guinnypoo

Doubling 7N with an ace is akin to breaking the rules?

Is there a good primer for bid sequences in these auctions? Having trouble finding good info on bidding when opponents go aggressive and weak. I feel like responder bidding his hand as game forcing is appropriate. I will say that compared to others I don't have a problem bidding a weak 5 card suit here.

Well, I don't consider myself an advanced bridge player, but I couldn't fathom passing here. 3♥ is what I would bid. If we end up in game and go set, I'm fine with that. Good 3c bid. I see nige1 saying that's an overbid but I'm looking at 12ish points opposite my partner's opener, singleton in opp suit, I shrug and bid, if it turns out we have no fit, K2 spades seems like a good fallback. 1s-3c-3h-P-4H-ppp.

You need to be very careful about the bids you make and what you're showing your partner. The robots are very strict, if you show extra points that put it close to / into slam territory, it will try very hard to get you there. A traditional minor suit game requires 28 points; it's not hard to imagine how if you make a bid that you see as signoff but the robot sees as showing extra strength, that it might raise to slam. I recommend turning on "confirm card plays" in the options; each time you bid, hover over your bid before you push "OK" and it will tell you what the robot will understand your bid to mean. Be very careful not to present extra points or length! Don't lie to the robots! If it means you have to pass a 7 card fit in some minor suit, so be it. Don't ever promise extra points unless you have them. Don't be afraid to look through the options you have available to bid. I'm far from an expert but sometimes I find a random jump bid or cue or something in a competitive auction that describes my hand perfectly. And unfortunately sometimes making the most descriptive bid puts you in the worst contract. That's bridge, not robots. There are occasions in some more obscure auctions where I can't find any bid that describes my hand; when this happens lie the least, and lie showing less points/length than you have, not more. On the occasion where you did not overbid your hand and got forced into an unmakable game/slam anyway, relax. Most others will be too. Oh, and ... preempts work. It limits bidding space so the opposing side has less chance to find a fit and figure out if you have points for game, slam, or neither. I mean, that's the whole point of preempting. As advice, I'd specifically say you should be looking for 3nt contracts more often against preempts than minor suit contracts. Minor suit games are hard to make. It sounds like you're overemphasizing those contracts to the AI, which is causing the AI to overestimate your strength, which is causing overbids and/or sets. Maybe you should look for more 3n contracts.

I think the idea is that if partner doesn't have any diamond stoppers, then it makes our void more valuable because our partner has more points in the suits we care about, and the opponents have more points in the suit we have a void in. It makes slam far more likely. Partner has to have close to 13 points (if he was particularly shapely he would have bid again) and if they're not in diamonds, then your side should have almost all the honors in the other 3 suits.

Assuming I understand you correctly, I believe sections are not randomly assigned on BBO. In a 3 section tourney group A is the entire pool of players, group B is the top two thirds, and C the bottom third. So it's always easier to win matchpoints the lower section you are. Corrected. I do wish the robots always played the same if the bidding and cards played have been identical.

Interesting hand, but of anything in the hand, I think 1h is the least no brainer part here, I'd go for a pass or a 2h bid, but wouldn't consider it for 1h. Needs at least another jack, but likely that's not even enough. p- 1d - p - 2c - (2h) - p - p - 3c - 3n seems the most likely, or maybe (2h) - p - p - 3c - p - 3d - p - 3s - p - 3n?

Edit: Didn't read half the thread, looks like support doubles were already mentioned, nothing to see here...

Thanks for that info about confirm bids. It's a little inconvenient for suit bids - would be nice if it was just for pass/double, but will definitely serve my needs. Tapping outside of most popups gets rid of them, but doesn't seem to for alert. Just tried and clicked on a bunch of spots on the screen and nothing worked (I could just be missing it, as for example the profile box if you click in the play field it does not get rid of it, but in the info and chat area it does). If you enter an empty chat string, it makes it go away, but I think it's highlighted yellow for everyone while the box is open?

