thepossum

Not sure exactly on the parameters and how well they match the hands and the bidding but I get two Aces as leads I ran mine with 18+ points :lol:

I wouldn't aim at gaming bots or a particularly strange type of massive best hand tourney format where the sections are all mixed up and weirdly engineered - thats just my view Play real bridge or smaller bot tourneys. 48-55% sounds quite decent to me statistically speaking (in daylongs) - anything can happen in a few hands There are people who do seem to be able to consistently score in the 60-70% plus bracket - a combination of knowing the bot and being quite good players I imagine I'm embarrassed to say, I occasionally drop into some lower ranked tourneys. It makes me feel better for a little while I avoid the rewards. Who knows how you win one of them :) I imagine there is some very serious game-playing going on Looking at the 16 hands you put up, and I am very mid-ranking kind of player, what I tried to do was concentrate on the bad scores bringing me down, not on the tops There was also obviously a lot of luck. I would not have passed one of those hands where pass was a good top - sometimes you need some luck and throw in a bit of error. Occasionally in a group of only 16 hands it may work. The first hand is a clear 1NT overcall - maybe try to bid the system you are playing - be preemptive too. Show the strength of your hand sometimes. I'm not good enough to really critique your hands but your bids are fairly modal with too high a percentage of errors or missed opportunities Possum's attempt at being a better player 1. Try to be fairly disciplined but not overly so 2. Be prepared to psych a little and be ambitious from time to time 3. Other times try to not overreach and go for a part score when everyone else may go down in game 4. Try to make as many tricks a possible - work out why you didn't 5. I take advice from better players - not me 6. Overtime become better at judging hands and how to bid better 7. Maybe look at the standout plays - why did just one person make that overtrick etc People seem to take those tourneys very seriously. Do they think they make a living from Reward tourneys? - maybe betting on them :) EDIT Have just played one to see what they are like - now back to simpler hands for me - unfamiliar terrain for me :) EDIT 2. Can't really comment further but as an experiment I played in a Zenith reward. Didn't do well, around 45% but if I had bid and played better on almost every hand I (a better player) could easily have been in the 70-80% bracket in my 16 hands. Tough competitive bidding though. But the returns arent great even if you get 80%. I'm so used to playing best hand with the bot its a shock to come up against such competitive bidding in such a complex system. I have given it one more go. I don't know what it is about those hands but I won't be wasting any money on them again. Maybe they have been deliberately setup to highlight the stupidity of the system or partner's bidding. Its too much of a lottery by a long way. Maybe I am in a minority but Bridge should be fun and bidding should be fun - not some kind of painful torturous exercise. Even at just a dollar a time the odds are not worth it. If you can find your way through 16 contrived mazes and not make errors along the way you make a dollar back Apparently someone on Bridgewinners has a very similar view to me and apparently is a much more accomplished player A don't like having to decide between a ridiculously doubled game and minus 3 or 4 doubled I could analyse every single hand and see where I could have done better. Then again life is too short I did microanalyse my 43% or whatever. I managed one top out of 16 and several flats. When looking at the players who managed most of the tops I don't feel so bad getting only one out of 16.Being in the crowd only scores around 40 something %. I did badly the seconnd time too - apparently so but not really. In that crowd its hard to be at the top. The best I am are going to do most of the time is fairly flat. I don't feel too bad doing badly A bit of basic maths and stats possum style. Every hand appears to be around 13-15 other people, the majority of whom seem quite good. Somehow you have to average 70% across 16 hands. VEey small probability of it happening by chance. Maybe I will do the math and find out my chance of averaging 70% :) Sorry for rambling on but this thread managed to intrigue me

I clearly misunderstood NMF I find it remarkable that I and so many other players manage to get to the/a correct/reasonable contract such a high percentage of the time

Why do I have to keep deleting duplicate posts. Something wrong these days

Me (S) and GiB 1S-2C-3NT-4NT-6NT :lol: 2NT-3D-3H-4C-4H-5D-6H Me (N) and Gib 1S-2H-3H-4D-4NT-5H-5NT-6-C-7H (I'm showing my major :) ) 1S-2C-3NT-4H-5C-6C

