pilowsky

...and of course, things that sound too good to be true, usually aren't. And it isn't quite as Daniel Dale might say. 1. Dogs (apparently) can't get COVID - but they can get other things. 2. Dogs can't sniff out sars-cov-2 or any other virus. Because well, viruses don't have an odour that I'm aware of. 3. What dogs do detect are called VOC - viral olfactory compounds. Actually, that's just a fancy name for - when humans heat up they release specific compounds that dogs can smell. Nothing to do with COVID - could be any virus. 4. This is how urban myths get propagated. The image is probably not even the dog from Adelaide Uni. The image has a KellyBarnes/Getty signature. The Adelaide uni website shows another dog whose head is not in a can. I wonder if they have noisy dogs that can sniff out bullshit? Then we could take a pack to a Trump press conference and drown out the sound of him emitting lies. So, this story doesn't pass the sniff test. .

I haven't visited this site for a while. Here's the latest.

Another great slam that I bid correctly and didn't make. I'm beginning to think that there is a five-minute window where I play really well, but it was forty years ago. Make 6NT any lead. [hv=pc=n&s=sj85hk3dak64cakq2&w=s92h984dt8cjt8754&n=sak4ha7652dqj32c6&e=sqt763hqjtd975c93&d=n&v=e&b=9&a=1hp2cp2dp4np5sp6nppp]399|300[/hv] Interestingly, the highest-scoring contract is 7D, which 0/22 people bid. 4/22 made 6N, 2 made 3N+2, 6 made 6N-1, 1 made 7N-2 and 2 made 7N-2. Again, not the simplest hand in a reasonably large field. Played properly I found this ending:

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." I've never read Dicken's book, but it's an unbeatable opening line. Speaking of opening lines, I just finished one of my worst tournaments. Characterised by multiple excellent learning experiences: to put it politely. The first 4S contract split the field. The good players made it. I wasn't one of them. As soon as the cards struck my eyes I thought 4♠ elimination endplay Max Chauvet, great youtube video etc and then I messed it up. Eight people bid and made it, 17 people bid and made 4S-1, 2 people went off 2 and 3 people let East play in 4 Diamonds. There's something about a solid 5 card spade suit to the AKQ that screams 4S, so there I was. I know that West has 4 hearts to the K ( and probably no spades), and I know East has a butt-load of diamonds presumably to the AK… When dummy arrives I count nine tricks. West leads the ♦Q and East overtakes with the Ace and fires back the ♥8 Here's what I did wrong: When board 11 came round I was feeling pretty cocky. I just bid 4♠ out of the box. This one was makeable but is a real matchpoints hand. The score depends entirely on the suit led = for clubs, +1 for diamonds and +2 for hearts. I got a club lead. [hv=pc=n&s=sakqt9h5dkqjt52cj&w=shk98742d987ckq93&n=sj754haqj63d3ct85&e=s8632htda64ca7642&d=s&v=0&b=11&a=4sppp]399|300[/hv] fwiw, 5[cclubs]x -100 was the better result for EW. For those of you unaware of the perils of Board 11, . If you watch this video you may understand why the British and the Americans have difficulty understanding each other when playing Bridge.

I have mentioned this before. South African Texas transfers only enjoy support in a very small[1] part of Australia. Will Jenner-O'Shea teaches it at the Sydney Bridge Club (Home of the NSWBA). If you go North of the Harbour to the largest club in Australia, where the actual South Africans live, they don't play it. The club where I learned doesn't use it either - they are members of the Gerber-detester fraternity. I believe that South African is popular in Victoria. About a year ago I played with a pick-up partner in Sydney Bridge centre who was the playing director and (obviously) much better than me. I had just learned Texas from GIB and when I bid 4♦ over 1NT he thought for quite a while then bid 4♥. I would place it as an 'intermediate' convention. One big problem with 'giving' people convention cards is that you assume that they actually know the stuff that's on them. This can lead to all sorts of hilarious 'understandings'. [1] When I say small I mean in terms of Bridge players, not geography - obviously. So, no they don't the support is underwhelming, to say the least.

Well done on your 77.53% - achieved by 210 others and beating 233 of us who made only 4H= with 29.89%. I'm not mentioning anyone in particular, but someone has anger management issues with 0.00% making 7NSxx-13 for -7000. In any event, you played the QUEEN not the KING fwiw. Could this affect the response?

OK, I just went to a teaching table, sat with myself at every seat, Then AccountDeal archiveselect a hand that you are interested inclick on the three white lines in the top right corner and click the export optionclick on 'upload deal to tableyou should now be in business.

