hotShot

I used to think that bidding (system/conventions) was very importent to get good results. But after playing at BBO for quite a while now, mostly with pickup partners who often don't speak a language that i speak as well, i tell you that declarer play, defence and leads is much more importent.

Your p can hardly have any HCP, and he will have a lot of ♠, dbl and try to beat them at least once.

Dear Fluffy, you should reconsider opening that hand. It is most likely that you are prempting your partner. With 37 HCP out, your p will usually have 12 and there is a good chance that he will bid even if your LHO opens. With your hand, you can aford to wait, since you can always bit 3,4,5,6♦ , when it is your turn to bid again. But then you know, if your partner is "strong" or not.

Have a look at the next tourney of the "Walddk 2/1 club" and pick names :), this should give you a list of possible 2/1 partners.

You can choose one of the following ways: 1) using transfer 1NT - 2♥ (transfer) 2♠ - 3 o r4♥ depending on strength Now partner can pick the fit. 2) using Stayman 1NT - 2♣ (stayman) if partner has a 4 card Major no problem 2♦ - 2♥/2♠ (now showing at least 5-4) partner will usually not pass (unless you play very weak Stayman) then rebid the other suit 3) Agree on bids at 3 level, that shows weak/strong 5-5 Major hands.

An accurate rating system would not force you to avoid novice partners; your rating (if it was accurate) would not go down as a result of playing with novices. If the rating system would avard you for winning against novices, then it is flawed. Wenn you play with a novice parnter against novices, and the rating system knows.that you are a better player, it should not improve your rating. But it should downgrade your rating, if you start loosing against novices.

Well those rubber-bridge-rules were right, when tricks were thrown together and people shuffled themselfs. If a finesse did not work last hand, it is very likely that the two cards had been glued together and the finesse will not work this hand too. If they apply to computer dealt hands, there is something wrong with the programm.

If WEST produces the 2 over the 7, you should call the TD because it's EAST's turn to play a card. It would be nice to know what card West put into the first trick, and if East has a second card (J) over the 7.

The nasty distributions are just more memorable ......

2♥ is strong and forcing (unlimited), should be short in ♥ or stronger. 3NT now shows a minimum hand with ♥ stopper. I dislike both bids, but i need to know: What would 1♦ - 1♥ - dbl mean and what would 1♦ - 1♥ - 2NT show. I assume dbl would need at least 4♣'s, and 2NT should have a better ♥'s. Overall 2♥ seems to be acceptable. 3 NT is a bad bid, P gave a forcing bid, to know more about your hand. Bidding NT is a limiting bid, even with a jump to game, the hand is to strong for that. What would 3♥, 4♦, 4♣ and 4[NT] mean in your system?

First of all it is importent to know if partner promisses 5-5, 5-4 or 4-5 distribution. If P has a 5-5 distribution, he has got only 3 cards in the other suits left. This means (Asuming he holds 2-1 and not 3-0) that only AK-A = 11 hcp of the 20 hcp in those suits keep valuable. The other 9 hcp are irrelevant, and if nether you nor your partner holds then, you can invite for game. If your side holds 10 cards in a suit, it is most likely that opponents Q and J will be of no value after all. All the hands that you show, loose little to nothing of their value. First hand it's eather 1 or 2 hcp, second looses nothing, third hand the !CQ is lost. The hand of the 1NT opener might loose a lot. Additionaly knowing who holds the high cards, and that the NT opener has to have 2+ cards in every suit helps a lot to make a game plan.

The forum is working with a coockie based authentication, so if you have trouble this must be the reason. Maybe one of the latest "security updates" changed the setting, since it is a good idea to allow coockies, from any site.

You are right, Todd, it's not freeware.

