bluecalm

I think you really should be more open minded and accept that maybe your opinion is not obvious truth. Do you have any way to rate bidding systems ? As for your argument about pairs playing at Bermuda Bowl. I am too lazy to do analysis but I just looked at butler scores from 2009BB. And out of 20 top pairs 10 played artificial systems (strong clubs mainly). So if that's true that most pairs play natural 5card majors and in top 20 50% of them don't play that you can see what that suggests. Not that I believe this to be strong argument. I am just pointing out that your reasoning is wrong and your hypothesis about my opinion "funnily differing from the facts" needs some more work to gain some credibility... Cheers :)

It may differ or not. It's not the point. The thread is about why some people play artificial systems. I think many of them (me including) just think that those systems are better bidding systems. Maybe we are right, maybe we are wrong. It's not the point here. The point is it's our reason to choose them. I didn't state anywhere that most people choose bidding system which they think is the best. I only stated that SOME people do that. I hope you can see that's quite obvious. Well for one thing I know quite well why I lose tournaments. My estimation is that about half of loses is from bidding. It's true that vast majority of them are not caused by system but by lack of agreements or bad judgement decisions. Bidding is quite important though and once you reach higher level more important than cardplay in my opinion. Justin differs in his opinion. I am convinced he has a point when it comes to matchpoint tournaments with weakish field or maybe even strong field but I am also sure it doesn't apply to imps, especially high level.

Yeah it looks like it. I am asking because some things are different. I am also hoping that author have more notes/agreements and I can encourage him to tell me more about some sequences :-)

Is it your version or version used by some pro pair ? I ask because for example Greco - Hampson who uses simplified Meckwell play that 1C - 1NT is hearts according to their convention card.

Why ? It's quite reasonable assumption than advanced partnerships play the systems they think are the best choice for them. One obvious reason for the system to be the best choice is that it leads to better contracts and make opponents lives more difficult simply it's better overall bidding system. It has nothing to do with : "being different" or "going against the tide" or "messing someone's head" or any other option in the poll. I for example think that all wide range 5card major systems are a LOT worse than strong/mixed club systems (precision/polish club). This is why I don't play "natural". Which option should I choose in that pool ?

Where is the most obvious option : "Because i think they are better than "standard"" ?

My first thought is : "anything but spade" then I look at my cards.... still not spade but other choices aren't attractive either. At mp's it's probably H for me.

It too late to apply for me but I just want to say that it would be really great if you publish the analysis here in this thread :P

In polish club it's no problem, 2H = invitational+ with !d support as 1D opening is almost always 5+D. In better minor systems with dbl promising 4S well... I bid 2H anyway. If partner doesn't have anything in H, then D is our best spot usually (except 4-4 minors). If he has something in H he will bid 2/3nt and it will be all again.

I pass. I think combined chance of them not having/bidding a slam and passing to our 4H is just too much to miss.

You can't win if you pass. Clear 2S for me. I would open some weaker hands too.

Sucky system, sucky result. I don't pass. I don't like automatically losing to all the pairs playing anything sensible... If I hear 3C then at least we have more clubs than them. If I hear 2S at least it's major partscore and i have ruffing value. Anything else i can just pass and be sure we are in better spot than 1C.

Hi, We are looking for opponents for training matches. Example would be 25-50 hands in Main Room (imps or mp's). Here is what we are looking for : -opponents who have some experience as a partnership -opponents who try to play seriously, no random clicking "because it's internet" attitude please -opponents who consider themselves at least solid advanced players. -we would prefer to set number of hands in advance (25-50 would be great) to make for more competitive environment, like real match but it's not hard requirement. About us : One of us is gold medalist of European Universities Bridge Championship; We both played in 2nd polish division. We play a lot of online bridge together. If you are interested in playing vs us please pm me :). We are quite flexible when it comes to playing hours. We basically only can't play at nights (central european time).

Hmm, the whole problem of the hand is in deciding if that's the case. Rest is easy technically. Can you elaborate why you think it's "against the odds" ?

We have 11tricks on top unless clubs are 4-0. (4clubs in dummy, 3diamonds, 1 heart, Ace of spades and two spade ruffs). Which defender can have a void ? Surely E, the overcaller can easily have a distribution with 4 clubs (3-5-1-4) but he can't really have a distribution with a club void (4-5-4-0 but then he would play 9 from JT9x of diamond...). This is why I play ace of clubs. If E doesn't follow then I have decision to make : a)play for K of spades with East b)play for K of spades with West a) is very easy, we have a choice of plays, squeeze, finesse, whatever b)we need to have K of spades with W and J with E, then we play Q of spades and if W cover we have a squeeze again, because 9s is a threat. What is more likely ? Of course A beacause maybe E would pass with one jack in his hand and we need both spades honours in specific hands to play for b. So I play for A, I play top clubs, then Jh, then finesse clubs, then one more clubs. I can make my decision in 5card ending but if nothing strange happen (like someone pitching diamond) I will play for K of spades being onside or diamond splitting (show up squeeze is the best way i guess) I all look fairly easy so either I am missing something or the hand is rather difficult to play at the table...

