StevenG

He has probably been taught not to lead out Aces (other than from AK), or to underlead an Ace. If he's not leading a club, what other choice has he got?

1NT

The small slam scored 14/16. Looking for a grand at MPs in a moderate field is a losing prospect.

Read what I said. I said nothing about looking at foreigners. Anyone who knows me will know that I am not racist in any way. You seem to use an argument that is all too common these days. 1) Racists oppose immigration. Therefore 2) anyone who suggests that immigration can cause problems is a racist. That argument is fallacious.

Why do you not actually read what I said and think about the economic argument? You just seem to filter anything you instictively disagree with through your own lens. (You never used to be like this; I always thought you one of the more sensible commentators here.) I do not have any desire to get rid of you from the UK. There is no problem with itinerant mathematicians. I am horrified by the way this appalling government treats people who have built a life here, whether that's Windrush or EU citizens or anyone else in a similar position. I do not wish to expel anybody, merely move to a system that creates a better life for people who are already here. I would have no problem of freedom of movement at all if it did not result in a significant inflow. What I do object to, as I said in my previous post, is the distortion it creates in the labour market. I have watched this country get poorer over my entire adult life, and I believe that inefficiencies in the labour market are a significant cause. (I worked this out about 30 years ago, and nothing I've seen since has changed my mind.) Since you are a better mathematician than I am, could you please explain how importing people to do non-essential jobs that do not create any wealth can do other than reduce resources for people for are already here. And can you explain how a system that seems to always create a need for more labour than is available is sustainable in the long term.

Why should we care about the hospitality industry? It is an industry that does not create any wealth, merely economic activity. Why is it struggling? Because it relies heavily on foreign labour. Why does it rely on foreign labour? Because the pay and the working conditions are atrocious - so atrocious that even those British people who need bottom-end jobs can usually find better elsewhere. So it seems to me that the country as a whole is better off. We have fewer people that need feeding, housing, etc., but we are not losing the fundamental economic value of a pure service industry, which is to distribute wealth around the people of the country. Of course, if the industry were to adjust with better wages and more civilised working conditions, it would be able to compete with other service industries. But for me, if people are going to work in non-wealth creating jobs, I'd rather they worked in something useful and necessary - care or the NHS for example. I've said before that I wanted to escape "freedom of movement", that I wanted this country to have the ability to control immigration. The visible effects on the hospitality industry are exactly what I wanted to see, but I want to see it over the entire economy. I want to see higher wages at the bottom end. I want to see better working conditions. I want to see better training, so that our young people acquire proper skills, rather than employers just poaching trained people from abroad. The amount of skills this country has lost over the last few decades is frightening. Free movement has damaged the way the labour market works to the detriment of ordinary people in this country, but to the benefit of the better off who get nice cheap labour (and a nice, warm fuzzy feeling about how liberal they are). If that's coming to an end, I'm all for it. However, these aren't normal times. We don't know how much of this is side-effects of Covid. maybe things will return to something like the old normal in the long run. I hope not.

I don't play 2/1 or any 5-card major system so this probably a stupid question. Can you bid 4♥ on the first hand? You've effectively denied 3 card support, I would have thought.

I would like it to show me my partner's points as well.

"Limit raise" might be fine in the US, but I don't think it's worldwide. It's not used in any of my Acol books, and I've never heard a club player use the term. "Limit bid" is in my old books, but there are multiple limit bids with different meanings. What you call a limit raise is just one of them.

I was wondering what theorems the average Guardian journalist would not consider obscure.

[hv=pc=n&s=sq8haqt654da732c5&d=w&v=0&b=8&a=p1h2h]133|200[/hv] IMPs. We play Acol with 4-card majors and weak no trump. 1♥ could be a 15+ hand with 4 hearts and 4 of a minor. 2♥ is described as spades and a minor. I wasn't sure how to investigate slam safely here. We have RKCB available, splinters and normal cue bidding, but nothing fancy. Advice welcome.

If I'm chatting to my partner before a tournament, or privately between rounds, then I remain chatting to partner after BBO moves us to our next table, even though that chat is now disallowed. Chat should be changed to table under those circumstances.

Because they've just improved it?

I can read very fast when I choose to.

I learned both Extended Stayman and Stayman in Doubt as integral parts of Acol when I was starting out in the 80s and 90s. I've long forgotten them, but a partner pulled Stayman in Doubt on me in a congress game about 10 years ago. I had no idea what was going on.

Sorry, I accidentally had a filter on the console that was omitting some of the messages. My mistake. However, the GET using "https:" is currently working, returning "101 Switching Protocols" rather than the "502" which has been happening intermittently for the last couple of weeks.

Well, it's returned. I don't know how in that case, as I'm using HTML5, but it's very handy for me.

I was having this problem a week ago, but using an old version of Firefox. I posted my diagnostics in a different thread in this forum, and a day or two later it started to work again. On checking I noticed that a php script had been inserted which, I assume, allowed the old-fashioned way of calling the site using "https:" to continue working. I was very grateful for this. Today it has stopped working. The php script has disappeared and I am back to "502" error messages, due to using "https:" not "wss:". To sails01, I would suggest making sure that you have an up-to-date version of Chrome. To BBO, I would ask that the php script be reinstated. It worked!

Thanks. I've done a bit of reading up and a bit of investigation. My out-of-date Firefox was working fine until Wednesday. The GET request uses the "https:" format with connection:upgrade and upgrade:websocket, but the webconsole uses the "wss:" format to give the 502 error message. Chrome uses "wss:" in the GET request and I can't see any other obvious difference in the headers (not that I have more than a basic knowledge of such things). I installed some Windows updates on Wednesday morning, which seems suspicious, but I used BBO OK in the afternoon, so it ought to be just coincidence. My guess is that something was reconfigured at your end deprecating my browser. Anyway, I'm using an out-of-date browser and am seemingly the only person having this problem, so it's unreasonable of me to ask BBO to take it further. I'll keep muddling through in Chrome. It's just a PITA to have to use a browser I don't like in yet another window.

I can't login to BBO in my preferred browser. It appears that domains of the form https://v3proxysl?.bridgebase.com/ aren't talking to me.

Blocked for me too.

It does seem strange, though, that the topic crops up so regularly, and that so many players have, seemingly independently, come to the same conclusion that NS have the advantage - never, as far as I recall, EW. I'm curious about how BBO allocates hands to tables. I am aware of an unresolved bug whereby, very occasionally, a hand remains "orphaned". (Barmar mentioned this recently.) It seems highly unlikely that this could have a knock-on effect, but my experience is that an unresolved bug, however limited in scope it appears, can have unexpected ramifications elsewhere. I'm not suggesting this is any way likely to cause a problem, but something seems to be causing this perception about the hands and I'd like to know what.

Thanks. I looked at that menu several times and didn't see it :( . I don't think I'll be using it in the immediate future (not even for Cherdano), unless that lady keeps spamming bridge lessons.

I used to be able to block forum posters who annoyed me. I can no longer find a way of doing this. Can someone remind me please.

This is silly. You bid and play differently depending on whether it's MPs or IMPs. Comparing scores as if you were playing a different game is meaningless.