bid_em_up

1. Pass. I have enough values for 1N to make and two possible sources of tricks. If the opps have enough good hearts to make 1N a poor contract, I would expect LHO to balance. (I also will not be surprised to find partner holding a 5 card heart suit along with a doubleton spade). 2. 3S. With a partner I trust, 4H. 3. 3N. 4. Double.

The problem with double isn't when partner bids 4C, but what are you going to do if he bids 5C?? It DOES happen.

My first instinct sided with everyone else. After a little more consideration, I am not so sure that I still do, even though I find what was done to be repulsive, IF the facts are as stated. However, the further consideration also tells me that you may feel like you have a legitimate raise to 3S and why raise to 3S if the double is for penalty? If this is the case, I see no problem with asking what the meaning of the double is. I see no problem with asking the further questions, as such. It is only the last statement where you say "well, it must be a penalty double then" that is an issue. This statement was out of bounds, imo. You had enough information already, the final comment was totally unnecessary. As far as you are concerned, the double should be penalty after the explanations you have been given. But you really need to let the opp reach that conclusion themselves.

eBridge ran 26 board tournies for a long time as well. They were usually poorly attended, for a few different reasons. The times they were scheduled were not in the best interests of those type games (they were scheduled for 10 am on Sat. and Sunday.), and also because, people for whatever reasons, just dont want to commit three hours to sit and play. This has to do with both external (real life) commitments, and the fact that many online partners are not regular partnerships. How many people want to commit to 3 hours with someone they have never played with before? At least, if its only 12 boards, they are done in an hour and half. Myself, I would prefer longer tournaments as well, but popularity wins in this case.

Although West should know that East is likely to have 3 or 4 hearts, there is no way I would ever consider a pass by west to be a logical alternative.

I would not place cheating/collusion high on my list of things that I would worry about if regarding where I placed in an ACBL tourny. Why? 12 board tournies are crapshoots. With each board totalling to a little more than 8% of your total score, it only takes three or four excellent boards and average on the rest will "usually" create a decent result. Knowing this, I have found it is not unusual to find pairs with the "play for top" mentality on every board. By this, I dont mean making the best plays, necessarily. It is the mentality of doubling contracts that have no reason to be doubled, or bidding slams that shouldnt be bid just in case it makes. They are "shooting" for tops on every board, and especially in later rounds. While these types of tactics can (and do) work in shorter tourneys, over time it is much less successful. I would like to see longer tournies to balance this randomness out, but I realize it is unlikely for this to occur. I also dont consider this to be "bridge", and you probably dont either, which makes it difficult to do well in this type of tourny. I haven't played in many of the ACBL tournies on BBO. I do not know if they are run as four 3-board rounds, or six 2-board rounds. If it's the former, and you draw (much) weaker opponents the first round, you are better placed than the pairs that draw compentent opponents in the first round. In most cases, you can easily gain almost a full board (or more) on the field, just via this stroke of luck alone. OTOH, if you draw competent opponents who manage to bid their games/slams the first round, or defend properly, you can be headed for just another average game (or even worse), though you did absolutely nothing wrong. The randomness of an unlevel playing field can be quite frustrating. Personally, I played in a 9 board IMP tourny the other day scoring 36.62 imps in the 9 bds. Thats an average of slightly over 4 imps per board. Did it win? No. In 9 bds, this was good enough for 4th. First place had 76 imps in the 9 bds. My first thought? Impossible!! They must be "cheating". However, a quick review of the boards found the pair had done nothing unusual, only that they had been extremely lucky. Their opponents would double them in part-scores that make (and shouldnt even be doubled), or their opps would take extremely unprofitable sacrifices, etc.

While this is a nice sentiment, I havent noticed that many "top" players playing in ACBL tournies, so its really a non-issue, imo. Most top players confine their play to MBC games or team games, from what I have seen, and all allow kibitz, so are still available to watch. :(

Just curious Fred/Uday, Can you not prevent two logons from the same IP address? To the best of my knowledge, most people with multiple PC's at home will be using a router which (I think) connects to the internet via the same IP. No? Seems to me that this would be an effective way to prevent someone from logging in multiple times. Yes, there are ways around this (via a ghost IP address)....but to be honest, I seriously doubt most people have the knowledge to be able to accomplish the task.

Thats kinda what I was thinking....except it appears from uday's post that it was not actually BBO that was undergoing maintenance, but instead their ISP. If you have no ISP, you have no way of connecting a second machine....(unless you have an alternate ISP). Another possibility might be to ping another site (say microsoft.com) and see if you (BBO) gets a response. If you do, then issue message stating that BBO is currently down, try again later.

