paulhar

In theory, yes. But someone E-mailed me the contents of a chat that I missed and was interested in and I got all the comments said by everybody. It's possible that the private messages to and from the sender were there too. A truly interactive lesson (I mean interactive with the teacher talking to you, not with a computer program where cows moo at you for wrong answers) is going to contain chat from the students, including the students' misconceptions. Now, if these students knew that anybody could get the chat history from the lesson, wouldn't that make them more self-conscious and less likely to ask and answer questions and speak their mind? I would guess that in order to keep the B/N/I's more comfortable and freely speaking during the lessons, they have to know that what is said inside the room stays inside the room. By the way, this is an impression that I've gotton based on three mini-lessons and on what Maureen said. If any of you Beg/Nov/Int disagree with what I'm saying. feel free to tell me I'm wrong. I'm tempted to open a poll in the B/I forum to test this theory.

You wuold think that the laws would state that you would never gain from such a situation. But such a miscarriage of justice did happen. I played a hand in a tournament pair game about 23 years ago (when you play once a year you remember these things B) ). Declarer was running AKQ seventh of diamonds in dummy and I absentmindedly revoked with jack third. When I took the jack, I cashed out for down four, "Director!". The director came, and awarded the declarer his nine tricks. A couple days later, I'm perusing the recap and noticed I got 8 on a 12 top on that board. People don't discard too well on running seven card suits and we probably would have been no exception. Fortunately, we didn't place, so I didn't get anything I didn't deserve, but the adjustment time was over and I can't help but wonder if our opponents might have placed (or placed better) if they had got a result I feel was more equitable. If I had noticed the result in time, I would have probably spoke to the director and asked that the opponents had been given a more reasonable result.

(The hand is repeated for convenience.) I was almost ready to concede when the voice of sanity returned! I gave my wife (apparently a better analyst of hands than I B) ) this problem. She immediately stated, 'Of course I overtake at IMPs. At matchpoints, it's obvious that partner has no entry and he'll be afraid to play the Q from AQx since he's afraid that if I have the jack of dimaonds fifth and the ace of hearts(!), the declarer will steal his ninth trick (2S, 1 stolen H, the diamond King, and five clubs) before he gets to play Smith. (Please find the fallacy in this argument.) As for the argument that at other tables they might have responded a major and played notrump from the other side, #1, you have no advantage over these pairs unless your partner has AQ doubleton. If partner has AQx, you're going to get in with the ace of clubs and can switch do diamonds yourself. If partner has AQ tight, those pairs are making 430 and your -400 beats them anyway. And sometimes, the major will get raised and with the lucky 3-3 split and the doubleton in dummy, only 3 tricks are available to the defense so the difference between +50 and -400 doesn't matter versus those tables either. So, basically, I think you are only competing against the people that are playing the direction you are. And, the people that didn't lead a diamond are going to have no option to overtake when they switch to a diamond upon leading the ace of clubs. They have to hope partner has D-AQx and will set the contract 2 tricks when partner does. So, since you have the club Ace, I just can't buy the argument that you are at an advantage either because (1) you were on lead, or (2) you chose a diamond lead.

Sorry Maureen - I said something that could be misunderstood - when I said "I respect Maureen's decision to keep me out of BIL lectures" - I didn't mean me personally as much as I did Advanced players in general. And I'll reiterate, based on what I saw, that seems to be a wise decision. Actually, your comments may have been an indication of what happened to my lesson that went awry. Both of the two lessons that went well were bereft of advanced or better players or kibitzers. Although I could see no comments that could put someone in tears (the perpetrator would have booted swiftly), it was quite possible that people were receiving unpleasant private messages and I really don't know any way of stopping those. Also, it is quite possible that some of these messages could come from others labelled Intermediate! If I were to give any more online lessons (I have no such plans now - we have to write 80 lessons for F2F classes for this winter) I would post in advance that if anyone got an unpleasant private message, they should let me know immediately so I could boot the offender (I hope nobody would lie about this!) In a class of a size I would get, I would have little problem with having the room with permissions so I could check level (and not allow prior rude players.) I could see that this would be a problem for a teacher of greater fame - they would spend an awful lot of time clicking on 'allow' & 'don't allow'.

I wasn't in the Bridge Forum around March 31 so I missed the thread 'Ece & Steve, please don't leave' but in 4 pages of asking them to stay, one very important word was left out - THANKS! Since nobody bothered to thank them for all that they have done (at least in that thread), I'll do it. Many thanks for all you have done! While I'm at it - aren't we all just so lucky that we have this wonderful site with many people working hard to keep it running smoothly, and for free! Many thanks to all of you. And also many thanks to the people who put so much time into monitoring this forum and keeping the blatently abusive posts off the board and for those who dissemintate useful information on this forum. My apologies if you deserve thanks and I didn't mention you. B)

