pilowsky

Of course, some people are resistant to education, but that will not stop me from trying. Hope springs eternal. Good luck partner.

Stephen, you throw the term 'troll' around but clearly do not know what it means. A 'troll' is a person whose sole motivation is to inflame and cause damage. What I am doing is stimulate conversation, education and assist people. Unlike many on this forum I never 'characterise', I am never rude, dismissive or abusive. When I provide explanations I do so within the limits of my knowledge base. I do not stroll outside of them. When I want to learn something I ask questions. Sometimes I ask questions that appear 'incompetent'. If I knew the answer, why would I ask the question? Only people that are trying to show off pose problems or ask questions when they already know the answer. There is confusion about the usage of the word troll. The true troll is like an arsonist the have a psychopathology. They just want to see pain and suffering - that is how they get pleasure. This is being misused in the media to refer to 'Russian troll farms'. These are not trolls. these are disinformation units of the FSB (formerly KGB) which reports to Putin (formerly head of the KGB). Their actions are very purposeful. They want to destroy the government in the USA. Obviously the strength in Daylongs is biased. What my 'little' experiment proves is that the hands dealt in the rest of BBO world are not hands re-used from daylongs. If they were then South would definitely get higher HCP counts. This 'little' experiment should put peoples minds at ease.

I'm really delighted to discover that Akamai has decided to employ a data scientist with principles. KS is not the best test. Better is the G-test for independence. I simplified it for the Forum so that a comparison could be made with Chi-squared. Neither are necessary because the result is bleeding obvious. It does not matter what underlying software process GIB uses. What GIB does do is simulate. You have been told this multiple times on the forum. Please listen. I only had to be told once but I am a fast learner. It may use the DD to simulate, but that does not mean that the 'simulation' is correct. You are only 'correct' until your opponent makes their next move. This is true for all equilibrium games. It is true in life as well. Everything is 'obvious' when you know what happened. Recently several people on the Forum complained that the deals were biased on BBO. Think about what they mean. Did they mean that they did not they they did not get enough Aces? enough Kings enough spades? Wake up. What did they mean? To help people you need to step into their shoes to answer their question. What people are saying is: When I play against other people of roughly equal ability and I am sitting EWN or South I seem to lose more often. These people are NOT asking a mathematical question they are asking something else entirely. They are getting bad scores and they are blaming it on the cards that they are being dealt or the seat they are sitting in or the weather or the Jews or something else equally nonsensical. This is the reason Trump got elected. Because people thought they could solve all their problems by magic. What I have done here is to demonstrate empirically - that there is no ghost in the machine. Pit four robots against each other and it does not matter where they are seated EW is just as likely to come out on top as NS. Being competent in one area does not ensure competence in every area.

Incorrect. The number of IMPS is the only important thing. The scoreline is what matters; in the end, nothing else matters - that is what points schmoints means. That is why it's an interesting game. Also, your use of the adverb 'completely' is ludicrously and ridiculously unscientific and will not be permitted. Two pairs of robots each alike in dignity play the same 6 sets of 12 boards. In the end, NS achieves the same aggregate result as EW. Therefore, there is no bias in the way that the hands are dealt. quod erat demonstrandum. As to the question of whether or not stronger players prefer to sit EW, If this were true then there would be a bias in the outcome compared with the results as compared with that achieved by top players in Vugraph competitions. There was not so there isn't. It is basically the same experiment that Francis Galton did to prove that prayer does not work. The royal family does not live longer on average than other people, yet people are praying for them all the time. "God save the King" etc. Of course, I never meant it when I said it. I was probably not alone.

I paid for advanced robots.I set up a table. I put a robot on every seat. They all started playing with each other! After 12 boards I collected the data and started again. It is all random. What do Spades have to do with it?

Dear Editor - Thank you for your comments - I've been waiting for my whole career to able to write this response. You are an imbecile. You clearly know nothing about sampling or statistics. I have used at least double the sample size needed as per the Nyquist theorem. Do you have the vaguest idea what you are talking about, or do you just make this stuff up as you go along? Just asking. 1. The robots were given random hands to play and random results were collected. They are not double-dummy. There is only one dummy in this conversation. 2. Argue till you you are blue in the face. In fact purple with rage. I don't care. The result is the important thing, not the tricks. It is the 'barometer' as Bridge players like to mangle the language. To address the question of better players sitting EW. Further experiments were undertaken. This time deals from the Vugraph archive were randomly chosen by BBO (perhaps the computer wants to make a point?). The results are the same. By the way, Bob Hamman a notoriously weak player sat South in one of the games.

