Quantumcat

Why does anyone pay for GIBs if you can create your own tournaments? This doesn't make sense. If it's true I'll just play all my BBO bridge as tournaments and never pay for more GIBs ever again.

OK, I did not realise that. Here, it would be understood without saying. However if I was called into the club to play with an old lady, then I would be sure to have four cards for my raise. A few years ago on the first board of the night I raised with 3 and the old lady was almost in tears by the time she finished playing her four heart contract (hearts broke 5-1 and defenders were good) so I have made sure not to do that again. In regards to your given hand, you are free to bid 1NT instead of raise whenever you think you'd rather play in 3NT than 4-major with an 8-card fit. People lie about their trumps all the time if they think NT would be a better contract (e.g. not using stayman with 4333, or not raising partner's minor if a notrump bid looks at all feasible).

1,2,3 Ok, I understand, all fair points. 4. Everyone thinks it likely that partner has a good hand. If the opponents have a diamond fit and not a spade fit, then partner would have made a take-out double, or overcalled 1♠ or 2♣ (when he has 5 clubs 4 spades and 2-3 bad hearts so he doesn't want to make a take-out double). If it turns out that partner does not have a good hand (so he might not bid with the shapes described), then they probably have a better contract available which they'll find, if it turns out they do not have any good fits then we don't either, they can punish us in a bad-fitting trump suit or punish 1NT if it's their hand. 5. If you have a well-defined range that includes 10 - say, 10-12 - then you have no bid with balanced 13-15's, and those are the hands you are not going to want to pass out, unlike this one. If you have a wide range, like 10-14 (and double and rebid NT with 15-18 or so), then partner always has to guess what end of the range you're on and you will at least sometimes miss games or get too high. So either you are outright lying (with the usual 12-14 range) or (with a 10-14 range) you just hope that today partner is depressed and feels very pessimistic about everything. And you also hope next hand you don't pick up a nice 13 count and have the same sort of auction!

Nigel's 2nd paragraph is good advice. Always have a reason for the cards you play. Just try to think of one situation to start with and figure out what card will win. Eventually you'll get faster at this visualisation/analysis combination and you'll be able to think up more hands in the same amount of time. As long as you have a reason for the card you play, then if you get it wrong you'll have material to think about, whereas if you just follow a rule you won't ever be able to improve what you did if the rule was wrong. If you can get a partner better than you, it is easier to improve. Then you can trust all of his signals. (if you don't know what the right defence is, you can either obey his suit preference card or simply follow along with his defence, then later he can explain why he chose that defence - whereas if you have to come up with the defence yourself or you trust your partner to, you won't really be able to figure out what you were supposed to think about or even if it was possible to defeat the contract anyway).

Not the leading conventions I was thinking about, but learning to work on a long and weak suit first rather than cash your aces and kings, drawing trump, and figuring out how to ruff losers and take finesses. These are things you can figure out without being taught. Bidding, on the other hand, requires a lot of conventions - you wouldn't figure out HCP by yourself for instance, so you wouldn't be able to work out what was an opening hand and what wasn't except by feel. You probably wouldn't even work out the concept of an "opening hand" by yourself - maybe the weak hands open and the strong ones don't, and you pass an opening unless you have a strong hand? It would also take a lot of play before you realised that having eight trumps is a good idea - you can work out by "feel" you need more than the opponents, but do you need seven or ten? You wouldn't even know that it is very unlikely to have a ten card fit so that isn't what bidding is looking for! Etc etc etc.

No one seems to have noticed that you have length in the opponent's suit. Bidding can only lead to bad things: 1. Partner think you have more HCP that you do and you go down in a contract. 2. The opponents play in 2♠. Wouldn't you much rather score plus 50 or 100 than minus 50, 100 or 110?

Yeah you are right - I was thinking when you have a weak hand. I guess in this case we will still bid 3♥ and when pard bids 3♠ (meaning previously described) or 3NT (whatever this shows - extras?) then bidding 4-minor next probably shows this hand - if you had extra diamonds or clubs you would have bid 3♣/3♦ over 2♠ so it should be a cue-bid for hearts? With an in-tune partnership perhaps 4♥ shows cue-bids in both minors - so pard does not get unduly discouraged when he holds no control in the minor you didn't cue-bid.

I thought commentators went out of their way to show that they didn't look at the double-dummy analysis - for example they say "a kib has pointed out to me such and such from double dummy analysis" when it was actually them that looked at it. And anyway taking double-dummy analysis off the new BBO won't stop them from just using the old BBO, and it has been repeated many times all over the place that old BBO isn't going to ever be switched off or anything.

