smerriman

We've reached the deadline for round 2, but I've been informed the elyk25 - Stephen Tu match is in progress, so will allow that to be completed tomorrow just in case Stephen can pull off a score of 12.5 and alter the semifinalists.

It's standard to play a Jacoby transfer followed by 4NT as quantitative, so if you have a 6 card suit and all you care about is keycards, you find out by Texas then 4NT (or can also Texas then cuebid, as you can't set the suit in time with Jacoby). GIB does the same (also mentioned by your last link).

https://webutil.bridgebase.com/v2/tview.php?t=ARDCHALLENGE:e06d45ea.58d4.11ea.92f1.0cc47a39aeb4-1582748190&u=smerriman smerriman 7 - 9 shuba https://webutil.bridgebase.com/v2/tview.php?t=ARDCHALLENGE:a9be9565.5b27.11ea.96cc.0cc47a39aeb4-1583003649&u=smerriman smerriman 11.5 - 4.5 elyk25

But if you tell them that low is encouraging, it will get them to focus on every card they play and they'll start learning far quicker, rather than letting them slip into bad habits. Was definitely true for me.

I think he means he thinks the opps are benefitting more from the lead than his partner. But signals that only partner can only decipher are often illegal, and I think giving clear information to partner is more important than trying to hide it from the opps.

Dangerous in that if you say something is obvious, or would be what the average person might think, you might turn out to be completely wrong. And I'll pass on your challenge, since there are too many occasions where it's crucial those words are the best (and sometimes the only possible) words to use.

That is indeed a good example, since I wholeheartedly disagree with the second sentence, despite your dangerous use of 'reasonable'.

If you had good enough clubs to play in 4NT wouldn't it be better to pass and play 4Cx?

It could have been worse. I'm guessing you were playing with advanced bots - basic GIB decides to bid 4♠, which seems reasonable until you see that it promises heart support, and will follow up by signing off in 5♥ no matter what you respond. Not having followups to off-shape doubles has been a long term weakness of GIB. The definition of 5♣ over 4♥ is identical to that of the double, so indeed appears undefined.. Basic GIB doubles and passes 4♥ even when dealt all 13 clubs :) (In fact, it even passes as opener holding a 13 card suit).

Thanks for the update - stuff happens. I believe the fairest thing for me to do at this point is remove gwnn from round 2 entirely, including the carryover scores, rather than give everyone else a default score - mainly only affects @cherdano; let me know if you have any issues with this.

Eek. I think based on his latest YouTube videos he's away at the moment - hopefully he's able to check in soon.

I would bid game opposite a balanced 20-21 with a flat 4 count so that would make no difference vs a 22-24 range. It seems it's really the cases where partner has a king and nothing else where there's a difference between the two ranges. If partner has just a king, <= 3 spades, and <= 4 hearts, 3NT is making double dummy ~42% of the time. I would expect possible spade/heart fits and declarer advantage would lift that somewhat.

https://webutil.bridgebase.com/v2/tview.php?t=ARDCHALLENGE:bc98e760.5601.11ea.ae30.0cc47a39aeb4-1582437604&u=smerriman I survived, 8-8 vs GIB. https://webutil.bridgebase.com/v2/tview.php?t=ARDCHALLENGE:dde6f39e.568a.11ea.ae30.0cc47a39aeb4-1582496501&u=smerriman smerriman 7-9 cherdano

I'm guessing 42.

Do you mean this?

https://webutil.bridgebase.com/v2/tview.php?t=ARDCHALLENGE:cededcf2.5465.11ea.ae30.0cc47a39aeb4-1582260682&u=smerriman smerriman 7.5 - 8.5 mlbridge https://webutil.bridgebase.com/v2/tview.php?t=ARDCHALLENGE:67ae021f.54c5.11ea.ae30.0cc47a39aeb4-1582301741&u=smerriman smerriman 9 - 7 Natali_ https://webutil.bridgebase.com/v2/tview.php?t=ARDCHALLENGE:d4c4cfa9.5481.11ea.ae30.0cc47a39aeb4-1582272718&u=smerriman smerriman 10 - 6 billyfung2

