thepossum

I never quit a whole tourney. Sometimes, especially in timed events, I just accept a bottom at MPs. Don't usually throw in at IMPs I just don't like playing or working on bad contracts I appreciate also doing it that way raises others' attention to the hand - it has another rationale, rather than just quitting

You would like to think sometimes that experts edit Wikipedia pages and fix up errors. I wonder who the editor of that page is/was I preferred this format of the page anyway - is it different Is this the same content At least I know where to come for true expert information - does that fall into the "true Scotsman" fallacy? -I'm reading about it on Wikipedia having had my attention raised on one of these forums I believe

Thx for all the comments Partner had weak major dominated hand with a good fit in diamonds which was missed. 2 or 3D part score If I had opened 1D opps competed in clubs A few people forced too much or overestimated their nice hand and ended in game minus

Hi there I have been struggling a bit recently with choosing the right minor option in some situations. No idea if it is that my regular partner dislikes minors or I am doing things wrong South dealer, all vulnerable MPs [hv=pc=n&s=st94hdakqt8caqt64]133|100[/hv] My reasoning here was to reverse and I opened 1C - which sadly led to us being in an incorrect major contract - not the best minor fit Others bid 1D first and found a minor fit Was I totally off course trying to reverse. Any other way to show a nice 2-minor hand

Apologies. There is a typo. Some tables made it as South and one as North with a different auction and heart lead And as suspected double dummy sims show it as a good chance, especially if it thinks sign off means I have AK of clubs :rolleyes: I have no idea what happens if I show my Ace of hearts :lol: - looking at my DD sim maybe it would sign off - but no - practice table still goes to 6

Apologies. There is a typo. Some tables made it as South And as suspected double dummy sims show it as a good chance, especially if it thinks sign off means I have AK of clubs :rolleyes:

Thankyou 😂

Apologies everyone I've been rather tied up with annoying people and stuff. Here is the hand [hv=https://www.bridgebase.com/tools/handviewer.html?lin=st||pn|thepossum,~Mwest,~Mnorth,~Meast|md|2SAK987HAKJ64DKCQ7,S4HQT753DT965CK85,SQJT65HDAJ872CT93,S32H982DQ43CAJ642|sv|n|rh||ah|Board%2012|mb|P|mb|P|mb|P|mb|1H|an|Major%20suit%20opening%20--%205+%20!H;%2011-21%20HCP;%2012-22%20total%20points|mb|P|mb|1S|an|One%20over%20one%20--%204+%20!S;%2011-%20HCP;%206-12%20total%20points|mb|P|mb|4D!|an|Splinter%20--%201-%20!D;%205+%20!H;%204+%20!S;%2021-%20HCP;%2019-22%20total%20points|mb|P|mb|5D|an|Cue%20bid%20--%201+%20!C;%201+%20!H;%204+%20!S;%2011-%20HCP;%20no%20!CA;%20!DA;%20no%20!HA;%2012%20total%20points;%20forcing|mb|P|mb|5S|an|1-%20!D;%205+%20!H;%204+%20!S;%2018+%20HCP;%20no%20!HAK;%2020%20total%20points|mb|P|mb|6S|an|1+%20!C;%201+%20!H;%204+%20!S;%2011-%20HCP;%20no%20!CA;%20!DA;%20no%20!HA;%2012%20total%20points|mb|P|mb|P|mb|P|pc|CA|mc|0|]400|300[/hv] Please ignore the play because sometimes after I realise all is truly lost and there is no escape I can't be bothered and throw in the cards. Even at IMPs What is even more galling is that a few tables made the unmakeable slam either as North or with a different lead. One other poor soul bid like me and even tried to deceive the East bot by throwing the Queen. Tragically that didn't work. I didn't even try that But seriously all I did was splinter to a nice easy game and tried escaping from the unwanted Slam attempt What's even more galling is that I was doing really well but the extra -6 was worth the throw in I know how the DD sims allegedly work but come on Despite this hand I still scored positive IMPs just - you can see why I was upset I would be grateful for any advice on how to sign off I also appreciate you should play for every trick if the tourney matters despite your upset I also realise you never give up hope of tricking the defence etc And obviously you never give up before the opening lead - somebody was lucky enough to get a heart lead

