luis

Maybe there's a partial solution to this problem, not eberything is black or white. You can present the host/director an option to ban/forbid kibitzers using the same IP as a player playing. If someone wants to cheat it is very likely he will do it from the same IP sharing the internet connection at his home/office, wherever. This will cause trouble in some innocent situations, for example here at a local club we have some computers sharing the same IP and players play/kibitz from different rooms using the same connection. Some housband-wife pairs play from different rooms in a perfectly legal situation, etc. But it won't cause a problem to all the kibitzers or make a TD forbid all the kibitzers. As many of you said forbidding kibitzers kills a lot of the magic of online bridge. If a director/player allows all kibitzers then kibs using the same IP as a player should be marked in red or in some way. So if strange things happen AND there is a suspect kibitzer a host/director can take measures. Luis

Can't be asking for a club control because 3s would be the right bid to see if I can bid 4c or not. I don't think this is asking for good trumps either because we don't know yet about number of controls or aces, It would be a too unilateral bid. So I think this is just a mild slam invitation.

For the same reason as a tape of a golf tournament or a soccer match doesn't interest a lot of people while the live broadcast can have millions of spectators. Kibitzers like watching "live" bridge.

Claus, I think beta is after 1c-1N;2c

I'm not sure, I'd take it as natural stablishing the trump suit and inviting to cuebid. If you want to make a TAB and CAB you should use the TAB first and then ask for controls with 4c. But I think both approaches are sensible.

OMG I can't believe how far people streach the prempltive bids. This hand has nothing to do with a prempltive weak jump. not a long suit. balanced not a one suiter. bad ODR Ace in the suit and lower honors in the outside suits. I'm sorry but if you were my partner this hand was probebly our last one together. why dont you double with such a hand. >I can't believe how far people streach the premptive bids. >This hand has nothing to do with a premptive weak jump. >not a long suit. balanced >not a one suiter. What does a single suited hand have to do with preempting? I would happily open the hand in question with 2Ds. Don't see anything wrong with a 2S weak jump overcall ;-) In all seriousness I am a firm believer in so-called assumed fit preemptive styles. Plaeyer's should immediately bid their hands to their expected limit ASSUMING that partner has an average hand for the auction so far. This places MUCH more pressure on the opponents, however, it requires that partner is on the same wavelength and won't take action with an average hand. Extremel version of pre-balancing, thats all... IMO a 2s bid with this hand is a gamble, you are free to gamble whenever you want bt I really believe that you will be having more bad results than good results using this style.

I'm tempted to leave, I really don't like when you behave and talk like a cop uday.

I fully agree with Ron, BBO can just state that the posts are the sole responsability of the posters. Moderators should only deal with offtopics moving posts to the right forums and mentoring the posters about how to use the site. I found the edition or deletion of a post something arbitrary and potentially dangerous thing. I can stand what Ben and uday do as well as other moderators but I really think this forum would be better without that much intervention. Luis

4s, my spades are good and will play ok in front of a doubleton and I think I have the strength needed to backup a 5-2 fit at the 4 level. Even if pd has a heart stopper I have my doubts about 3NT, pd can have something like Qx, Kxx, Kxxx, KQxx and after a heart lead if hearts are 5-2 we have a lot of problems.Even with Axx, QJx, or KJx in hearts 3NT can go down. I think 4s makes more often than 3NT in this context.

No, I wouldn't pass 1s since my hand doesn't look as a penalty pass of 1s. 2) Would you bid 2♦ as West? If not, what would your call be? Yes, automatic. 3) Assuming the auction went as shown, what would you bid as East? I'm particularly interested in discussion of the following options (as this is what I discussed at the table -- don't forget, this is the BIL). By the way, I suggested that any "forcing" bid by East must show ♠s as that is the only reasonable explanation of having passed. Also, that it must deny a biddable heart suit (because of the lack of a Negative Double or an immediate ♥ response). I think I must bid 2s showing a penalty pass of 1s and a game-forcing hand. It's the most flexible bid. I don't think a splinter or a fit-showing jump are adequate since the auction is not competitive because they don't have a fit.