Maybe so. But which is the worst evil, shutting out the few advanced players that might gain, or making the many Beg/Nov/Int uncomfortable to ask or answer questions bcause the advanced players are present? Besides, in the example you gave, if someone decent wants to learn Precision because he doesn't know it, I got 587 hits when I Googled "precision system" +bridge. Some of those have to be quite informative and the advanced player should be able to easily distinguish which sites are garbage. The novice living in an area where Precision is prevalent might not be able to make this distinction and it's important that he gets the full learning experience from the lecture. If even one advanced player in the room makes him nervous or causes him to hold back on questions, that's a crying shame. You may correctly point out that the novices shouldn't feel this way. After all, the actual lecturer is probably a lot better player than the advanced player who joins the room and the lecturer isn't making anybody nervous. So, why should the presence of an advanced student make any difference? (Ironically, nobody cared that I could see their misconceptions when I gave the lesson but the same people might be nervous because I could see them in someone else's lesson!) However senseless it may seem, this seems to be the case. Rational or not, the learning experience seems to be diminished by the presence of players perceived by the novice to be good (whether or not they are.) The experience in my mini-lessons tells me emphatically that this is true (there was just SO much difference in the way the students acted - not to mention that some walked in and left which did not happen when only B/N/I's were in the room. In theory, in a perfect world, you are right. But...

Quite frankly, I can see both sides of the coin. When I first read the message, I agreed 100% with Chamaco. The BIL had a well-advertised presentation Friday night. When I started a forum topic (Is bridge a difficult game?) based on information from that presentation (which was loved by all, according to the chat afterwords), one reply that I got was 'I thought I only allowed beginners in here!" My motivation for watching is my interest in bridge teaching. A teacher who watches other decent teachers in action is bound to improve, learning good teaching techniques seen in their presentations. It would have been sad to have been shut out because my profile says 'Advanced'. Indeed, wouldn't it be better for bridge all around if all teachers could learn from each other's expertise? However, this was a special case. It was not interactive (as far as seeing the beginner's reactions) and nobody (except maybe the presenter) knew I was there. It's quite different in an environment where the beginners are invited to say their piece during the lesson. Whether the advanced players are allowed to chat or not, the beginners can slide their mouse over the table number and know who is there. The beginners will be more comfortable talking if they know there aren't advanced players watching how little they know. On the other hand, if only other beginners are present, the beginners are only too happy to speak their mind and the learning experience is better. Let me give you an example from experience. Wanting to know what online teaching was like, I offered a couple of short minilessons by opening a teaching room in the Main Bridge Club. The first time, I just made up a few hands in movie format, and made a call to the lobby for some beginners & novices for a free lesson. I got beginners and novices and one intermediate player. Everybody was talkative, freely answering my questions, and asking many on their own. It seemed that the lesson was loved by all and several asked when I was doing it again. The second lesson, advertised by a thread in the B&I forum, was different. I said, "suggested for intermediate - all welcome" and now am realizing that it might have been a mistake. There were several advanced people in the room and a couple of experts even dropped in. This time, I could hardly get anybody to answer a question, or to ask one. I thought it was a better lesson than the first one but it didn't go so well and it not appear to be enjoyed - I only got a couple of polite 'thank-yous'. While other differences in the two lessons could have influenced the learning experiences, the lack of interaction certainly played a large factor. The people for whom the lesson were aimed were afraid to both answer my questions and to ask their own questions. When I sent private messages to a couple of intermediates to jump into an empty seat, they both replied, "Maybe later." I would guess that they were intimidated by all the higher level players in the room. If the advanced & experts weren't there, I think the intermediates would have been much more communicative and enjoyed the lesson. What a spectacle this was - ME giving a lesson with an advanced player in every seat! B) In fact, they did learn from the lesson; they did everything wrong that I expected the intermediates to do, and they understood afterwards why they should have done the right thing. But it was rather disheartening to see many intermediate students pop into the room, see an advanced player in every seat (for THEIR lesson), and leave. I did not think the level of the material was beyond BBO intermediates though. It might help if there was some way that the advanced players' profiles could be hidden so that the Beg/Nov/Int didn't know that they were there. However, if it were advertised how to do that, the beginners might know that the advanced people were there and be reluctant to interact. As far as changing your profile to enter the lesson which you think might be for you: your profile might be incorrect now! Intermediate is supposed to be "average player on BBO" and advanced is supposed to be "enjoyed success at local but not national level". The inference that I draw from their level definitions is that to be advanced, you should be consistently over average at a club game, and expect to be average in an unrestricted sectional or regional event. Since the next level, Expert is defined as 'enjoying success at national tournaments', then the top of the advanced level will contain people that have won several regional and sectional events. If you would learn a fair amount from an intermediate lesson, it seems fair to say that maybe your level should be 'Intermediate', and you're certainly not cheating to make your level 'Intermediate' for the lesson. While I might like to join a Beginner/Intermediate lesson to see another teacher's techniques, I fully repect Maureen's decision to shut me out of the lesson to make the acutal beginners feel more comfortable - which IMHO is much more important.

I thought you played queen from AQx if you expect to be able to gain the lead before partner. With the opening leader having the ace of clubs, you risk misleading your partner by playing Q from AQx, and the opening leader is going to be the one who gets in anyway so the Q play is unnecessary. I know y'all are going to tell me about Smith Echos, but when partner has led from Jxxxx and 109 comes down in dummy, and it's clear that opening leader is going to be the one who gets in, shouldn't your Smith show the 8, telling your partner it's OK to crash the 10 with his jack (since entry preservation isn't an issue)? I have an alternate question. Suppose instead of playing with your regular partner you were playing with one of the students. Would that make any difference?

