yoder

The BEST way to do this is when the table host crashes, the PARTNER automatically becomes host. Today I had still another case ... my host partner crashed, the opponent (ina difficult 5S contract) immediately took a BEGINNER as my partner, even though my original partner was already back online and trying to sit. When I protested, he removed me from the table and took another Beginner to play the hand. This kind of behavior is actually a form of Cheating that is now available with the change.

Is there any way to decouple the running score at a table from the hands that show in the movie? It would be really nice to be able to reset the score without losing the ability to see past hands. This, for some unknown reason, seems to be important to people. I, for example, don't like to reset, because I like to study the past hands when dummy. Others seem to think it's an insult if I refuse to reset the score when they come to the table. When I politely decline, many argue, and some actually leave the table and send me insults about it. Decoupling these would solve both problems. Ideally, the movie would remain until the table closed, and the table score would show to each person only scores since they have been at the table. However, any method to separate these two functions would be great!

In fact, now that I think about it ..... When the host crashes, his/her partner should always become the new host!

Lately I've noticed that when the table host crashes, the new host is no longer the next-longest person at the table. This creates a terrible situation when regular partners are playing and the host crashes! The new host used to be the other partner, but now it often becomes one of the opponents. This means the remaining partner loses control of the table and the new host may allow someone else to sit instead of waiting for the crashed person to return. This usually causes the remaining partner to leave, abandoning the hand, and the partnership has to start a new table. I can't imagine why this change was made, but PLEASE change it back!

I think you've hit the nail on the head here. Roland works VERY hard at organizing all the vugraphs. That means commentators, operators, setting up the connections correctly, and I'm sure a zillion other things I don't know about. On top of that, this particular event has been particularly difficult for not even knowing the matchups ahead of time, and add to that the large number of vugraph tables and sessions at times that aren't exactly optimum if you live in Denmark. My guess is that Roland's given up sleeping for this week. Still, he keeps it all under control and running as smoothly as possible. Anything that messes this up is bound to cause a lot of annoyance, even a player at the table who ends a session prematurely. So maybe this has gotten blown a little out of proportion, and instead of commenting on a situation we really don't know about, we should focus on how much good commenting and play we've been able to watch, and on what a magnificent job Roland does for us and for BBO!

Wait, are you saying that the big score losses were deliberately throwing hands??? They didn't just concede rudely, but threw tricks? If so, that's an entirely different situation, and completely unethical. But that's not what the original post in this thread says.

I see no reason why a team can't concede in the middle of a match, unless there are some regulations against it that I don't know about. The charge of "bad sportsmanship" should really be about HOW they did it, not that they did it. Any punishment should be on the individual players, not on the team, and it should be mild. I think if the match had not been on the vugraph, the whole incident would have been dealt with by the TD as a concession, the players mildly chastised about their manners, and the opponents glad of the extra rest. So why are we making a big deal about here?

Pay attention to the word "artificial"! This means any natural bid can still be a psych, and no local authority has the power to forbid this :) Including the BBO TDs.

I stand corrected. The tourney will be at 1 in the afternoon New York City time, which is in fact US EDT now. I trust everyone is capable of converting that to their own time zone. Thanks for the link, Walddk.

I will give a new lesson on another card combination on Saturday May20 at 1 pm US EST. There will be a short "Teaching Tournament" followed by review and discussion at a table in the I-ABC Bridge Club. :) Look for the tournament hosted by Lesson, and come join us!! Everyone welcome! :) ********PLEASE DO NOT REPLY, THIS IS AN ANNOUNCEMENT ONLY**********

Time to revive this. I will repeat my first lesson card combinations at 9 am US EST Thursday Apr 20. Everyone is welcome to play the short tournament and then join in the I-ABC Club afterward for review and discussion of the hands.

This is not a judgment problem, it's clearcut application of Law 75. The bid was explained correctly, so no penalty. If another director was available who had already played the hand, then I would call him/her and let him/her make the ruling, just to avoid problems. If not, then stand up, put on your director hat, and rule exactly as you would have if Mr XYZ were sitting in the empty seat you just vacated. If there is still an objection from the opponents, treat it exactly as you would if Mr XYZ were in the empty seat ... read them the Law from the Laws book. I actually do this in live bridge when this situation arises. I stand up and go get the Laws book, and then come back and make the ruling standing by the table as I would at any other table. When the situation is resolved, I put the Laws book away and sit back down.

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ I will be running a 6-board I-ABC Teaching Tournament today (Tuesday) at 8:30 pm US EST, and again tomorrow (Wednesday) at Noon US EST. The subject of the lesson will be Safety Plays. There will be a discussion of the boards and how to play them in the I-ABC Public Bridge Club immediately after each tournament. Look for Tournament #122 and Tournament #134 ! Everyone is welcome, and although the hands will be the same, you are allowed to play in both tournaments. It can be excellent practice to play them, hear the lesson, and then play them again, so join us and have some fun while you learn !! :lol: ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ ********PLEASE DO NOT REPLY TO THIS POST********

Yes, don't put your email address in your BBO profile. ;) Well, the problem is, many of us would LIKE to have our email address in our profile, so that legitimate bridge friends can find it, without it being exposed to automated capture for spam purposes. There must be some way to put it into the cache, perhaps by disguising the @ or some such thing that would make it unusable by spammers but still show normally in our profiles.

