thepossum

Hi Recent hand from Bot MP tourney, best hand South [hv=pc=n&s=sakqjt43hj2d8ckq6&d=e&v=b&b=10&a=2d(6%2BD%20%3C10%20pts)4s(pre-empt - should be 2S)5dpp5spp6d]133|200[/hv] Out of 30+ hands this ended in either 4S, 5D, or 6D with nobody doubling 6D 10th hand in MP tourney I thought about doubling but chickened out. But I didn't even countenance 6S

Nice graphic. Thanks. Good to know my memory of the early days is still very accurate, more so than recent history :) I'm curious about the release of the anti-mining tool. How many people are using our browsers to mine bitcoin :)

Dear all I'm no expert but when you have 0 or 1 keycards showing a void is not very useful In fact showing a void is of more use to the defence Does anyone do it other than GiB I could post an example of a marginal slam that needed a lead through the void Sitting there a bit short with AKQxx of something. Maybe even AKQJx or AKQTx Yours Perpetually Perplexed

When people say they are novices or beginners. What level do they play at I don't regard myself as advanced but started playing many decades ago ad am looking for other experienced novices such as myself. Hard finding good competent intermediate/advanced people who don't get upset at beginner level errors from time to time Certainly not sitting in a class. Thats no fun either I end up resorting to GiB most days. Occasionally if feeling brave I drop into a random table, play a few hands and then run away In the old days people used to sit in pubs, tea and coffee shops, playing cards. Don't see it much anymore :( Maybe go into your favorite establishment, get a nice table, order a nice craft beer, deal a few hands, play them yourself even, try to get noticed and see if anyone asks to join in or asks what you are doing :) These days some awful person would rush over and spray you and your pack of cards with disinfectant or something like that ... or you would see 4 people sitting round a table together playing on BBO - funny if they were all sharing the same WiFi. There would be the sound of sirens followed by a raid from international Bridge enforcers

1NT-2C-2D-3NT etc Anyone else out there enjoys the added variety of trump contracts and part scores, and defending I nearly forgot - problem with Bot Bridge, losing the pleasure of relaxing as Dummy and letting someone else do something :)

I think people are missing my point about manipulation of massive duplicates Allegedly there are hundreds or thousands of people playing and from my point of view the quality of hands is inversely proportional to the number of people allegedly playing, and the engineering level is proportional in some way to the size of it Its not fun for anyone with a modicum of intelligence and flexibility and fun. Its like a graph that forces only one legitimate path to some boring inevitable samey contract - not much different to 3NT PS I'm not some newbie ignoramus. I learned bridge using packs of cards dealt by humans before a bunch of nerds took over the world and make money out of us every way they can Maybe people think learning to play GiB 2/1 is learning to play Bridge. I beg to differ. Can you sit with a total stranger (or 3 sttrangers) and play what you think is Bridge

I'm going to keep asking and pointing it out.Others have asked to. When I check the pattern of this stuff its often last hand of a tourney when you are doing ok I know there is bias and other factors but it looks like a dodgy commercial money making thing to me. You know what I mean - manipulative casino/poker machine type gig And I'm a pretty good bidder after all these years (not the best card player). I don't like being constantly talked down to and having legitimate questions dissed like others do on this site Don't keep trying to make us look ignorant. Not all of us are stupid. Some of us are smarter than most of view 8 at least reasonbly random non-manipulated hands. level playing field etc etc. Thats what bridge is and always was. Maybe its just the massives need to be so manipulated. But its a rip off and no fun for anyone with half a brain or more And you are one of the regulars who like to try to talk down to me. Do you work for BBO We are paying our money so I reckon that means you listen to us. Or has the world changed to. Go somewhere else mentality - in fact go where in an almost monopoly