I'd like to illustrate an incident that not only explains why I only play tournament bridge once a year but also that not only are the rules confusing, they make no sense! During one of our annual tournament outings, I opened 1NT. Lefty bid 2D, which showed hearts. Partner bid 2H. I didn't alert the "cue-bid" because lefty looked like the type of supercilious lady that would say "Cuebids are self alerting, you know..." (how right I was as you will see.) I bid 2S and partner raised to 4. My partner put down a dummy, a game-going hand with queen fourth of spades. LHO looked puzzled, gave me a stare (maybe trying to figure out if I was as surprised as she was), got nothing from me, and we played on. Well, the play went pretty much my way and the condescending lady who realized she was getting close to a zero was livid. :angry: She: Why didn't you alert two hearts? Me: Cue-bids are self alerting. She: She didn't cue-bid, I bid diamonds and she bid hearts. Clearly since you didn't alert, I thought you were playing transfers. Me: Transfers? I thought you were supposed to say 'Transfer' if playing transfers. We don't play transfers over 1NT. This really added fuel to the fire. She had just got a zero against what appeared to be two imbeciles that don't even play transfers. :o She: So what was two hearts anyway? If I had known, I would have made a different lead. I would have made the same tricks on any lead, but I didn't think it wise to mention that fact since I would have had to describe the play needed which she probably wouldn't have understood. Me: When our opponents overcall our NT, we play a cue-bid as Stayman. She: Well, then she should have bid 3D. Then you wouldn't have to alert. My poor partner is rollling her eyes over all this. :lol: Me: Let's get the director over here. Somebody needs to be educated. (I should know better than to say that - when I do, it's always ME that needs to be educated and this time was no exception.) So we explained the situation to the director and he reiterated her position that 3D Stayman would not have been alertable since LHO actually BID diamonds but that 2H Stayman is. I meekly queried, "This is the Flight A. Does anybody expect that my partner really wants to play in the opponent's suit?" He said, "Of course not, that's why this board isn't going to committee." ;) The more I thought about this, the more confused I was. I had to go to the head director and make sure I got the correct ruling. The head director agreed with LHO. :( OK, I just don't get it. Isn't this 'cuebid self alerting' rule because when you cuebid, the opponents know you don't mean the suit? If I open 1NT, LHO bids 2D showing hearts, and partner bids 3D, isn't it just normal to assume that my partner bid 3D as if the opponents had bid 2H, showing diamonds? And if 3D meant anything but diamonds, don't the opponents deserve the courtesy of an alert? I would think I was cheating if I deliberately didn't alert 3D not showing diamonds in that situation because it's a cue-bid. And yet, apparently, that's the rules. Does it make sense to you? Maybe that's what the letter of the law says, but certainly not the spirit. Like I said, it's a game for lawyers. And yet, when partner bids 2H, which is obviously not hearts, I must alert because nobody before her actually stated hearts. These are the rules and I'm supposed to understand them? And, I could have guessed that this was the rule in advance, when common sense tells me otherwise? Playing 52 times a year would give me 51 extra chances to meet people like this. Not for me. I'll happily play on BBO and alert everything. Y'all just keep telling me this is a simple game. AARGH! :lol:

Yes, but playing 52 tournaments a year causes other problems, like having to find a new spouse :D There's more to life than bridge!

I do not intend to say where this hand came from and I'm hoping that if you know where it came from, you keep it to yourself as it is not my intention to embarrass anybody. Scoring: Matchpoints (very important!) The conditions: You were a contender for a national title playing with your regular partner. You were vacationing far away from home with said partner and staying with a friend. The friend says he has a half table in his game and wondered if you and your partner would like to fill it. You agree. Come to find out, it's a game of his students. They've been learning for quite a while, and probably play as well as Intermediates on BBO. Your first round opponent is excitedly telling her partner that she just had come back from the local Flight B Swiss and they won TWO MATCHES and she won almost a whole point - playing against those good players - oh gosh, some of them were even Life Masters! Despite your status, you are unknown to all the players in the game. You hold: S-842 H-973 D-K8742 C-A5 LHO opens 1C, RHO bids 2NT (forcing), LHO bids 3NT. Dummy tables: S-AJ6 H-K105 D-109 C-KQ1094 You lead the four of diamonds (I hate that orange square so I'm going to print it out), and partner wins the ace (declarer plays the 3). At trick 2, partner returns the diamond Queen (declarer playing the 6.) Crunch time! At IMPs, I'm sure all of us would overtake the queen of diamonds and promote five tricks for the defense. But, alas, this is matchpoints. You can be a hero. Or you can get a +50 in a sea of +100's. But it's great column material! Since I had to put the responses on one line, one of them is cryptic. Let me explain. What the choice before 'other' means is that you would like to go ask your friend how much he stresses that responder shouldn't have a four-card major when responding 2NT. And the choice before that implies that you're going to believe the answer the student gives you. Also, when I say 'based on the conditions', I mean the relative expertise of the players, assume it's always matchpoints.

I watched the first BIL lecture where it was pointed out to me (by a cow mooing at me) that I was just plain wrong (again!) that bridge is a difficult game. I'd like to support my position. I play in a tournament once a year whether I need to or not. Every year there are rule changes and it's tough to keep up with them. (I must admit I do a poor job.) I heard a rumor that beginners have to alert strong two bids now? (!) A few years ago, they had to alert the previously 'standard' penalty doubles of an overcall. Different directors (and committees) have different ideas about what cue-bids are alertable. All this nonsense about UI and hesitations and the like, it matters what week you show up what the ruling will be. You may not have to be Einstein to play tournament bridge, but you'd better be a pretty good lawyer! If the rules are so easy to understand, why does it matter who's on a committee what ruling you get? Any game where the rules are so tough that experts have to agonize on committees cannot possibly be called a simple game with any level of seriousness.

