thepossum

I think GiB is expecting at least one human at the table. Which bot is to blame. Is it all the same bot. Etc Do people intentionally torment the poor thing. I get enough disasters without setting them up

I would be very interested in an archive of 70s and 80s Zia Mahmood articles if they can be found anywhere. They were always great entertainment as well as wonderfully informative for me when learning bridge many years ago :) PS Can I also add this wins the prize for the longest ever thread title as far as I can see :)

It needs another option "What do you mean by random?" Sometimes I am certainly in the camp that thinks they are not random enough :)

On request for Richard. Note that this is still (and always will be) a draft. It is not a complete reviewed document, or anything and should never be used for any purpose other than Richard seeing my code etc It was done purely as an interest exercise when I maybe should have been doing other things, with constant distractions, and also some anxiety about posting anything like this without it being properly checked and written up etc Please bear with me - editing a few times to add results. It would take too long for me to format into friendly form so am just pasting Lua code (constraints) which I used with Bdeal (Beling) and the raw results with or without the 3S psych/misbid/mistake/whatever etc Important note. It is a crude sim looking simply at defeating the contract or not and not making any assessment on number of tricks won/lost for matchpoint considerations etc I have a very simple approach to bridge, especially defence against a slam. I have in the past tried to work out a more sophisitcated distribution of the outcomes and how that distribution changes with different leads and the different bids. Its not much more code but could be provided if necessary. As I said it was a very simple sim :) Results show mean number of tricks for declarer with each card led, with a 95% CI (I think it may be 1.96 SEs its not clear - I think the funny An symbol is +/-) but the Standard deviation and number of hands is also listed etc As you can see without the 3S bid the 95% CIs do not overlap and the Ace (for me) is clearly the best lead in terms of average tricks and chance of defetaing the slam With the 3S bid the difference in mean estimates is smaller and the 95% CIs do overlap. For me that doesn't affect thinking that the Ace is still a slightly superior lead etc I'm not sure of the bdeal version but it was built on 27/11/18 (Australian date style) Run on an HP Spectre 360X using Windows 10 etc on a sunny Friday morning somewhere in Australia They are very basic scripts and assumptions. For example minium point ranges for E and W and assumption of 6+ hearts for W and 4+ hearts for E and (when used) the splinter being 0 or 1 tricks. I didn't put any other constraints on hand shapes - eg assumptions on Jacoby or number of losers in each hand etc I didn't put any assumptions on controls etc. To make it more sophisticated I could have put in some loser and control assumptions that would lead to a 6H bid etc The configuration section has the North hand and requests bdeal to generate enough hands to get 1000 that fit the constraints. The stats section calculates means and CIs for number of tricks and chance of declarer making slam for each possible card led Note the funny copyright symbol is in the rendered HTML. It should be the letter c in parenthesies, ( c ) © "©" -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --LUA Script for Bdeal v17.10.0 (Piotr Beling. http://bcalc.w8.pl/) without the 3S bid (my interpretation of point ranges etc) --Written and run by the