Are you serious about disk space or is there some problem between BBO and Steve/Ece? Each post is in average 1K, I think you can afford up to a thousand posts about this subject before having a real complaint. I really don't have a clue about what the problem is with Steve/Ece so any private message will be welcome. Luis

Well If it helps I think that Ece and Steve do a wonderful job. If what you need is help or support I'll be happy to help. Luis

Idea: When a player at a tournament or at the table decides to leave the table either by standing up or trying to exit the application send a message to the tournament host or the table host "foo is trying to leave the table. Ok?" If says yes then he is out, if the host says "no" then display to the player "The host doesn't allow you to leave this table/tournament, leave anyway ?" If he leaves without permission then log the incident. This will educate players to say "bye" or indicate a problem and leave without incidents. For tournaments it can be used when a player has an emergency or the tournament has extended beyond planned and he must go, he apologizes to the host telling the problem and can leave and be subbed without a warning.

Aha the start of the slippery slope towards four-card majors. Well I'm known locally for deliberately opening 4 card majors even playing 5 card majors. I can promise I will not open with 4 cards I can sign documents deposit money and yet when I get AKQx, Jxx, xxxx, Kx I open 1s and I don't care who tells me to open 1d I will never do that.

Yup 1c-2N is the same as 1d-2N. It's interesting to play that 1c-1N promises 4 clubs and it may be interesting to do the same with 1c-2N. With 4-4 in the minors and 12-14 I open the better minor when playing strong NT (argh), frequently the hand is not yours so telling your pd what to lead is a good thing.

I like the 2d rebid with all hands where opener has 5+ diamonds. So 2h/2s and 2NT show balanced hands without 5 diamonds and 4h/4s/no major. This approach has a lot of advantages in the subsequent bidding so I encourage to try it. 1d-2c 2d: 5+ diamonds, can still have a 4 card major 2h/2s: 4 cards, balanced hands 2n: balanced hand without 4m 3c: 4 card raise I have a very good answer to this question: Open good 14 HCP hands with 1NT and you don't have this problem. Because if you have 14 then it's a bad hand and you don't risk missing a good game. 3NT is a non-existant bid once 1d-2c is game forcing. 2N is unlimited.

Are you serious? I hope you are not. With 10 trumps do you you really want to play 3NT with Kx of clubs? Lead high heart to the Ace, return cQ, down 4 Lead: a club, dummy has KQJTxxx of spades and a signleton, you play spades, down 5 Lead: A heart (wow, you say) dummy tables AQJTxxx of spades, the spade finesse loses, RHO returns a heart, down 2. It's very very hard to visualize a context where 3NT is a better game than 4s.

Depends on your partneship agreements. I like to play 1d-2c GF a lot. So if you ask me: yes it is. Invitational, usually 11-12 HCP or very good 10HCP. As I said before 2NT. 2c, 1s, 2NT, 1NT or 3c depending on the hand. If you play 1d-2c as GF it is a good idea to play 1d-3c as INV with very good clubs and 9/10 HCP. So depending on the club suit, the intermediates and other factors you can bid 2c, 3c, 1N, 2N or even 1s if the other bids are not appealing. As long as 1d-2c is GF yes of course this is forcing. If 1d-2c is not GF then 2NT shows 12-14 so 12 or 14 are in the same range. If 1d-2c is game forcing I like to play that 2h shows a balanced hand with 4h and 3/4 diamonds. If not then it is a reverse by opener so it is strong. Sometimes with 3h as an artificial force. I guess you meant that south opens 1d uncontested because north has a clear 1c opening bid. No. I don't think you want to play 6d 1d - 2c (gf) 2d (shows 5) - 3c 3d - 3h 3s - 3nt pass