Ok, was worth a try. All I knew was I had not been on BBO all day long, I finally go to sign in at approximately 2 am and couldnt connect. Announcements in lobby or news are all fine and dandy, but they are dependent on the fact that you have logged in at some point in time that day to actually see them. I hadnt. B)

huh? When they have a 9 card fit we always have at least an 8 card fit somewhere. If you think partner has 4243 and we have a stiff club that gives them a 9 card fit. I wont argue semantics Justin. Assuming Mikes hand is, 5 hearts and 1 club, he should have a 4 card suit and should bid it over the 2nd X and there is no problem, imo. Therefore I suspect Mike's hand is 3-6-3-1. Nothing here says they have a 9 card fit. If he is 3-6-3-1, and partner is 4-1-4-4, then we do not have more than a seven card fit anywhere. (Note, he did not say whether or not he has 6 hearts). Now if partner is 4-2-4-3, yes we have an 8 card fit opposite 3-6-3-1 but I still would be inclined to defend and lead trump at every opportunity.

1st choice of rebid by N: 2♦ 2nd choice of rebid by N: 2♦ 3rd choice of rebid by N: 2♦ A distance 4th choice: 2♥....if you're going to lie about the strength of the hand, at least show the hand pattern. :P

In the second one, partners pass is clear penalty. Partner has heard you bid spades, and diamonds and with the X, you said you are strong and also have heart tolerance. If partner had any preference whatsoever, he would/should show it over the XX. Since he failed to bid here, he must be content defending 3C xx'd. I think the first one is less clear than others have suggested. I disagree with Justin that it cannot be penalty, since partner could very well be 4-1-4-4 and still make a neg X, nor do I think he can hold a 5 card suit as Codo suggested (he should bid the 5 card suit, if he has one). A more likely scenario is he is 4-2-4-3 with extra's. I would be inclined to leave the X in, since we have no more than a 7 card fit in any suit and the balance of power (supposedly).

I guess none of them were smart enough to use the Japanese's fax machine and send a request for help!! :P

Fred/Uday, When BBO is unavailable due to maintenance, can you change the message that a user receives when they attempt to login? Currently, you get the "Login Failed, please make certain you are connected to the internet" message when BBO is undergoing maintenance. If possible, I think it would be better if BBO is undergoing maintenance, that the user would receive a message that said "BBO is currently unavailable due to maintenance, please try again later". Thanks.

I encountered an unusual two suited hand the other nite.....unfortunately, the opps held it. :P VOID VOID AKQ10x AQJ9xxxx

If the first X was penalty, then all subsequent doubles should be as well, imo.

Get a wireless mouse with rechargable batteries (and a base for recharging). Or just buy rechargable batteries and a battery charger. My first set of rechargable batteries lasted about 2 1/2 years. In most cases, placing the mouse on the charger overnite kept them adequetely charged.

Odd, I would think 4♠ would simply say that I lacked a heart cue.

Mess up? Not likely. While the slam can certainly be bid, sitting at home looking at both hands, that is entirely different from bidding it at the table. I have doubts as to how many people would actually do so, when faced with the problem at the table. It actually appears (to me) that most feel it is just barely feel that it is biddable or can construct an auction to do so. Just because they are good.....does not make them perfect, and sometimes this sort of thing will still occur. Other things that cannot be taken into account in a forum are outside factors that may or may not contribute to bidding this particular slam. To name a few: What day of the Spingold is it? And how many sessions have they played so far? Maybe one or both are tired. (Or sick, not feeling well, didnt sleep good, etc.). Are they playing a team they expect to beat? If so, bidding this slam probably isnt necessary. It will be difficult (for most pairs) to bid at the other table as well. What board is it? Maybe they know they are way up in the match and dont need to bid this slam. Maybe it is early in the match (or the first board) where they know it usually pays (imo, anyway) to be a little more conservative in a long match. An early disaster can cause more problems later. (Although, this is probably less true for meckwell than it is for "average" players", they can get over it and move on). Maybe its close to the end of the set and they know they have had a good set and are running behind (or hungry....). Not knowing their system well....it is entirely possible they have some other slam going/control showing bid over 3S.

I'm with you on this. I also wish the software would retain any table notes used the last time I created a table. The software appears to do this during one BBO login session, i.e. you create a table, add some notes, exit that table, create a new table, the notes will still be there. But if you do the same thing and then log out of BBO, when you come back the notes are gone the next time you create a table. I would like for it to retain these notes from one BBO login session to the next. (What can I say? I'm lazy.)

I suppose it also prevented him from bidding the diamond slam as well?

Its going to be awfully hard for North to ruff twice after South wins the A♥, seeing as how he only started with two trumps and all..... :rolleyes:

Oh, thats nice. Since when is X by a 2C opener for takeout at the 5 level? (Or the 6?) How often do you think partner is actually going to take it out? After all, you have a big hand, its probably better to defend, no matter what his hand is. What if he takes the X of 5D out to 6C? Do you really a 6H/6S bid now shows 6-5 in the majors? Sorry, I fail to see your logic here.

This one's easy. 4th seat hasnt bid yet :rolleyes: It's likely to be his hand that preempts, or bids and gets raised by his partner. And there are still some people who play some semblence of discplined preempts who may not have a preemptive opener, but would certainly make a preemptive bid over a 2C opener.