possum on 2nd Oct 2020 conf = { N="at743.3.j962.j87", num = 1000 } function filter() return W:hcp()>13 and W:hearts()>5 and E:hcp()>12 and E:hearts()>3 --and W:spades()<2 end function stats() for c in N:cards() do -- for each card c in the hand N: local t = tricks(W, "H", c) -- tricks to take by E-W count("E-W tricks after " .. tostring( c ), t) count("chance to defeat after " .. tostring( c ), t < 12) end end E-W tricks after C7: 12064 / 1000 = 12.064 Ań 0.0485418 (95% conf.) min: 10 max: 13 sdev: 0.782243 E-W tricks after C8: 12064 / 1000 = 12.064 Ań 0.0485418 (95% conf.) min: 10 max: 13 sdev: 0.782243 E-W tricks after CJ: 12070 / 1000 = 12.07 Ań 0.0486684 (95% conf.) min: 10 max: 13 sdev: 0.784283 E-W tricks after D2: 12066 / 1000 = 12.066 Ań 0.0479729 (95% conf.) min: 9 max: 13 sdev: 0.773074 E-W tricks after D6: 12067 / 1000 = 12.067 Ań 0.0479274 (95% conf.) min: 9 max: 13 sdev: 0.772341 E-W tricks after D9: 12073 / 1000 = 12.073 Ań 0.0480542 (95% conf.) min: 9 max: 13 sdev: 0.774384 E-W tricks after DJ: 12079 / 1000 = 12.079 Ań 0.0481777 (95% conf.) min: 9 max: 13 sdev: 0.776376 E-W tricks after H3: 12085 / 1000 = 12.085 Ań 0.0460116 (95% conf.) min: 10 max: 13 sdev: 0.741468 E-W tricks after S3: 12275 / 1000 = 12.275 Ań 0.0462453 (95% conf.) min: 10 max: 13 sdev: 0.745235 E-W tricks after S4: 12275 / 1000 = 12.275 Ań 0.0462453 (95% conf.) min: 10 max: 13 sdev: 0.745235 E-W tricks after S7: 12275 / 1000 = 12.275 Ań 0.0462453 (95% conf.) min: 10 max: 13 sdev: 0.745235 E-W tricks after SA: 11714 / 1000 = 11.714 Ań 0.0383639 (95% conf.) min: 10 max: 13 sdev: 0.618226 E-W tricks after ST: 12276 / 1000 = 12.276 Ań 0.0461807 (95% conf.) min: 10 max: 13 sdev: 0.744194 chance to defeat after C7: 232 / 1000 = 0.232 Ań 0.0261938 (95% conf.) min: 0 max: 1 sdev: 0.422109 chance to defeat after C8: 232 / 1000 = 0.232 Ań 0.0261938 (95% conf.) min: 0 max: 1 sdev: 0.422109 chance to defeat after CJ: 231 / 1000 = 0.231 Ań 0.0261543 (95% conf.) min: 0 max: 1 sdev: 0.421472 chance to defeat after D2: 229 / 1000 = 0.229 Ań 0.0260747 (95% conf.) min: 0 max: 1 sdev: 0.420189 chance to defeat after D6: 228 / 1000 = 0.228 Ań 0.0260346 (95% conf.) min: 0 max: 1 sdev: 0.419543 chance to defeat after D9: 225 / 1000 = 0.225 Ań 0.0259129 (95% conf.) min: 0 max: 1 sdev: 0.417582 chance to defeat after DJ: 224 / 1000 = 0.224 Ań 0.025872 (95% conf.) min: 0 max: 1 sdev: 0.416922 chance to defeat after H3: 214 / 1000 = 0.214 Ań 0.0254503 (95% conf.) min: 0 max: 1 sdev: 0.410127 chance to defeat after S3: 156 / 1000 = 0.156 Ań 0.0225169 (95% conf.) min: 0 max: 1 sdev: 0.362855 chance to defeat after S4: 156 / 1000 = 0.156 Ań 0.0225169 (95% conf.) min: 0 max: 1 sdev: 0.362855 chance to defeat after S7: 156 / 1000 = 0.156 Ań 0.0225169 (95% conf.) min: 0 max: 1 sdev: 0.362855 chance to defeat after SA: 319 / 1000 = 0.319 Ań 0.028923 (95% conf.) min: 0 max: 1 sdev: 0.466089 chance to defeat after ST: 155 / 1000 = 0.155 Ań 0.0224579 (95% conf.) min: 0 max: 1 sdev: 0.361905 Number of hands dealt: 696262. CPU time usage [sec]: 6.21 (x8 threads). ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Notes Without the 3S bid the Ace is the only lead with a mean number of tricks less than 12 (approx 11.75) 95% CI approx +/- 0.04-0.05 tricks Chance of defeating the slam is approximately 32% with the Ace but only of the order of 22-23% with any other suit. CI +/- approx 2-3% Clearly you would never lead a small spade - I could have excluded them from the sim :) --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --LUA Script for Bdeal 17.10.0 (Piotr Beling. http://bcalc.w8.pl/) with the 3S bid (my interpretation of point ranges etc) --Written and run by the