I almost always lead the longer one; I think it doesn't matter much anyway but consistency of leading the long suit make it easy for partner to read hands.

Bidding : 4S - pass - pass - pass Dummy : 63 J7 AT873 KJT4 Hand : AQJT9742 Q95 - 85 We receive fortunate lead of K of diamonds. What's the best plan ? Some possibilities : a)throw club, play small heart to the queen; this wins if defenders are unable to play trumps two times without conceding heart trick we also need heart finesse; it fails every time RHO has 2 trumps and one top heart b)throw heart, finesse spades; this wins if we finesse works and we guess clubs. Clubs are guessable 50% of the time; 25% we win automatically, 25% lose automatically; let's say our guessing is a bit better than 50% but we lose with 3-0 spades break. The line wins about 25% of the time (depending on how well we guess) c)throw club, finesse spade play heart to the jack; This wins if if finesse works and AK of hearts is on the same hand or in some miracle case when we will be able to ruff heart anyway due to defenders not being able to play 2nd spade; d)throw club and finesse Th In actual hand I threw the heart and finesse spades. Clubs were not guessable. Contract was played on two other tables; one declarer threw club and played heart to the nine. The other one threw heart and played for spade finesse (he won but oppontents either misclicked or lost on purpose). Any ideas about the best line ? All comments are appreciated :)

I am not saying it's good or bad agreement but 3-4-2-4 18pc is not really a problem. Partner can just bid 3♠ invitational. I will bid 3nt with only 4spades and ♦stopped and if I don't have ♦ stopper then ♠ is the only game to play anyway;

Hi all, I hold : AJTxx xx Qxx xxx Bidding : 2♦ (weak) - double - pass - 2♠ pass - 3♦ - pass - ??? Now I have bid 3♠ hoping that partner will bid 3NT with ♦ stopper, cuebid with real monster and bid 4♠ with nothing special; To my surprise partner passed which was obviously not good for us. My question is : how do you play enemy suit after t/o double at this level ? Is it forcing to game ro just one round ? Same would apply in the bidding : 2♥ - double - pass - 2♠ pass - 3♥ All thoughts/comments/info about your favourite or expert partnerthips agreements are welcome :rolleyes:

"Undos allowed" should mean: "You can make an undo if your opponents desire to give you that chance". If they reject you can't do it, no whining, no complaining. Any other rule is just insane. I think the TD in op doesn't understand spirit of competetive games.

I love this approach. I don't mind opponents using FD card for remembering their system at all. I can get higher level bridge this way and enjoy playing more as it's always more fun/challanging to play if opponent doesn't make basic bidding errors in most basic sequencies. I also love default 2/1 cc as even casual partneships can enjoy basic bidding system thanks to it.

I found a crude work around which works almost as I want it to. Here it is : a)using find/replace tool in any text editor change all |pc| strings to |pg||pc| one in your chosen .lin file b)using find/replace tool in any text editor chagne all |mb| strings to |pg||mb| one c)write (or download) application which is always on top and use this to cover chosen hands you don't want to see. d)save .lin file with those changes on your harddrive and run it using bbo hand viewer, don't forget c) Enjoy :) It would be nice to have this functionality hardcoded into bbo viewer but for now if anybody else is interested in this, the work around works :)

As I think about it the one simple thing would be to just make it possible to make it one click on "next" = one bid/one card played and to make it possible to hide chosen players cards. I am sorry for bumping this but it would be the best training tool ever for me :o

There are guidelines on BBO. The problem is people don't respect them. Honest players face the dillema. If they give honest skill level other people will think they suck because most other people overestimate their level but if they over estimate their level it won't be in accordance with the guidelines. I am for example advanced player (I played in 2nd polish division and in many national competitions) but I play better than 90% of experts at bbo. Therefore I set my skill level as expert knowing that I am not as good as "real" experts...

Thank you very much B) I mentioned editing .lin files cause I thought it's the easiest way to make it working during the bidding. The best solution I think would an option "follow the player" where the action stops every time this player is to act to give some time to consider what he actually played and only this player's card (and the dummy during the play) are exposed. I got this idea from chess where common training method is to try to guess great player's moves when replying their games it would be great for bridge too. Unfortunately I can't see how to make money out of this cause I am probably the only player in the world willing to buy sets of hands of given player from all past vugraphs :) Anyway, thanks much for noticing my idea. Take care, Piotrek