oldboltoni

IN SUMMARY - there are pros and cons - there is an inference that partner may be alerting when there is pause, which is another reason to do some level of masking. - there is a suggestion to show two bids at a time (which is closer to the use of screens in 'material' bridge) - there is a suggestion to have a blanket delay of 10s. I do not see the value for being able to bid instantly. That's tantamount to UI per se. So what about a delay (maybe 7 or 8s if 10 is too long), to remove the instant bid. and showing two bids at a time. That slows up the thinking process less than 3-at-a-time While we are at it let's add a shorter delay in the card play too, say 3-5s.

I've tried that, but it's not quite the same thing. There is a reason chess player use clocks and not hourglasses, earning more time by managing when to think and when to plunge is part of the fun. Of course, any timed internet game depends on the internet connection, and looking at how chess handles it that's just part of the game. If your internet connection is slow or patchy, you pay the price. But presumably the software could be written so that the clock runs locally not centrally (not sure why chess doesn't do that). Chess allows you to preselect a move so that when opportunity plays, you lose 0s. Presumably that's cancelled if it becomes an illegal move, and the same could be applied to bridge. Come on BBO, give it a go!

what if each player only gets to see the three previous bids only when it's their turn, instead of the current setup of seeing each bid as it appears. It might help to reduce awkwardness around hesitations to a degree.

Apologies if this has already been done, but I didn't find it In the light of the success of high speed chess, I would like to be able to play high speed bridge. Not practical with cards, but works great on computer bridge. Each player has a time limit for the bidding and a separate one for the card play. When the time limit for bidding runs out, your remaining bids are pass. When the time limit runs out for play, the computer makes a random choice from the remaining legal plays. declarer and dummy's time is pooled, when it runs out, both hans get played randomly. the time remaining is displayed for all to see. time limits to be adjusted as experience feeds back but for starters: Speed: bidding 30s + 5s per bid. play 2 minutes Bullet: bidding 15s +2s per bid play 1 minute Ultrabullet 10s + 1s / 30s there is a short pause between end of bidding and start of play. say 15, 5 and 2s respectively. BBO could offer robot tournaments alongside the daylongs and teams/pairs events, see if it catches on. Most sports speed versions seem to thrive. sounds fun to me, can it be done?

[hv=pc=n&s=sa52hqj9dakcakt75&w=sqt63hat54d7632c9&n=sk87h632djt8c8642&e=sj94hk87dq954cqj3&d=n&v=0&b=1&a=pp2np3nppp]399|300[/hv] I was annoyed to find myself in the minority going down in 3NT on this board in a daylong IMPs tournament. Analysis of those who did make revealed they had succeeded with one of two deceptive plays involving touching honours. The lead was ♦2. Those who inserted either the ten or J were instantly rewarded by the appearance of the Q from E. Maybe this is a better chance than Q doubleton. Three rounds of clubs set them up, and E came back with ♥7, to give me a second chance to do the right thing with touching honours. I put in ♥Q, but W won with ♥A and switched. Down 1. All the S who played ♥J were rewarded with a ♥ return and the 9th trick. Question - why does the ♥J draw the heart return? Does robot W assume I would play small from Qxx, or does it infer that playing the J still leaves the possibility to find E with KQx(x)

In the spirit of the game, the defenders can see their cards and declarer not. They may draw inferences from what each of them can see and declarer not. They don't have to disclose their holdings to declarer in order to allow declarer to have the same inferences. By the same token, encrypted signals cannot be against the spirit nor the rule of the game. The system is fully disclosed to declarer, and declarer must make what inferences he/she can from the cards played.