South doesn't have the right spades for NT, the right hearts for NT (partner probably doesn't have them, and if heart lead is right, West might have a clue), or the right diamonds for NT. (The clubs are OK IMHO.) Don't be too hard on South, though, everybody misclicks occasionally. We teach our beginners to support a major with support. Makes life much easier for partner. Still good advice at any level. There are those that think they know when to play an eight-card major fit in notrump. Hopefully, after this hand, there should be one less of those players, namely South.

I know for a fact that if either my partner or I claimed falsely and gained an undeserved trick, I would call the TD and ask that my score be adjusted downward. In fact, yesterday my partner got away with a false claim in the Main Bridge Club for an overtrick and I let my opponents know that the next hand I played I was going to claim one less overtrick than I deserved. (Unfortuately, I never got any overtricks after that.) I should think that anybody should do the same. What joy is there in winning by claiming all without the ace of trump? Besides, does anybody know who won tournament #801 last Friday (if there was one?) That's right, nobody but the winner, and maybe not even him. So not only is there no joy in winning this way, there is no sense in it as nobody will remember that you won it anyway. So c'mon guys - don't upset people with false claims - just call the TD and give the trick back. And if your opponent gets away with one and doesn't give it back, then don't let it frost you. Yeah, I know - you were going to win the tournament without it. You know that - hey, you won! Like I said, nobody will know who won it tomorrow, so as far as you're concerned, you won. I've lost at least two tournament first places because I had a top and the opponent played slowly and I got an average minus and the TD wouldn't adjust (too many other problems.) Do I care? No - that's part of the game. You play long enough, it's going to happen to you too. These TD's do a whale of a job but they can't do everything. Let's face it - we play for entertainment and I got just as much entertainment with my 27th place finish or so as I would have if I had won. Don't let the jerks get you. Just be happy that your not his (her) spouse. :D

On Friday, July 9 at 1PM Eastern Daylight Time in the US, I'm going to try another lesson. All that think they can benefit are welcome. The intended level is Intermediate. Good novices that have a working knowledge of Blackwood are also welcome. It's going to be a different format than the last lesson and I want to see how the new format works. I chose this time so that European intermediates can benefit. It will be in the Main Bridge Club, at teaching table paulhar. The topic is Blackwood and the problems are not trivial. You should be comfortable with normal Blackwood (or RKCB) as I am not teaching Blackwood. I intend to discuss some interesting situations involving Blackwood. At some point, four students will be playing a hand. I'll let you know who has the interesting problem on the hand and if you are kibitzing, you should kibitz that hand only for maximum benefit. Try to figure out what you would do. To kibitz only one hand, put your mouse over the board number in the upper left hand corner and you'll see a kibitzer name list. Click your own name. You'll be able to edit your profile to see just one hand. The following are good guidelines but will not be covered in this lesson: 1) Don't bid Blackwood if you don't know what to do with the answer 2) Don't bid Blackwood with a void 3) Don't bid Blackwood with a worthless doubleton The lesson material should be pertinent whether you play normal Blackwood, 0314, or 1430. I will be asking the students a lot of questions on this hand. If you are confident that you already know the topic being discussed, please don't say anything until the less confident students have had a chance to discuss their thoughts. This will not be a forum for showing off. Student questions: Strongly encouraged. If you don't know something, chances are that there are others who also don't know and might be afraid of asking. If anybody chastizes you for not knowing something, they will be promptly booted from the room. This is an experiment to see whether teaching online is feasable. I would appreciate any comments on how to improve the lessons. Any of you that came to Wednesday's lesson should tell me which format they prefer.

You didn't mention scoring, but if you were playing matchpoints, then you MUST be in 3NT. Most of the time, you'll be +600 in 5D for a bottom against a boatload of +660's. With the opps having eight spades and seven hearts and only seven clubs, a major suit lead is very likely. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that I think it's right at IMP's too to give the 6 to 1 odds (you gain 2 IMPs for being in 3NT making 5 against 5D making 5 but lose 12 for going down one). To be beaten, LHO needs to have five clubs, (if RHO has five, you would hardly get a club lead) and have the suit not block. In a lot of the hands that LHO does have five clubs, RHO probably has enough a few major suit cards to make a preemptive jump or show a 2-suiter in the majors or maybe just overcall. Your opponent's silence reduces the chances that you'll be beaten on a club lead. Not vulnerable, the odds are even better since you still get the same 2 IMPs for overtricks but your risk is less.

