, though it seems like it could potentially be useful to cash all but 1 trump first - maybe West will helpfully discard something other than a club. At least would help me calculate the odds better.

rofl, you have to got to be kidding. Is it April Fool's or something :/

Firstly, bidding 1♥ does not deny 4 spades. Secondly, the purpose of reversing into spades isn't (just) to find a spade fit. It's to show your strength; you are much too strong for 2NT - all you need is Qxxx of spades and Axxx of hearts and you should be in slam, not signing off in game like you're guaranteed to after 2NT. In this case, it would get you to an easy 6♦. Were you playing IMPs or MPs? If IMPs, opposite a balanced 18-19 count with exactly 2 hearts, 4♥ is a far superior spot to either 3NT or 4♦. If MPs, it's a bit closer, but with those heart honours (and the terrible diamonds) 4♥ is still the best spot based on simulations.

From GIB's perspective: My partner showed a balanced hand with 18-19 points, despite having a singleton heart and 20 HCP! After I signed off in 4♥, he then cuebid his way to a grand slam! By the time it got to the 7 level I assumed we must have had a misunderstanding and gave up :) Who has programmed these humans to go off the rails like this! (Just some lighthearted fun :) 2♠ is the normal rebid.)

Seems there's a couple of different ways of playing it (one where opener just artificially bids the next step up), but yeah, this is the other, where a new suit just shows good honours (eg http://kwbridge.com/js.htm ). No point just bidding a 5 card suit that can't possibly be trumps.

Obviously points should have nothing to do with this bidding sequence, but isn't the "standard" definition that you need 28/29 "points" to bid a minor suit game? Which looks like it matches GIB's definitions - I suspect they're the automatically generated points ranges for high level bids that BBO uses by default. If GIB is raising 4♦ to 5♦ on hands that shouldn't, that could be looked at, but it seems a pretty rare sequence..

I'm not sure what the problem is.. why would you ever want to bid diamonds without those points?

The skill cutoff was knowing how to create a challenge. You passed :)

You can hardly expect GIB to know what's going on when a human passes an unlimited 1♥ response.

I don't see you currently registered, so please re-read the first message :)

[hv=http://www.bridgebase.com/tools/handviewer.html?sn=smerriman&s=SAK53HAKQ43DA86CK&wn=Robot&w=SJ98H2DQ7CAJT9653&nn=Robot&n=S72HT76DKJT932C82&en=Robot&e=SQT64HJ985D54CQ74&d=w&v=n&b=28&a=3C(Preempt%20--%207+%20%21C%3B%205-9%20HCP%3B%20%21CQ%3B%206+%20total%20points)P4C(2+%20%21C%3B%2011-%20HCP)D(Takeout%20double%20--%202-%20%21C%3B%203-5%20%21D%3B%203-4%20%21H%3B)PPP]400|300[/hv] No words.

Steve, you're looking at the wrong bid - 3♦ is the one in question.

That's probably how I would have bid it - what are you suggesting instead?

It has been confirmed several times in the past by developers that while the description says Ace, it means Ace or void, so this isn't an issue. But GIB just doesn't know how to cue-bid.

[hv=http://www.bridgebase.com/tools/handviewer.html?&d=n&v=o&a=PPP4HPPDP&n=SJ2HT8DAQT42CA964]200|300[/hv] I believe a double of a 4 level preempt is an optional double even in passout seat, but what if the "preempt" was in passout seat too? And would you pass? (IMPs)

OK, let's do this again. This event will be similar to earlier events, with a round-robin followed by a knockout. The exact structure will depend on the number of registrations, but the aim is to have the round robins slightly larger, and the knockout slightly shorter. This should ensure everyone gets a reasonable number of matches, without having to wait long periods of time after getting knocked out, while still having the excitement of a final. (A swiss seems too difficult for me to manage, and means you have to wait for the slowest player in every round, rather than allowing people to proceed at different paces if they're more available at one time than another. A full round robin seems too many matches when there are 30-40 registrants). There are two poll questions above. For the first, select your preferred format(s). Whichever format in question 1 receives the highest number of votes will be used for the event. For the second, choose which formats you agree to take part in if that is the winning format (even if not necessarily your preference). This will be used as the list of registrants. If you have not participated in and completed a previous challenge event, you must also send me an 8-board challenge in your preferred format. I will accept promptly - you must complete the challenge before expiry to prove you are capable of participating. If you have participated before, voting in the poll will suffice. Deadline for registrations is Wednesday the 30th, 11:59pm EST, with the event starting within a couple of days after that. ---- For those who don't know what this is about - this is a BBO forum tournament based on issuing friend challenges to each other. See previous threads for examples of how they work.

Wow. But yeah, the vast majority of the time I 'create' one, it's completed very quickly on the other end. I agree having non-best-hand would be nice for variation though - I think it'd be a popular enough option.

Simple solution - just host a table yourself, but require permission to join. You can then see the profile of anyone who requests to join and accept/decline them as you like.

Huh? As far as I can see there's no way to see 'available stranger challenges' or choose to accept one. All I can do is start my own challenge, which I therefore presumed was automatched as P_Marlowe said.

Does this really help though? Isn't the grand still a good chance opposite Axx Axxx xx Kxxx?

I already have access to Dropbox and can help out.

I don't think that's really a problem. All of the times I have searched for a uesrname, I remember the start but not the rest. And I have never once seen a useful soundex result in the list. So to me, while it's no worse than the original, it's also no better. Having prefix first would make it far more useful. In fact, I challenge you to come up with an example of where the results are useful :)

Quoting from an older thread: This simply isn't true. If I search for 'barma', the first person is a username named 'BarMa' (correct). The second is a username 'Brownm' with real name 'Janice Brown' which implies the second step in priority is being skipped entirely. barmar doesn't appear anywhere on the list at all. If it worked as described above it would be far better. Though I think Levenshtein distance would be an improvement over sounds like.

Double dummy, that's pretty cool. However the play starts, if South throws a diamond on the 4th heart, you can eliminate North's clubs then play Ace and another diamond, either throwing in South or setting up a diamond if North overtakes. If South throws a club, you can eliminate South's diamonds and set up a club trick. But non-double-dummy, the opps setting up a club trick for you early seems most likely what happened.