thepossum

Out of my depth in the wrong forum but if any basic system (plus Blackwood - not strictly necessary) can't reach 6S on a reasonable number of tables its time to find another system. Maybe that explains why I'm still learning the complexities of the game. I guess there is the risk of missing a better score. If partner shows any kind of game force followed by enough for 4S (especially via jump) explore slam immediately of just bid 6

Thx. I never used them. Haven't had the opportunity yet really. I notice in friendly teams everyone is happy to chat about their bids in table chat. Seems very civilised :)

Hi all Having watched quite a few higher level games since joining this site I once saw an incident where a claim (requiring a finesse) was rejected and one of the players said you could no longer do the finesse if the claim was rejected. Edit correction. You weren't allowed to choose a different line I recently established the likelihood of a King being placed correctly with one finesse (against Gib) and happily claimed to have my claim knocked back. Sure enough the King was there where I thought it was. After the second finesse it accepted my claim regards P

Thx Stephen It makes sense. So its possible to set up tables (or they are set) where self-alert only goes to ops, not to partner? I often wonder when kibitzing who sees what Kind of amusing in an informal game where you may you may not know your partner well at all :)

Hi all Something that confuses me or makes me curious, especially with online Bridge, is alerting, and who is responsible for providing information or clarification on bids I always thought you had to ask bidder's partner for explanation Is it the case ever, or have things changed in some formats, where bidder is able to provide information to the table about a possibly unusual bid. Especially when 4 unfamiliar people playing When I watch I am often curious where alerts are from I imagine it varies on seriousness of the game Regards P

Having followed Larry's site and lessons for a while, I enjoy his KISS (less is more) approach My heart sank once trying to return to Bridge finding beginners with tomes of SAYC on their tables, and trying to learn every bit Whatever happened to a game where 4 strangers could sit down and play with minimal confusion I have a brain that relies more on processing than memory, and there isn't much of that left anymore. Simple bidding, simple play

[hv=https://www.bridgebase.com/tools/handviewer.html?lin=st||pn|anon,~~M57760,~~M57758,~~M57759|md|2S76HAQJT972DCAKJ3,SAKT32H3DQ753CT76,SQ5HK64DAJT42CQ82,SJ984H85DK986C954|sv|n|rh||ah|Board%2012|mb|P|mb|1D|an|Minor%20suit%20opening%20--%203+%20!D;%2011-21%20HCP;%2012-22%20total%20points%20|mb|P|mb|1H|an|One%20over%20one%20--%204+%20!H;%206+%20total%20points|mb|1S|an|5+%20!S;%207-11%20HCP;%208-12%20total%20points%20|mb|D!|an|Support%20double%20-%203%20H%20--%204+%20!D;%203%20!H;%2011-21%20HCP;%2012-22%20total%20points%20|mb|3S|an|4+%20!S;%204-8%20total%20points%20|mb|4N|an|4+%20!H;%206+%20total%20points|mb|P|mb|P|mb|P|pc|SK|pc|S5|pc|S8|pc|S6|pc|SA|pc|SQ|pc|S9|pc|S7|pc|S3|pc|D2|pc|SJ|pc|C3|pc|S4|pc|H2|pc|ST|pc|D4|pc|S2|pc|DT|pc|C4|pc|H7|pc|D5|pc|DA|pc|D9|pc|H9|mc|8|]400|300[/hv] Apologies for duplicate and wrong hand. Using my phone and problem with async interfaces too (sometimes it seems everything is designed to undermine and make you look bad) I was lucky enough to end in 5H via Soloway Half a dozen others fell foul of this 4NT (no Blackwood) usage. Last hand of a Bot tourney Is that common usage of 4NT after trumps appear to have been agreed, but I appreciate its a 1 over 1 situation etc And they were all Americans playing in an ACBL tourney. I'm playing an alien system. I do ok sometimes

delete duplicate sorry problem copying and pasting on phone and async responses/delays

What does it take for you to ever acknowledge that sometimes GiB bids questionnably? If you bid the way Gib bids you wouldn't be my partner for long at all Since when has a game force promised that many extras Also when are you all going to stop playing rather pathetic power games and acknowledge something for once. I guess I don't have an ego to protect in the Bridge world You are entitled to go to 6 then I choose if I have a blockbuster Let me just get another hand from a recent ACBL tourney that caused many people to fall foul of GiB (but not me this time)

