pilowsky

Here's the problem. We are discussing "replying to convention cards" in BBO Forums, an online Bridge playing Forum in the Novice and Beginner Forum. Very quickly, the conversation has turned into an acronymic discussion of laws and rulings that is irrelevant to the readership of this section. "..RMB identified from the system" "...legally randomise.." "... L20G1 applies. I know IRL that questions about calls ..." What I see a lot of in the Club, online, and in general discourse is unawareness. It works like this From the Director "please alert your 1club bid" 1. "we play Schenken club 2. "We play Myxi 2's 3. "We play Precision 4. "3 5. "2 6. "1 7. "says nothing about clubs I have seen all of these "explanations" and many more. What does GIB say "Minor suit opening -- 3+ ♣; 11-21HCP; 12-22 total points". Players arrive at the table with big grins and say We play ACOL (sic) - you and I know that there are at least 7 types of Acol with multiple no trump ranges. saying we play Acol is as useful as saying we play Bridge. I learned to play Bridge from BBO and from probability theory as a teenager by studying Bayes theorem. I also sometimes randomise to avoid giving away information because of the law of restricted choice. This information is available on the GIB system card. In my experience of training people, I often encounter frustration when they are unaware of something and do not have insight into that unawareness. I once asked a prominent Director the following question. As a defender, if the opener bids 1club and it is announced as 2+ rather than 3+, should I have a different response as LHO? Is there a reason for 2+ compared with 3+? He had no reply other than to say that it's in the laws of Bridge and that's that. We are discussing Online Bridge. Even if we were not, full disclosure requires competency on the part of the recipient. The reason that the world is in the disastrous position it is in today is that although the President of the United States was alerted daily about the impending catastrophe, he is insufficiently educated to comprehend the import of what it meant (I think there are other problems as well). It's the same at the table. you can provide a certain amount of information, but you are constrained by time, by your own ability to explain, by your partner's ability to comprehend, and by the ability of the listener to understand.

I'm sure there are a lot of things that BBO could do if there was money in it. But there isn't. In the world where I used to work, I would pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for equipment and go to training sessions costing hundreds/thousands. The help desk was remarkably useful and receptive. I began working when Cambridge Electronic Design was acquiring data for scientists using DOS. Even though they would chuckle when I requested an additional feature, it would eventually arrive. Greg Smith and his colleagues are the grease that keeps the scientific engine of the world operating - along with a few competitors in the US and Australia. No technical achievements, No vaccine or other advances. Unfortunately, Bridge is different. Nobody cares. But they should. A small investment in getting this site right would have carry-over effects into the 'real' world. To say nothing of making all of us happier. My first post on this site was made in the spirit of someone coming from that environment. looking back I can see how it made no sense at all to this audience. I can now understand clearly why it did not receive any of the answers that I anticipated. BBO is my main Club. I pay membership and participate in its tournaments. As a member of the community and a stakeholder, I would like to see it improve.

That's a relief. For a moment I was worried you were suffering from a homonymous hemianopsia.

Turn your head more to the right so that you can see the column that says entry fee to the right of entries. All the Free tournaments are listed as "Free".

