blindsey

In Don von Elsner's "Jake of Diamonds", Jake Winkman is playing in a team-of-four. Each partnership on his team consists of one expert who knows the field well, and one p;ayer who doesn't. In what Jake describes as a "perfectly ethical signal", each expert will signal to his or her partner whether their opponents and their teammates are experts, middling, or lesser players. The information is used to determine how aggressively they play, whether to push for slams, etc. Is this really ethical? Or was it in the 1960s when the book was written?

Has anyone here played WFF n Proof? Thoughts?

And to think that bridge became popular during the Great Depression because it was so cheap. Just a deck of cards, and tables and chairs that could be used for other purposes, like dinner. Of course, people at that time could organize games at home without the assistance of a national organization, and didn't have smartphones. I hear that decks of cards are still for sale in some places.

I'd be surprised if there are any recent instances of bridge in TV shows, but here's a clip from the 1980s: Dr. Ackermann was an obstetrician running an illicit adoption program. His MO was to announce during labor that there were "complications" which required putting the mother under anesthetic. While she was unconcious, he would deliver the baby and have it taken away, then tell the mother it had been stillborn when she regains conciousness. One of his victims was a friend of Karen (who rams his car in the parking lot). Although Ackerman had gone into hiding, Karen was sure he would risk showing up for an important bridge tournament because she had investigated bridge players and found they were fanatics. I can remember, but can't find a clip, of an episode of McMillan and Wife in which the McMillans play bridge against another couple in their home. I remember that the bidding went to 7NT redoubled. Does anyone remember that?

I've read a number of good ones, all from the last century. Anyone know of others (old or new)? The ones I've read: At the Table, Bob Hamman The Bridge Bum, Alan Sontag Husbands and Other Men I've Played With, Patricia Fox Sheinwold Education of a Bridge Player, Howard Schenken My Life in Bridge, Omar Sharif

From the late, great Rodney Dangerfield: "My wife signed me up with a bridge club. I jump off next Tuesday."

Can anyone point me to a reasonably complete summary of this system online? Since I can't google one up, maybe something on the Wayback Machine?

OK, got the book, read the article. Briefer than I thought it would be, but it said what it said. Now to read the rest of the book. The bits on the development of the K-S System look interesting.

Interesting comment on Quora re Paul Heitner. The question was "What are some cool examples of two kinds of people?" The author apparently is not a bridge player, but worked with Heitner as a programmer. He mentions Heitner's bridge credentials in passing (enough to know this is indeed the same Paul Heitner we'd know about). But read the whole thing: https://qr.ae/pvHcMX

I see there's a book called "Bridge Master: the Best of Edgar Kaplan". Is "New Science" in this book? I can't find a table of contents for the book anywhere online.

Is this article available anywhere on the web? I can't find it. You'd think such an important historic article would be available somewhere. I've wondered about that. Hard to be very accurate with purely natural bids.

30 minutes of an apparently 2-hour telecast - Charles Goren and Helen Sobel in a national tournament:

SAYC is a specific variety of Standard American and there's no problem finding where it came from. I've looked at some online news archives and *apparently* it only came about in about the mid-60s, at least with a capital-S on Standard. Before that, it was used rarely with a small-s: "standard American bidding practices" (not System). I saw references to the Culbertson-Goren system (in the early 1950s), Goren Point Count System (later), etc. That's what I could find in the old newspapers, which doesn't mean I've dug up the whole story.

When did the term "Standard American" originate? As far as I can see, Culbertson's system was called "The Culbertson System". Did Goren come up with this?

Presumably Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon are still welcome.

Yes, it does. I believe you've found it. Some canasta flavor to it - 108 cards, picking up the whole discard pile. Thanks!

Interesting. I thought the weakness of strong club systems to interference bidding was well-established. Did Larsson say anything about that?

I get the impression that the teacher in the video was introducing rubber bridge to tournament players who all knew 2/1 - and maybe only 2/1 (at least very well, apparently they had some familiarity with SAYC, or at least SA). Not an unlikely scenario these days. As far as being the weak player in a cutaround for money - wouldn't the other players be happy to take his money, playing against him one time out of three and against him two times out of three? Remember the money game in Jamaica in Sontag's "Bridge Bum" (before Sontag got into the game)?

I'm getting back into bridge after decades away (and retirement) and just starting to learn 2/1. I saw this youtube video about rubber bridge (apparently there's still some interest!) Although the discussion of bidding doesn't seem to be recorded, there are some bidding notes visible on the screen behind the speaker during part of the talk. It says that 2/1 is terrible when there's a part-score on and recommends SAYC in this situation. Why SAYC? Isn't it enough to say "system off" just like when the opponents bid over one-of-a-major and 2-over-1 is now 10+ and 1 NT is no longer forcing? Or is that so close to SAYC it doesn't matter?

Trying to look at the Natural Bidding forum, I get "No topics were found. This is either because there are no topics in this forum, or the topics are older than the current age cut-off." So what's the current age cut-off? Can I override it and see older postings? Hard to believe there aren't any recent posting in this forum anyway.

These are two games I've heard of but have no idea what they are. "Reject" I saw mentioned in a USENET posting in rec.games.backgammon from 16 years ago. Replying to the posting is blocked because the posting is so old, not that I'd be likely to get an answer at this point. The posting said "I watched Tobias Stone, Peter Weichsel, Michael Rosenberg, and many others play bridge (and Hearts, and Reject and other games)" at the Mayfair Club. The poster used the obvious pseudonym "Phil Osopher", so I have no idea who it is. "Bagel" comes from Lewis Deyong's book "Playboy's Book of Backgammon." He mentions a group of tournament entrants known as The Dumplings who exhibited skill at "bridge, backgammon, bagel, gin, klabbiash, etc." I was able to contact Deyong by email. He said bagel was some sort of card game but he never played it or saw it played. Does anyone know what these are?

This system looks interestng (and at least we can, for a few minutes, discuss something Ukrainian but less depressing than the Russian invasion) https://www.bridgefiles.net/%D0%B2/ Not sure I get the references to suits being shown "via texas". Texas Transfers involve bidding the suit below the one you have to I'm guessing that's what you do here - all the way around (bid spades to show clubs?). Has anyone used or faced this system or seen it in action? Are there any records of hands played with this system? The write-up is terse and has no examples - and appears to have been machine-translated.

Recently retired and just joined BBO. I last played about 30 years ago and in my opinion didn't quite make it to intermediate, so a beginner (or re-beginner). When I last played Sheinwold's Five Weeks was the book recommended to beginners but I see now five-card majors are the norm with 2/1 played by experts (or less than experts?). Looking on this forum I see conflicting advice - everybody uses SAYC versus nobody really plays SAYC. So what should I be looking at for a bidding system? Oh, and I played against the bots here and stopped after 16 hands. Does it ever end by itself or do I have to end it? What if I'm playing with real people?