Its getting beyond a joke Hours of time wasted Many dollars wasted The most pathetic bidding you can imagine. Going from a perfectly reasonable splinter to game to an unmakeable slam through useless cuebids and ignoring signoffs The Bot even acts like a quivering useless unconfident piece of rubbish when it is deciding to ruin a tourney. Oh dear I made a mistake. I will make it even worse Does it really have a personality. Time for it to grow up and learn how to bid. Is it losing its confidence or is it a quivering wreck of a human I can't put up the most recent example. Tourney is still going. 12th hand of an IMPs tourney. Destroy a clear game with a ridiculous slam Its is disgraceful and beyond a joke And its simple stuff. Below beginner level. Yet people will attack me simply for raising it Maybe it is even more evil than being totally useless and seemingly breaking down from lack of confidence.Maybe its totally psycho

I did acknowledge Mike's point I think but sometimes I think maybe the issue is a broader beginner question beyond the competence of my partner Just checking that it is not my bid under question

I am curious - the finesse looks very dangerous - and low odds with 4 top tricks in spades.

Do the bots really understand their system?

I think people are overthinking and my answer would have been along the track of what many people have said Remind me to avoid East Anglia in future But my confidence has been reinforced by the number of people who went for the simpler more obvious bidding options :) But for the record my bid would have been 3H - not sure if we get to 4H - I too would have considered the 3D cue As for hesitation I regularly hesitate while thinking or not knowing what to do - there is no questionnable information issue there is there?

Thats a relief. I've been wasting a few seconds of brain time trying to think one up/ EDIT You made me think a bit though and investigate the DD a bit. How many people would change their play based on the Q. Does Gib think like that? But you don't have many trumps to play with

Thx but I am curious how any (except a few) sims can think that is a better play

I wondered why I scored highly on this hand. And sure enough it was down to an apparent brain snap by the West Bot on trick 7 where it plays Q rather than 10 of Diamonds??? The obvious difference was my use of 2C but surely it could see dummy and I think it doesn't even fit the (Possum's) definition of a psych [hv=https://www.bridgebase.com/tools/handviewer.html?lin=st||pn|thepossum,~Mwest,~Mnorth,~Meast|md|1S6HAKJT7DAK754CK4,SA5HQ8432DQT8CJ96,SKQ92H96DJ62CT872,SJT8743H5D93CAQ53|sv|o|rh||ah|Board%2027|mb|2C|an|Strong%20two%20club%20--%2019+%20HCP;%2023+%20total%20points;%20forcing%20to%202N|mb|P|mb|2D|an|2D%20bid%20waiting%20--%20forcing%20to%202N|mb|P|mb|2H|an|Opener%27s%20suit%20--%205+%20!H;%2019+%20HCP;%2023+%20total%20points;%20forcing%20to%203H|mb|P|mb|2S|an|4+%20!S;%205+%20total%20points;%20forcing%20to%203N|mb|P|mb|3D|an|4+%20!D;%205+%20!H;%2019+%20HCP;%2023+%20total%20points;%20forcing%20to%203N|mb|P|mb|3H|an|3+%20!H;%204+%20!S;%205+%20total%20points;%20forcing%20to%203N|mb|P|mb|4H|an|4+%20!D;%205+%20!H;%2019+%20HCP;%2023-26%20total%20points|mb|P|mb|P|mb|P|pc|SA|pc|S2|pc|S3|pc|S6|pc|S5|pc|SK|pc|S8|pc|C4|pc|SQ|pc|S7|pc|CK|pc|H2|pc|C9|pc|CT|pc|CA|pc|H7|pc|HA|pc|H8|pc|H6|pc|H5|pc|DA|pc|D8|pc|D2|pc|D3|pc|DK|pc|DQ|pc|D6|pc|D9|pc|D4|pc|DT|pc|DJ|pc|C3|pc|C8|pc|C5|pc|HT|pc|C6|pc|D7|pc|H3|pc|H9|pc|S4|pc|C2|pc|CQ|pc|HJ|pc|CJ|pc|HK|pc|HQ|pc|S9|pc|SJ|pc|D5|pc|H4|pc|C7|pc|ST|]400|300[/hv]

