HeavyDluxe

Happy Birthday!

Many happy returns, and all that.

1♠ seems automatic. Over 3♥. Well, I think the two areas I suck the most are bidding judgment with freaky hands and in competitive auctions. So, this sucks a lot. I like Kevin's plan of 4♥ having heard it, though I think I wouldn't have done that in the seat.

Pard has a big one-suiter in clubs. I don't want to force the issue. I bid 4♣.

3♥. If I'm going to get in the pot, I want to show my suit. I'm not planning to get happy unless partner does something fancy.

Thanks, Fred. It's not a problem to me, per se. Though some table hosts might be annoyed. ;) And the explanation makes a lot of sense... But it reminded me too much of work and my sadly dwindling vacation. :)

Thanks, Barmar... I know that is true. What I meant was when you have a particular player's profile square up on your screen and click the JOIN TABLE button. In the old Windows client, the analogous button would tell you if that table was 'permission only'. I have the people I like to kibitz marked as friends, so I'm usually trying to jump to where they are rather than browsing through table listings.

Fred, Something interesting for the file... I typed part of an auction into a private message to a friend. "Hey what do you think this means? 1!H - 2!D etc etc etc" After discussing the bid in questions, I cut and pasted the auction into the chat line to complete it. When my friend rec'd the completed auction, all the symbols from the cut-n-pasted part was garbled. He's using the Windows client, so that may be part of it. Anyway, just wanted to let you know. EDIT - One other enhancement request... In the Win client, you could see whether the table you were trying to join was "Permission Required". I keep trying to stalk...er, I mean, shadow some players I like and wind up unintentionally nagging the table owner with a "Can Dluxe kibitz?" request. If I was aware the tables were privatized, I would just wander elsewhere. :)

Your call and why? [hv=d=n&v=n&s=s84hq98da9874cakt]133|100|Scoring: IMP 1♥ - 2♦ 5♦ - ???[/hv]

3NT

Stated reason: I promised extras. So, he bid 2NT and went off 1. To be honest, I wasn't too concerned about the 2nd hand. The first one was the one I though we hacked up. But, since I was making a post, might as well see if I blew it on #2 as well. :)

I was too, Matt. [hv=d=&v=&n=sa2hkq5dj3ca87653&s=sk4hajt76daq8765c]133|200|[/hv] re: Hand #2 That's what happened, Ken. I pulled 1NT to 2♣. I figured pard was likely to have 4+ clubs on the auction, and I had a ruffing value there. Even on a 4/3 fit, I though ♣s might be better than NT. Turns out pard had a 4333 (4 in ♠s) 14 count. and lit up over the 2♣ bid. I thought it was reasonable given his denial of a spade suit. Floating 1NT was clearly ok too.

Thanks all. First hand: 4♥ was what I bid. I guess my question is whether or not that implies something more in the tank. Assume that partner actually might have their 3NT bid. Second hand: No agreements beyond ye olde 'SAYC', so I assumed I'd bid up the line.

... I'll never get it. [hv=d=s&v=b&s=sk4hajt76daq8765c]133|100|Scoring: IMP 1♦ (2♣) 3NT ???[/hv] What do you bid? What would it mean? [hv=d=s&v=b&s=sk4hajt76daq8765c]133|100|Scoring: IMP 1♦ (2♣) 3NT ???[/hv] What do you bid and why?

Thanks for that peek at the roadmap, Fred. Taken with the requisite grain of salt!

Absolutely beautiful... Cardplay is just so amazing. Far less than go unnoticed by me, for sure... But this is what makes the game so fascinating to me.

Yes.

Drat, this is the first post on the forums I absolutely knew I'd get right, and DrTodd beats me to the punch. :P

*nods*

2NT when I'm depressed. 3NT when I'm feeling no pain.

Over stating your skill level may get you a few hands with better players before they either ask you to leave or find another table themselves, putting you on their ban list on the way out. I think being a great partner, being open to what your partner is telling you and working on your game is your best chance of ‘playing up’. Hi Jilly. I was trying to say the same thing as you. While sticking "Expert" in my profile might score me a seat at a strong table, it's not going to last long anyway. I just acknowledge that dcvetkov's point is reflective of the way some people think. I think it's an immature and skewed perspective, but a real one nonetheless. I think the big one is that any other system introduces equal, albeit different, challenges and complications to the existing model. If you want to compete for status, go win a tournament with a known partner of equal or greater skill. Otherwise, have a seat in the MBC and leave politely if your partner is a dunce (like I am). You know... I'm interested to know if we actually have numbers on how the self-ratings are distributed on BBO. What % of people list themselves in each category? Sure, there are admittedly people inflating their status, but how big of an issue is it REALLY?

Another non-expert response... But I'd bid 4NT, RKC for ♦s. 4♦ is my second choice. I'm opening 2♣ mostly with big one-suiters, right? So, I'd hope responder would suspect a 6 card ♠ suit anyway. Instead resp has pushed ♦s and I have massive, supportive hand. As is noted in previous posts, I'm betting on a possible 7♦ or finding a small or grand slam in NT.

http://homepage.mac.com/bridgeguys/Convent...aelsCuebid.html

Thanks everyone for posting those musings. It's helpful for me to hear you think out the call, particular when the decision is thin. So, thanks.

Saw something interesting today while trying to peek in on the BBOJuniors post-tourney table. I could view the table, but couldn't see any cards. I thought it was just an odd glitch, so I left the table and came back. Same issue. I logged off, flushed the cache on my browser, logged back in, and got basically the same thing... Only now all the names at the various seats were missing too. I could leave the Juniors table and visit others, all of which seemed to work fine. If this is a known glitch, sorry for the duplication. (Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.9.0.5) Gecko/2008121621 Ubuntu/8.04 (hardy) Firefox/3.0.5) Screen cap @ http://img371.imageshack.us/img371/7477/screenshotri7.png