Feegle

Hi Rik Take a look at your 'chat log' that is stored on your computer. It's in the Bridge Base Online folder. My file is called Feegle_chat.txt.

[hv=d=w&v=n&s=sxhakqt8xdjtxxcaq]133|100|Scoring: IMP[/hv] This hand certainly caused a 'difference of opinion' at the table. West opens 4S, passed around to you.

4th best The partner you draw in a high stakes rubber game.

Ainsworth The length of time it takes to get served in a camera shop. Hence, also, how long we will have to wait for the abolition of income tax or the Second Coming. from 'The Deeper Meaning of Liff' Douglas Adams & John Lloyd

Submarine squeeze An advanced declarer play technique my partner uses whilst playing a grand slam.

If I suspect I'm 'frozen' I look at the number of players who are on BBO. This number (showing how many people are logged on to BBO) is on the right of my screen (Windows version). It constantly changes as players arrive/leave the site. If that number freezes I know I'm in trouble.

Klinger outlines a scheme in his book 'Five-Card Majors' (Master Bridge Series) where he calls it 'The Multi-2NT Response'. It combines Jacoby and Bergen into one bid i.e. 2NT. The Multi-2NT shows 6+points and 4+trumps and is wide ranging. It means that with 0-5 and 4 trumps you must obey The Law and raise to 3M, similarly with 0-5 and 5+trumps you must raise to 4M. Briefly, opener bids: 3-original major, minimum opener and to play 3♣ game interest with around 14-17 3♦ game force with around 18+ 3-other-major and 3NT are used to show slam interest and a singleton or void. Of course this stuff runs to a few pages and deals with responders further bids. One advantage (he says) of the scheme is that either player can use 3NT as RKCB and thus rest in 4M rather than 5M if slam is not on.

Slothy makes some good points at the beginning of his 'essay' (on Drake's Equation). I found the following thoughts interesting: "It is entirely possible that our backwater of a planet is literally the only one that has ever borne life. The point is that if there were only one planet that had ever borne life, then it would have to be our planet, for the very good reason that 'we' are here discussing the question! If the origin of life is such an improbable event that it only happened on one planet in the universe, then our planet has to be that planet. So, we cannot use the fact that Earth has life to conclude that life must be probable enough to have arisen on another planet. Such an argument would be circular." [Richard Dawkins]. He goes on to say that we have to have some independent arguments about how easy or difficult it is for life to originate on a planet before we can even begin to answer the question of how many other planets in the universe have life.

'Suitplay' agrees with 'Scansuit'

Aberlour, I see you have the 'Dark Side of the Moon' album cover there. Sad to hear that Richard Wright (keyboard) died of cancer a few weeks ago. (Can recommend 'Pulse' DVD)

Hi This also happened to us. Partner was in last seat and passed instead of hitting the alert button. While he was searching out the undo button dummy was seeing all four hands. Maybe dummy could wait for the opening lead?

I think FD can be turned off by each individual player. Thus after FD has been activated you and your partner can (separately) turn it off leaving only the opponents to view the descriptions. I have not tried this. Unless an automated message goes to the table saying 'south has cleared their view of FD' it would have to be taken on trust.

My partner & I play the multi in the Acol Club. Ours incorporates a 20-22 'balanced' hand with a 5-card major. This means you don't have to open hands like: ♠Ax ♥AKJxx ♦KQxx ♣Ax with 1♥.

Some chap e-mailed the BBC and asked whether Greg was the only man in the history of golf that had just got married (Chris Evert) and yet managed to improve his game B)

Four graduates observe a device/contraption. The enginneering graduate thinks: I wonder how that works. The physics graduate thinks: I wonder why that works. The accountancy graduate thinks: I wonder how much profit there is in that. The media studies graduate thinks: (hidden text, though maybe a complete blank is better :rolleyes: )

Well, you are not alone. My friend/partner has started to experience the same problem (just in the last two weeks). Even when he manages to get onto BBO his 'system' is slow, too slow to play. Curiously, he is OK up to about 8pm GMT. He uses AOL. If he doesn't solve this problem I need a new partner :P

♠KQx ♥KJxxx ♦xx ♣Jxx Love all. LHO opens 1 Diamond, passed around to you.

Having returned to the game after a long gap my partner and I are trying to sort out leads against suit contracts. Our methods are fairly standard (?) but: Leading small (suit contract) shows an honour, but would this include the ten? I lean towards A, K, Q or J. What is best? With three small, is MUD still in fashion? What is a sound system of leads these days?

May I digress and ask you experts out there whether this is 'fielding' a psych? If 5!H makes is there a chance of redress?

Hope you don't mind if I ask a (basic?) bridge question here. Are you allowed to play different systems in different seats, e.g. on your convention card: Polish Club 1st/2nd seat, ACOL 3rd/4th ?

Thanks all. I checked what people (12 of them, Main Room) had chosen. 7 for double, 2 for 3 Hearts, 2 for Pass and 1 for 3NT (me). The double seems more 'flexible' but snapped on two occasions when the doubler heard 4 Spades and didn't have bottle to pass it. Ugliness ensued!

I don't suppose I'm alone in falling into the 'having my opening lead ready' trap. Cursor poised over the 'obvious' lead. Opponents make their final pass. PING, CLICK, oops. The software has shuffled my hand to put trumps on the left. I gaze, rather ruefully, at my bizarre opening lead. Do I ask for an undo? No, after all, it may be the only lead to beat the contract!! (I suppose this can happen in 'real life' bridge. A piece of biscuit you're finishing gets lodged in your throat. A coughing fit causes a card to fall onto the table. HH surveys it and "generously" suggest you take it back . . . . .)

[hv=d=&v=b&s=s6hakj4da985caq84]133|100|Scoring: IMP[/hv] All vul. IMPs. RHO deals and opens 3 Diamonds. I would appreciate some expert thoughts on this type of hand. In the cold light of day I'm (for what it's worth) leaning towards a swift PASS. At the table I counted my points and 'pass' went on the back burner, never to emerge. (Incidentally, I seem to pick up a lot of 4-4-4-1 hands on BBO).

When I used to play bridge at a club many years ago it was all Acol 12-14. I guess my partner and I had some fancy system to trot out against it. Now we face a consistant diet of 15-17 on BBO. Can you advise me on how to compete when vulnerable (playing IMP's). Are overcall gadgets still a good idea (or only for those who don't mind the occasional cricket score against them)? (P.S. Not if England are batting obviously).

It was a dark and stormy night. A night some thirty winters ago, and only four of us turned up at the college bridge club :P . My student buddy and two lecturers. So.....Rubber bridge (as against the usual duplicate). After about an hour it got a tad frustrating: passing throughout, seeing rubber after rubber (2-0) being written up in the THEY column. As further time elapsed it became quite funny. Eventually we changed seats, changed the deck, muttered strange incantations (.......... no, it was me cursing, I remember now!) All to no avail. If one of the lecturers had been a statistician he could have got a paper out of it. So, if I were to join a Rubber bridge table on BBO (can't actually, scarred for life) could the same happen? Or is the BBO dealer programmed to share out the HCP's over a (shorter) period of time. If so how much time (roughly)?