Ah, well, then I apologize and retract the statement “I am 100% convinced that someone is able to access the email addresses from the BBO server.” and replace it with “I am 100% convinced that someone is able to electronically access the email addresses from BBO member data”. I’m sure the difference between “the server” and “member data” is an important distinction to you, but most of us couldn’t care less about whether it’s the “server”, the “cache”, or the “dooflehicky”. BBO member data is, somehow, electronically, automatically, being obtained by spammers. Sign up for BBO and put your email in your profile, and you get spammed, which is really what this thread is about and what the original poster asked. Is there nothing that can be done about it?

Fred, I understand your concern and your sincerity. It would be easy enough to test out. I can make a new BBO account, with an email address that has never been seen before in the history of the world, and won't be visible anywhere in the universe except on BBO. Then we can see if spam starts arriving.

When I first joined BBO, I gave an email address that had never been used or seen anywhere else before, and within one day, I was receiving huge amounts of spam, some of it viruses, most of it just you-know-what enhancements and the like. I emailed support@bbo and told them about it. I got a reply assuring me that this couldn't happen, but the problem continued. I changed my email address in my profile to the same email but with a space in it, and slowly the spam died out. I am 100% convinced that someone is able to access the email addresses from the BBO server. It has to be electronically, because if it were someone just copying addresses from profiles, they would still be able to get mine. As long as I keep a space in the address (xxxx@ yyyy.com <---- note the space after the @), I don't get the spam/viruses anymore. I think it should be pretty easy to test this -- if BBO admin wants my help to do so, I'll be happy to give it. I can set up emails that have never been used or seen anywhere except BBO, and see how quickly they become spam targets.

You are mistaken about this. I don't 'push cards around' or shovel dirt into ditches in my free time. I use my free time to enjoy a GAME with RULES, and it is only fair for others to follow those rules too. If you think bridge is about 'pushing cards around', then you are missing a very important, nay vital, reason for being here in the first place. Bridge is a way to ENJOY one's discretionary time, not a way to kill it.

I strongly believe that count is at the heart of visualization, and agree with previous posters that learning count signals can trigger visualization in a way that nothing else does. I know, because it happened exactly that way with me, many years ago. I know a bit about cognitive style and it's very true that people differ greatly in how they learn and how they process information. I happen to be a fairly visual person. As a beginner, I knew how to count suits, cards played, etc, but I played with other beginners who had, like me, been taught to give attitude signals. Then one day long ago when I was still pretty novice, a very excellent player condescended to play a session with me. He asked that we play nothing but count signals, something that I had not done before. That one session of bridge opened up the entire world of bridge to a new level for me. Suddenly I could visualize what the declarer had, I could figure out what card to save at the end, I could actually COUNT out the hand!! It was an epiphany for me in bridge. To this day, if I can find a partner who likes to play mostly count, I treasure him/her. Count enables visualization, and as I have also learned to make inferences from play of suits, etc, I find that I can figure out where all the high cards are very easily from the play, so count is by far the most valuable thing that partner can tell me. If you have not played count signals, find a partner who likes them and do it. You may be amazed what windows it will open into the hands of the opponents.

My understanding of basic Lebensohl is this: After 1N 2Z (where Z is any suit) - 2 of any suit is to play. - 3 of any suit except Z is game forcing. - 3N directly is to play, denying a stopper in Z. - 3Z directly is stayman for any unbid majors denying a stopper in Z. - 2N asks for a bid of 3C, after which -- 3 of any suit lower ranked than Z is to play. -- 3 of any suit higher ranked than Z is invitational. -- 3Z is stayman showing a stopper in Z. -- 3N is to play, showing a stopper in Z. -- Pass shows weak hand in clubs (obviously). This all works beautifully except in the case where Z = clubs. In that case, you cannot distinguish between the two cases of stayman (showing or denying the stopper in clubs), so 1N 2C 3C is still stayman, but does not deny or show a stopper in clubs. Note also that there cannot be invitations made in suits lower ranked than Z. So 1N 2H 3D is forcing whereas 1N 2H 2N P 3C P 3D is to play. But 1N 2H 2S is to play, 1N 2H 3S is forcing, and 1N 2H 2N P 3C P 3S is invitational. Thus the answer to the original question of what 1N 2H 3C means in basic Lebensohl would be that 3C is game forcing.

Tonight at 9 pm US Eastern Std Time, I will run an 8 board Individual tournament to review the four card combinations that I taught last week. These combos will be scattered through the hands, so if you have been to the previous lessons, this will be a good review and practice. If not, it will be a good chance to catch up and learn them! The combinations are (1) 5-4 fit missing Jxxx (2) 5-4 fit missing J10xx (3) Axxx opposite Q10xx (4) A10xx opposite Qxxx The tournament will be hosted by 'lesson' and yoder will be the TD. After the tourney, we will gather in the Intermediate-Advanced Bridge Club (under Public Bridge Clubs) to discuss and review the hands from the tournament. Everyone is welcome!! *****PLEASE DO NOT REPLY TO THIS...IS AN ANNOUNCEMENT ONLY*******