I frequently play on my Android as I find it very convenient. One major issue I frequently run into is doubling when I mean to pass, and passing when I mean to double. On phones, the buttons are small and located right next to each other, I have big fingers, and I often miss pass and hit double instead. This is not an issue with suit/notrump bids as you have to click twice for those, once to choose the level and another for the denomination. The fact that you need 2 clicks prevents almost all accidental bids. It would be fantastic if there was a similar thing for pass, double, redouble. It could require just a simple double click, or you click once and it opens a little dialog asking you to confirm, or maybe put the 3 'assorted' bids in a little submenu so you click once for the submenu and once for the particular option. It would be totally fine if this were just an option that can be enabled/disabled. It would help people like me a lot with making sure they're bidding what they intend to. A simpler solution might be to just move the buttons. If pass and double weren't right next to each other, the issue would be minimized. You still might pass sometimes when you don't mean to, but at least you wouldn't pass when you mean to double and vice versa. Another totally random request that I'm tacking on: As far as I can tell, on android, once you open the "alert/explain" box by clicking on a bid, there's no easy way to get rid of it. On PC you push escape I believe to make it go away but there is no option to do so on phone. When I do do this, I have to write in the box "no alert - accidental button press" which I think is bad and awkward for everyone. Thanks, Steve

It is 5.0.1. I have noticed a few trends. It seems to, unfortunately, crash most often during tournaments. Occasionally during normal table games. It does not appear to be related to something I push, it usually crashes while I'm waiting for others to take their turn and don't notice that's crashed right away. I have also not noticed it happen yet while I'm watching anyone play, only when I'm playing. Should also note that I never had any issues with the BBO client with my older phones (Lg G2 and Samsung Galaxy 3?).

I believe it's 5.1. How can I check?

Hi, I recently got a new Nexus 6 phone and BBO crashes frequently on it, like every few minutes. Have tried reinstalling but wonder if there's something else I need to fix/update or if its a problem with the software/phone compatibility and if so if I can help get it fixed with logs or anything. P.S. please make the 'report' function also close a crashed BBO.

Here is my noob line of thinking. Partner is almost certainly short in hearts or opp bidding makes no sense. If he has 6 spades he bids 3s instead of x, if he has 4 clubs he could consider 4c, it seems very likely he is 5-1-4-3 or 5-2-3-3 or 5-2-4-2. Or even like 5-0-5-3 Partner must be asking for a descriptive bid since we have 3 hearts. I bid 4d it finishes describing our hand best imo However I would have opened 1d and bid 3c after 2h. Can envision many p hands where he wants to compete here but its hard because he knows little about your hand. X could mean pass if you have a mess of hearts but I think we should play 4 or 5m.

I do agree with the posts that say to "learn what's most commonly played where you play", if finding partners for other systems would be an issue (or not knowing the local system would be a problem). But assuming you could easily find partners for any system you wanted to choose, or say if you were teaching a group of people to play amongst themselves and so wanted the best pure choice for a beginner, I would do 2/1 or precision or any system that makes it easy for the players to figure out about how strong they are and what level they should bid to first. It's easy for beginners to figure out what level about they should bid to, and find the suit fit as they go along, knowing they should just stop in NT if they reach the strength limit and can't find a fit. It does get more difficult for beginners in competitive auctions where they'll have to guess more (and it's easier to guess into a 6 card fit that way than with a more natural bidding system in competition). I feel more natural bidding systems are harder for beginners, because even if they identify a fit they often play at a level that is totally wrong for the hands, e.g. natural systems require a lot more thought, interpretation, etc to figure out how strong each of you are. The more artificial systems have more rules to memorize, but the hands often play themselves to a pretty good contract. Perhaps because I have a more analytical mind and approach to things, I found precision and 2/1 to be much easier bidding systems to start with.

