movingon

LHO opens 1 club. Partner over calls 1 diamond. RHO bids 1 heart. You bid 3 spades. What is the 3 spades?

An update on my postings here on the forum from back in August: The player who I reported many, many times for suspected passing of UI to two different partners is now apparently not playing ACBL pair games. He is playing ACBL robot games but at least appears to have been either banned from playing with the two partners or perhaps banned from playing ACBL pair games entirely. I am thankful to see this. movingon (Noreen)

Yes, if you look up each hand individually, you can find out what the opening lead is. What I refer to is the ability to look at the Traveller for a tournament and see not only all of the final contracts at each table at a glance but to also see all of the opening leads at each table. Lead anomalies might be quite evident. For example, say that 25 of the pairs end up in a 3nt contract played by North and only one of the defending pairs makes the "killing" lead, one is invited to now look at this hand to see if there was some sort of an indication for it. OK bridge software added this feature to its software..... Noreen (movingon)

I would like to see the ACBL tournament software include the opening leads in each contract. (I believe OK Bridge does this). One hallmark of pairs that "collaborate" are consistently good/great leads. It would be good to be able to see anti-field leads at a glance.

"The validity of movingon's point presumably hinges on ACBL members entering ACBL tournaments, disclosing their ACBL membership, and then cheating and getting caught. I would be interested to know if the sanctions imposed by ACBL in those cases extend to live F2F tournaments. If so, given what they risk I find the alleged frequency of cheating (in that environment) to be surprising. If not, then why not? " Unfortunately I do not believe that the sanctions imposed here by BBO on ACBL apply to ACBL in general. I doubt that those banned from the site are ever reported to ACBL. I am thinking though that nothing would prevent any player on the site from making a report to ACBL on another player (not carrying much weight, perhaps?) The person that I am still reporting hands on is a big time ACBL point getter (over 27,000 points, in fact--earned both here on BBO and in live ACBL tournaments throughout the country) and even if he is ever eliminated from the BBO ACBL site, I doubt he will lose the massive points he has gleaned here. I only play ACBL tournaments, and my posts here apply solely to them. Most players who cheat are not good enough to cheat well, I believe, and they don't last long on the strictly ACBL site here. This fellow and his partners are very fine players, however....

After a report of possible cheating, the reporter is informed that a ticket has been opened and the pair is being looked at. When I make such a report, I gather about 5 hands (easily accessible through the My Hands website) and screen shot them to send in. Usually what happens after a week or two is that the pairis not seen further in ACBL games. Sometimes one of the pair is seen to continue to play but with other partners. So I then know that the situation has been handled. How I spot a suspicious pair usually starts with first hand experience at my table in an ACBL tournament game. If something highly unusual occurs I will note it in the profiles of the opponents and mark them (to follow). If I see a repeat "unusual" bid, lead, defense, etc. I will start to look at their hands on the My Hands website (that is, if and when I have time) and see if there is a pattern. Let me tell you, throughout the years I have been here and reported players, not ONE pair continued to play after my reports except for the pair (actually threesome) that I have been complaining about here. This indicates to me that BBO ACBL is doing their job. The first hand experience with the primary pair in this case was a lead against a slam that no one in the entire field found. The leader's right hand opponent opened 1 heart and against a 6nt contract he found the lead of a heart away from the Qxx. This was the only lead to set the contract (and, of course, his partner had the King). I discovered a number of other hands with telling bidding and leads after this incident. I am still sending in hands and expect the "investigative team" is still looking at the pair. Noreen (movingon)

nope no names

Yesterday I posted an update to my original post (see above) indicating that this person is still playing in ACBL BBO tournaments with the same partners and the hands continue to suggest to me the passing of UI. This post was deleted. Apparently BBO does not want me to post on this matter. I am once again disappointed. Noreen Braun (movingon)

More concerning is cheating in ACBL tournaments. I have on file about 15 hands bid and played by one person with two partners that I believe clearly indicate cheating. {removed} I have only been checking hands for a couple of weeks now, have sent them in and am hoping that I will soon see that this person and his partner are no longer here. We shall see.

so why not use it at the 2 level for invitational hands?

Thank you for your help! Somehow the mouse-over option was unchecked. It now is and I am back in full operation! Noreen(movingon)

I have always played Smolen after a jump to the three level after pard opens 1nt and I employ stayman or at the three level after a 2nt opener. A friend asked me why not use Smolen at the two level as well. ?? I welcome your ideas. Thanks Noreen (movingon)

Thanks... I will try to implement your suggestions.

I wonder if anyone else is having the problem with windows 8.1 in seeing profiles. It used to be that if one waved a cursor over the person's icon at the table (or anywhere else, for that matter) I would be given information about the systems, etc. and if in the lobby would see if the person was playing a tournament or in one of the rooms. Now, if I do that, nothing happens. And, worse, if I click on the person's icon, I freeze up and have to shut down my browser (firefox) to leave the BBO bridge site and then reopen Firefox and return. Any ideas? Thanks! movingon (Noreen)

Do you play support doubles/redoubles for the minors as well as the majors? What would be the reasons to do so or not to do so? Thanks!