Parner opens 1C, right hand opponent bids 1S. You hold: S- 6 5 H - Q 10 9 3 D - 6 5 4 C - A Q 6 3 Wouldn't everybody make a negative double? You need to show your hearts before lefty's possibly preempbive spade raise, or they might be lost. If partner bids 2D, his clubs are for real and you can still bid them. Completely changing the subject, with both vulnerable, you hold: S - 10 5 3 H - A 4 2 D - Q 5 2 C - A K 10 6 You open 1C, LHO bids 1H, partner bids 1S, RHO bids 2H. Isn't it nice to know partner has five spades, making a 2S bid easy? If partner could have four spades. bidding 2S might be a disaster. If you pass, partner could hardly be expected to bid 2S with: S - Q J 6 4 2 H - K 5 D - J 10 3 C - 7 6 2 Maybe I lead a charmed life but I've never held the hand were I have been hamstrung by needing spades for a negative double. It seems that, when not having four spades and wanting to bid, you usually have a raise or a notrump bid, or a long enough other minor to come in freely on the next round, having passed.

Hi - I'm going to practice teaching online tonight. I tried a class earlier today and it went pretty well. Anybody can come but it's intended for the level specified. The first four players of the correct level are invited to sit, with others filling in if they leave. If you're watching, you might get the most of the lesson by just watching one hand and seeing if you would do the right thing. All times are Eastern Daylight time in the US. There will be a teaching table open in the main bridge club. At 8:45, I will do three hands for BEGINNERS. At 9:30 I'll do three hands for INTERMEDIATES. 8:45 - the focus is on 'The Describer and the Decider.' The hands are appropriate for someone who has just completed a beginner's class or perhaps a little more experienced. Any beginner/novice may sit. If you were in the earlier lesson, the first two hands are the same as the ones you played. 9:30 - the focus is on "Thinking and the The Attitude Signal". It is assumed that you are playing standard signals. If you are playing upside-down and want to sit, you'd better be sure your partner is too! Odd/even will not be discussed. I would like any ideas on how I might make the lessons better.

Absolutely - although I think most of them are beyond true beginners. I would never dream of using those two play problems or that defensive problem in a beginner's class (you have to teach people to draw trump, to play the high card from the short side first, and to signal - before you can teach them the exceptions) quite possibly they might be OK for some of the 'beginners' on BBO but for true beginners learning the game, they might be a li'l tough IMHO. We used to have the following hand in our Beginner Lesson 12 on the strong 2C opening: (something resembling: Q64 Lead: 10 of spades AQJ 97432 Q5 AKJ7 K5 AKJ KJ108 It was supposed to go 2C-2D(waiting)-2NT-6NT. (Solution below in case any real beginners are reading this.) We used it in two different 11 table beginner classes and nobody ever made it. We decided that it was too cruel to punish the students who bid the slam so we modified the hand so that only promotion was required. Now about two-thirds of the students make the slam. (12 top tricks, anyone?) Solution: You have nine winners (4S,3H,2D) and need 3 more. You can get all three from clubs. Do your work early, and drive out the ace of clubs. Once that is done, you can take your winners, taking care to play the high card from the short side first in spades (SQ) and hearts (HK), and discarding the "useless" jack of diamonds on the extra heart winner. When you counted the twelve tricks that you intended to take, the jack of diamonds wasn't among them, but your fourth club and fourth spade were, so they cannot be discarded on the long heart. Some of those rebids that I had in those examples are hard for people that have been playing socially for years. For a true beginner, I would tend to focus more on the basics of 'do we have a game' and 'do we have a fit' and 'show your strength when you bid an old suit', etc. Surprisingly, this hand caused most of our 'Rusty Bridge' for social players class to go awry, although I think this is a fine hand for beginners: S - 10 9 8 6 5 4 H - 7 3 D - K 3 C - K J 5 Partner opens 1D, you bid 1S, and partner rebids 1NT. The nice thing about this problem is that you don't have to know that much to get it right, you just have to realize that partner is showing a balanced hand too weak to open 1NT. Everybody got the right answer if prodded with the questions 'do you have a game?" (no) and "do you have a fit?" (yes). The people entering the class from our beginner's class had little problem bidding 2S but most of the old time social players thought it was a 'one-bid' hand and passed 1NT. (Ironically, they also would have passed 2H for the same reason.) I'm curious about the level of the beginners that you allow into the 'beginner's website' - if they're like the beginners in our class or if they're a cut above that. By the way, I haven't seen mention of that website whcih implies that I wouldn't have if I were a beginner either. How does the website find the beginners (or vice versa?)

