TimG

Why wouldn't 4N be quantitative?

I would guess it was a matter of e-bridge vs okbridge. I seem to recall, leading up to an event, not knowing whether I would be able to watch vugraph because I was a member (subscriber) of one and not the other. Anyway, I do not mean to rehash old conflicts, I was pointing this out in hopes of jarring a memory regarding pre-BBO online vugraph.

Wasn't there some controversy with ACBL in the very early going about granting exclusive vugraph rights to one online bridge site or another?

That's not the only criteria which must be satisfied. One that you have not mentioned, the one that is the crux of this problem, is whether Pass is a logical alternative.

What purpose does forum friending serve? I think it would actually be more useful if forum friends were marked as BBO friends than the other way around. I consider my BBO friend list private and would be a bit annoyed if the list were imported to the forums and people were notified that they were marked as my friends.

In my opinion, use of the method (2NT) with the 1=4=4=4 hand is evidence that an agreement existed. This is not a case of opener forgetting that good/bad 2NT applied, but rather a misunderstanding in its application. I would err on the side of the non-offenders and rule incorrect explanation. I would not put much weight into a claim that 2N-3♣-3♥ does not exist unless there are system notes which not only omit the sequence, but explicitly state what opener is to do with a 1=4=4=4 minimum.

I agree with Han, then and now. The enemy bidding should be rather simple and straightforward, not depending much upon the actions of the contestants.

I think it perfectly reasonable for East to call the director when he did. I think the director did fine. I think the poll results are odd. I consider, and thought it common to consider, any form of Blackwood just a check to make sure the partnership is not off two aces (or keycards); when Blackwood reveals only one missing card, the partnership is committed to slam. Here, opener knows the partnership is off only one keycard, so it should be routine to bid slam (and passing would not be a LA).

I hate to admit it, but I think you also have to consider a club partial on #2....or maybe you didn't mention it because it gets a zero.

I would think it inappropriate to have an appeal committee member be related to one of the involved parties. Though I am sure there are plenty of cases where the individual could be impartial, I would not want the potential appearance of impropriety. The bridge community is small; you will seldom be able to arrange a committee such that no member of the committee knows, has played with, etc. any of the parties. But, there ought to be a pool of potential committee members to choose from such that the relationships between committee members and parties could be minimized.

Aren't there 2 losers in spades, 2 in hearts, and 2 in clubs? Even if the defense only gets 1 spade trick, that's 5 tricks. Down 3 or 4 isn't a good sac.

I am the opening poster! From what I have seen, GIB tends to make a jump overcall in opener's minor far more frequently than humans. That is: this sequence isn't as rare as you might think if you're not playing with the robots a lot. Anyway, it seemed like an easy fix, if indeed it is looked upon as a fix. I'm not clamoring for a change, just pointing out a possible area for improvement.

Discussion of GIB's bidding does not belong in a forum called "GIB Robot Discussion"?

1C-(3C)-P-(P)-DBL GIB describes this double as takeout. Seems a good place for a penalty double (especially given GIB's "aggressive" style). I wonder if others agree.

The statement that prompted my post was: "New Hampshire neighbours Rhode Island". Seemed a strange statement to me since Massachusetts separates the two states so that they share no common border (established, conflicted, moving, disputed or otherwise). I do consider England and France to be neighboring countries, presumably there is a little dashed line down the middle of the English Channel, but would not consider Ireland and the US to be neighboring. Nor would I consider Washington and Alaska to be neighboring because of that stretch of Canada that separates them.

I think the poll question says it all.

I'm finding it useful in two ways. When I've read what I think looks iteresting in the forums I generally read, I then go to "view new content" to see if anything I've missed appears interesting. And, when the time between visits is short, "view new content" does not entail lots of wading through topics.

Thanks. That does the trick.

I think you are right, but I don't think of "read" content as "new" content. It doesn't seem at all useful to me to show me content that I have read when I select "view new content". As you point out, there is no orange arrow (and the larger icon no longer indicates unread posts) so the software is capable of distinguishing between content that is new to me and content that I have read (or marked read).

Our prospects just got worse, partner.

I signed on and read some threads that I knew I was interested in. Then I went to new content to see what I had missed. What I had "missed" was lots of threads that I had just read. Note, the little icons next to them indicated no new content, but they still appeared in the "view new content" section.

Why didn't you post the humor part?

Director, please.

When I clicked on the "View New Content" link today, I was shown a list of topics, some of which had been read (and had no new-to-me content) some of which had new-to-me content. Is this the way it is supposed to work?

Won't East be likely to bid 5♥ here? Perhaps that is a argument for showing the fit immediately rather than starting with 1♠, but I think once East starts down that path he has to go through with showing hearts at his next turn.