possum on 2nd Oct 2020 conf = { N="at743.3.j962.j87", num = 1000 } function filter() return W:hcp()>13 and W:hearts()>5 and E:hcp()>12 and E:hearts()>3 and W:spades()<2 end function stats() for c in N:cards() do -- for each card c in the hand N: local t = tricks(W, "H", c) -- tricks to take by E-W count("E-W tricks after " .. tostring( c ), t) count("chance to defeat after " .. tostring( c ), t < 12) end end E-W tricks after C7: 12265 / 1000 = 12.265 An 0.0499058 (95% conf.) min: 10 max: 13 sdev: 0.804223 E-W tricks after C8: 12265 / 1000 = 12.265 An 0.0499058 (95% conf.) min: 10 max: 13 sdev: 0.804223 E-W tricks after CJ: 12276 / 1000 = 12.276 An 0.0496369 (95% conf.) min: 10 max: 13 sdev: 0.79989 E-W tricks after D2: 12270 / 1000 = 12.27 An 0.0486684 (95% conf.) min: 10 max: 13 sdev: 0.784283 E-W tricks after D6: 12270 / 1000 = 12.27 An 0.0486684 (95% conf.) min: 10 max: 13 sdev: 0.784283 E-W tricks after D9: 12276 / 1000 = 12.276 An 0.0486179 (95% conf.) min: 9 max: 13 sdev: 0.783469 E-W tricks after DJ: 12282 / 1000 = 12.282 An 0.0485645 (95% conf.) min: 9 max: 13 sdev: 0.782608 E-W tricks after H3: 12289 / 1000 = 12.289 An 0.0466641 (95% conf.) min: 10 max: 13 sdev: 0.751983 E-W tricks after S3: 12494 / 1000 = 12.494 An 0.0385521 (95% conf.) min: 10 max: 13 sdev: 0.62126 E-W tricks after S4: 12494 / 1000 = 12.494 An 0.0385521 (95% conf.) min: 10 max: 13 sdev: 0.62126 E-W tricks after S7: 12494 / 1000 = 12.494 An 0.0385521 (95% conf.) min: 10 max: 13 sdev: 0.62126 E-W tricks after SA: 11951 / 1000 = 11.951 An 0.0407203 (95% conf.) min: 10 max: 13 sdev: 0.6562 E-W tricks after ST: 12495 / 1000 = 12.495 An 0.0384526 (95% conf.) min: 10 max: 13 sdev: 0.619657 chance to defeat after C7: 186 / 1000 = 0.186 An 0.0241459 (95% conf.) min: 0 max: 1 sdev: 0.389107 chance to defeat after C8: 186 / 1000 = 0.186 An 0.0241459 (95% conf.) min: 0 max: 1 sdev: 0.389107 chance to defeat after CJ: 182 / 1000 = 0.182 An 0.0239435 (95% conf.) min: 0 max: 1 sdev: 0.385845 chance to defeat after D2: 175 / 1000 = 0.175 An 0.0235787 (95% conf.) min: 0 max: 1 sdev: 0.379967 chance to defeat after D6: 175 / 1000 = 0.175 An 0.0235787 (95% conf.) min: 0 max: 1 sdev: 0.379967 chance to defeat after D9: 172 / 1000 = 0.172 An 0.0234182 (95% conf.) min: 0 max: 1 sdev: 0.37738 chance to defeat after DJ: 170 / 1000 = 0.17 An 0.0233098 (95% conf.) min: 0 max: 1 sdev: 0.375633 chance to defeat after H3: 156 / 1000 = 0.156 An 0.0225169 (95% conf.) min: 0 max: 1 sdev: 0.362855 chance to defeat after S3: 62 / 1000 = 0.062 An 0.0149648 (95% conf.) min: 0 max: 1 sdev: 0.241156 chance to defeat after S4: 62 / 1000 = 0.062 An 0.0149648 (95% conf.) min: 0 max: 1 sdev: 0.241156 chance to defeat after S7: 62 / 1000 = 0.062 An 0.0149648 (95% conf.) min: 0 max: 1 sdev: 0.241156 chance to defeat after SA: 213 / 1000 = 0.213 An 0.0254069 (95% conf.) min: 0 max: 1 sdev: 0.409428 chance to defeat after ST: 61 / 1000 = 0.061 An 0.0148516 (95% conf.) min: 0 max: 1 sdev: 0.23933 Number of hands dealt: 2044012. CPU time usage [sec]: 7.66 (x8 threads). -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Notes With the 3S bid the Ace is the only lead with a mean number of tricks less than 12 (approx 11.95) but the 95% CIs overlap +/- approximately 0.05 tricks Chance of defeating the slam is approximately 21% with the Ace but only of the order of 17-18% with any other suit. But the CIs overlap, they are +/- approx 2-3% Note however the standard deviation for the Ace lead is now much larger etc. However the standard deviations for all other leads are very large too I could keep adding notes forever Clearly you would never lead a small spade. I could have editted them out :)