Three-card raises are completely sound. For the price of occasionally playing 2-major in a 4-3 fit (which is sometimes better than 1NT anyway) you remove ALL headaches for responder when he has a five-card suit and a good hand. You will also end in an 8-card partscore fit instead of a 7-card fit or 1NT every time responder has five cards in his major and a weak hand (can give you examples if you ask). You only need to be afraid of 4-3 2-major fits when you are a really really bad declarer, or just haven't had much practice at them. The latter can be easily remedied, and very few people would truly fit the former. Think of it this way. Jacoby transfers over 1NT have SO many benefits that the prospect of occasionally playing in a 5-2 fit is certainly not grounds for choosing to not transfer with "only" a 5 card major suit with a weak hand. And not grounds for opener to bid 2NT anytime he has only 2 cards in the major.

Everyone wants to play against/with people better than themselves - I was thinking "find me a game" will take you to a table where the average rating is +/- a small amount near your own. Since you don't know the ratings of players you shouldn't be able to tell whether they are bit above or a bit below you. New users can just be taken to a random table as per usual.

Most clubs here in Australia use Paul Marston's "Introduction to Bridge". Probably the reason most beginner bridge books don't teach cardplay is that it is something you can figure out for yourself, unlike bidding.

In the second one, he obviously liked his void given he showed it after Blackwood, but he didn't like it enough on the previous round to bid 4♠?

Most people don't open 2♣ with freak hands that have lots of tricks but low (relatively) on HCP. It has probably been hard-coded that GIB needs a minimum HCP to consider 2♣ as an opening (maybe 19).

1♠ is easy on number 1. Not really sure about hand 2. Hand 3 is an easy 3♥, we already denied three cards and we have none of the other options. If pard wants a half a stopper, he will bid 3♠ next, then I can bid 3NT. Usually rebidding 4th suit forcing shows a natural suit, but here we have raised hearts so if he did have a natural spade suit, he will have six hearts also and wouldn't bother showing his five spades since he has already found a fit.

Since 3NT really does sound like solid long clubs (I would have opened 2NT and borne the blame if responder had 5/5 majors), you could always rebid 3♦. This sounds like a very good hand without 3 hearts and without a diamond stopper and without long clubs, but responder can bid 3♥ which you can raise, 3♠ (just values presumably) over which you can bid 3NT (showing something similar to your actual hand although maybe with singleton spade or heart), and if responder happens to bid 4♣ you can bid 5♣ which is probably a good contract if responder can't bid 3♥ or 3♠. Or if you decide you want to look for slam you can try 4♦ which will probably show the same hand as the 3NT rebid over a 3♠ bid by responder (if it's not keycard that is).

You can always bid the opponent's suit with a strong hand. So if the 2♣ bidder doesn't think there is game opposite the limited 2♥ (whatever the limit actually is) then he should be allowed to pass.

I pass it out. You have length in the opponent's suit. If pard has a good hand, he also has length in the opponent's suit. Defend. Even if you are making some number of notrumps, if you bid then pard is going to get over-excited and you will end up in too high of a contract when you could have gotten an almost guaranteed positive from defending. If you had a solid 1NT bid (12-14 or whatever your personal range is) that is fine, because then when pard bids 3NT or invites you have a decent shot at making it.

It certainly helps to get a reputation as a good partner - I know a guy who is probably about the same skill level as me, but he gets REALLY good partners for any event he wants (partners that win nationals easily --- if he was playing with peers he would be happy finishing in the top quarter), simply because he is so nice and so pleasant to be around. He is basically a sponsor but pays with charm instead of money. Takes a few years to work up a reputation like that but every journey begins with a single step!