What confused me was that the recommended line was "You now need to lose enough tricks to set up the squeeze, so you start by laying down the ♣A and playing another club" This line of play ended badly. Unless laying down the ♣A means looking at it carefully and not actually playing it.

Bored with going down in normal contracts I decided to to do some book larnin and get deceived by a real expert. I came to exercise number 8 where I was told: "that by laying down the ♣A and then losing three more club tricks to East I would be able to ...satisfy...BL.". I loaded the hand into BBO and onto a teaching table where I allowed the robots to sit W E and N. They followed Clyde's bidding (almost) to the letter and played the hand as he specified. with the result that I made 4♥-1 . Not good. I turned on the double-dummy and tried again: computer still said no. Then I found another line that did not seem to involve squeezing West in diamonds and spades. What am I doing wrong? Here's the hand: After the bidding West leads the ♠Q, you take it with the Ace, draw trumps in four rounds and the rest is up to you. [hv=pc=n&s=s865hakqj64dca842&w=sqjt93ht832daqt8c&n=sak42h75dk742c763&e=s7h9dj9653ckqjt95&d=s&v=0&b=11&a=1h1s2n3c4hppp]399|300[/hv] fwiw, when I gave to GIB, the bidding was: After the 1NT East always "thinks" for a few seconds before bidding.[hv=d=s&v=0&b=11&a=1h1s1n2c4hppp]133|100[/hv] Here's what happened when I make the contract. - and if she's confused - imagine how I feel...

There is a lot of material out there on BBO. If you are new to it all I would urge you to watch .It covers all the important basics in about 10 minutes. Apologies for the music at the start: nothing to do with me .

Or as we call it in Australia "walking the dog"

Really! yes, I did know that.

I joined the Australian Labor (correct spelling) Party in 1972 just before Gough Whitlam became Prime Minister. I stood for parliament in South Australia in 1993 because my friend Mick Atkinson - who was the Attorney-General of South Australia ( and a former high school classmate) was desperate to find a candidate for the ultra-safe liberal state seat of Bragg. Held at the time by Graham Ingerson - think Margaret Thatcher but male in a small village. My mother is famous for many reasons, one of which is that she convinced the then-teenage Julia Gillard to be a Lawyer and not a Teacher. Julia was in the class below me at school. So, I know a little about politics. I post-Doc'd in Auckland. NZ has a multi-member seat system (so does Tasmania - Germany also?) which is pretty good, but not perfect because it can lead to out-of-control squabbling coalitions pushing special interests that fail to focus on the big problems. They also have seats reserved for Maori members. NZ is one of the few countries where the British did not conquer the locals - the treaty of Waitangi is in force and there is an uneasy truce. Maori is an official language. It's available on Google translate. By contrast, British democracy is an oxymoron. In Britain, Boris is the Prime Minister. First-past-the-post non-compulsory voting in rotten boroughs means that when a group of incompetent no-hopers finally take their seats in the Palace of Westminster, They all start ranting at each other like a posturing pod of ping-pong players. To make matters worse, the Commons is so run down and disorganised that they can't all fit in when a vote is called. There is nothing useful competent. or democratic about Britain. It is the same corrupt kleptocracy that it always has been.

Please vote for Ardern. I'll give you an Ace and two Kings.

For no prize at all, what does the East robot have for this bid? [hv=pc=n&s=sak54h8dakq4cq762&d=s&v=e&b=3&a=1npp3hppp]133|200[/hv] fwiw this was the modal result on Board 3 in the Saturday Prime Daylong. Nine (9) of us reached this spot for 54%! out 26.

Really? I just checked and this is what I found - emphasis added Conditions of Contest for BBO tournaments by Admin | Posted on May 31, 2020 General Rules We are committed to maintaining a pleasant atmosphere on BBO. Playing in the tournaments organized by Bridge Base Online (and on this site, more generally) is dependent upon the display of good sportsmanship and above all ethics observance of the highest standard. Players are required to familiarize themselves with the Proprieties of the Laws of Duplicate Bridge. Players are also required to respect BBO’s Rules of the Site. Each player is reminded that it is a breach of ethics to break a law or regulation deliberately, even if willing to accept a prescribed penalty. Language The official language to be used in these tournaments is English. Systems Policy HUM systems and Brown Stickers are not allowed.In newcomer tournaments (0-5 BBO points) psychological bids are forbidden.Both members of a partnership must agree to adopt the same meanings for calls in the auction and also for defensive card play. This does not restrict exercise of style and judgment.Players are requested to provide a Convention Card completed legibly in English.If a pair does not have a convention card, SAYC (Standard American Yellow Card) is assumed.