That is really too bad. Beginners: This is your board! You shouldn't be afraid to say your piece, for fear of being poked fun at. Anybody that pokes fun at you for saying something that a beginner might say deserves a stern warning (or worse ;) ). If you post something that makes it obvious that there is a gap in your bridge knowledge, I suspect that it will be dealt with clearly and with no putdowns. I presume if anybody ever did poke fun at you, it would be because they assumed you were an expert which appear to be fair game. I've got my share of ribbing here but I know for a fact that none of those fun-poking posts would have happened if I were a beginner. In my experience, posters are pretty good about that. Nobody's going to keep the 'experts' off this B&I forum. But what kind of decent player comes here? Do you think they come to show off? Do you think they come here to put you down? Indeed not, from what I've seen, to a man, the more advanced players that frequent the B&I forum are people who love the game and want to give back to the game and want to help you out. They are people who know what it's like to be a beginner - and they're not going to try to make you feel bad. I know where you're coming from. My wife and I used to play in a social game occasionally and although we were nice enough and neither of us ever critisized anybody and didn't give unwanted advice. I noticed that there was lots of jovial talking about the bridge at other tables but people tended to clam up when one of us was at the table. Some of them seemed nervous that there was someone there that would actually notice that they didn't play well. So we figured that the game would be more fun for the other participants if we weren't there. The game would have been more fun for all if nobody knew us and the host had not introduced us as 'that couple that gives bridge lessons.' So, are you afraid that if you say something, that people will know that you're a beginner? Clearly, that's not a problem. If anybody comes to a board labeled Beginner & Intermediate, they should expect to be talking to beginners. And they should expect the beginners to talk back. After all, if you just want to sit back and watch the advanced players discuss B&I topics, you might do better to go to 'Explore Bridge' where there is some instructional material for all levels. (Start with Learn to Play Bridge. If you're a beginner, most of the articles are going to be beyond your level and will confuse you. If you're intermediate, those are written by the likes of Fred Gitelman and Larry Cohen - far better than most of the posters here.) The Bridge Base Standard (Basic) summary might be good to look at too - to make sure you're on the same page as the rest of us. The Bridge Master link is good too. However good some of this material is, it does not let you interact with other real people. It probably won't answer your specific questions. This board will, but only if you use it. This board might be a good place to find others like yourselves to play BBO with if that's what you'd like. (The View: Adjust display settings can limit your view of the available tables to those you would feel better at too.) And, I assume it's here for you to talk to other beginners too. That's fine, the advanced players will pretend we're not here for those posts. But most importantly, at the risk of repeating myself, this is your forum - use it!

Does anybody read this thread besides advanced players? ;)

A couple of things. TO THE BEGINNERS & SOCIAL PLAYERS (and probably some "intermediates"): If you're reading some of the other threads on the B&I board and don't understand them, don't worry about it. Just play your normal game and nobody should care. If somebody does care that you're not familiar with some fancy convention, you don't want to partner that person anyway. TO THE ADVANCED OR BETTER PLAYERS: My intention is not to pick on anybody. Most of the advanced players seem to give fairly accurate answers and some are remarkably easy to understand (I say remarkably since I've seen some teachers that were remarkably difficult to understand!) Also, it appears that most do a lot of work for the B/I players. (Ben - I can't believe your avatar is 'bored outta my mind - it seems you have a full time job informing others!) Keep up the good work! My only question was about what material was appropriate for a board that beginners and social players might be reading... THE PROBLEM AS I SEE IT: What is an intermediate player? The intermediate player on this board is supposedly an average player that plays on BBO. In my experience, the average player on this board is better than 98% of the social players I've encountered, and also better than 95% of the students at our club who have played bridge before but want to improve. The average player on BBO will probably not have a problem with any of the material I've seen on the B&I board. The average social player or club student will be at best confused and otherwise might understand the material instead of trying to master the basics they so sorely need. As far as 'beginner', in theory, these might be the same in the real world and on BBO. (Yes, a point might be made that a beginner that takes the time to read thses threads is going to on average more studious than your average beginner - but they're still beginners.) If only one true beginner looks at the mountain of information which means very little to them (on the beginner's board no less) and decides that the game isn't for them, is this not a tragedy? Maybe the solution is as simple as putting a warning in the original introduction to the board - something that will let the beginner know that some of the information may not be pertinent to them (or even understandable to them) but they can ask their questions here and will get them clearly answered and not worry about the information that is beyond them. The other question I have, though, is should questions posed by people that are better than 98% of social players (which means better than 97% of all players since the tournament world is only a small fraction of the real bridge playing world) be in the same forum as questions posted by people that are really just learning the game? By the way, for those of you who only play on BBO and in tournaments, let me describe the social games I've played in (both in New York State and in Florida): NOTE TO BEGINNERS: DO NOT READ THE FOLLOWING! IT WILL BE HAZARDOUS TO YOUR BRIDGE!!! (none of these are true on BBO) 1. Nobody signals. If your partner does signal, it's "if I discard something, that's the suit I want." 2. 1NT is a great way to start a conversation. Then we both start bidding suits until somebody decides it's time to pass. Frequently that happens when one of the partners names a suit the other one likes. 3. If they ever make a takeout double, it's done on any opening hand. Obviously they don't have an opening hand for their overcall (or 5 cards for that matter), if they had one, they would have doubled. 4. All doubles other than over an opening bid are for penalty. (Such as 1D P P 1H double). Of course, doubling a 1NT opening bid is for takeout. (reminder to beginners - this is not true) 5. Always lead the top card of your partner's suit! Also, if you're lucky enough to draw a partner that isn't haphazardly leading unguarded honors, they'll lead fourth best from any holding, including (yes, I really saw this against a SUIT contract, no less) AKQ8. I could go on and on - but these are the players that could be getting computers and coming onto BBO to play. Since they've played for twenty years and are just as good as anybody else in their group, they're Intermediate. (Some might call themselves Advanced if they're one of the few that have heard of fourth best!) Imagine their shock when they go to to the B&I forum and see this stuff (Oh my, Muriel - you just won't believe the nonsense that some young whipper-snapper is saying about signalling!)