Masterpoints are an OK rating system - you have to win or place to get any, so the 8s 9s and Ts must have won or placed in a large number of tournaments. But of course you can't tell whether they came third in x number of tournaments or won x/5 tournaments. And the 2s and 3s, you can't tell if they have played loads and loads and only placed in a few, or haven't played many at all but won all the ones they've played in. But at least you can say for the 8s 9s and Ts that they must have a certain minimum skill level, since it would be cost-prohibitive to become a T if you didn't win or place in a large proportion of your tournaments. My personal opinion on ratings - I think every player should have a rating but nobody can see theirs or anyone else's. Then these ratings are only used for the "find me a game" feature. If nobody knows their rating or has the slightest idea how they are generated, there won't be cheating to try to raise the rating (no one would even know how to, and even if they did it would go back down again when they played normally), and people can't get refused a seat at a table based on their rating. It would be even better if the ratings were kept in an encrypted database so nobody can hack the site to obtain them. I feel proud of managing to get a post into a BBOSkill thread since they always get locked or deleted eventually :-)

I know this is an old thread, but I used to be able to look at double-dummy analysis with GIB while watching vugraphs on the old BBO, and can't find the option on the new BBO. I did a thread search to see if there was already an answer, but it seems there isn't. Can someone point me towards the appropriate button? Thank you.

He should have a weak hand with five trumps, or maybe four trumps and a singleton. Something like: ♠98632 ♥J2 ♦Q83 ♣K62 or, ♠9632 ♥4 ♦Q762 ♣A973 If you increased either of the HCP in those hands, once it reached about 9, he would be good enough for a 3♦ bid (showing an invitational raise or better), and in the second hand, if you raised it to about 12+ he would have enough for a 4♥ splinter. There is a way of deciding whether you have enough power for a trump slam when one of you has a shortage. The other person counts 2 points for their ace in that shortage and no points for any other card in that suit. If you have a total of 26, you can probably make a slam. Let's give pard the best possible hand, 8 HCP and a shortage: If pard's shortage is in hearts, you have 8 + 12 = 20. Not nearly enough, plus QJ trumps wastage. If pard's shortage is in clubs, you have 8 + 17 = 25. Not quite enough. Also, the doubleton is wastage, as is the QJ of trumps (you'd be way better off if they were in hearts). If pard's shortage is in diamonds, that is complete wastage, not even worth considering. So under best case scenario you still don't have enough, even if you moved your high cards around so there was less wastage. And don't forget he might have a balanced yarborough with five spades, you might end up being grateful to make 4♠ (imagine he has 3 small hearts and no aces - you won't make 4♠).

Both very natural and simple: 1♠ 1NT 3♠* 4♦ 5♣ 6♠ *=strong invite, and setting trump 1♠ (2♦) 3♣* (4♦) 4♥ (pass) 5♦ (pass) 6♥ *=shows hearts, weak or gameforce

I recognise this hand from BridgeMaster.

You should check with your partner before doing so, but nearly everyone raises a major-suit response with three cards. It goes like this: Raising a 1-level major-suit response directly shows 11-14(15), three or four card support: 1♣ 1♥ 2♥ Jump-raising a 1-level major-suit response shows about 15-17, four card support: 1♣ 1♥ 3♥ Bidding something else, then raising later shows about 16-18 (maybe a good 15), three card support: 1♣ 1♥ 1♠ 1NT 2♥ How does responder deal with the uncertainty of not knowing whether there is an eight-card fit or not? Very simple: With a balanced game hand (with four trumps) he rebids 3NT. Opener can pass (with three trumps) or bid 4-major (with four): 1♣ 1♥ 2♥ 3NT pass (three trumps) Or, 1♣ 1♥ 2♥ 3NT 4♥ (four trumps) With a balanced invitational hand (with four trumps) he rebids 2NT. Opener can pass if not accepting with 3 trumps, he can bid 3-major if not accepting with four trumps, he can bid 3NT if accepting with 3 trumps, or bid 4-major if accepting with four trumps: 1♣ 1♥ 2♥ 2NT pass (bad hand three trumps) Or, 1♣ 1♥ 2♥ 2NT 3♥ (bad hand four trumps) Or, 1♣ 1♥ 2♥ 2NT 3NT (good hand three trumps) Or, 1♣ 1♥ 2♥ 2NT 4♥ (good hand four trumps) With less than an invitation, responder passes with four or five trumps. With an invitational hand and five trumps, responder bids 3-major to which opener may pass or bid 4-major. With a game hand and five trumps responder bids the obvious 4-major. With an unbalanced hand and invitation or better but four trumps responder may bid a new suit, or raise partner's with just an invitational hand.

Each account getting limited free tourneys is an excellent idea - nobody can hog the free tourneys and new players will have a half decent chance of getting to try tourneys out. You're right that they have a very profitable system currently, but even if introducing subscriptions (in addition to pay-per-play options) meant they got less money per player, the extra volume of players would make up for it and they should end up making more money overall. Of course I am no economist, it's only a layperson's guess, it's possible they have already thought through this and decided against it.