Hi all I appreciate 2C followed by competition led to missing hearts, but I am a little disappointed (sad) at the jump from 5 to 7 clubs. Did I promise that much Also just looking 3H would have been a nice bid too. Are we not playing majors I considered doubling 4 spades but wasn't sure what could happen [hv=https://www.bridgebase.com/tools/handviewer.html?lin=st||pn|thepossum,~Mwest,~Mnorth,~Meast|md|4SJHAK42DQCAKQ9863,SAK5432HT7D853C52,SQHQJ965DAKJ96CJT,ST9876H83DT742C74|sv|n|rh||ah|Board%202|mb|P|mb|2C|an|Strong%20two%20club%20--%2019+%20HCP;%2023+%20total%20points;%20forcing%20to%202N|mb|2S|an|twice%20rebiddable%20!S;%209+%20total%20points|mb|3D|an|Positive%20--%205+%20!D;%208+%20total%20points|mb|4S|an|2+%20!S;%2011-%20HCP;%2012-%20total%20points|mb|5C|an|19+%20HCP;%20strong%20rebiddable%20!C;%2023%20total%20points|mb|P|mb|7C|an|2+%20!C;%205+%20!D;%2013+%20total%20points|mb|P|mb|P|mb|P|pc|SK|pc|SQ|pc|S6|pc|SJ|pc|H7|pc|H5|pc|H8|pc|HK|mc|12|]400|300[/hv]

Thanks for the pointer to that section of Richard Pavlicek's site. Hadn't played with that page before

Hi all Apologies for this very personal comment, especially as someone with mainly social, and limited duplicate/club experience who is starting to find online/robot Bridge tedious in the extreme I started learning the game as a child/young adult with family, playing rubber round a table. I enjoyed that. I enjoyed learning more advanced stuff from books and articles. The occasional social game at college, the occasional social game on a train with 3 strangers from lands far away. But sadly club duplicate never came close, and I have lived the last 30+years in a country where other games/sports seem to dominate. Even in cards everyone played something else. I never worked in a workplace where people sat around playing it every day either I had a few bad experiences in clubs which put me off them. All too serious and not much fun. I even tried setting up tables or dropping in on various bridge sites. Similar lack of fun and overseriousness and often distress at letting people down etc I miss playing fun social rubber Bridge. I enjoyed it the few times I was able to do it The nearest I came to it several years back was sitting in a pub and a few people at the next table started setting up a game, bud sadly they had 4 Fun social rubber Bridge Nearly forgot. Several years back a colleague/friend had started playing and I thought here is an opportunity. But no. For some reason to them social meant a club an classes and lessons for the person who would have been my partner. No fun. No social at all That is all Not quite all. I reckon teams looks like fun but it needs another 3 or 7 people at least to put up with you I know this is not BBO specific but could I have a team with me and 3 bots (to start with). Would anyone play us :) P PS (EDIT) What also scares me off is overcomplexity and overtechnicality of it all now (maybe always). Sit down with 3 or 7strangers and play simple natural Bridge that everyone understands without anyone trying to trick anybody (sorry in case anyone misunderstands all kinds of psyches are allowed in social) PPS I even thought of getting out my pack of cards, dealing 4 hands and playing myself. Talk about desperate for a real hand and pack of cards and real people

This comment made me very sad

Seemingly it just requires a boycott by a few high profile artists to seriously damage individuals wealth (not just CEOs but ordinary Joes and their pensions)

Nothing specific but generally its artists that haven't yet boycotted Spotify (restricts me to the likes of Drake and Justin Bieber) EDIT Correction. I do have things like CDs and Vinyl discs with grooves. I used to have cassette tapes too but they were eaten by ants. And the CD player is used so infrequently a lizard has taken up residence which causes problems with functionality, and I can't remember how to reset my old turntable to stop it skidding (whatever the term is); and the new car is so highly specced they didn't even supply a CD player PS Can anyone here recommend a good starting album for Bad Bunny

How much of GiB signalling is genuinely programmmed in versus just being confirmation bias from time to time Occasionally it shows attitude or count, but it cannot be relied upon :) As for reading other players CCs I am not sure it has read its own that well

