3for3

Why would the furniture company pay a $5M to the insurer when they could place the bet themselves for $3M? These numbers are off, there is no way the middle man could ever get this much of a premium, but your point is valid, why is there a middle man at all? The answer is there really is no need, lol. After the Pepsi Billion promotion, the next time pepsi wanted to do a promotion they went straight through Berkshire Hathaway without having SCA as a middle man. In one of the stories, they quoted another sports promotion firm as saying they would have insured the bet for 30%. This may be way off, but maybe my numbers weren't so crazy after all. Danny

By the way this is a great idea. Especially in a sport where no team can be a huge favorite before the season, it really seems to make sense. If your team is 10-1, and insurance can be bought at that price, or close to it, it is like a 10% off sale. You could even quietly raise the prices a month or so ahead of time to fund part of the sale/insurance. The publicity would be great, and think how well the customers slept on their beds... Danny

Even if SCA promotions or some similar entity did insure this promotion, there is no way they lost all of the money. In fact, what they likely do is turn around and hedge themselves, buy betting on that team to win the world series. Say the Red Sox were a 10-1 underdog to win the series. The promotion would then be worth about $3 million. They could charge the company $5 million. They could then turn around and bet $3 million, get the 10-1 odds, and show a $2 million profit either way. Danny

One thing I like that hasn't been suggested: If you have opened 2nt on a hand with a good 6 card minor; bid 3nt. Not only will this keep you out of some poor 5-2's when partner has a yarb; you can occasionally find a slam when partner has the right 10 count or so. Danny

Add my voice to the continuous range. It is just so much more likely the opponents will have preempted you out of your second suit in modern bridge. Also, when you do bid out, partner knows you have an extra card in the first suit. This could be crucial if you are say 6/5 and partner is 2/3. You will play the 6-2 fit, which will be far easier to control then than the 5-3, with the taps coming in the long hand. Danny

When a board is passed out, the server quickly takes you to the next board. Perhaps a slight delay, showing all 4 hands, and a notation that the board was passed out to give you a chance to look at it (and realize it was passed out) would be better. Danny

Some thoughts about this thread. 1. When calculating errors, it is ok to say that failing to drop a stiff king missing 3 in the suit is an error, 'everyone' makes that error, and we are comparing rates, so it is not a big deal. 2. A World Champion once told me if you make only 2 mistakes in a session, you have played very well. So, I doubt the WC players make less than 0.1 mistakes in a session. 3. Everyone so far is missing a big point. Bridge is at least 1/2 bidding. Any rating system that tries to count errors needs to look at bidding as well. This would be an almost impossible task. For example, we would call it an error to bid a slam on 2 finesses. But what if they were through an opening bidder? Or into a preemptors hand? What about auctions that go, say 3s-6s, and the leader has to guess the suit? Impossible to evaluate. Is it an error to preempt, catch partner with the death 4450 with a void in your suit? Of course not. 4. There are plenty of mistakes that do not appear as mistakes, as many have pointed out. Failing to cater to an offside stiff queen is an easy example. Sloppy signalling is another. In the bidding, making a bid that partner doesn't understand is yet another. Danny

In case anyone has noticed, this is the same hand in my thread, lead directing double. At your table, Jason, you had no shot. If you lead a heart, declarer would pick up your spade holding.... Danny

Thanks for the replies. At the table, I chose pass. In a sense either red suit sets up a trick, as dummy has both red queens, but, in the event, the declarer had a stiff....diamond, so that a heart lead is the winner. In retrospect, I slightly prefer double, since it is possible that declarer does have the AQ of diamonds, whereas you 'know' dummy has the ace of hearts. The only caveat seems to be that partner might also lead a heart if they stop in 5 spades. This would not be what we want, but perhaps we can't beat 5 anyway. Fortunately, my counterpart got active with this hand, and my teammate had no trouble picking up the queen third of spades in partner's hand. Just another push... Danny

Your hand: x Kxxxx KJ9xx xx Start thinking now, you know what is coming from the title....At the table you will only get a second or 2 before UI starts..... The opponents bid 1S-2C(GF) 2S-3S 4S-5H..... OK, time is up, do you double? Why or why not? Danny

b ) auto play the whole last trick All play should be automatic at trick 13. Danny

Would it be possible to add a function in the lobby 'view' to distinguish between those playing and those kibitzing or loitering? That way, when one looks to form a game, we can see at a glance who might be available Danny

The chess clock won't work at bridge. Here are some reasons why. Who do you charge the time to when opponents play complex methods that require detailed explanations? It gives declarer incentive to play easy claim hands out. The hands do not always lend themselves to both pairs needing similar amounts of time. There are surely more, these are just off the top of my head... Danny

Can there be a larger difference between the played and unplayed cards? I selodm used the show played card option, because the difference in contrast/color is not great enough to make it easy to see. Danny

Can it be optional for the world to talk to us when we are in a match? Danny

I currently play a '4' point range, but shave it by a reasonable amount on the low end, and somewhat on the high end. Thus 14-17 does not include 4333, aceless or honors doubleton or tripleton, or hands with no honors in synergy. That's a lot of 14's that don't make the cut. On the top side, only really good 17's get upgraded, typically with a good 5 card suit. So, I would describe my range as 14.4-17.7 or so, if pinned down to decimals. Playing a 4 point range without adjusting is just too wide as you will reach too many ugly 23 and 24 point games. Danny

Now that BBO is so popular, can we use 32 boards instead of 16 for duplicate comparisons? Or perhaps, even more? Danny

I am all for ads....they pay the bills. I would prefer you avoided the flashing ones... Danny