First thing to note is that "forcing to game" actually means "forcing to game if it's 3 NT or 4 Major, not necessarily 5 Minor". At least that's how 2/1 is usually played and I feel is a fairly common agreement. Note the amount of space that BBO offers to alert bids is quite short. Would not be room to put "forcing to 3 NT unless we can't play NT and if we're slightly too weak for 5 of a minor we might want to stop in 3-4". Perhaps the most accurate description of the bid would be "Usually Game Forcing". I realize this says forcing to 3 NT, but realize that there is zero benefit to bidding above 3d if you don't plan to bid 3 NT or 5d, so even in a "forced to game" or "forced to 3 NT" auction, it's better to stop in 3 minor if you know you won't go to 5, as it's harder to get set in 3d than 4d and you get the same amount of points for the tricks you make whether you bid 3 or 4. What I think happened is robot thinks "We have enough points for game in 3NT (you had 25-27 confirmed HCP) if you have a spade stopper or 5 in a minor if you have a maximum for your 1 NT opener. You choose the contract for us." When opponents bid Cappelletti they show both majors (at least 5-4, usually 5-5 or better), partner is short in both majors so it's nearly certain you have either a double fit in the minors, or a long fit in one of them (9+). 2S is then a cuebid, asking you to bid 3 NT with a spade stopper, 4C or 4D with an invitational hand (16+), 5 minor with a maximum (possibly the full 17 with a doubleton), thus he was expecting the auction to go to at least 3 NT right then and there. Your 3D bid showed to the robot that you had an absolute minimum for your 1 NT opener, possibly even 14 points, no spade stopper, and weren't interested in game in the slightest. So robot passes. This can be a danger of opening 1 NT with a singleton. Across from a solid 10-12 count with the right spades, you could be cold for 6d, at least 5d, but after opening 1 NT it can become impossible to convince partner that you have extra playing strength in a trump contract. I would definitely open this hand 1D, if partner can't respond with any bid (even in competition) you're not missing game anyway. I think if you had opened 1D here, things would have worked out much better, more options to better define your hand. In particular the singleton As. Any time you open 1 NT, you've pretty much described the strength of your hand and should expect your partner to make the call to what level you should be playing in, he knows way more about your combined strength than you do. That's what you attempted to do here, but the problem is you lied twice about the strength of your hand. You showed 15-17 points, which would be an accurate bid if you had a balanced hand which you do not. Robot says "OK with my 10 points that puts us in 3 NT game if he has stoppers and 5 minor game if he has a maximum for his 1 NT opener, but most likely part score in a minor if missing stoppers", so he asks you to choose based on the quality and distribution of your hand, and you chose the weak bid, 3D. I think you were just trying to establish your suit and leave space for bidding, but this was not necessary and misled the robot. Robot knew about how many points you have, that you had a sure fit in at least one minor, possibly 9 cards, and was looking for stoppers or extra something to continue bidding, and your 3D minimum rebid showed none of those. You opened 1 NT (immediately limits your hand), it was a competitive auction, both sides have fits, your side already had a ton of information about EXACTLY how many points you had. Not a time to pussyfoot around and assume you'll have all day to describe your hand, if you have extras you need to show them quickly, if you continue minimum bidding your partner will assume you have a minimum, since there's already a ceiling to your hand. Also remember that as opener, your new suit bids are not forcing, his are. In general, responder does not need to jump bid in a 1 NT auction since he knows how many points partner has and can continue making forcing bids until the contract is placed. Opener needs to jump to alert responder that he has extras or a maximum for his 1 NT. Perhaps most importantly, any time you distort your hand with your bids (like opening 1 NT with a singleton) you need to make up for it later or at least not be surprised that your partner places the bid at the wrong level, especially in a NT contract where responder typically places the contract. If your hand was what you told the robot you had (4-4-3-2 instead of 5-4-3-1 with no stop in spades), the robot's pass would be totally correct. Robots are especially bad at this. They will interpret anything you bid as its technical handbook meaning, even in competition, without any thought that you might be slightly distorting things or making a natural bid. This can lead it, for example, to override your suit preference 3 times en route to the 7 level where you go down 2 tricks doubled. Or you can be attempting to compete to the 4 level, but the meaning of the 4 level bid there to the bot was a 20-21 point hand so it immediately raises to 6 or 7 thinking your side has 35 points. I'm still curious why robot chose 2S cuebid over 2H cuebid since he had a stopper in neither suit and LHO showed both majors. Perhaps because he had more spades, he reasoned it was more likely you'd have 3+ hearts and it would be likelier that you had a stopper there. At any rate, you had both suits stopped (all, in fact) so should have comfortably jumped to 3 NT, even with your singleton. When playing with robots, any time you highlight over their bid and it shows nothing about suits (e.g. in this case it is a new suit bid but shows nothing about the spade count, only about points) it's an artificial or cue bid. Try to think about why your partner would make that bid, often they're looking for a stopper for NT, but it can also be a singleton/void with game or slam aspirations if you already have an implied fit, or even mean nothing at all and just be a "I want to bid something, but don't have any better bid" FSF bid. In this case after your 1 NT bid and the opponents showing both majors, partner cue bids to show that he wants to play in 3 NT if you have stoppers, 3 or 4 of a minor if you are weak, or 5 of a minor if you are strong. TL;DR - robot partner told you you have enough points for NT game but thought you were probably just a hair light for a minor suit game unless you were extra strong; he asked you if you had a spade stopper, you said no and showed a minimum by bidding 3D so it passed (knowing it was a fit but expecting to not make 5). Basically what johnu said.