I have a hand to post. It's rather embarrassing Imagine the scene. Sitting at some high powered sales meeting. You have a few misunderstandings with your strange colleague but miraculously they bid the perfect contract. Makeable, top. The competitors are competitive and preemptive so you double for your partner to say what they have to offer and you are happy but want them to shut up after that. You pass, happy with the outcome only for them to start competing in an impossible contract when a competitor interferes You try desperately to escape the disastrous enthusiastic junior bid by bidding what they had. Another possibly makeable better contract But they take your escape attempt as a cue and keep going in a different direction with something you aren't strong in You decide not to risk another cue and risk enormous penalties When the cards come down you just throw in your hand and walk away Oops here is the hand. You always feel guilty like it was your fault. But upon review I don't think my bidding was that bad. In my book double followed by pass is agreement or at least being reasonably happy etc Fortunately me and GiB are not in business together [hv=https://www.bridgebase.com/tools/handviewer.html?lin=st||pn|thepossum,~Mwest,~Mnorth,~Meast|md|2SA7HADQ9752CAK873,SJ864HQ876DAK4C64,SQT32HT5DJT86CQT2,SK95HKJ9432D3CJ95|sv|o|rh||ah|Board%208|mb|P|mb|P|mb|2H|an|Weak%20two%20bid%20--%201-4%20!C;%201-3%20!D;%206+%20!H;%201-3%20!S;%2010-%20HCP;%207+%20total%20points|mb|2N|an|2-5%20!C;%202-5%20!D;%202-5%20!H;%202-5%20!S;%2016-18%20HCP;%20stop%20in%20!H|mb|3H|an|The%20Law:%209%20trump%20-%3E%203%20level%20--%202+%20!H;%2011-%20HCP;%204-12%20total%20points|mb|P|mb|P|mb|D|an|Takeout%20double%20--%203-5%20!C;%203-5%20!D;%202%20!H;%203-5%20!S;%2018-%20HCP;%2020+%20total%20points;%20stop%20in%20!H|mb|P|mb|4D|an|4+%20!D;%204-%20total%20points|mb|P|mb|P|mb|4H|an|2+%20!H;%2011-%20HCP;%204-12%20total%20points|mb|4S|an|4+%20!D;%205+%20!S;%204+%20HCP;%204-%20total%20points|mb|P|mb|5D|an|Cue%20bid%20--%203-5%20!C;%203-5%20!D;%202%20!H;%203-5%20!S;%2018-%20HCP;%20no%20!CA;%20!DA;%2023+%20total%20points;%20stop%20in%20!H;%20forcing|mb|P|mb|5S|an|4+%20!D;%202+%20!H;%205+%20!S;%20no%20!HAK;%204-%20total%20points|mb|P|mb|P|mb|P|pc|D3|mc|0|]400|300[/hv]

Hi all I find the bidding system on BBO totally overengineered and controlling at the best of times. I don't know if its my perception but the hands in BBO daylongs seem to be getting even more controlled in line with the system to make it almost impossible to navigate There certainly isn't much fun. Maybe making something so hard to navigate is a commercial decision to manipulate people into losing more cash in the tourneys. or paying for more expensive ones I noticed they re even worse in the freebies Bridge used to be fun. Don't kill with psychopathic engineered control Certainly no fun most of the time There needs to be flexibility, room for creativity and not needing to know the minutea of one ridiculously overengineered system Its like setting someone a dodgy exam full of traps to suggest they are no good at something Its like modern day recruitment. You may have a lifetimes experience and be the most creative X in the world but you don't know our proprietary methodology. Selling lessons and certificates too P

It would be nice if we could use our own descriptors :) The problem is my level varies from Beginner to Advanced I think experienced/old novice is most accurate, because the actual experience I have is nowhere near as much as the time elapsed since I first learned some basic Bridge

🙂 These days all I can do is doodle 😊

None with me, that's for sure Do people realise that a clock that doesn't function at all is actually more precise a couple of times a day than most other functioning clocks I've almost given up making sense of leads but I still often lead back once or even twice if I get a chance hoping for something The most likely singleton lead is a trump I used to try and show attitude from time to time but that didn't seem to make any difference either

I just tried something else. After the 4D I tried to sign off but then get the 4S cue. What can you do. Slam bound all the way

😂

I checked the bidding through a bidding table. If I use the alternative 2D cue bid rather than the stronger 2S I don't get into slam problems. But I felt like making a strong bid, as already explained. Maybe a simple 4H would have sufficed

Since Mr Zuckerberg is taking us all to dimensions we never imagined this and video seems appropriate

Something that concerned me once in a recent STEM course (as a very mature age student) was being described as the Maths genius (or words to that effect) having not progressed beyond honours almost 40 years ago. I actually don't think they have a clue what being a maths genius would entail. I could vaguely remember notation and how to do rather elegant proofs (if I say so myself), but that's all. Also, I struggle immensely with the Maths plugin to Word. It took me hours to format a few lines of maths and make them look elegant. I did my Maths degree with the contents of a pencil case

Hi all I first started learning bridge 45+ years ago. I also know a fair bit of advanced and even expert theory and techniques Very occasionally I can even execute something approaching advanced play But I struggle to find a skill level that describes me at all other than "private" It seems that "intermediate" is immense and meaningless Checking dictionaries "novice" has different meanings so is a possibility, since I never qualified Regards P

