fan13027

It's actually very easy to explore for slam. I start by using Ogust 2NT response. If partner rebids with 3NT (telling me they have a solid ♦ suit) I can continue to explore for slam using Gerber (4♣), any other rebid from partner and I sign off with 4♠. Of course if he rebids 3NT, it's not likely he will also be holding the A♥ or K♠ (or any other honor that could help me) because then he would likely hold too many HCP to be opening weak anyway. But none the less, the mechanism to explore is there. Worst case scenario by carrying on with Gerber to ask for kings is that you end up with a contract of 5♠ which is quite likely makeable if you end up being declarer and the opening lead comes from your left hand opponent. In fact, if you look at potential responses to Gerber (assuming partner does not have both aces - a reasonable assumption as explained above) then the only way partner can become declarer is if he responds 5♠ (indicating 2 kings) to your 5♣ king query -- in which case he has the necessary K♠ to consider at least small slam.

csdenmark - Thanks! A great idea, and I will check out that link further. Sadly however, the truth of the matter is that my partner is 84 years old and just got his very first computer EVER this past March -- specifically for the purpose of having access to BBO :P While he's made tremendous progress, the learning curve has been steep and we've only recently been using e-mail to transfer copies of the CC back and forth as file attachments. To be honest I'm not sure how well the concept of online "fileshareing" is going to fly -- will definitely give it a try though, thanks again!

A2003 - Thanks for your response, and while it DEFINITELY was helpful, I'm still not sure I understand -- does BBO "find the latest one" on their server or my local machine?

My regular partner and I have recently started on developing a Full Disclosure Conv Card. We each have copies of the file on our local machines. Does BBO keep a copy of our card on it's servers? If so, how do I force an update of that copy when I make changes? If not, then how does BBO know whose copy (on our respective local machines) is the most current? If we have identical copies and then I make changes (but have not yet sent a copy of these changes to my partner) and we play at BBO, whose version of the card will BBO use? How do we ensure that the most recent copy is used? Thanks for any help!

The suit symbols are documented in the HELP documentation for CHAT although I find the help documentation sometimes difficult to navigate. As far as I know this information is passed on as you suggested ... by word of mouth. I will attempt to give the explanation below .... The suit symbols are created using an exclamation (!) mark followed by the first letter of the suit (either upper or lower case is acceptable), thus .... !c = ♣ !d = ♦ !h = ♥ !s = ♠ and as for the smilies I know of only two ... the "happy face" and the "sad face" they are the colon followed either by ) for happy or ( for sad, thus ... : ) = :) and : ( = :) Best of luck! EDIT: Apologies, I just re-read your question, just now realized you ALREADY know the suit symbols -- thought that's what you needed help on. MODS if necessary or appropriate perhaps just delete my entire response.

As the topic says .... my dear old 83 year old father has just recently discovered and registered to play at BBO. He initially registered under a particular User ID but then a few day later decided he wants a different User name or ID. The new one has been created .... but is there a need to de-register or delete the old User ID? And if so how?

Hi, newbie here ... please forgive if this is a redundant question. The other night I was playing at BBO. Bidding was in progress and I intended to enter a simple PASS but I accidentally hit the ALERT button and then my PASS bid was registered within a highlighted box and I was asked to "explain" the bid. Rather embarassing to say the least, but if I accidentally hit the ALERT button, can I just unclick it again or cancel it in some other way?