Copy the following code to a txt file, ans save it to the okscript scripts directory. It should be names "something.oks". Warning! Ignore it, if you don't changed the default. You should not have the BBO "keyboard bidding and play option" active. BUTTON HiALL BLACK "Bridge Base Online" Hi all! {enter} BUTTON glP BLACK "Bridge Base Online" glp {enter} BUTTON tyP BLACK "Bridge Base Online" ty p{enter} BUTTON Pairs BLACK "Bridge Base Online" Hi opp's, good luck and have fun! SAYC here {enter} NEWLINE BUTTON 1NT BLACK Explain 15-17 balanced{enter} BUTTON 2NT BLACK Explain 20-22 balanced{enter} BUTTON XFER BLACK Explain transfer{enter} BUTTON XXFER BLACK Explain executed transfer{enter} NEWLINE Now start okscript, and use "something.oks". Move th OKScript window, where it is not coverd by the BBO window later. Log in to BBO open a table and try to Press the "Button" that has "HiALL" on it. Explanation: BUTTON creates a Button in the OKS run script Window. HiALL/glP/or whatever you write will be on the Button. The text on the button will apear in BLACK/RED/GREEN as you say. Text, this text is send to the WINDOW that has "Bridge Base Online" in its title. Text to display {enter} as if you pressed the Enter key. The text will apear as if you had written it at the keyboard. If someone clicked on your bid, the litte window to type the explanation in is named "Explain" so the last 4 Buttons will send a message to that window, if it is open![/;). If you won't to send the alert message yourself, click on your bid to open the "Explain" window, and than e.g. the (OKS) 1NT button to send the explanation there. If you need something more specific, name it.

Thanks - BUT I can't find the hand ANYWHERE - nor can I find the players looking at "my hands" or "Tourney Results" ;) If you played it i could be in your profile on your own PC.

Well I got OKScript running with BBO, and I'm using it a few month now. I don't know RemoteKeys yet, but I seems to be more powerfull. This might not be an advantage, because it is more difficult to use.

A WJO is a preempt, and you should only preempt, if you think this does more damage to your opponents bidding than to yours. So if you can open 1M you should, if it is not crystal clear that your p has nothing usefull in his hands.

Well I will not start a discussion about Java prejudice here, but this is often a question of the programmers abilities. I just tried J-Bridge, but since I was the only player online I will not make my mind up now.

A clean way of doing this would be to develop the client in Java or to target a .NET environment that might be available for Linux too.

TD calls collected in list displayed in a separated window looking like this: Round 2, Table 7, Called by trippleXXX, Message: Have a problem.... that would be a great

just curious, is it usual to bid Michales in 4th seat, after opps have bit 2 suits already? What would dbl have shown here? Well since I don't know your opps, i would can only guess that they might not have an agreement here. I think a mis-explanation is much more likely than a misbid here.

OK so North Hand is infact the East hand..... East knows legaly: west has no 1♠ bid (meaning less than 9 hcp or less than 5 ♠) west has no 1♥ bid west has no 2♣ bid seeing 12 hcp with the opener, about 6 with the responder and 16 in his own hand, he can not expect more than 6hcp in wests hand East has to assume that his bid was understood by west. So he can expect west to have: 4+ ♠ no interest in playing ♦ 1hcp in ♠ at most some cards in ♥ (opps don't try 3♥, allthough they have to be short in ♠). Any values west holds in ♥ will we baldy placed He can bid: 1) pass, there is fit, but not strong enough for game 2) 3♠, hoping for extra values if p knows of the fit 3) 4♠, trying game 4) 3♦, not really an alternative What bids are favourded by the UI? Knowing that p thinks i bid Michaels implies that he thinks I'm weak! Knowing that p expects me to have a ♠ length, implies there might be no fit. I know he prefers ♠ to ♣. So what bid is least supported by the UI, probably "pass" is. But i'd call the TD to figure that out.

Do i read your question right? I (South) opend 1♦ West passed with 12 HCP and a 5card suit♣ My partner (north) bids 1♥ where he is void (no alert!) East finds 2♦ alerted West corrects to 2♠ My partner (North) knowing that we have at least 28HCP together has no dbl left? Seems to me, East has a clear count in ♥, knowing your p is bluffing. With almost no hcp und a silent partner, East knows that you have a game at IMPs. By bluffing too, he takes you any chance to recover from that. I think EW deserve a good score.

Interesting that you quote 1) when 2) is about UI's . How do you recognise Condition two, from Condition 3: What is in my pickup partners profile? How long does it take me to type my private question to RHO and how long does my RHO need to type the answer .... By the way, your condition one and two can be applied to any bid of the opponents, so a delay should we with every bid.

1) The skip bid alert is used to prevent , wrong bids from the next player. e.g. 1♦ - 2♥ - 2♦ Happens a lot at f2f Bridge, because one sees the suit and not the level. This can not happen online. 2) Ususally one will ask about the meaning of the bid and rethink ones action. This might cause a UI, but to identify this change of tempo, one would have to check, if the BBO sever has more logins, or some big tourney just ended or if some ISP or line is just busy for a moment. If one wanted to do something here, i would suggest to allways send the last 2 bids together. Same as you get it playing with screens. This way no speed is lost and you never know who of the two caused the delay.