Richardrls

why this issue? If you are going to enter a table in the main lobby, as a single player, you simply take your chances as to the partnership you end up with. Make the best of it. I do not see that any self designation has anything to do with it. If your new partner is weak or inexperienced, try to strength him or her with good example and good bidding. If he or she is apparently stronger than you? Learn from him/her. I think the real secret is to make a date with one of your more permanent partners and be done with this issue. Hope this helps.

This deal obviously sucks as to fit. As is the case with most very strong hands with suck fit, the bidding is always going to difficult and iffy, no matter what bidding system or conventions or agreements are in effect. I frankly would not have bid four hearts in this bidding sequence, simply choosing to bid five clubs, instead, and crossing my fingers to find a decent club split among the defenders. Hope this helps.

All bridge leads are suit driven, and the choice of suit is dependent on the objective to be achieved. This objective or objectives are simply based on the four kinds of contracts that one defends. the Hand in question is being led to a trump contract below the slam level. therefore the first decision to make is whether a trump should be led. In this bidding, dummy made no trump bid, thereby ruling out the lead of a trump. The means a choice should be made between the lead of a long suit for dink purposes versus a short suit lead for ruffing purposes. Given the six card nature of the open, the chance for a dink, say in spades, is quite remote. It therefore falls to leading the king from king doubleton. The think it has going for it that as a short suit lead , the lead of a doubleton is quite fine for low level contracts. In this case all that is needed for success is for partner to hold the ace of clubs. Hope this helps.

As a student of logic, you will find that logic formulae are either well formed or not well formed. In Bridge this translates to the issue of definitions. In the game of Chess, all definitions are in fact complete or well formed and can therefore be programmed into a computer. In point of fact, there are in the game of bridge a number of definitions that are not complete, and yet the human mind can deal with such incomplete definitions. A computer or robot can not deal with such since they can not be programmed. Some examples of incomplete definitions: Cohen's concept of the Freak Deal or freak hand. A much much older example? the concept of good or bad hand texture. There are many others in bridge...none of which can be programmed into robot software. Hope this helps.

Nick, The old 2/1 club has been renamed. It is now called the IAC Club ( which is a bit redundant) It is the sixth private club down the list. And, it is still private, which simply means you must first submit an email message to the folks before you will be allowed entry the first time...Thanks for asking :))

It is probably not wise to assume that the two spade bid was a "strong two" considering what you knew about this pair, and considering what the response was to your question. Should the player have remembered that his partnership was playing weak jump shifts constructively ? Yes. But that said, I can't see the director giving you any redress for your bid -- the decision to preempt after the amount of information provided by each of the opponents to each other will almost always mean a bad result.

That minus 1100 result should tell you something about opening such hands. 'Course I can't help but wonder what in the world your partner passed on to obtain that result?

There is really no way to give a clear, intelligent answer to the question, until you tell the readers what the nature of the partnership's four level preempts are all about. Assuming that the four level bid is simply a preemptive bid, such continuation of the preempt with this hand with adverse vulnerability looks like plain suicide to me.

1. Why would you open this hand? 2. Why would you redouble on this hand? 3. Why would you lead a heart when you know you can not possiblly establish the heart suit for small card tricks? Surely you must open a diamond to attempt to establish that suit.

Folks, I think some of us here are just mincing words. To have a convention card that is simply blank where it asks for leads and signals is to not have a card at all. The convention card is supposed to be complete, Right? And to mark a card so as to say that your partnership has no agreements on signals, is in fact to have an agreement not to signal. That is in fact an agreement. A partnership that has made such an agreement should certainly advertise that fact to their opponents on their card and probably up front before playing. Why the partnership would do such a silly thing is their own business, but allowable. My point is that none of this gives anyone the right to simply make signals to partner and when asked as to the meaning of a particular signal simply say "We have no agreements" and "Oh, by the way, we also have no convention card to offer you..."

I might point out, Blackshoe, that a player can always choose to ignore any agreements that he/she has with partner or as is shown on the convention card. That is the risk that any Declarer takes in playing the contract. It is also the risk taken by the defender who ignores his/her convention card. That is why I have two more points to make about signals in general: first, too many defenders try to make signals way more important than they really are -- they just aren't nearly as important as good bridge analysis; second, defenders' signals are of even less importance to good Declarer play.

My two cents on this...Last time I looked, the ACBL expected each pair to have prepared a Convention Card for use by the opponents, prior to play. Now this card does in fact contain a bunch of information as to what the pair plays in the way of leads and signals. I do not for a moment believe that the use of this card will explain for the opponents all of the signals that may be used by the opponents, but for 50 years of duplicate play I have found it sufficient. Second point, although I personally feel that even pickup partnerships can and should prepare a convention card to be used even here in BBO, I recognize that many of you would not agree with me on this. However, no one should in fact disagree with me that a regular partnership has no business playing in BBO without such a card. So...these two facts lead me to the inescapable conclusion that yes, the ACBL does in fact require and expect a regular partnership to have agreements on signals by virtue of what is said on that card.