There have been conflicting reports in the literature, and the lay press, about certain medications and COVID19. This is an important illustration of why you should not try to be an internet doctor. Mr Google is wrong. In this case, so may be some Journals. It will not be the first (or last) time. Even though some reports say that angiotensin receptor blockers and ACE inhibitors may worsen COVID19, this turns out not to be true. These drugs are mainstays of treatment for high blood pressure (hypertension). The metabolic syndrome - syndrome X - is a cluster that features four main problems: ObesityHypertensionDiabetesBad lipids (eg high cholesterol) Walk into any Bridge Club and lots of the people that are there will be taking (or should be taking) drugs for one of these problems. Many may be over their ideal weight. Covid19 is significantly worse in people with these problems. Taking antihypertensive drugs and all of your other medications and staying away from social groups until a vaccine is available is a good idea. Otherwise, you are placing yourself, and people that other people care about, at risk.

Correct. Just thought I would put it to rest with actual evidence. Even though it should be obvious.

Like a bad conspiracy theory, or a piece of Soviet-era propaganda, Some questions come up very frequently on this Forum, so I created a small experiment to answer some of them. I set up an IMPS table in the Prime area with a robot at each seat. I then let the robots play 6 sets of 12 hands - 72 boards (see Figure). Each hand is also played elsewhere in BBO world against robots and with a human in one seat. The human is generally sitting South. Here are the results: Is there bias in the way that BBO deals the hands? If this were the case then after playing 6 sets of boards one of NS or EW would have a significantly higher number of IMPS. Chi-square test is negative. The sum of wins and losses is equal to 0 therefore no bias exists. Which is the best seat? There is no bias so no seat is better than any other, but I recommend that you wear a mask and avoid television. Which robot is the best partner? This study was conducted using advanced robots. It would be interesting to see how much quantitative difference there is when pitting two advanced robots against two basic robots, or playing a 'team of three'. Other conclusions. There is a bias towards South in the Bridge community for historical reasons [1] and most players in the Prime area choose to sit South. BBO perpetuates this by seating players South in 'Best Hand' tournaments. Perhaps players in Prime and elsewhere jump for the South seat in the expectation that there are hands floating about in the ether cast adrift from 'Best-Hand' tournaments, and that if they sit South they will benefit from this. Like panning for gold in the effluent from a gold mine. This seems not to be the case. I still like to sit South though. Of course, it doesn't help that whichever seat you choose, you are always at the bottom of the screen. Coming from the Southern hemisphere I'm used to it, but some in the North, East or West may find it tough going. [1] "It was George [Kaufman] who pointed out that you could always hold good cards merely by sitting South. 'No matter who writes the books or articles,' he said, South holds the most terrific cards that I ever saw. There is a lucky fellow if I ever saw one.' Ever since then, I have always sat South. That is the secret of my success, and I pass it along to you for whatever it is worth." Charles Goren

Bad luck. You should be able to understand the bidding by now. I do not consider that you were damaged. Play continues.

I use Chrome, I recall this happening to me once. I 'backed' out then went back to the hand and the symbols returned.

The inevitable question. It's your time. Keep playing. If opps do not answer promptly and satisfactorily, and I (director) assess that you have been damaged, the score will be adjusted in your favour. Stepbridge is part of the way there already. It works well, Unfortunately, they average the time control across two or even three boards which is not quite as fair.

Speaking of computer TLA's In 2001: A Space Odessey. the computer was called HAL (Heuristic Algorithmic Learning) machine - but it was actually Kubrick's little joke. It was a 'frameshift' mutation from IBM. HI AB LM.

But she was an Englishwoman - and a bit of a vamp! I thought you'd be a fan . I'm devastated.

Or features - he meant to say features.