It works like this. Take a tiny URL. https://tinyurl.com/yaxkboxv which looks like this. not much there right! just put it into the chrome tab. Hit enter and it expands into: You will have to take my word for it because the Forum software has truncated it. just copy the URL into the browser space and read it carefully. ''''://www.bridgebase.com/tools/handviewer.html?lin=st||pn|anai76,pilowsky,maryjuli,Nywoman|md|1ST72H762D754C8432,SAJ54H8DKQJ62CKQ6,SQ93HJ543DT98CT97,SK86HAKQT9DA3CAJ5|sv|b|rh||ah|Board%207|mb|P|mb|1N|mb|P|mb|2D|mb|P|mb|2H|mb|P|mb|3C|mb|P|mb|3N|mb|P|mb|6N|mb|P|mb|P|mb|P|pc|HJ|pc|HQ|pc|H2|pc|H8|pc|HA|pc|H6|pc|S4|pc|H3|pc|HK|pc|H7|pc|S5|pc|H4|pc|HT|pc|D4|pc|D2|pc|H5|mc|13| If you look closely you can see all the bidding and other information there. Let's change some of it. I have had to remove the "https" and replace it with " '''' " because otherwise, the Forum software turns the link into GIBberish. ''''://www.bridgebase.com/tools/handviewer.html?lin=st||pn|anai76,pescetom,maryjuli,Nywoman|md|1ST72H762D754C8432,SAJ54H8DKQJ62CKQ6,SQ93HJ543DT98CT97,SK86HAKQT9DA3CAJ5|sv|b|rh||ah|Board%207|mb|P|mb|1N|mb|P|mb|2D|mb|P|mb|2H|mb|P|mb|3C|mb|P|mb|3N|mb|P|mb|6N|mb|P|mb|P|mb|P|pc|HJ|pc|HQ|pc|H2|pc|H8|pc|HA|pc|H6|pc|S4|pc|H3|pc|HK|pc|H7|pc|S5|pc|H4|pc|HT|pc|D4|pc|D2|pc|H5|mc|13| Hey presto! Brian (pescetom) is playing instead of me. If you want to convert this back into a tinyurl, just copy the whole thing and go to a site called tinyurl.com where you can make as many tinyurl's as you want for nothing. Here it is as a tiny URL https://tinyurl.com/ydeqc5j7 Alternatively if you want to store the whole thing in a document on a Mac highlight the word and use command kv or cntrl kv on a pc. These are lin files all the card play and bidding and name info is stored in this string. Look closely, You can change the bidding, the order of play anything at all. Double dummy data can be found by attaching the bridgesolver addon to chrome. In fact, you do not need to copy or paste anything. I can do the whole lot in a few seconds during play. and see the double-dummy solution immediately after a hand is played in between rounds. Yet another good reason for playing on the internet.

Perhaps I was unclear in my original comments. Here is an extract from the Australian regulations: "2.4 Self-alerting calls there are five different types of self-alerting calls, viz.• Doubles• Redoubles• Cue bids of an opponent's denomination/suit• All calls at the four-level or higher, except conventional opening bids• Any 2♣ response to a 1NT opening bid in an uncontested auction. These calls carry their own alert and should not be alerted. It may be risky to make assumptions as to the meaning of such a call. A player is entitled (at their turn to call) to ask for their own protection, but bear in mind that unnecessary questions may be more helpful to the opponents than to the enquirer's own side, and may convey unauthorised information thereby limiting partner's options." Specifically what this means is that I am not meant to say what my 2♥ bid means because it is self-alerting. To do otherwise would mean that it had a meaning that was other than its natural meaning as specified in 2.4. As 2.4 states a player is entitled to ask. In this case, it was the opener, not the responder, that asked. It seemed to me that Opener wanted to be sure that her partner understood the meaning of my self-alerting MCB. When she asked me privately to her what it meant I replied S and another. I have no positive or negative views about Director calls. Other than to say, as in any sport if all runs smoothly there should be no need for any. The happiest Director is surely the Director that sees a sea of smiling faces quietly enjoying a session of Bridge. What I am saying is that jurisdictions may differ. TD's may differ. and the cognisance of players may also differ. One quick way to destroy peoples interest in any sport is the heavy-handed application of laws and rulings. A much worse way is arbitrariness. The big problem that is faced with the globalisation of Bridge on BBO is that nobody seems to want to tackle this in a spirit of internationalisation. By sticking to the outmoded systems of regional authorities I am concerned that the Laws and Rulings aspect will become a barrier for newcomers, This is at a time when Bridge could be on the threshold of a boom as people seek alternative activities. This Discussion has clearly gone beyond this topic and perhaps others more qualified than me may wish to discuss it elsewhere in a more appropriate part of the Forum: or not.

