smerriman

When I first saw this I figured it was an easy pass at this vulnerability.. but having thought about it, a red ace and singleton spade and we're probably making game let alone being a good enough sacrifice.. now I have no idea what to do. I think I pass anyway but I'm going to be wrong whatever I choose.

With 13 spades (and 10 hearts) to be spread amongst the other three players, it's incredibly unlikely it will be passed out even if partner can't respond to 1♣. And if it is, game doesn't look certain yet with no entries to take a diamond finesse and some help needed in hearts..

The hands are only made visible to the opponents of the claimers. The people claiming do continue to play on like normal.

2♥. Larry Cohen

Right - but that only affects you, not the other people on the leaderboard. You were saying you would come last because the other players were peeking - that was the bit you understood wrongly. The scores you're trying to beat were earned fair and square.

See my post again. Yes, people can play the tournament multiple times, including after they've watched the video. But you're never compared against those players. Instant tournaments reuse hands from an old robot tournament that was played under normal conditions. You're compared against players who played that original tournament and thus only had one shot; the same set that Pete is compared against.

This is not true at all. You are not compared against other people who are playing the free weekly tournament and have had a chance to cheat. You are being compared against a fixed set of players who played the hand in an old tournament, well before it showed up as the weekly free. (You'll see Pete is being compared against the same set of players you are, so they couldn't have played it before him!) It's arguably the best robot game on BBO precisely because you *can* compare yourself accurately to someone like Pete.

That was the first thing that came into my head too!

Chrome in particular is known to be very aggressive when it comes to auto-filling fields it thinks should contain an address (typically for no reason at all, like it found a word ending in 'code' somewhere in the vicinity of the box). If it is autofill, there may not be a site-specific solution but there are global ones.

Yep, as long as how you incorporate it doesn't cost you more than you gain, which is easier said than done, especially when the gain here is much smaller than you might have expected. Your suggestion about showing the queen with Kxx opposite a Texas transfer loses all of the times partner had a (much more likely) 6 card suit doesn't it? (I had a bit of a similar situation a while back involving an extra trump vs the queen - running the numbers surprised me there too.)

But is it? The other table is guaranteed to be in (at least) a small slam, so grand should be 57% to break even. We pick up AJxxxxx vs Kx 53.1304% of the time. So (on average) it's basically a single IMP we're talking about here. Perhaps there's some miraculous system over 1NT that lets you find out this info to save an IMP, but otherwise I'd just bid the grand as the cases where partner has three is enough to bump it above expectation.

Does x have an agreed meaning, or is that part of the problem?

Hey, it's nice to get one right for once :) Always easier when you know 'cash 3 top spades and hope they break' can't be the answer anymore..

I'll keep things simple. Spade, overtake spade; if they break 3-2, then we knock out the last spade and claim. If not, take the double diamond finesse.

I've given up on saying it must have been due to weird simulations. I don't think that argument holds water anymore :(

What do you bid with 3145 and no spade stopper - 2♠? I guess that's an option, though I would have interpreted 3♣ as more of a default rebid with nothing further to show. As for the OP, I would have bid 3♦, not 2♦; one of the benefits of having 2♣ cover all of the invites is that your jump bids can be slammish. 3♦ now is not as meaningful, so I'm probably just going to blast 4NT as well (or whatever your keycard bid is).

I don't have a particularly fast or fancy connection and am on the opposite side of the world, yet never get disconnected. So it's definitely not *just* a BBO issue - it will be a combination of an issue with your connection, along with the way BBO needs to work compared to other apps (this type of server uses a very different connection type to that of video streaming).

Crazy. Have often seen it 'deny' an control despite having it because the bid of that suit would have meant something else.. but when it has a perfect 4♥ (and it's described as such) this makes no sense at all.

Well, I would be, since it's quite common to play 2NT as artificial here (good/bad). But the real key here is making sure you have a good understanding of what 2NT and double actually show in your partnership. I posted a similar hand (not quite the same decision as this though) on BridgeWinners a little while ago, because I was a little unclear on how people would interpret a double.

The question can't really be answered without knowing what has happened that caused you to be able to bid again (obviously not three passes!) For example, if your LHO overcalls, followed by two passes, your partner could still have a strong hand, so opener will usually want to keep the auction alive with shortness even with a minimum opening bid.

If partner wasn't a passed hand, then you might have a point over 1♣, but opposite a passed hand, what's the benefit in staying low in either case? You're not looking for slam, and at these colors it surely can't be right to sell out for anything less than 4♠ whatever your partner has. So you might as well put the pressure on.

1♣ is light years ahead of 2♣ for me. There's no risk of it being passed out, and you don't want to be making your first natural suit bid at the 5 level (or higher..) If you're lucky enough for the auction to not be at the 6 level next time around, then you're far better placed.

2NT. From the ACBL Alert Procedures:

Export - Handviewer link - click the link provided. That opens the hand full screen in another browser tab, so it's easy to see and you don't have to leave the table.

Everything you've just said there is 100% confirming mycroft's point. All of that is their choice, so it makes no sense to ask "players of all levels" to fill in a profile. If you instead meant to ask "everything that joins my table in the MBC"; then simply lock the table, and only accept people with profiles. If you're playing at an unlocked table.. well, you're never going to be able to control anything there.