bestguru

great, now we need a no psyches rule for the forums

I got disconnected twice today with 3001 errors. Both were while sitting at a table. One was in the BIL while waiting for others to join. The other was while playing in the main room after a long pause from LHO. I would guess it was actually taking a long time for and not just a delay in my receiving because I did see chat from CHO and RHO. My chat did not go through.

I'll take the cheaters over the nutters and the swing seekers any day. I have no clue how well I did in an 8 board tourney full of swingers; at least I'd have a reasonable par to compare if everyone else were cheating.

true, unless opps are playing notional club :)

Thanks for the responses. pass - If I had thought for a quarter of second more, I would have I don't think I like 4♦ as natural and non forcing either but it was handy here. 3♦ seemed pointless and dangerous to me, so I agree with mikeh on that. 3♥ did cross my mind but I figured partner to be strict about having nothing worthwhile outside clubs for his 3♣ call 3♠ scares the willies out of me. I would admire your daring if you were to make the call though 3NT didn't occur to me, but I do like it. 4♣ I considered this and immediately discarded it as it seemed like the kind of wacky thing that I'm prone to do and have come out badly . I am reconsidering though. I think I'll pass next time, but if that psych itch just had to be scratched I'd go with 4♣

[hv=d=n&v=e&s=s4hkj964dkq87654c]133|100|Scoring: IMP partner dealt and opened 3♣ passed to me[/hv] My gut reaction was that they had a spade game and I quickly bid 4♦. Was this nuts?

I'm right there with helene_t. Better bidding just gets me to those good contracts that I'm not good enough to make. My first intentional squeeze was much more rewarding than anytime that I succesfully used a gadget. I think my turning point was a series of 3-2 or worse trump fits with pickup partners. I went from aggravated to laughing it off to truly laughing and gearing down for the challenge. Maybe I'm demented, but that was some of the most fun I've ever had at the table.

I agree strongly that we need standards. I think the best way to accomplish this is to have the editor enforce the standards whenever possible. A good candidate for this is disjunctions. Some seperate the terms with a new line, others an "or", and others an "V". It would be be easier to enter and easier to view if the editor allowed handled it with a branch.

Thanks for all the responses. I agree it was a kneejerk response. I do like awm's idea though

I had a nice discussion with my RHO after a disaster today. We came up with using 1♦ 6-9 balanced and 1nt as 0-5 anything. It seems like a good idea to me. pros: weak nt hand vs garbage is found out early and preempts 4th seat 18-19 bal vs garbage can pass at 1nt instead of being in 2nt. after 1c-1nt opener could have a variety of different hands making it tough for opps to get into the bidding. I'm rather enamored with it right now and don't see any real cons. If you are concerned about being doubled in 1nt then you can add an escape sequence. I think this would work: P - let them figure it out XX - single suiter (allows weak 6322 hands that are not suitable for a 2 level opener) 2♣♦♥ - shows that suit and spades 4+/4+ 2♠ - both majors or spades and clubs 5+/5+ 2nt - strong two suiter with clubs What do you all think? edited: changed my 2♠ escape because it made no sense

I don't see the error in Ben's line. The K♣ doesn't matter because the 2♠ is such a powerfully low card.

Do you own a copy of GIB? If so it might be easier to pull the hands into GIB and play it locally. I've been meaning to do this for a while now. Maybe I'll get around to it tonight. One of these days I'll get around to writing a script to batch run my .lin files through GIB and spit out a comparison to my results. Has anybody else done anything like this?

well, here is one way: edited for color

Thanks, that's what I was thinking as well.

I'm not sure, but I think 6nt may be too high. If anybody agrees could you give an alternate bidding?

I think I would have done the opposite of you. The first hand has an LTC of 6 (6.5?) making it a nice 1♠ opener. The second has an LTC of 8 which suggests a preempt and your 2♥ opener fits Take this with a grain of salt as I'm new to LTC and fully acknowledge that I'll be treating it like a silver bullet for a while.

Hi Brian. I'd be happy to play a few hands with you when I manage to get back to the online tables. Unfortunately I don't have any godlike knowledge and I probably won't be able to play regularly for a while. You might want to check out the Beginner and Intermediate Lounge (BIL). There are many resources there for learning players. The attitudes at the table are generally very nice and most are much more forgiving of mistakes.

There once was a guy named Scott Who used to play on bbo a lot But then he got too busy Wedding plans have him in a tizzy And bridge withdrawals are making him dizzy

When kibbing and chat to players is disabled, there is still a drop down item for "chat to room". When this is selected you end up chatting to kibitzers which is a little odd.

I dreamt about this hand last night. I was sitting at the table sweating trying to remember what we had agreed to do over partners double of 3 level preempts. Eventually I decided that it must have been that suit buids showed six card suits and 3nt denied a six card suit which most likely means no suit shorter than 3. Unfortunately I woke up before finding how the rest of the bidding went. I really shouldn't read the forums before going to sleep

Anybody have a link describing Herbert relays?

Would most people really open this 1 something? I can be as timid as a mouse or as aggressive as a raging bull, but I don't think I'd open this even with my beer muscles on. It does like fine for a mini NT though

I am currently using GIB for this because I already own it. Of course, it doesn't represent real interference but I don't think there is a computer program out there that could handle my wacky system. If just want something minimal to deal the cards and let you make your bids try EasyBridge. The downside in comparison to GIB is that its card play stinks so you can't just let it run to see if you've found a reasonable contract. The upside is that if EasyBridge can make it then I know I have a pretty good chance to make it with my declarer skills.

Welcome to the spotlight; Don't worry, tripping on stage is more fun than it seems. :) You can always answer it both ways and get double value from the problem. Agree about the 9♦

Ben, When we get to the discussion phase, having a number of hands in the same thread could get confusing. Maybe it would be easier to leave the poll locked and update it with links to individual updatable threads for each of the individual hands. I think this would lead to much more linear discussions. If two hands are very closely related then they might go into the same thread. Of course if all the hands are very closely related then this point would be moot.