OK will post my sim details. I need to regenerate them first. Or at least run another few thousand hands Actually, as an interesting aside (maybe relating to another thread a few years back about Jacoby) I had to deal 2 million hands to get 1000 that fitted my constraints with the "misbid"

Of course I appreciate that, and that risk is borne out by the Sim result. But even reducing your chance of making the Ace was not enough to totally wipe out the advantages of the Ace lead (in my veiw anyway), although depends on how you use means and confidence intervals. I should have mentioned the changes such that the CIs would now overlap with all other leads - but to me I'm still going with the estimated mean chance of defeating the contract - which is fairly slim :) But as I said, my style of play is fairly basic and I was brought up with attacking rather than passive leads Dislaimer - the above does not constitute professional opinion or advice in any discipline including statistics

Thx Richard It's just to me, with my fairly simple approach to things, and possibly not even noticing the implications of said alleged misleading bid I would have led my Ace anyway with that hand. But my play is certainly not up to the level of the protaganists at the table that day Note, just ran a quick sim and that suggests the bid should not have changed the preferred lead (although obviously the superiority of the Ace lead is massively reduced). But my sims are not at that level either and am nervous even commenting in this company :)

I ran a quick Sim on the Smolen hand From North's perspective the chances of any of the 3 games did not really look worth a game forcing bid (very ordinary chances in fact :)) From South's perspective once you get the Smolen bid the chances of all 3 games look good Regarding the diamonds, more seriously I would have considered an immediate 5D on a more casual expansive day (maybe not 6 :) )

I know if I play better I give myself a better chance. I think my strengths are bidding contracts and having better people make them for me. I would have been happy to make 2 or 3 hearts. Not sure if I would have made the 3NT either :) But in all honesty if I had held North's hand I wouldn't have rated it that high for a game force option in one or other majors. The spades are very ordinary, 7 losers (it looks like 8), despite the void etc One thing I am interested in regarding Smolen is that despite us having more trumps in hearts than spades, as south I didn't really feel like I had a preference for a major contract and possibly should have bid No Trumps. But I dont know all the options for Smolen etc EDIT. I just checked and one North bot did make 4 spades because their human south clearly preferred their spades to their hearts, despite having one fewer :) But it seems most of the smart crowd were in 3NT contracts on this hand. But to be honest I'm still looking for my 9th trick But on hand 1 I feel on safer ground and would even have considered an immediate 6 diamond bid :)

The play wasnt the issue under discussion Stephen. Everybody misplayed in the unwise 4H contract. It is clearly only a 2 or 3 heart hand. Certianly not worthy of a game force.OK. Don't try and defend the bad bidding by attacking people's play. But thanks for the tips. As you know my hand planning isnt always the best but I am usually a good jusge of a contract