5NT is quite a good escape with GiB. See some of my earlier experiences Sometimes I also play Blackwood roulette and hope I can pass the response, in cases where Blackwood is still available A few years back I was starting to feel quite confident about this system remarkably. These days there is little confidence left and it feels like some crazy lottery or maze with most paths ending in certain death Bidding systems are supposed to be clear and give you confidence in what you are doing and what your partner holds IMO - maybe a minority view You may occasionally get it wrong (in a real system), or have to think a while but you should be able to bid with confidence I am sure (without data) that the number of dodgy contracts has increased massively recently. I also wonder if people are carefully engineering hands to cause trouble too I know fairly quickly what contract we should be going for - but to get there - sorry for ranting again - back to my tourney :)

[hv=https://www.bridgebase.com/tools/handviewer.html?lin=st||pn|human,~Mwest,~Mnorth,~Meast|md|3SQ94HQJ98732DA8CA,SAKJ85H54DK9CT952,ST632HTD7652CKJ64,S7HAK6DQJT43CQ873|sv|o|rh||ah|Board%201|mb|P|mb|1D|an|Minor%20suit%20opening%20--%203+%20!D;%2011-21%20HCP;%2012-22%20total%20points|mb|1H|an|One-level%20overcall%20--%205+%20!H;%208-17%20HCP;%209-19%20total%20points|mb|1S|an|Free%20bid%20--%205+%20!S;%206+%20total%20points;%20forcing|mb|P|mb|2C|an|Opener%20two%20rebid%20--%204+%20!C;%204+%20!D;%202-%20!S;%2011-16%20HCP;%2012-18%20total%20points|mb|2H|an|6+%20!H;%2017-%20HCP;%2012-19%20total%20points|mb|3H|an|4+%20!C;%205+%20!S;%2012+%20HCP;%2013+%20total%20points;%20forcing%20to%203N|mb|P|mb|3N|an|4+%20!C;%204+%20!D;%204-%20!H;%202-%20!S;%2013-16%20HCP;%2018-%20total%20points;%20stop%20in%20!H|mb|D|an|6+%20!H;%2017-%20HCP;%2012-19%20total%20points|mb|P|mb|P|mb|7C|an|4+%20!C;%204+%20!D;%204-%20!H;%202-%20!S;%2013-16%20HCP;%2018-%20total%20points;%20stop%20in%20!H|mb|D|an|2+%20!C;%206+%20!H;%2017-%20HCP;%2012-19%20total%20points|mb|P|mb|P|mb|P|pc|DA|pc|DK|pc|D2|pc|D4|pc|H2|pc|H5|pc|HT|pc|HK|pc|S7|pc|S4|pc|SA|pc|S3|pc|D9|pc|D5|pc|DQ|pc|D8|pc|DJ|pc|H3|pc|H4|pc|D7|pc|C8|pc|CA|pc|C2|pc|C6|pc|H7|pc|C5|pc|CJ|pc|H6|pc|CK|pc|C3|pc|H8|pc|C9|pc|S2|pc|D3|pc|S9|pc|SJ|pc|SK|pc|S6|pc|DT|pc|SQ|pc|CT|pc|C4|pc|C7|pc|H9|pc|S8|pc|ST|pc|CQ|pc|HJ|pc|HA|pc|HQ|pc|S5|pc|D6|]400|300[/hv] I was South at another table who received a close to bottom (quite a few of us) with an ambitious 4H overcall on round 1. But I think this 7 Clubs takes some beating for a top to those lucky enough to by the recipient of the generosity. Whatever people say surely there is something amiss A new form of takeout by South followed by pass-pass means jump to grand