This has been around for a while - possibly related to v3 - and many people I've talked to seem to know about it. But I don't know whether it's being fixed or what the status is so I'm reporting it here as a reference point. Situation: playing in the MBC with robots in some of the seats. A robot is removed, and replaced with a human. Regularly, during the next one or two hands, the game gets stuck. Some players see a bid made or a card played by a certain player, while others don't, leading everyone to think it's someone else's turn. You then take it in turns to leave the table and come back to see if that fixes it. I've also seen cases where: - I sit, and am about to bid but then my bid appears automatically as if the previous robot bid for me - I sit, see nothing happens for ages, and then the hand suddenly finishes (ie, I was the only not to see the bidding finish, everyone else was playing) - I see a different final contract between during the play and after the play has complete. It appears in every single case, the cause is that the server thinks the robot is still in a seat, when they are not. When the robot action doesn't line up with the human action, everything gets out of sync. Is this being fixed? If not, can it be fixed?

Whoops, sorry - didn't mean to put that in there. Fixed now.

There are two challenges left - hrothgar vs joe0 and diana_eva vs xbabarx. For now as both are critical will allow them to be played out - thanks hrothgar for the update on yours. Have posted the confirmed round 2 entries. The deadline for round 2 is Friday, 6 March, 11:59pm EST.

I do too.. but it seems every single time I do so over a 1♣ opener, I always end up regretting it. So I'm starting to pass them out more often.

https://webutil.bridgebase.com/v2/tview.php?t=ARDCHALLENGE:b78b70fd.4b16.11ea.ae30.0cc47a39aeb4-1581237152&u=smerriman smerriman 5.5 - 10.5 hrothgar

I open 1NT because if I open 1♥, partner will almost always respond 1♠, and then I don't have a bid.

Don't really have any idea what you're saying. The majority of doubles at the two level are for takeout, so it's normal you would get a response, and it's also normal that in the cases it's passed (when the responder has length in the suit), it would be beaten by at least a couple. Not underplaying an ace doesn't seem particularly odd either.. While GIB has many issues, if you don't post specific hands then it's hard to not rule out human error, which is just as common in this forum.

[hv=https://www.bridgebase.com/tools/handviewer.html?bbo=y&lin=pn|human,~~M1360yap,human,~~M6755on2|st||md|2S258TH47D689QKC8J%2CS34JQAH8JD2347CTK%2CS79KH2369DJAC25QA%2C|rh||ah|Board 16|sv|e|mb|p|mb|1C|mb|1H|an|One-level overcall -- 5%2B !H%3B 8-17 HCP%3B 9-19 total points |mb|d|mb|1N|an|2- !H%3B 9-11 HCP%3B 12- total points |mb|p|mb|2C|an|4%2B !C%3B 5%2B !H%3B 17- HCP%3B 11-19 total points |mb|p|mb|2D|an|4- !C%3B 4%2B !D%3B 2- !H%3B 9-11 HCP%3B 12- total points |mb|p|mb|p|mb|p|pc|S7|pc|S6|pc|ST|pc|SQ|pc|S4|pc|S9|pc|D5|pc|S2|pc|HT|pc|H4|pc|HJ|pc|H2|pc|H8|pc|H3|pc|HA|pc|H7|pc|HK|pc|D6|pc|D7|pc|H6|pc|S3|pc|SK|pc|DT|pc|S5|pc|H5|pc|D8|pc|SA|pc|H9|pc|CJ|pc|CK|pc|CA|pc|C6|pc|CQ|pc|C3|pc|C8|pc|CT|pc|C5|pc|C4|pc|DQ|pc|D2|pc|S8|pc|SJ|pc|DJ|pc|C9|pc|C2|pc|C7|pc|D9|pc|D3|pc|DK|pc|D4|pc|DA|pc|HQ|]400|300[/hv]

https://webutil.bridgebase.com/v2/tview.php?t=ARDCHALLENGE:40a988fa.485b.11ea.ae30.0cc47a39aeb4-1580936735&u=smerriman smerriman 12 - 4 joe0