In a brief perusal of this board, I found references to: Squeeze Smith Echo Obvious Shift principle Theoretical advantages to RKCB 1430 over 0314 and my personal favorite, beginner's guide to the scrambling 2NT (!) :rolleyes: If you are looking at these things and saying 'HUH???', then you are like the rest of the beginners and many of my wife's students that have been playing bridge for years and perhaps this 'Beginner & Intermediate discussion' SHOULD be for you. But quite likely, what has happened, is that you've read some of these posts, decided that the game wasn't for you after all, and taken up some other pasttime. Which is too bad, since I see 140 students each Monday morning in the winter all having a whale of a time, many getting together and playing with their newfound friends from class, and none of them will ever hear about a Smith Echo or any of that other aforementioned confounded stuff. What does a beginner know? About week 10 of a beginner's class, about half the beginners can take five tricks with AJ10xx opposite KQx (I'm totally serious), but a very low percentage will be able to take three tricks with AQJ opposite xxx (King onside), despite having been taught it and having seen a few lesson hands with a similar situation. In the more experienced class containing people that have played for years, about a third to a half will make four tricks with AKQ10 opposite xxxx with the jack fourth onside (marked finesse.) On a 'complicated' auction like 1D-1S-2C-2NT-3NT, it is likely that no more than 2 or 3 of our 35 tables will have the right auction. If you're not sure what all these bids mean, then I think this board should be for you - IMHO, things much more complicated than that shouldn't be on a board with a 'beginner' label on it. Maybe we need something between 'beginner/int' and the expert board. Maybe all you people who are talking about 1430 and obvious shifts can tell me that I'm all wet - that the beginners are just dumb in my area but the beginners on BBO are the world's smartest and can understand all this stuff! (I'm not going to believe you - having to talked to other teachers all around the US, but you can tell me anyway.) In any event, I'm proposing a short quiz in this post. I expect that most beginners should get at most one right and if you've been playing a year or so and aren't Mensa material, you might get 3 or 4 right. If someone thinks I'm way off base about the levels, let me know. By the way, if you aren't an experienced player, and don't get many of these right, don't feel bad, you did as well as I expected. I'm not trying to bruise any egos. What I am trying to do is make the content of this discussion board more for you. Now, I can expect that I'm going to hear from all the hotshots that think this is too easy. And for a lot of you, it is. But, if you are a real beginner, and don't want to tell the world how poorly you did, let me know at paulhar@juno.com. Nobody but me will ever know. Assume you are playing Standard American (SAYC??) 1. You hold: ♠ 3 2 ♥ K J 10 9 6 5 ♦ Q 5 4 ♣ 7 3 Your partner opens one spade. What is your plan? (Plan after a club rebid by partner, and after a spade rebid by partner.) 2. You hold: ♠ K 6 5 4 3 ♥ 7 5 ♦ Q 4 ♣ Q 9 5 3 Your partner opens one heart. You bid one spade (I hope.) Your parnter bids 2 diamonds. Your call? 3. You hold: ♠ K 6 5 4 3 ♥ 7 5 ♦ Q 4 ♣ A Q 9 5 Your partner opens one heart. You bid one spade (I hope.) Your parnter bids 2 diamonds. Your call? 4. You hold: ♠ 6 5 ♥ 7 5 ♦ A K Q J 6 4 ♣ 9 5 3 Your partner opens one notrump. Your call? 5. You hold: ♠ K J 10 4 ♥ 7 5 ♦ A Q 4 ♣ K 9 5 3 Your right hand opponent opens one spade. Your call? 6. You hold: ♠ Q J 7 4 ♥ A 7 5 ♦ 6 4 ♣ 10 9 5 3 Your left hand opponent opens one heart. Your partner doubles. Your right hand opponent bids two hearts. Your call? 7. Dummy: S - A 5 4 H - 6 4 3 2 D - J 6 5 C - J 4 2 Declarer: S - K Q 10 7 3 H - A K D - 7 3 2 C - A K Q You are in four spades with no opposition bidding. The opponents take the first three diamonds and play a heart. Plan the play. 8. Dummy: S - A 5 4 H - 6 4 3 2 D - J 6 5 C - J 4 2 Declarer: S - K Q J 10 9 3 H - 9 D - A K C - A 7 6 5 You are in four spades with no opposition bidding. The opponents lead the king of hearts, winning, and then the queen of hearts. Play the play. 9. Against the opponents' 1H P 3H P 4H, your partner leads the ace of diamonds (showing the king.) What do you play at trick 1: Dummy: (the 3H bidder) S - 9 5 H - K 7 4 2 D - Q 10 6 3 C - K Q J You have (third hand) S - K Q 8 3 H - Q J 10 D - 9 2 C - 9 7 5 2 Answers: 1. You don't have enough strength to bid 2 hearts. Bid 1NT, showing 6-10 points (some will say 6-9) and nothing that can be bid at the one level, and denying support for partner. Having limited your hand to 10 points, if your partner bids again, say 2C, you can happily bid your hearts. Your partner should know from your first bid that you are weak and should pass. You usually should have six hearts for this bid. If partner had bid two spades over 1NT instead, you have found an eight-card fit (pard should have six) and you have no game, so you should pass. (I think you should pass with a singleton spade as well, no sense in burying your side deeper.) 2. Let's eliminate the bad stuff. First, 3C is forcing and will take you too high. 2NT is invitational, showing 11-12 - partner would bid 3NT with just a little more than a minimum opener. You have a minimum hand. Bidding two spades shows a weak hand, which you have, but your partner will almost always pass, even with a singleton or void. You have no desire to play 2S opposite a singleton, do you? OK, what about pass? How many hearts has partner shown? 5. How many diamonds? 4. Which is the better spot? Hearts, with seven trump. Won't partner be misled if I bid two hearts? No, you didn't bid 2H the first time; you shouldn't have three. Also, you are showing a weak hand (any previously bid suit at the two level shows a minimum.) So, settle for what appears to be the least of evils; bid 2H. 3. 3C virtually forces to game and you're not strong enough. You're too strong for an old suit at the two level and don't have enough spades to bid 3S which partner could pass with a singleton. Bid 2NT, invitational. If partner is good, you won't miss a 5-3 spade fit if you have a game; he'll bid 3S "on the way" to game if accepting your invitation. If you don't understand the last statement, don't worry, it's pretty advanced stuff. 4. If your RHO is your boss, you might bid 3D to avoid having him lead an embarrassing diamond. If you want to win, forget the diamonds and bid 3NT, the game you know you belong in. If you want to tell partner about your nice diamonds, wait until you lay your dummy down and mention that you have nice diamonds. 5. You have an opening hand. So what? You have no five card suit to overcall. (Even 2C would show 5 - some experts think it shows 6 most of the time.) You don't have enough to bid 1NT. If you double for takeout, and partner bids hearts (what you expect), you're in a pickle - if you now bid 2NT, you're showing a hand that was too good to overcall 1NT - but your partner might know better when lefty doubles you for 800. 6. Your side has about half the points. Your partner has support for all suits but hearts. Why let their side play it when your side has just as much as theirs? Bid 2S. 7. You can't afford to lose a trump. If spades are 3-2, no problem. If you play the ace, then king, and RHO has four to the jack, you can't get back to dummy to finesse. Play the king (or queen) first, then low to the ace. Then if lefty shows out, you can finesse the 10 to make all your trumps. Don't feel bad if you didn't get this one. Most of our experienced students would not make this hand with jack-fourth on the right. 8. What are your losers? One heart and three clubs. Too many! How will we get rid of a loser? Your clubs are shorter in dummy than in your hand. Play the ace and another club. When you get in, lose another club. When you get in again, trump a club with the ace of spades for your tenth trick. Don't even draw one round of trumps; an opponent with three trumps can lead trumps when he gets in with clubs and you won't have any trumps to trump that last club with, and will have to depend on a 3-3 club break. 9. This is the one our beginners would get right. Not for the right reason! You probably know that you signal high-low with a doubleton so you can get a ruff. Do you want a ruff? You have a natural trump trick, so the ruff does you no good, and sets up the ♦Q in dummy which the declarer will gratefully discard on after pulling your other two trump. Discourage diamonds (with the deuce, playing normal signals) and partner will probably shift to a spade (not much sense in playing clubs from his point of view.) When you get your trump trick, you happily take your spade and lead to your partner's diamond King. The full hand: [hv=d=s&n=s95hk742dq1063ckqj&w=s107642h6dak75c1084&e=skq83hqj10d92c9752&s=sajha9853dj84ca63]399|300|[/hv] If you encourage and get your ruff, declarer loses three trick, since his spade loser goes away on dummy's queen of diamonds. If you discourage, yes even with your doubleton, you score a spade, a trump, and two diamonds. If you've been playing less than a year, I suspect you got more than half of these wrong. OK, everyone, do I have the levels right or not? If so, why are we talking about the scrambling 2NT here?