On the same issue, and since we are now all 'playing behind screens'. All the Clubs that I play in are virtual and will remain so for the foreseeable. Two of these are FTF - Stepbridge which is played as a Swiss under Australian ABF regulations. You can call the TD, get rulings in just the same way as at a physical club. Step is based in Adelaide, the Server is in the Netherlands and the players are all over Australia and the world. I joined up in November 2019. SInce the pandemic began, Step has become Australias largest Club. The other Club is the BIL. It operates through BBO and has been going for a very long time and has nurtured many players. Its tournaments are played as Mitchell's. TD calls are almost unheard of in the BIL. They are frequent on Step. The convention card on BBO is difficult to find during play, occupies much of the screen is not completely informative and would slow play to a grinding halt if used in the usual way. As a tool for players to gain an understanding of their system it may be great, but not as a way to inform the opposition. That is what the alert box is for. Now to my question. I often get conflicting rulings. I am sometimes told that natural bids must be alerted, then not, then I am told that cue bids should be alerted then not, then I am told that nothing over 3NT needs to be alerted, then I am told to alert everything, Remember that on Step it's a Blitz game. If you do not get the last board down by the 5-minute marker then imps/MPs will be awarded against you. Here is a typical conversation from today. Private from S> 2H? Ref to a michaels cue bid Private to S> s and another Private to S> probably not clubs :-) (S's partner had just bid 3♣) S> please reply to ops and specs and not just me so my p can see S. had opened the bidding 1♥, I made a self-alerting Michaels Cue bid of 2♥, S finally asked me in chat to reply so that her partner could also see the response. So, this may be a case where the rules vary depending on the jurisdiction. Since in Australia the MCB is self-alerting, Is S. asking me to disclose information for the benefit of her partner just in case her partner did not know what a MCB is? What do the Directors from other regions make of this and other similar situations? One advantage of not playing in FTF clubs is that there are far fewer Director calls. In general, people seem to be much more concerned about enjoying the game. This seems to make for a more 'free-flowing' game as they say in ball sports, allowing one to focus more on the cards and bidding. That's my view anyway.

Somebody once said there is a time and a place for everything. They are wrong. There isn't. Just because a person can get elected President of the United States and pardon a bunch of criminals does not mean that they were not criminals. Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. Simply because you don't look at something doesn't mean it isn't there. Just because they say that they were sorry about the bad things that they did does not make them fit and proper people to participate in the social discourse that follows. Statues should not be built to memorialize them. Their bodies should be left in unmarked graves and forgotten about. Adolf Hitler was also elected. Many of the scientists that "made America great again" after WWII were repatriated Nazis (Wernher von Scheisskopf). Don't talk to me about value ethics and remorse in the same breath as these people. There is no statute of limitations on the atrocities that these people commit. Their names should not be remembered. No statue should be erected in remembrance of them. The expression do the crime serve the time has its limits. The idea that you can step into a confessional and be absolved of absolutely any heinous crime makes no sense at all to me.

How did they cheat?

"The endless need to search for evidence that supports our current belief about how the world works." Confirmation bias is the opposite of what normal adult people should be doing when they approach the real world. In order to sound clever, psychologists call it a 'cognitive bias'. That is just translating it into Latin. In English confirmation bias is simply twisting the facts and picking out examples selectively to suit your own beliefs but ignoring every other example that might disprove what is really going on. On the BBO Forums, a special section is provided for players to vent their frustration about being poor players compared with other humans that did better than them playing the same hand against robots. In the real world, there are other names for these areas. Do we ever see someone make a post that starts out: I made a really stupid bid and the North robot tried to rescue me but I was such an incredible idiot that I overrode the robot, bid what I wanted and got into a ridiculous contract, went down and now I want my money back because my partner the North robot - which by the way in my humble opinion I paid good money for and isn't worth S**T should have got me out of the mess and I have 3000 masterpoints and have been playing bridge for 20 years and I'm a certified ACBL bridge Teacher and a well-known Director and I want my money back. Here's an example. Here is the link Here is the double dummy analysis Like a fool I opened 1 NT and tried to go to 6NT thinking that my partner had the heart Ace. The rotten East robot (like a beginner banged down his Aces and I was gone). Of course, the robot tried to save me and put me into a makeable slam. The worst part was that the best result was 6NTx by some people that managed a different auction and gets a different play for an unmakeable 6NTX. Scoring 1680. This is the second time that I've seen GIB avoid taking a doubled contract down when the possibility was available. Was it waiting for better times? The second coming? A kiss? See what I mean GIB is a terminator It doesn't care what I say. BUT, it makes 'mistakes' just like you do. Did the shouting and screaming and being abusive help? Both GIB and humans 'simulate' in our own way. The result is not always to our liking. Why not have a special Forum area where people can complain about their human partners ..... Oh, wait ... Why didn't the silly Bot bang down his Aces for those people? Outrageous who cares about COVID-19 this is Bridge. I have rights. This stuff happens all the time. Where are these posts? Robots do make wonderful "decisions', execute end-plays, squeezes and all sorts of stuff. Nobody seems to care. Poor robots.

