BumJr

Items have been sold.

I am moving and would like to sell my last remaining bridge books, pamphlets, and magazines that I found lying around tucked away in a corner. Two hardbound Kelsey books: Simple Squeezes and Double Squeezes (these were obtained from a library sale years ago). Three Granovetter GUS Series pamphlets: Booklets 4, 5, and 6 -- One of a Major - Two Clubs, One of a Major Bidding, and GUS One Diamond. Six Bridge World Challenge The Champs Booklets: Books II to VII. Six Bridge World Magazines: May 1981, July 1981, January 1982, April 1982, October 1982, December 1997. Nine issues of Bridge Today Magazine: July/August 2000, September/October 2000, November/December 2000, January/February 2001, March/April 2001, May/June 2001, July/August 2001, September/October 2001, January/February 2002. Seven System pamphlets: 1st IPBM Book of Bidding Hands, Cappelletti Over One-Of-A-Major Doubled, Doubles in Competition, Bridge Gimmicks and Gadgets (Cappelletti and Boyd), Defending Against Pre-empts, The Multi-Coloured 2 Diamonds, Summary of the Super Precision System. Everything for $25 total via Paypal (includes media mail shipping within the United States).

I use my iPad to kibitz BBO almost every day. Unfortunately, I find the screen layout in version 3.70 to be a huge disappointment. At least offer an option in the app between the previous layout (3.64) or the new one. In my opinion, the current screen layout that is forced upon us is a large step backward. Not enjoyable at all.

I played him for B, but he held A. I believe that partner should have been able to work out that I had no heart support and that 3C was a fine spot. It is likely that the HCP are pretty evenly divided between the two sides. Since there was no raise of 2D, partner should realize that the opponents may not have 9 diamonds between them, which means I could have as many as 4 diamonds (and any lower diamond honors in my hand are wasted). I have bid spades and clubs and figure to have diamonds. How can I have decent enough heart support to suggest that would be a better spot when he knows that we have a club fit?

Playing with a good player (one national championship to his credit albeit many years ago) you open 1S in first position with a 12 HCP minimum, 5 spades and 4 clubs. The bidding proceeds 2D by LHO, Double by partner, and Pass by RHO. You respond 3C and partner now bids 3H. Should you play partner for: (A) x KQxxxx x Qxxxx OR (B) xx KQJxxx xx xxx

The following information was posted in rec.games.bridge in 2011. It confirms what has been said here, but doesn't answer the question of how to calculate the checksum: DLM is the easier format of the two to understand. It uses the Windows INI text-based structure: [sECTION] KEY=VALUE KEY=VALUE . . . [sECTION] KEY=VALUE . . If you're looking to decode it, everything you want is in the [Document] section. The key fields you need are: From Board=X To Board=Y Board NN=<board data><checksum> There should be Y+1-X "Board NN" key/value lines. <board data> is always 26 characters long. Each character is an alphabetic letter between a and p, representing the numbers 1 to 16. Each number encodes two hand positions (1="NN" through to 16 ="WW"). Once decoded, you have a 52 character string of hand positions (N/E/S/W) that maps to a card deck, organised SHDC (4 x AKQJT98765432). eg: Board 01=jlifaelnecgmoldfjmcflinlap023 This decodes like this: j l i f a e l n e c g m o l d f j m c f l i n l a p SE SW SN EE NN EN SW WE EN NS ES WN WS SW NW EE SE WN NS EE SW SN WE SW NN WW And now you have the mapping between hands and cards. I didn't work out the checksum (but I know both the board data and board number are incorporated), but that's only critical if you're trying to _write_ a DLM file.

Playing XYZ, what should 2D mean (by a passed hand) in the auction P-1m-1H-1S-2D (2C would still be XYZ even by a passed hand)? Thank you.

From your post: "The most common game tries (and, arguably, the easiest) are known as help-suit game tries: opener bids another suit in which he can use some help from partner, with a holding like x x x, or x x x x. In borderline cases, partner looks at his holding in that suit and bids game if he has help (such as A x x, or K Q, or a singleton)." What you are describing is actually "weak suit" game tries, rather than "help suit" game tries. If you want partner to have useful values in the game try suit, then you would make a try with a holding of K J x or Q x x or something similar. Then, if partner has high cards in that suit, they are useful. When making a "weak suit" game try on x x x or x x x x, you actually want partner to have nothing in the suit. Partner's best holding by far is a weak doubleton or singleton which, if you actually have the values for your bids, essentially guarantees that you have the values for game because none of your values would be wasted, they are all working together. For example, A x x opposite 3 small is not a great ace. It is taking one trick but not promoting anything in partners hand. K Q (doubleton) opposite three or four small is a terrible holding. Five points for one trick.

I am not sure where you are getting your information. Kleinman used Bennion's Little Jack Points which was specifically generated using two balanced hands intent on bidding 3NT. Kleinman modified it slightly to reflect his judgement (similar to the kind of judgement that Kaplan used in the CCCC count, with respect to honors working together in long suits plus some value for 10s and 10/9 combinations). Kleinman refers to his count in his book, "The No Trump Zone." The Vugraph commentators use the KnR count all of the time when trying to make the point that a hand is or is not worth an upgrade/downgrade to a 1NT opener. If KnR is good enough to decide whether or not a hand is "worth" 15-17 HCP (equivalent), then it should be good enough to decide if the hand is really worth "8 HCP" in reply to 1NT.

The Kaplan-Rubens (KnR) evaluator and Kleinman point count (http://www.jeff-goldsmith.org/cgi-bin/knr.cgi?hand=AJ8+J965+Q974+82) agree that this is a good hand: KnR considers it a good 6 -- (6.70). Kleinman considers it a good 7 (7+). It is simply not a good 8.

I have studied the system. The developer is from Bulgaria (and many of the people who play the system on BBO are from Bulgaria). Suffice it to say that English is not his first language. There are actually many good ideas in the system. Perhaps the biggest complaint would be that on many relay auctions, the declarer ends up describing his hand so that makes defense a lot easier. I have been in contact with the developer and negotiated to help him write up his system in good English so that it will be comprehensible (it is very difficult to understand at the moment, unless you read Bulgarian! At this point, he seems only mildly interested in my proposal. If he decides to go ahead with the idea, then he will have a much better product and people will be able to evaluate it fairly. In my opinion, without a re-write of the English description, it is too hard understand his concepts. As to the crux of the system, 1NT is the forcing response to all 1 bids and if responder is strong, it starts a series of relays where opener describes his distribution, strength (based on the proprietary FP counting algorithm) and specific high cards. The system was designed for teams/IMPs. He is working on a simplification that will be better for pairs/MP.

I think I know GIB's problem. When I open your link in a Chrome browser, Google translate tells me that "this page is in Galician" and asks if I would like to translate it.

I would like to try the Free Robot Duplicate (IMPs) a few times before starting to join the paid games. My problem is that the game shows up in my list at about 4 minutes before game time completely subscribed already (10 players). Sometimes I press my refresh button for the Robot Tournament list every few seconds for minutes on end, but that doesn't seem to help. Is there any secret to being able to see the listing in time to get in the game? I have managed to barely get into two Free Robot Duplicate MP games (but frankly I don't like MP).