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For me in Acol a 2NT rebid shows 19-20, with a 1NT rebid being 15-18 using Crowhurst to eke out shape and strength. So I am definitely in gameforce land now with a 2NT rebid. Sean

No but you will have some really cheap world class players with a * next to their name but a self-ranking of Novice :) Sean

We should almost have an inverted minor forum the number of threads we have had about it :D Sean

It would be funny to see how many people could actually take the ego hit in ranking themselves as novices. Sean

Exactly Geller, just because it won't affect you is not the reason to not care about it. In fact that is a rather selfish position that I have seen from many people over the years. Sean

Shane Watson out of squad with hamstring strain while playing for Queensland. Michael Clarke called up to 13 man squad including Stuart Clark, Shaun Tait and Mitchell Johnson. Given Watson is out it is far more likely that it will be Clark in the side since they will have less gambling ability without Watson's bowling. If Watson was still OK to play, I think they might have gone for Tait. As Brisbane and Adelaide are back-to-back tests, Watson will also miss Adelaide. (Hamstring strains usually take about 2 weeks and the strain has been confirmed by scans) Sean

Next

You missed the point. I could start a Water Cooler topic on the subject of cardboard, and eventually you would have a conspiracy theory post in there. Keep your posts on topic, you already have enough of them going anyway, so why get into another one? Sean

I have a new conspiracy theory... How is it that every subject in the Water Cooler has a conspiracy theory post from winstonm? Fred and Uday must be behind it and trying to tell us something. But, what is it they are trying to say? Sean

I also always adjust any unfinished boards. Uday and Ben, any competent director will know exactly which tables need adjustments, it is not that much work. I use a different message from JB though. Mine is something like "Adjusting tables 3, 5 and 8 from last round, please only call me for substitutions while I do this" This seems to work very well. Sean

My answers are the same as Justin's. Sean

This is the key line from the OP: How are people getting past this line? It is clearly stated by the OP the intentions of his actions; this is highly unethical. Forget 80 in a 70 zone, try 180. Sean

Grounds do vary in size but are becoming more standardised by the use of boundary ropes rather than the actual fences as it used to be. A big boundary is 80m (100m for the straight hit) [about 265ft, 330ft for straight hit], some used to be larger. However there are some much shorter boundaries, for instance square of the wicket at the Adelaide Oval is only about 60m (about 199ft). You may now be thinking they aren't hitting it hard at all. Remember that a baseball player has a much smaller expectation of where the ball will be to hit it, in cricket it can be at your toes, at your head, and these at close to baseball speeds, for instance Brett Lee's fastest delivery ever was less than 1mph under 100mph. (I know Shoaib Akhtar has bowled faster than Lee but haven't used him because of the recent drug cloud over his name) Then you have the spinners, spinning at near 90 degrees sometimes; other times spinning in the opposite direction with little discernible difference in action. Sean

I have far more issue with this comment as to what he was thinking: This is absolutely awful. Sean

There is no doubt at all he will play, he is almost the first person picked. There are slightly better wicketkeepers in Australia, but not with the dynamic batting of Gilchrist. Gilchrist's career world batting ranking. The reason he is sort of classed as an all-rounder is that he allows far greater flexibility to the Australian batting lineup since he would likely be picked as purely a batsman if he was not the wicketkeeper. And welcome to cricket keylime. Hope you enjoy the Ashes. :) Sean

The big talk over here at the moment is who will be Australia's fourth bowler. There are three obvious selections, these of course being McGrath, Lee and Warne.(Shane Watson will be playing as the teams second allrounder, Adam Gilchrist being the first allrounder) The names being tossed around are (in order of likelihood): Stuart Clark (17 overs 3/50 in current NSW vs England 3 day) Nathan Bracken (14.4 overs 2/51 in current NSW vs England 3 day) Shaun Tait (8 overs 3/21 Prime Minister's XI vs England OD) Mitchell Johnson (Bowled very well in Champion's Trophy) Stuart Macgill (Currently recovering from a strain but would be ready, prior to this suspended for an on-field incident) Given it is at the GABBA they are much more likely to choose a seamer, so Macgill would seem to be out of contention. There is a small chance they might give the berth to Mitchell Johnson as he is a local boy. However I believe they will play it safe and go with Clark. Clark is a bit like a mini-McGrath, always in the right spot etc. Personally I would like to see them go with Shaun Tait who clearly rattled the English in the Prime Minister's XI game, with many deliveries above 150kph. If any of you want to see some Australian reports of the series, I would recommend: Australia's Cricinfo site or Melbourne's newspaper I am sure this thread is about to get a whole lot more active soon. :) Sean

Anyone else guessing pard's shape as 2335? :( Sean

This is terribly unethical. It is almost as bad as the pro-client thing I once saw where the pro deliberately made an insufficient bid to bar partner from the rest of the auction so the client couldn't get it wrong. Sean

This won't work, because now only one player from the partnership could be cheating. West gets a friend to kibitz East, friend messages West with the hand. Now we have something inbetween Ben's earlier type 1 and 2 cheating. Sean

Claus, What you are asking for is completely untenable. The fact is probably a significant number over 80-90% of people playing together may have never played together before. They want to play for an hour or so. Are you therefore asking them to make a CC or fill in FD? Or are you asking them to be constrained by whatever default system is loaded and then edit any changes they make on the fly? Let's insert some realism, bridge is supposed to be fun for the majority of people that play. I am now guessing that for any that are playing for fun you would ban them from all tournaments and from any section of the MBC apart from the friendly or relaxed section. Perhaps they don't want to do that. Remember that BBO is self-rating, (another of your bugbears), it is supposed to be a place for players of all levels to be able to come and play a game. If real experts and world class players want a good game, they will organise one. Your continual attempts to make this into your perfect world is becoming tiresome. In any business model you try to cater to your main demographic, not the 1-2% that need a perfect one. Sean

I am really pleased things are looking up. Sean

I would keep the deposit and warn West for a doubleshot. A doubleshot being what he can't win during the hand he will win through director or appeal. I would also have a quiet chat to South as once the bid has been made and accepted, it has to be lived with. All explanations have to be what the bid actually means. This is where it gets complicated though, the difference between online and offline bridge. Behind screens you could decide to tell your screenmate (if playing behind screens) that you had misbid. You could not tell the other opponent though, it would give some UI. As south is a defender, nothing can be done until the end of the hand as any announcement to the table would be bad news. The reason I am so hard on West here is that South has done much more than is ethically required here, almost the equivalent of showing his hand. South has then chosen to ignore it and now claims damage? I would be more tempted to let the table result stand and issue a procedural penalty to West for the doubleshot. Sean

jb, Just do the blog here, we want to read about your adventures. Sean

Happy Birthday Frances Sean

Odds after Australia vs England: Australia 3.25 England Not listed India 3.50 New Zealand 21.00 Pakistan 6.00 South Africa 21.00 Sri Lanka 4.50 West Indies 9.00 Personally I think the odds for Australia are too small. Sean