Will follow with interest as a possible occasional drop in. Sorry I can't commit to more than that Pat. As long as its a genuine fun playing club with no requirement to be taught anything While putting up my wishlist - no requirement to play any specific system How about a club with occasional randomly selected systems Tonight we are playing Precision etc

2NT (11-13 pts) was a bit of a stretch given the heart situation but struggling for a bid. 3D led to the same 4D (too high) contract I promised a full (not partial) stop in hearts :) I could have passed the cue bid like a couple of advanced/expert players chose too :) I see a new face here who doesn't realise that trying to patronise me on these forums is not wise The funny thing is that I think one or two managed to make 3NT-1 so not that bad a bid really But the point of the whole thread and why I knew I would regret posting one example hand is that it was about choice of opening bid with said hand - and as for the thinking ahead when playing with GiB I reckon its a waste of time anyway - wrong forum again Another remarkable thing.I thought I will put the complete hand through one of the world's top bridge programs and it opened 1d north and ended in 3NT I think But thankyou for all the comments. They were encouraging My favourite bid of all (other than pass) was the slightly psychy 1s which one anonymous expert bid. Don't all reasonable systems allow opening 4-card majors sometimes

That first hand is curious. I tried running a small lead sim and could get no hands that matched the NT range and the other constraints. I can't see why. Maybe there are not many But on giving my sim accurate parameters that it could find it led a top club - my sim did But it is strange that it found it so hard to find nt hands that fitted South I ran mine in bdeal but it is still strange Also, I think the specific requirements for having a rule on 4th highest are to give your partner some clues about how many cards the opps have. I don't think understandings exist with GiB. But clearly I would lead the King of Clubs - also double checking my sim came up with a small club as next best

Yes GiB has penalties, usually passing takeouts of 2 or 3 of a major To be fair there occasionally is a successful defence if you can find it I have become so traumatised that I hardly ever risk such a double Let me check GiB's card on doubles below game

[hv=pc=n&s=sat73h8542da92ck6&w=sj96haqjt6dt7ct32&n=sk85h3dkqj63cq854&e=sq42hk97d854caj97&d=n&v=n&b=5&a=pp1d1h2h(support%20diamonds)p2n(why%20am%20I%20here)p3d(ok%20-%20thats%20fine)3hp(great%20we%20can%20defend)p4d(oh%20dear)ppp]399|300[/hv] I appreciate I may have made a few errors along the way but I think a pass was a good option, or even 1D from north A preemptive comment. The specific hand is clearly in the wrong forum and is clearly not Bridge On the brightside I was in the unlucky majority - (EDIT sorry around half) of the field To add to the hilarity two people were so desperate for options they passed the cue bid and one threw in the hand

Getting to dizzying heights with rubbish happens occasionally I had been led to believe the system was all about taking time I manage to get into terrible scrapes playing GiB 2/1 and I don't think its all my inadequacy at Bridge

I like that many had the option of a 4 card major I had forgotten I posted this. Sorry I think I ended up passing 1Nt after opening a diamond For some reason the pain of not having thought ahead led to me posing the query Correction I found it. Ended up in a bit of a mess. That's why I posted it. Will post the hand later Passing was a good option. A slightly psychy spade worked Most of us ended up in disastrous diamond outcome. Not all EDIT Sorry to take my time developing my case and recollecting. But after opening 1 diamond and opps overcalling 1H, north, with not much, cue bid hearts and I had nowhere to go except a disaster

Apparently there is a connection between the BBO Web App in one tab and the forums in another tab - on the same browser. Doesn't appear to go across browsers, unless maybe they haven't synced to each other yet Another perspective is that it could suggest the suspicion of two of me