PLease change your mind Cherdano:)) Let me tell you a secret but don't you dare tell anybody,ok? I only use that word "advanced" to lure in folks that think they are too darn good to learn about simple bridge. In actuality, if you make all the mistakes made by most bridge players, than you are good enough and in need enough for my lessons ok? Hope to see you there, Cherdano :)) Rich

As to those "funky rebids" found in the orginal book on KS, I am afraid you are going to be a bit disappointed. I do, however reamain to what I believe is the spirit of KS -- defensive bidding, with opens akin to those used by Roth/Stone, the disciplined use of control bidding, and scientific minor suit slam development. If that all means something to you, you might in fact be a better teacher for this course than I am B) Yes, I suspect that my treatment of Disciplined Standard American bidding offers a great deal for not only old Acol bidders but new SAYC and 2/1 bidders as well :P And, the series deals with all aspects of bridge, including lessons on leads, Declarer play and defensive card play. Finally, yes, all bridge players are welcome at any time in the series on DSA. Come to all the sessions if you like or only one of them if that is all you can manage...I will try to see that you get some information on lessons you may have missed. Rich

Hi Folks, this is a general announcement ( an reminder to some of you) about my forthcoming bridge lesson series on Disciplined Standard American bidding and a second series on Kaplan-Sheinwold :P : First the series on DSA -- This is an "Advanced Bridge" series lasting about 20 weeks. It will meet twice a week, on Mondays and Weds. for two two-hour sessions: The sessions will be duplicated. I will offer one session starting at Noon Eastern Time and again the same session starting at 6 PM Eastern time, each of those days. The Place? 2 Over 1 Club in BBO. You must send them an email requesting admission, ( please mention my lessons...) ,but otherwise it is free. The Second series is on Kaplan-Sheinwold bidding system. This series takes what you have learned in the first series and adds to it the material needed for opening 12-14 hcp Notrump and, thus, converting DSA into a modified form of Kaplan-Sheinwold. I consider this modified bidding systems truely one of the better bridge systems in the world of Bridge today. The KS classes will be held for two hours each Saturday, beginning at Noon.....same place. Because of the nature of this instruction, I ask that you come WITH A TEACHING/PRACTICE PARTNER. Any attempt to teach weak notrumps to a single player is bound to fail...I also stress that you will gain almost nothing from these lessons if you have not all ready received and understood the material contained in the DSA course, since we will NOT have the time to bring you up to snuff with the earlier material. These two series of lessons commence on the Last Monday in January 2008, thank you :P ) Oh, did I mention that both set of lessons are free ? :D

Some points that you might want to consider: 1. hand counting starts with the first bid and continues with each bid. With enough bidding, much of the counting is done even before the dummy hits the table. 2. To what end are you counting? The counting needs differ between the defender and the Declarer. 3. Often a complete count of the hand is really wasted effort. If the Declarer is doing proper planning before playing to the opening lead, many of the cards and in fact one or more of the suits need not even be addressed in the counting process. If the Defender is doing the correct type of leading, after considering the nature of the contract he is trying to defend, again many of the cards in the hand may in fact not even be of any interest in the defense. My point is that a complete analysis of the location of 52 cards is rarely of interest to the bridge player.

I think it is clear by now that the majority of us disagree with the Director's ruling as given. However, I do not see the need to call the Director's ruling as abusive or wrong. Any ruling by a director can be appealed at most bridge clubs I am aware of. While I am new to BBO, I would assume that it also has appeal procedures. That is the right place for a disagreement with a Director's ruling, not here in a bridge forum....just my opinion.

Hi Folks, new to Bridgebase.com, but taking the opportunity to invite all of you to come to Marbella Spain this coming October for a four day convention of Internet players from around the world. We have room left for about 15 of you folks. This will bring us to about 100 players for each of six live sessions of bridge. Marbella is a beautiful place and this is going to be the trip of a lifetime, especially with the very low costs involved. If you are at all interested , please feel free to visit the Convention's website: www.marbellabridge2006.com/ Hope to hear from you :)) Richard

A convention of Internet Bridge Players is to be held this coming October in Marbella, Spain. This convention has been constructed to especially benefit European players, but of course all are invited. The convention is non-profit with all registration fees going to pay the expenses of the convention. Marbella is a beautiful beach front place in the heart of Andalusia. For all interested players, please go to the following website for all the details: www.marbellabridge2006.com And, even if you can not or do not want to come to the convention, please register on the Marbella website's message board and drop a note of good luck to those of us who will be attending ;) Thanks, Richardrls