USViking

Thankfully I rarely encounter people who try to spoil the fun for others by jumping to ridiculous 7-level contracts. It might be a less than a one in a thousand deal occurrence. A few days ago, though, I was in a tournament where not just one, but two pricks pulled the stunt at different tables on the same hand. [removed names] Does anyone have any thoughts on the case, as in collusion? I know administration always has a lot to do, but I wonder if it might be worthwhile to look into these miscreants' hand records. FWIW they amusingly both rate themselves as experts, while the unofficial BBO Skill site rates them as advanced, which means they are really intermediate.

Problem raised in OP is if anything worse. It might actually be occurring 100% of the time, as in I never get an alerting chime when I have the first bid. Does this only happen to me? Is there any fix for it?

For your information median US household income is $55775 (93% of $60000), and in places where it is much less than San Francisco's $84160, housing is also much less. For example, the median family income NC, my home state, is $47830 (57% of San Francisco's ), BUT in my home town Greensboro, the 3rd largest city in the state, I pay $503 monthly for a one bedroom apartment, and Google informs me that the average such accommodation in SF is $3382- 672% more. Otherwise necessities such as food and energy appear to be about 10-20% less here. Bread is usually under $3.00 per loaf, milk $2.70 per gallon, a whole cooked chicken $6.97, cheapest gas $1.899-2.299 so far this year ($2.159 this week). Free school lunch is available for students from families of four earning less than $31590, 130% of the Federal Poverty level. In the interest of transparency I should also note that student school meal income eligibility requirements are exactly the same for SF and Greensboro. However, this may be significantly or fully mitigated for NC students in general by a supplemental program. Although I have not been able to pin down full details, in Guilford County NC this program provides 28,000 students at 58 schools with free breakfast and lunch, regardless of whether they would otherwise qualify for free or reduced-price meals. (Greensboro is in Guilford County. City and county schools are separately administered, and I do not know if the city is also taking part in the program)

I hope you are joking. Only a real dick would even think about "flouncing" in order to prevent a fairly earned good score by opponents.

Many thanks to Stefan_O and diana_eva for getting the post located in nits proper paste. The issue raised continues ongoing. I know administrators have a lot to do, but I hope someone will be able to help out.

EDIT: The title should not specify "Opening Lead". The problem occurs on first seat opening bid. The your-turn-to-bid alert audio chime often fails to sound for me in the Free Auto tournaments when I am first seat in the auction. By "often" I mean the problem may occur well over 20% of the time when I am first seat. It never occurs at any other time. As a result I get removed from tournaments on a significant number of occasions when, while dummy or when the play of a hand is complete several minutes before the round times out, I am doing something besides staring at an inactive screen or following play. This has been going on for me since day one, for years, during which I have used at least two different (old, used) PCs. If I am doing something wrong in my options set-up what could it be? Otherwise I wonder if there is a possible maintenance quick fix by BBO.

No, no need for a second alert as long as I get a first alert, which I am not always getting. This has happened so many times for so long a period of time that I am certain there is a problem as I have described it, at least on my PC.

There often is no your-turn-to-bid audio alert during the auction in the Free Automated Fun and Free TCR 80 Automated Fun tournaments. The problem is most prevalent with, and may be limited to the first bid of the auction. As as result I get removed from more tournaments for failure to bid than I like to admit. (I usually join a tournament several minutes before start time, and then go somewhere else to do something other than stare at the screen and wait for the tournament to start). I know it is my responsibility to bid when I am supposed to and that it is my own fault when I am removed for not doing so. However, It is reasonable to guess that this happens to quite a few people, perhaps in many or most tournaments. If so, and if there is a quick fix for the problem then I hope BBO will consider making it.

I appreciate the hand diagram and comments provided by the other members. I will not be unhappy if BBO administration is unable to reply because I know they are always very busy, but I what I was hoping was that Barmar or someone might have time to tell me (1) if GIB is programmed to always bid over opponents 1st round xx (what if the 4-card suit had been a minor?), and (2) if the programming which led to GIB's 3♣bid might be improved. As for my own bidding I agree I completely missed the significance of the xx, and that my ensuing bids were awful.

Re #5553 Express- Free TCR 80 Auto 2014-03-19-09:32 (Sorry- I can't remember how to generate link to deal) The bidding: 1♥ x xx (GIB)1♠ p 2♣ 2♥ (GIB)♣ etc. Was GIB, holding a Yarborough, required to make the 3♣ bid with 3-card support? I also wonder about the earlier 1♠ bid with a 4-card suit.