Thanks guys. The point of the post was not the hand itself. In fact, I manufactured a bunch of hands after reading that GIB uses Gerber in order to see how GIB uses Gerber. I was hoping for something a little more sophisticated than the version on offer, but at least it's better than nothing if I'm desperate. Very occasionally I find myself playing with GIB in non-best hand tournaments and I wanted to be prepared. I've never come across it before this.

...and yes, it's quantitative for the robots as well. see OP.

Oops sorry, no wonder I made it so easily the first time!

Please! Here's the solution https://dds.bridgewebs.com/bsol2/ddummy.htm?club=chrome_ext&file=https://mirgo2.co.uk/bridgesolver/uploads/5f8032ab6427a2.69869295.pbn 6NT makes 100% from either side.

I was also trying to think of an IMPS Daylong where >150 players would bid a hand the same way.

Are you saying that this hand was bid and played in the same way in the same tournament by more than 150 players? And then they all got up to trick 7 after playing it exactly the same way... This seems incredibly unlikely, can we have a link to the traveller, please.

All of which raises another interesting question, which is: who are Bridge players? Setting aside all of those people that are in the Bridge business, tournament Bridge players are almost all clustered around the 60-80 year age group. Walk into any Club and talk to new players, and you will get the same story; "Hi, my name is Paul, Susan, Michelle or Andrew". Why? We were all born in the '50's and just retired. The old guard is there too. Their names are Mary, Shirley, Charles and Larry. But if you want seriously dangerous competition then beware of pairs named Flo, Rose, Elmer or Lester. If you really want the full detail of what's behind a name, here's a great site: https://www.behindth....com/names/list Retirees are a troublesome breed. They are prone to the same problems that any person who has lost a loved one has. After all, their entire social fabric has just been torn away from them. For the College/University educated retiree, this drop can be even more precipitous. Instead of running a large organisation and being really useful, now they aren't. So, that's what you find at a Bridge table, not Zia in a bow tie, or Mike Lawrence looking a bit dishevelled after meeting with his publisher hoping for a quick social game. No, you get some vaguely disappointed POPO who's feeling a bit out of sorts and in psychological jibber-jabber has decided to 'kick the dog' and take it out on you. Is it a capital offence or a Federal crime? Not really, they probably regret it the moment they say it. I used to get really annoyed and shocked. Now I just laugh at them and make a joke at their expense. It's a bit like children - remember who the grown-up is when someone loses control of their frontal lobes. Obviously, I take it on a case by case basis, and I'm feeling pretty mellow ATM. Still, a significant advantage of online Bridge is that I don't have to put up with it FTF.

At the place where I learned to play duplicate Bridge last year, there was fierce opposition to the use of Gerber. "HOHOHOHO", that's baby food Mr Namechangedtoprotecttheinnocent would cry out in horror like an actor hearing the word Macbeth or good luck in the theatre. So abhorrent was the idea of using this particular convention that even local Life Masters would quiver at the thought of bidding 4♣. One of the few exceptions was Mr Patel a money Bridge expert and former Engineer who was sometimes brought in to be my partner: he adored it. So, imagine my surprise when I discovered that GIB claims to play Gerber. After playing with Mr P., and being naturally curious, I soon discovered that there were many variations of Gerber - CRO Gerber, plain Gerber, RKC Gerber and others. I decided to try it out with GIB at the first opportunity. I set up some hands with my favourite North robot having balanced hands 15-17 and me South with lots of HCP. What could go wrong? 1NT "notrump opener could have a 5CM 15-17 etc.,"; pass 4♣! "Gerber--" and that's all it says.; pass 4♠ "Gerber 2 etc.," After this, the following continuations are allowed. 4NT is signoff, 5NT is grand slam force in ♠, 5♣ query kings. After that, you get to decide 5, 6 or 7. I picked 6NT - North did a good job. https://tinyurl.com/y2ov75ob Which is worth knowing, because if I bid 4NT quantitative North passed and still made 12. https://tinyurl.com/y3l4hq5s I understand the argument about not using Gerber in suit contracts because of the value of splinter bidding, but over 1NT, it looks pretty good. Given that there are so many variations of Gerber about now it might be nice to have a bit more info in the system notes. It doesn't come up very often, but that's only because so many deals are best-hand. So, my final question is: Is Gerber baby food? If not, which variant is best?

After importing hand(s) into a folder, the following message is displayed: Source file(ABCDE.LIN)-> n games were successfully uploaded into folder: CFG^7♠ for username:pilowsky and then there is a lot of blank space. Can I suggest that if you just change the form of words to something like Source file(ABCDE.LIN)-> n games are being uploaded into folder: CFG^7♠ for username:pilowsky this process can take up to 15 minutes Then all problems would be solved, the 'bug' would become a 'feature'!