On a philosophical level, if you are playing in a minor, the trump suit provides additional stoppers and transportation: that's why voids and singletons are so valuable. This gift is also why you have to pay a higher price in the additional number of tricks that you must take to make a contract. In no trumps, you are unburdened by feelings of empathy, warmth or respect for others. The landscape is cold and unforgiving. You have no additional stoppers to rush to. No safe haven. The stakes are higher, You better make before they make you. which is why the reward is greater and the number of tricks needed for a contract smaller. I think that this stands, metonymically speaking, for the absence of trump stoppers. As a new player with a childish Bridge mentality no trumps sort of appeals to me. I suppose as I grow to understand the nuances of trump control and crafty gadgets better, then suit contracts and even part scores will become more appealing. Perhaps that is what is meant by "Judgement in Bridge"

I wonder which server the Forum is on 🤔

It's the quick and the dead in this game!

sure, the place to find your hands is here: http://www.bridgebase.com/myhands/myhands_login.php?t=%2Fmyhands%2Findex.php%3F Just enter your login and password and you will be able to get all the hands you have played recently on BBO. Including the way that other people bid and played them. (Traveller) You can even select the result, copy it and paste it into a spreadsheet and look at each link at leisure if you are a complete fanatic. If you use Chrome you can "add-on" Bridge-solver" and get extra useful information.

I doubt it. It took ages to glue the little cards onto the blocks for starters.

That's very neat Nige1 I hope you don't mind, I used my Samsung tablet to help solve it - I hope this is the right answer

At this stage, it's like watching the titanic sinking and working out the percentage of lifejackets available for the passengers in steerage compared to those that paid for 1st class tickets. The whole thing is a complete shambles run by an incompetent self-serving rambling buffoon, his idiot son-in-law and coterie of cretins. Even the rats that have deserted the sinking ship are desperately trying to make some money and steal the silverware on the way out. Who cares about calculations anymore. Hurry Tuesday.

VAMPYR: sarcasm! I don't believe it!

How can I put this without seeming snarky. Basically, the complaint is equivalent to saying that you are upset because you were hit by a car even though you stepped onto the road without taking the simple precaution of looking both ways before stepping out. Or, caught COVID-19 after going to a Trump rally in the middle of a pandemic, even though he specifically warned you that he was not going to be liable if you caught the virus. Or, if you failed to get immunised against seasonal influenza and then complained when you got the 'flu. The complaint is, well not that of a genius.

That would be the same Hoare that invented the null reference?

That is true, but there are users and there are users... - PM Pilowsky

Learning to wait is also known as delayed gratification. You should be able to manage it by the age of about 7. Maybe later depending on which system you play.

Who can ever tell what people are up to let me quote from Mike Lawrence "Judgment at Bridge 2" Playing against Experts: The better your opponents are, the more aggressive you need to be. Experts will win out most of the time. They have years of experience and they know how to..." you get the idea. I have taken this advice to heart. When playing against experts I am reliably crazier. I know that they will stick to their card and bid Lebensohl or make a passive lead in No Trumps. All kinds of stuff that I would never do with a less accomplished player is great against an expert. They are super-reliable. A poor player is only a poor player if they get a poor result. By the way, the Aspro I was talking about was the medicinal kind. And yes I'm aware of the other type. btw how hard is to spell Pilowsky It's right there in front of you!

"four top public health officials leading the Trump administration’s response to the coronavirus testified before Congress." I don't think I have seen so many lies, half-truths and misrepresentations packed into one small phrase since Kayleigh MacEnany promised never to lie to White House Press Corps. Were there even just four of them there?

It's an interesting conundrum. I know of a charming young man - let's call him "angryanglican" - who is a superb player and a regular Director, Teacher and Marathon runner. He's also an expert at 2/1 and plays a strong NT. He would definitely call West's hand 1NT. I've seen him do it many times. When queried by us lesser mortals he just points to the doubleton and perhaps even to the fifth diamond. Who were we to argue? Clearly 15-17 - as he looked at us with his blonde hair in a ponytail and youthful eyes. This sort of hand is one of the reasons I feel uncomfortable when players sit down and smugly hand me a card saying "we play Acol". They may as well say "we speak Albanian" Why do we have to learn every arcane bidding language? Especially when they all have multiple dialects. In this hand, it seems that West is saying "Hello, I have some points." East replies. "Hi, I have some Clubs", South has a five-card heart suit (so did North) but both decided to keep quiet for some reason. Then West said: "Well, I have some Diamonds". and North and South went to the pub for a beer while East and West had them for breakfast. Not sure about Astro, maybe an Aspro is in order.