I agree. Great suggestion. In fact, why not go the whole nine yards and bring Bridge into the computer age. Chess has had clocks for decades. Why not Bridge? The term 'barometer' is misused on BBO to mean 'measured'; the correct meaning of 'baro-' is pressure. Baroreceptors in the body measure your blood pressure. If the computer timed each player and each pair was given a finite amount of time to complete a hand, then under true barometric scoring conditions each pair is responsible for how it uses its own time. If the clock runs to zero before all the cards are played then the hand is adjudicated by the computer as the worst possible result (from the scores of the field) for the slowest pair. Watch how everyone starts to play within a reasonable time. All problems of slowness disappear. All questions of pausing with inference will be a thing of the past.

Opinions vary Grossly Incompetent BotsGinsberg's Insidious BeastsGremlins Inducing BankruptcyGuy In Back

Here's something you don't see every day (long) Board 2 4HEX-1. 90.91% Amazing bidding - four doubles in a row https://tinyurl.com/yy9qnesb Eventually, my partner gave up trying to describe my bidding to the other robots. [hv=d=e&v=n&b=2&a=1hd1s2c2hdp3c3hdp4c4hdppp]133|100[/hv] Board 4 4HS-1 32.5% EW get their money back. This is a really interesting hand. I fail to make it - https://tinyurl.com/yy64838z But others succeed - https://tinyurl.com/y4hhwbhe [hv=pc=n&s=shat542d7543caqj8&w=sk63h63dat86ckt74&n=sqt984hkqj8dq92c6&e=saj752h97dkjc9532&d=n&v=b&b=13&a=1h4c4hppp]399|300[/hv] Several unusual things happened here: West leads away from an Ace in a suit contract.West makes a third-down lead from four.The third-down lead for some reason means that the contract is makeable.If West had made a fourth-down lead from the Ace - or a trump fwiw - the contract is NOT makeable.If West leads the unsupported Ace the contract is makeable.Pass scored 54.29%. Amy Winehouse

I suspect that I am going to listen to the advice of actual health experts on this one. Symptoms and transmissibility are two completely different things. Also, it's not a game. people are dying. Clubs should remain closed, so should the pubs. Anything that impairs social distancing - alcohol being a major one should be stopped. I get that being compulsively concerning yourselves with the numbers can be a coping mechanism in this situation. It would be an error to conflate this into a belief that it constitutes knowledge. It does not. It's just a source of comfort. Which part of the world has the most or fewest cases/deaths is not a competition. Calling the urgent quest for a vaccine "Operation Warp Speed" is extremely strange. Why not make the world safe again? Instead the Disunited States under the Lord of Flies has set about dismantling the domestic and international apparatus for constructing a vaccine and spends his time in a bunker watching TV eating sugary snacks. Here's an expert opinion: Make sure that you are at close to the ideal weight, keep your blood pressure, blood sugar levels and cholesterol and lipid levels normal. That's your best hope for survival. Louis Gohmert believes that he caught the "Wuhan virus" by rubbing it into his face with a mask. He's an elected official. Trump has 84 million followers and when you listen to him he sounds almost exactly like he has Korsakoff's syndrome. Here is a description of the symptoms of Korsakoff's - does it remind you of anyone? Symptoms Korsakoff syndrome causes problems learning new information, inability to remember recent events and long-term memory gaps. Memory difficulties may be strikingly severe while other thinking and social skills are relatively unaffected. For example, individuals may seem able to carry on a coherent conversation but moments later are unable to recall that the conversation took place or with whom they spoke. Those with Korsakoff syndrome may "confabulate," or make up, information they can't remember. They are not "lying" but may actually believe their invented explanations.

The ACBL pairs tournaments do not run all the time. I just did a google search - here is a link that might help. https://www.bridgebase.com/help/v2help/acbl_schedule.html

Not unless something screwy happened - or money changed hands. 1 54.2 2 49.16 3 49.16 4 49.16 5 49.16 6 47.16 7 36.84 average = 47.83

It may be that you have rediscovered the Stephen Bradbury effect https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAADWfJO2qM I have sometimes done well because others performed badly. Occasionally, this can be a strategy. If it is, it's called waiting for an unforced error. If it isn't it's called WTF just happened.

The reason that music can be toe-tapping good, funny, wildly inappropriate and completely bad all at the same time was explained by Mel Brooks in the Producers. Easily one of my faves.

I was baffled. Nothing to do with thepossum ring- or brush- tailed. No hominems ad'ed here.

And just thought I'd step back in history to see if anything was different in the old days. It wasn't