Does anyone mind me asking what the best lead was with/without the alleged psych

It just seems this morning that two disastrous auctions by GiB have been expunged this morning while my bad hands are left in there But for the record. Hand 1. GiB in first overall position had 9 diamond tricks, possible slam, doubled and we ended up in a useless spade contract. I accept looking at it again I could have read Gibs mind, passed or doubled and waited for the 5 diamond overall. Hand 2 Seemingly a 2H hand opposite 1NT was deemed worthy of Smolen. I accept in the latter hand ignoring what I thought was the correct Smolen bid could have ended in makeable 3NT rather than 4H-2 Edit and before anyone tells me I know you can make 4H double dummy but nobody managed too :) EDIT Apologies they showed up later [HV=https://www.bridgebase.com/tools/handviewer.html?lin=st||pn|thepossum,~~M4289v28,~~M6909m3q,~~M71652vo|md|4SKQJ32HK8D432C753,S974HAQ7632D8CJT4,ST6HDAKQJT976CA86,SA85HJT954D5CKQ92|sv|n|rh||ah|Board%201|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%20|mb|D|an|3-5%20!C;%203-5%20!D;%202-%20!H;%203-4%20!S;%2013+%20total%20points%20|mb|4H|an|The%20Law:%2010%20trump%20-%3E%20game%20support%20--%2011-%20HCP;%204-12%20total%20points%20|mb|4S|an|5+%20!S;%2011%20HCP;%2012%20total%20points|mb|P|mb|P|mb|P|pc|D8|pc|DA|pc|D5|pc|D2|pc|ST|pc|S8|pc|S2|pc|S9|pc|S6|pc|SA|pc|S3|pc|S7|pc|CK|pc|C3|pc|CJ|pc|CA|pc|C6|pc|CQ|pc|C5|pc|C4|pc|C9|pc|C7|pc|CT|pc|C8|pc|HA|pc|D6|pc|H4|pc|H8|pc|H6|pc|D7|pc|H5|pc|HK|pc|SK|pc|S4|pc|D9|pc|S5|pc|SQ|pc|H7|pc|DT|pc|C2|pc|SJ|pc|H2|pc|DJ|pc|HJ|pc|D4|pc|H3|pc|DQ|pc|H9|pc|DK|pc|HT|pc|D3|pc|HQ|]600|400[/HV] [HV=https://www.bridgebase.com/tools/handviewer.html?lin=st||pn|thepossum,~~M5662fat,~~M5927emi,~~M59343dc|md|3SKT9HK53DA82CAKT6,SA42H74DQJ93CJ753,S8653HAT862DK754C,SQJ7HQJ9DT6CQ9842|sv|o|rh||ah|Board%202|mb|P|mb|P|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|2C|an|Stayman%20--%2011-%20HCP;%2012-%20total%20points%20|mb|P|mb|2D|an|No%20major%20suits%20--%202-5%20!C;%202-5%20!D;%202-3%20!H;%202-3%20!S;%2015-17%20HCP;%2018-%20tota|mb|P|mb|3S|an|Smolen%20--%205+%20!H;%204%20!S;%2011-%20HCP;%2010-12%20total%20points%20|mb|P|mb|4H|an|2-5%20!C;%202-5%20!D;%203%20!H;%202-3%20!S;%2015-16%20HCP;%2018-%20total%20points|mb|P|mb|P|mb|P|pc|DQ|pc|D4|pc|D6|pc|DA|pc|HK|pc|H7|pc|H2|pc|H9|pc|CA|pc|C7|pc|S3|pc|C2|pc|CK|pc|C5|pc|S5|pc|C4|pc|C6|pc|C3|pc|H8|pc|C9|pc|HA|pc|HJ|pc|H3|pc|H4|pc|S6|pc|SJ|pc|SK|pc|SA|pc|S4|pc|S8|pc|SQ|pc|S9|pc|HQ|pc|H5|pc|S2|pc|H6|pc|CQ|pc|CT|pc|CJ|pc|HT|pc|DK|pc|DT|pc|D2|pc|D3|pc|D5|pc|S7|pc|D8|pc|DJ|pc|D9|pc|D7|pc|C8|pc|ST|]600|400[/HV]

I enjoy Vugraph deals more than any other for the reasons above. I find the hands generally much more interesting but the comparison with top teams is very rewarding sometimes - seeing how you and GiB/friends go against top teams. Of course in my case both my partner and my EW opps are GiB so maybe it cancels out a bit What I particularly like is that, unless its a flat hand you usually do better than an expert pair on each hand :) My personal favorite was the time I saw my hand listed alongside Bob Hamman for example In terms of hands and what expert teams get up to I can recommend certain Bermuda Bowl finals too

Thats fine. That wasnt really the focus of my post. Sorry. That was just an aside to the incident :) I wasn't suggesting the site had dropped me into the wrong kind of tournament - just that I dropped in by mistake. I was sure it was in a list of robot ones and I saw individual, no parner required, 10 cents dropped in and above is the sorry story. However the opening bidder was on such a slow train I was able to appraise the situation, panic, assess my hand, rpepare to pass, not able to find the pass button, look up see 3 unfamiliar people, panic even more, wonder what I was doing and escape before they even bid. 1.5 minutes per hand doesnt leave much room for a few rounds of bidding and 52 cards to be played if someone ums and aars for 15-30 seconds, however long it was taking them But hopefully I was replaced by a bot (often a better player than me) and maybe they thought I had been booted out for being too slow :) My embrassment sparked anxiety attack lasted quite a while afterwards :( EDIT. I just checked the details of another "Express" 4-hand tournament and can see where part of my anxiety came. In actual fact you get 24 minutes (ie 4 minutes per hand). However, having just clciked on it without prior research when the tournament list said "< 1" minutes to start, a bit of harmless quick entertainment fun turned into chaos when I saw the clock at 6 minutes etc. If you want a literary reference it was a bit like the whale having a very brief existence in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I hope that explains the state my mind was in. But I do apologise. Its clearly my mistake joining something on a whim at the last minute without reading a torunament description and thinking express meant something else.