Let's start with East: While I certainly understand Free's comments I think that being Vul vrs Not a 3s opening can be something like this hand for many partnerships. So I'll give east the benefit of the doubt and assume his allowed by his partnership agreements to open 3s. Now what I really don't like is the redouble by west. East has a penalty double of only 4d, He can't double 4c and his double of 4h is doubtful. Specially being the opponents NV. I think there're a lot of reasons to suposse that 4s is making so west has a clear 4s bid. 80% to west for a silly redouble. 20% to east for passing 4c after pd redoubled, as Ben noted it should be forcing but in this particular hand nothing would have happened had west bid a sane 4s in his first turn.

1NT always show values so there's no reason to pass 1NT. It doesn't matter if double is right or if 1s was better passing 1NT is the problem.

I think I commented this somewhere else but there're other metrics that should be investigated to determine the strength of a relay system. Hrothgar's metric can be called shape-resolution-level is just one indicators. Other important indicators are: - amount of information per bid (ie: how soon relayer has enough info to determine what to do in case of interference, systems where bids are either a or b and then either c or d and then everything is solved are weaker than systems that can quickly show some lengths and points) - number of things that must be remembered. You can yell if you want but nobody is perfect and forgetting the systems is one of the problems of relay systems so the longer pd has to memorize the riskier the system is. - average opening level (pass=0,1c=1,1d=2,1h=3) then the average opening level determines the agresiveness of the system. And there're more things but I don't have my "Bidding systems theory" book here :-) Don't ask about the book I never published it.

2s or 3s depending on the system. If playing 2/1 2s is enough if not then 3s. I think that supporting hearts is a big mistake. Somebody said "4-4 fits play better" this is an incomplete statement, the full sentence should be "when you have a 5-3 fit and a 4-4 fit the 4-4 fit plays better if you can use the 5-3 fit for discards" In this particular hand we have absolutely nothing to discard from our hands. We can have a grand slam in spades with AK of spades and the hA and clubAce while for a grand slam in hearts you will need AKQ in hearts and the club ace and the spade ace and probably the sK as well. So it's clear that the spade fit is superior and the heart fit is just an illusion. Seems to be an easy hand. Luis

Hi lenze! This is not original, but "standard" double. You may be also surprised that 2♥ in same sequence is not cue bid but 5 cards ♥ and constructive, also standard. few people know another standard bid: (1♣)-p-(1♥)-2♥: natural, 6+♥, good suit, offensive hand, not cue bid!!!. After take out double your partner show support in all unbid suits or strong hand. So if he pull your double he must be with strong hand, despite opps bidding. He can missbid or forget that my dbl is penalty, but I never play with regular p way he made mistake, because if I think he did mistake while he didn't, I do more unpleasant mistake - not trusting to partner, why I play with him then? Mistakes are unavoidable, but trusting to p is obligatory in real partnership. I will bid 1NT: 8-11hcp, ♣ stopper. Misho At the local club when somebody asks a "what do you bid with...." question and the answer seems to be obvious I usually ask: "Oh dear, what happened after your normal bid?" So maybe it's time to ask: "Oh dear, what happened after 1NT?"

I think 100% of the blame goes to south. Let me explain why First of all if 2s is what you have agreed to bid with North then North is innocent as long as he is doing what the system asks him to do. Maybe there're better methods as Ben pointed to prevent this kind of accidents but I still think that you can reach game without complications even playing this arcane treatment. Having said that once we assume North has its bid South MUST be aware of the wide range of hands that North can have and act accordingly. Even with a stiff queen in clubs south has a 6 loser hand with 5431 distribution and excellent controls, as Reese said 5431 hands usually play very well. The lack of honors in spades, a suit where pd has 3/4 cards is also positive since pd usually has covers in the trump suit or 4 cards. So it's very clear in my opinion to make a short-suit invitational bid of 3c with the south hand. I think you can have even a bit less to make the same bid and thus South gets all the blame. Luis

1NT keep it simple.