I do not flood anywhere with ***** Richard All my comments are highly informed and up for intelligent non ad-hom challenge My belief in the intelligence of my points has a lot of objective backing including the need for people to constantly undermine with fallacies and attempts to associate with people with strange views. This thread is clearly the wrong place. I made a mistake ever joining the Parade PS Let's scrap the questionnable concept of "intelligence" and use "informed and educated in relevant fields" I challenge you to itemize my ***** so I can respond I appreciate my posts are often a bit rambling, often I get upset and don't respond in the most organised way. Not all of us are used to this kind of constant "attack" and defence. I often need to edit (not intending to undermine) All I have ever tried to communicate are the following legitimate points 1. years of manipulative, scare-mongering, and ignorant media - possibly interested or motivated 2. extreme retail health mentality in Covid and other health related issues 3. thats enough for now. no years of totally dodgy use of statistics - that fits under 1 etc 4. Oops nearly forget a big one. Arguing for people's human rights You want to challenge those points go ahead

A number of stories recently requiring Covid fishing expeditions with between 80-90% of cases either asymptomatic or not feeling sick enough to worry Ignore duplicate In other news I am excited, disappointed and relieved to report that my first RAT was negative. Positive would have been a terrible expensive inconvenience for me and many others. Negative was a relief that I could visit some people Positive would have challenged my ethics and respect for the law. I may have had to carefully sort a few things out and hide by myself for a while

That's not how I learned to play cards Merriman. We don't all have unwritten conventions in our heads. That fits my question about one possible explanation in my original question, does it not? I will try to remember it next time :) PS While I am here is there a list of these unwritten conventions for future reference please, or is it "if I think we can make it..." etc :) I have explicitly searched Google and found a page on BridgeWebs referring to said unwritten convention but its not written on some other pages I use :)

Hi all I don't have an example on hand but it happens very regularly that GiB responds to Blackwood with two keycards and the queen when it doesn't have the Queen. I appreciate I have never had to write code for Bridge playing bot which uses sims to work out likely outcomes but along with counting points accurately (for NT) and counting keycards accurately one would think knowing whether you have the Queen or not is fairly simple code. I know more often than not the person asking has it if GiB doesn't but its highly amusing. As are cue bids showing Aces or Kings sitting in your hand :) Is there some reason for inaccurate answers in Blackwood? Do sims suggest that its a better bid? Does it not want you to stop in 5 perhaps? P

Problem is that rather than people intelligent educated people discussing serious questions this kind of rubbish is constantly used to undermine serious intelligent argument It's one of many forms of argument fallacy as is trying to associate those asking serious questions with all kinds of characters Are people not even able to the see issues in the world, the serious questions to be asked, discussed and answered without constant use of fallacious techniques Maybe I am stupid trying to get any sense from a thread called parade of morons. But I keep trying and hoping that I am dealing with some intelligent people. Two years of this incessant media driven BS in relation to covid. Before that Trump. Before that whatever etc Something of a mistake, on a disgusting unpleasantly hot day here in *** when close communication with loved ones is best avoided, of logging on to the Cooler

I have been genuinely concerned at the way beliefs on personal choices over health are being trampled; I feel totally without real justification. All the rubbish about herd immunity for starters. It appears to mean 100% of the world need to buy our products when we say or our associates can treat you as cruelly as they/we like There are many fundamental human rights that most of us would sign onto. Many are being trampled for, in my view, highly questionable reasons and justification. Especially, in terms of nature/severity of virus/illness the arguments have been disgracefully manipulated by, it appears, a very interested media and others

My personal beliefs and philosophy are not an -ism. Never followed anything remotely like an -ism and never will. If you make the mistake of even referring to an -ism in an argument you are doomed to unlimited attacks. I try to get around it by starting words with small letters rather than capitals but that doesn't work 🙂 Seriously though what concerns me most is the apparent manipulation by very interested corporations and others. I regard myself as highly trained, highly informed, something of a scientist and something of other disciplines; the last few years of media have turned me into the most cynical person in the world

Having been brought up on weak and/or variable no trumps I am very flexible with my 1NT bids - anything 12+ is fair game in some circumstances :) I occasionally think some hands are too strong for a strong NT and will bid something else I also used to be very concerned about stops and correct NT shape. However, a few years ago some people on Bridgebase and possibly even these forums encouraged me to be more flexible on shape too :)

Can I ask OP what LHO (West) bids if opener passes. Testing the thing out in BB bidding table I get to 4H sitting South (via Game Try from North whatever that means in this case) and opening. If South passes and North opens Gib uses Drury. Then I get into a mess if I don't sign off in game. Trying to work it the Drury options. As far as I can see the Bot (as south or north) doesn't like slam Does the Spade game try mean I have a couple of losers?