I had thought about that but these days I'm more into the fun of being with people who know what they are doing. Also ideally it involves just an extended period of relxation, pleasure, indulgence, cards, conversation, etc etc

I never really played much social bridge here. And unfortunately the few chances I had to play more socially, the people involved regarded going to a duplicate club as social My favourite locations for social would be 1) somebody's home, 2) a cafe, 3) a pub, 4) anywhere nice and social really etc (actually as artly regaled in another thread a relaxing interational game in a long distance train cabin with good food, company and vodka (in that case) I feel like putting a notice in a local group and going and sitting on a table somewhere with a couple of packs of cards and seeing who shows up :)

Thats what concerns me about Bridge anywhere. I still regard myself as young. But since the pandemic started the whole world is starting to feel as exciting as an old folks home I guess thinking about, its not specifically that it needs to be rubber bridge. It could actually be any fun variant on the game so long as it is social

I don't exactly find online bridge very relaxing. Maybe vegetatively playing mindless unimportant robot hands lulls the hyper(evrything) body and brain into some form of relaxation. But no, the only really relaxing bridge experiences I ever had were truly social ones with fun people or at least people I knew who weren't putting any pressure; or any feeling of being judged, compared, ridiculed, competed with etc Quick fire competitive online can be fun but not exactly relaxing I won't bore you on this thread with my best ever experience of Bridge but it involved international casual play on a long distance train journey with good food, company and vodka :) - oh and they were good players too - just friendly and accommodating and generous :) Oh and for a youngish naive travller from the West there was a certain excitement and feeling of danger being behind the iron curtain with people who didn't seem too scary at all - and their relaxed demeanour even when our cabin was being searched by border guards managed to keep my tension levels down even then. I shouldn't say anymore really. We live in aterrible world when any ancient information is sometimes used by malicious types to attack and undermine good people PS I should add for anyone interested it was actually my greatest ever bridge moment - being congratulated for a defensive play by a player of a certain nationality - somewhere where Bridge and other pursuits involving the mind have as much, if not greater, standing than kicking and hitting balls does where I live now :)

Hi all What's driving me a bit nuts, bridgewise, is how difficult it is to find relaxing social rubber bridge anywhere Its how I started out and really the main fun for me Is everything totally duplicate and competive these days. Even if you drop into a relaxed table it hardly fits the relaxed and social billing I think there is also something of a cultural problem in that most of the places where I did meet and socialise (workplaces, anywhere), conrtract bridge was not high on the list of activities Sadly also, the way the world is now, the social people are being restricted by those who prefer to do everything through some kind of digital interface I'm hoping there are some people reading this who who undertsnad what a pleasant few rounds of social bridge actually means reagrds P

Hi I recently found I had been dropped into the wrong kind of tournament thinking it was a robot tournament. With nothing happeneing and an unfamiiar interface I left. However I realise this could have been a problem for others in there. It was only a $0.10 tournament but certainly not what was expected. I apologise to anyone at the table and hope they can get a refund Please be a bit clearer about torunament types in future. Sorry if its my error not recognising the torunament type You can take any refund etc out of my account etc. Its rather embarrassing. Hoping I was replaced by a robot. But nothing was happening, nobody bidding and people sitting around waiting etc 'm not in the bait of withdrawing from anything, letting people down or anything. But it was a 4 hand 6 minute tournament. I was appraising my bid, couldn't find out how to bid and then realised there were others in there waiting for someone else to bid. It was a rather slow atsrt anyway for a 4 boards in 6 minutes tournament. Sorry. Is also not the best start to a tournament suddenly finding myself dropped at a table with 3 total strangers, panicking, wondering how to bid, realising its not by bid and the other 3 players arent robots, and someone at the table not knowing what Express means etc But sorry again for the rection to the situation regards P

As someone with no skin in the Bridge game so to speak, but along with everyone huge skin in the general data game, there is the broader issue of data security and privacy so I am watching with interest. One thing that concerns me greatly (in the broad) with the massive changes over recent years/decades in how operating systems and software are delivered and hosted, and our data is how far some agencies would take such powers in feeling they had the right to snoop around in places that are well beyond legitimate access to datasets