How many hands does it simulate to have any real chance of bidding 7 (1 or 2 perhaps) I appreciate there are thousands of tables being played simultaneously. Trying to do some sums on CPUs and threads and processing time and how much is actually done on servers rather than on client machines? One would think the requirements to simulate all likely contracts once beforehand should be enough - with a decent number of sims - not every time Maybe BBO use a small cluster of Pentiums As a small test I reduced my number of simulated hands to around 10 and was starting to get a few >60% chances and only used a few percent of a second of an 8-thread processor - bot sure exactly how much resource it used. It takes a lot of hands to get 10 though Does it have any rules at all (common sense) or is everything just DD sims Surely South could be thinking along which slam to go for but not North :)

Funny recollection about the Telegraph widely regarded as a branch of the Tories and a very senior Labour MP in the 70s thought it had the best journalism The most wonderful thing about that TV show is how we all are convinced that's how it is.

Deleted because I can't be bothered engaging It's curious that the creepiness in the scripts or somewhere is back But there is no need for some of you to inflate your fragile egos through misrepresenting what I said. I guess you have followers to impress. Students perhaps 😊 And it's the unpleasant way some of you do it suggesting unpleasant cultures There is a lot of rubbish posted all over the world and i could spend my life unpleasantly having a go at all those people Sorry if I respond oversensitively sometimes but when you are facing gaslighting every little thing can cause upset and trouble in your life. Maybe everyone knows what I am dealing with now. The kind of people I am dealing with

Duplicate deleted

Why would anyone with any merit at all apply to such an organisation Now like everything its mostly driven by algorithms so you will get some boring perfect averagely mediocre candidate I could never get past algorithms. I have it on my CV It would be interesting to compare quality of candidates presented by 1) algorithm 2) early screening selection committee 3) linkedin 4) ignorant recruiter who uses one of the above etc IMHO direct or almost direct approach and conversation is what works. Everything else is a waste of time Sorry back to dealing with all the irrelevant offers to consider applying for something that I am not really qualified for or would not be interested in. I'll get back to you. I think professorships are my favourite, although with the state of some of the world's academe these days you never know I've had recruiters and algorithms knock me back for groups where I knew the group leader and rang them up to discuss the position. Another time a recruiter refused to tell me who the position was with so I put the ad into Google and it pointed me to the appropriate organisation who I didn't want to apply to etc People are having to game some process mediated by people not even qualified to understand people's skills. Every industry went to the same low grade model of unqualified resellers including recruitment. It's like replacing real Bridge with the ability to game a bot I am sure the research will say that their automated methods produce better candidates and better outcomes on average in the same way that some tedious boring life may work out on average. Or always bidding 3NT and designing a system around that. They do really well on average i am sure. We found the ideal romantic partner for you. On average our matches work out well Some of us are more interested in the occasional 100% top and the occasional associated 0%. That one didn't work out. Never mind

You did pique my interest enough to actually check this claim Remarkable that finding the right lead depends on whether North is human or a bot :) Did the bidding mean something different perhaps :) But I ran a DD sim using the basic parameters on the bidding. It too used a spade lead I couldn't run a sim on the human north hands :)

How can I not keep an eye on this thread. Particularly interesting to find that many of the problems I have are not 2/1 per se. However it does seem to introduce its own range of unnatural contortions Admmittedly I am experiencing it through a GiB 2/1 lens. But I struggle often and make what I find is a perfectly reasonable forcing bid, or an attempt to show a second suit and find myself in a slam in the wrong suit occasionally. Most recent example I carelessly tried a jump shift into a second 4 card major, after opening with a minor, responder bidding a major at the 1 level only to find it was taken as a splinter etc. Bids keep changing their meanings. Finding it difficult to explore two possible suit fits is an issue for me, and knowing how to force without ending prematurely in unmakeable slams Another issue I have is finding myself and partner at dizzying heights without having a clue how many points we each have What are these strong club systems I keep hearing about?