Like many others, I've found this section and feel that I should answer the question: "Who's been putting on all those obnoxious postings about ratings anyway?" :( Many, many, MANY!! years ago somebody needed a warm body as a fourth for bridge and it's been downhill since then. Ten years later I found the love of my life at (where else?) a bridge tournament, which was at the time an every other weekend event. She has introduced sanity into my life and now I play tournament bridge once a year whether I need to or not. Having moved to sunny Florida a few years ago, I gave up my career as a computer programmer (a position for which I am no longer qualified) to become a bridge teacher's assistant (which is infinitely more fun.) Our main class is 35 tables in the winter (limited by the size of the hall, signups required) but when the snowbirds go up North, we are down to about ten tables. Bridge is like a busman's holiday - our main avocation is challenge square dancing. Bridge teaching and the administration of bridge teaching is a full time job for us. We need to prepare about eighty lessons for this winter, each with 8-10 foolproof hands. The average new lesson might take about one and a half man-days. It's all worth it when we here several students comment on how well the hands are constructed to give you a bad result if you don't do the right thing, and how well the lessons flow. I need not say anything about my ability except that my wife has noticed that when I am on opening lead, I lead fourth-best --- that is to say, the fourth best SUIT for our side. (Some BBO partners might have realized the same thing by now.) Fortunately, nobody has yet designed a system to maximize the chances of putting me on lead.

Over 1D-3S, would you all not bid 4H with: Kxx/KQJ10xx/xx/Kx, or xx/KQJ10xx/KQx/xx, or AQ/KQJ10xx/xxx/xx, or Kx/KQJ10xx/xxx/Kx? None of these come close to making 6H opposite your hand (indeed, 6H might be a good save on the second one.) Let pard in on this! Sometimes he can tell that you're short in spades from his holding and the opponent's bidding. Five hearts is quite enough. If LHO bids 5S (not likely), I will trust any decision partner makes, and if it's a forcing pass, then I'm with the rest of you in six hearts. If it's RHO that bids 5S, then I'll make the forcing pass. This lets us get a big score when the opponent's 5S bid was a mistake.