Being Irish you should know the historical facts, but I have a problem believing this. Although the English hanged far too many Irish as late as the Easter Rebellion ca. 1916, I wonder if any 19th-20th century Roman Catholic (Arch)bishops were among the victims. I googled it, and the Wiki article on the Archbishopric of Armagh (one of the world's most preeminent, having been established by St. Patrick himself) which names all of the AB of Armagh does not mention any having been hanged in the 50 or so years leading up and including the Easter Rebellion era, as I think it surely would. Per Wiki AB of Armagh Oliver Plunkett was executed in 1681, but in London. He was canonized in 1975 as the first new Irish saint in 700 years. I imagine his reputation in Ireland is exceeded only by that of St. Patrick and that most if not all Irish who share his last name claim descent from him. That would be despite the proscription against sexual activity by RC clergy, Plunkett seeming to have been the kind of man who would have conformed to all the requirements of his calling.

Two generations later a sister of George III was shipped off to Denmark to marry their king. The King was literally a drooling mental defective, who cruelly mistreated his wife. She was temporary rescued by the influence of a German court physician named Struensee, who became for some time the King's doctor and the Queen's lover. Together Doctor and Queen became actual rulers of the country, embarking on a series of progressive reforms. Sadly the forces of reaction staged a coup. The doctor was executed and the queen divorced and exiled, dying young in England's German realms. The writer Norah Lofts wrote a heart-rending novel about the affair titled The Lost Queen.

Spanish Civil War Communist leader Dolores Ibarruri (aka "La Pasionaria"): It is better to die on your feet than to live on your knees. Ibarruri spent almost 40 years in exile after her side's defeat. When she returned after Franco's death she was reelected by the same district she had represented before the war.

Churchill's interlocutor here is supposed to have been Lady Astor (originally from Danville, VA USA, and the first female UK MP, I think). It is really not a very witty remark, more nasty than anything else, and I prefer to think Churchill did not, in fact, say anything so uncouth to a lady, despite their political and personal enmity. A far better exchange is this: Lady Astor: If you were my husband I would poison your coffee! Churchill: If you were my wife I would drink it.

Without looking it up I think Konigsmark was the name of the illicit love of the wife of King George I of England. If I have it right she was imprisoned for life as a result of the affair, and her lover disappeared, or was killed under suspicious circumstances. G1's reign as English King began in the 1700s, although he was King of the German state of Hanover earlier. I wonder if the Queen's lover and the Konigsmark of our OP were the same.

No sports predicion will ever be better than Joe Namath's 1968 Super Bowl III guarentee. Not. In. A. Million. Years. Not. Ever. None.

If he hadn't been so superstitious, he would have accomplished even more with his life, and there was much that might have been accomplished. For example, Newton's contemporary van Leeuwenhoek turned the magnifying apparatus inward, toward the very small, and created microbiology in the process. If Newton, who also ground his own lenses, had done the same, and applied his greater intellect to what was revealed, who knows, perhaps the Germ Theory of Disease would have been developed far in advance of when it actually was, with countless more life prolonged as a result.

Another irony is that Newton was an alchemist! He appears to have spent about 1/3 1/3 1/3 of the height of his intellectually productive life on real math & science, on theology, and on alchemy, leaving 1000s of pages MS in the latter two. Then in the 1690s he was appointed to leadership of the national mint where he managed a recoinage and anticounterfeiting activity, on some occasions literally going undercover in person as a detective (several suspects of his investigations went to the gallows). Getting back to the alchemy, it is a real shame Newton failed to apply his unique abilities to the real science of chemistry, which was just finding itself through the work of Boyle and others.

Sorry to have missed this earlier. As noted elswhere subsequently I was referring only to the Individual Free Automated tournaments. Those now come in three categories: unrestricted, 80% TCR and the new 90% TCR. The number of unrestricted have been reduced in favor of the other two. Unsystematic persusal of the completed tournament list of player rankings for all three categories indicates the unrestricted tournaments may draw more TC players per tournament than the other two combined, even though the unrestricted tournaments TC rate is only ~70%. If so wouldn't the relative popularity of the unrestricted tournaments be favorable grounds for restoring them to their prior frequency?

See post #31.

Although I thought it was clear enough in context, It is becoming apparent to me that OP should have specified Free Individual Automated Tournaments. I think my TCR for pairs and member-hosted tournaments is well over 90%. I do not play in enough of them to significantly affect my overall TCR. (All quotes below by Zelandakh, post #28) Previously addressed. Only Individual Free Automated tournaments are relevant to the issue I raise, and they are not one of the guideline examples.

Thanks for the link, but I don't see a definition for tournament entry.

Thank you for the information. The 80-player field is usually filled for Free Auto Tournaments, but in scanning my results for apprx. the most recent 48 FA tournaments I find only one where 70 players are ranked post-completion. Does your data inclide people who register to play but are removed for inactivity before they actually play a card?

Addressed. I missed the part here where I blamed anyone for my TCR. Now, I see that I have gotten myself into a position where several others are finding it necessary to gang up on me. One round of replies to this gang is enough, so I will take provisional leave of this thread. If some gang member follows up with something which seems to me to absolutely demand a reply he will get one. Otherwise, Adios.