Hi I don't know if it's my imagination but many of the hands in daylongs have become over simplified or seemingly setup like bridge master puzzles, and basic ones at that. The interest level, for me at least, has plummeted They have become so tedious and plodding I can't even keep enough interest to put in any thought at all. It's a case of hoping for the end to come Maybe I have a strange brain but the performance of my brain increases with difficulty of the problem and the speed of play. Slow and boring leads to a kind of meh result Give me one of those quick fire head to head duplicates with a few tables etc Maybe I'm just projecting but I don't think so What's also interesting is a bit of variety from repeptive 3NT contracts too Maybe I have too much of a sleepy marsupial brain which is hard to get stimulated into anything unless its really eciting but has the whole world gone to sleep and become boring in addition to bridge hands. Where's the danger, the fun, the risk of bidding something unusual and God forbid actually not making a contract Yesterday I played a fun duplicate against a few tables - quick fire 8 hands (about 10 minutes etc). Today 12 rather uninteresting slowly plaid hands. The auctions were essentially predictable as anything. Same hand after same hand either a NT or minor opening bid followed by the few boring rounds of dancing to the inevitable 3NT etc It reminds me a bit of English classes at school where children took it in turns to read a section from a novel. When it came to me I was usually a chapter or two ahead (and got into trouble for lack of attention) because it was so boring listening to the plodding reading and lack of expression and emotion etc Maybe I'm just jumping to conclusions from a few tedious monotonous sequences of hands amongst the unlimited randomness and variability - but I'm not so sure Maybe infinity is boring with just the occasional interesting bit along the way P

Not so much resulting as thinking how I would have bid and every human North bid. Maybe it's a problem with the bidding system :) And the thought that West bid our suit twice without any interference from North at all

[hv=https://www.bridgebase.com/tools/handviewer.html?lin=st||pn|thepossum,~~M155jzyc,~~M6500h4x,~~M6516nvb|md|3SHQT976DT87CK8763,S82HAKJD65432CQT9,SAQJT9754H852DCA4,SK63H43DAKQJ9CJ52|sv|n|rh||ah|Board%205|mb|1S|an|Major%20suit%20opening%20--%205+%20!S;%2011-21%20HCP;%2012-22%20total%20points%20|mb|2D|an|Two-level%20overcall%20--%205+%20!D;%2010+%20HCP;%2011-18%20total%20points%20|mb|P|mb|2S|an|Good%20support%20in%20D%20--%203+%20!D;%2011+%20total%20points%20|mb|P|mb|2N|an|Invitational%20to%203NT%20game%20--%205+%20!D;%2014-16%20HCP;%2018-%20total%20points;%20likely%20stop%20in%20!S%20|mb|P|mb|3S|an|3+%20!D;%2010+%20HCP;%2011+%20total%20points;%20at%20best%20partial%20stop%20in%20!S;%20forcing%20|mb|P|mb|3N|an|5+%20!D;%204-%20!H;%204-%20!S;%2015-16%20HCP;%2018-%20total%20points;%20stop%20in%20!S%20|mb|P|mb|P|mb|P|pc|C6|pc|CT|pc|CA|pc|C2|pc|SA|pc|S3|pc|H6|pc|S8|pc|C4|pc|C5|pc|CK|pc|C9|pc|D7|pc|D2|pc|S4|pc|D9|pc|H3|pc|H7|pc|HA|pc|H2|pc|D6|pc|S5|pc|DA|pc|D8|pc|H4|pc|H9|pc|HJ|pc|H8|pc|D5|pc|H5|pc|DK|pc|DT|pc|CJ|pc|C3|pc|CQ|pc|SQ|pc|HK|pc|SJ|pc|S6|pc|HT|pc|D4|pc|S9|pc|DQ|pc|C7|pc|DJ|pc|C8|pc|D3|pc|ST|pc|SK|pc|HQ|pc|S2|pc|S7|]600|400[/hv] I appreciate I could have doubled or somehow mentioned my hearts but you somehow miss spades with those options too. If you bid hearts North seems to prefer that as a contract :( I appreciate that the West bot threw a spanner in with cue bids (which I dislike intensely) but still Are West bots more competitive than North bots?

Did you seriously think my question was about passing 2C After years on these forums you think I am that stupid. You lot are unbelievable This will probably be my last ever post on these forums and after I have used my last BB$ probably the last dollars I will ever contribute to BBO