Thx. I will put the hand through a bidding table and check alternatives I think we we were both a bit confused. Its remarkably close though and slightly unlucky, notwithstanding the shortage of points in the pack :) I have something of an issue with 5NT in Blackwood. I would prefer 2 keycards minus the Queen. But GiB thought I had an extra 2-3+ points so..... I was overexcited by having AK diamonds opposite and forgot to count, looked at all those discard opportunities etc I forgot the other dimension. It was last hand in a fairly average (actually I was doing ok) IMP tourney and was the 3rd 6H bid in a row. The first two were makeable (one I missed on a 4-0 trump break, one I made) so that's another explanation for the events

Hi Notwithstanding me pushing my points a little I only went slam hunting after the second diamond cue bid [HV=https://www.bridgebase.com/tools/handviewer.html?lin=st||pn|thepossum,~Mwest,~Mnorth,~Meast|md|2S95HKT532DJ4CAKQ7,S72HAQDKQT52CJ854,SAKT4HJ8764DA987C,SQJ863H9D63CT9632|sv|o|rh||ah|Board%208|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|2S|an|3+%20!H;%2015+%20HCP;%2016+%20total%20points;%20forcing%20to%203N|mb|P|mb|3D|an|Cue%20bid%20--%201+%20!C;%205+%20!H;%2017-%20HCP;%20no%20!CA;%20!DA;%2014-19%20total%20points;%20forcing%20to%203N|mb|P|mb|4C|an|Cue%20bid%20--%203+%20!H;%201+%20!S;%2015+%20HCP;%20!CA;%20no%20!SA;%2016+%20total%20points|mb|P|mb|4D|an|Cue%20bid%20--%201+%20!C;%205+%20!H;%2017-%20HCP;%20no%20!CA;%20!DAK;%2014-19%20total%20points|mb|P|mb|4N|an|Blackwood%20(H)%20--%203+%20!H;%201+%20!S;%20!CA;%20no%20!SA;%2018+%20total%20points|mb|P|mb|5N|an|Even%20number%20of%20keycards%20and%20some%20void%20--%201+%20!C;%205+%20!H;%2017-%20HCP;%20no%20!CA;%20!DAK;%2014-19%20total%20points|mb|P|mb|6H|an|3+%20!H;%201+%20!S;%20!CA;%20no%20!SA;%2018+%20total%20points|mb|P|mb|P|mb|P|pc|SQ|pc|S5|pc|S2|pc|SK|pc|HJ|pc|H9|pc|H2|pc|HQ|pc|DK|pc|DA|pc|D3|pc|D4|pc|SA|pc|S8|pc|S9|pc|S7|pc|H8|pc|C2|pc|H3|pc|HA|pc|DQ|pc|D7|pc|D6|pc|DJ|pc|C8|pc|D8|pc|C6|pc|CQ|mc|10|]400|300[/HV] I appreciate I seem to think the pack has an extra ace. Actually no it's best hand and I'm being hard on myself. Maybe when the bot added up the points it came to more than 40 Regards P

Thanks Its very frustrating. I have enough problems with concentration as it is. Like having a lay down slam counting up all my tricks then discarding from the wrong hand rather than ruffing - 20 point IMP swing it turns out :( That kind of thing

Hi all I posted another question about very slow and uneven play by the web client. Now it is regularly timing out in hands (especially daylongs) in both app and web client. Its rather disruptive to concentration. And can cause click errors Is it down to my useless internet connection to the world or something else ;) It appears to be occurring when a request is made to GiB to do something or think or whatever it does I have been assured by Pilowsky on another thread that it GiB lacks the capability of thought regards P

We all have our style I am an attacking player But if there isn't an attacking option then I will consider more passive approaches I also hardly ever lead trumps. I figure they can be useful to the defence too What amuses me is the combination of a singleton and trump lead by GiB at times - misses the point in an amusing way The other thing is I keep being derailed by thinking that I can lead back to something worthwhile. I can't get that behaviour out of my head at all

You know in the cheap daylongs there is a thing called a fake bot which seems to be incredibly slow and does most of its processing on the client machine Am I imagining it Or maybe its the site or my router. The forum seems slow too I will reboot my router and my machine and see what happens EDIT Rebooted everything but the bot is unplayable. Ponderous, erratic tempo, causes errors and mind blanks etc Maybe its the site today or the Internet. Will check Could be my machine. Seemingly the whole of Windows or Chrome are grinding to a halt today. Maybe its caused by the exorbitant cost of petrol

Its not just the number of results. Its the nature of them Apologies for seeing the funny side of things and trying to share it occasionally I would likely have been one of those in grand and missing 1SWx-3