But then again I am not used to such a complex system - maybe this should be in the Gib forum(that's for Mike) How would you bid this hand in your system and what are your panned rebids? [hv=pc=n&s=sat73h8542da92ck6&d=n&v=n&b=5&a=pp]133|200[/hv] MPs unfavourable. South is best hand (that's unusual non-standard) Maybe its an obvious pass but does anyone else have a decent rebid in any auction

But then again I am not used to such a complex system - maybe this should be in the Gib forum(that's for Mike) How would you bid this hand in your system and what are your panned rebids? [hv=pc=n&s=sat73h8542da92ck6&d=n&v=n&b=5&a=pp]133|200[/hv] MPs unfavourable. South is best hand (that's unusual non-standard) Maybe its an obvious pass but does anyone else have a decent rebid in any auction

recent case in point 1st in C strata in my section actually 10th out of 15 but I earned a fraction of some kind of point for it It kind of also gets confusing the rank/strata thing because "rank" is used in different ways I feel guilty stealing points from C-rankers, even B-rankers

Ok then�� Looking at the hand I am rather upset that partner didn't ask me for my majors but I can't really complain about that. 1NT seems a reasonable contract but so does game It must be inflation 17+8 isn't what it used to be Apologies I can't get anything to bid with 8 points opposite a strong NT. My mistake Will check a sim. Maybe it doesn't stack up well EDIT Apologies to GiB. Its only 8 tricks with very big variance EDIT 2 but its a 54% chance of game if I have the maximum. Hmmmm. I need another partner

I was regretting my slightly psychy opening bid. I did miss a heart game but it could have been worse [hv=https://www.bridgebase.com/tools/handviewer.html?lin=st||pn|thepossum,~~M23257,~~M23255,~~M23256|md|1SAT73HAKQ65DQC976,S64HT84DKJT76CAK5,SKQ92HJ73D983CQT8,SJ85H92DA542CJ432|sv|o|rh||ah|Board%2011|mb|1N|an|notrump%20opener.%20Could%20have%205M.%20--%202-5%20!C;%202-5%20!D;%202-5%20!H;%202-5%20!S;%2015-|mb|P|mb|P|mb|P|pc|DJ|pc|D3|pc|DA|pc|DQ|pc|H9|pc|H5|pc|H4|pc|HJ|pc|SK|pc|S5|pc|S3|pc|S6|pc|S2|pc|SJ|pc|SA|pc|S4|pc|ST|pc|C5|pc|S9|pc|S8|pc|HA|pc|HT|pc|H3|pc|H2|pc|HK|pc|H8|pc|H7|pc|C4|pc|HQ|pc|D7|pc|D8|pc|D2|pc|H6|pc|D6|pc|D9|pc|C2|pc|S7|pc|DK|pc|SQ|pc|D5|pc|CQ|pc|C3|pc|C6|pc|CK|pc|DT|pc|C8|pc|D4|pc|C7|pc|CA|pc|CT|pc|CJ|pc|C9|]400|300[/hv]

Duplicate deleted

"Asian" means nothing to me. "Asia" is a huge diverse place ..and Australia plays in the "Asian" football qualifiers Can some explain that please I'm getting confused over my use of quotes. Not sure how many "Australians" play for Australia or "Australia " The "Australians" would be at the beach or watching the match at their barbecue

Maybe it is something similar to "Australian" or "British" My favourite are the "of <insert descriptor> appearance" things the police media put out sometimes I have no idea what an "American" looks like but I think "Australians" wear shorts, flip-flops/thongs (language translation), carry barbecue tongs and surf boards - apologies for mentioning barbecues too - different context

Its just during some of the tourneys, the rank displayed is the position in the strata or "rank" you are in A, B or C I would just prefer to see my position in the A rank, not the B or C Sometimes number 1 in B or C is a good position. Other times its half way down

Hi there I don't know about others but I like to compare myself against the whole field during any form of competition Not much use being Number one of the bottom third Do people have no aspiration in this world P

Thx for the article Am on the hunt for the world's best system - that means simplest and most effective

I don't think racism has much of a political orientation, Maybe it does. I wonder who some of the worst are?