mpefritz

I was playing at a free GIB table in the main bridge club and I signed up for MBT#521. When the tournament started, I was taken to the MBT. Pard GIB opened, RHO GIB passed, I made a call, and LHO GIB tanked. Now 7 minutes and no call. May be a bug. thanks, fritz (playing as pdfprime)

First of all, several examples from a well known book on balancing (I don't have the exact spots, but they were not great): ♠J8764 ♥A7 ♦K65 ♣A98 was suggested to balance with 2♠ ♠KQJ654 ♥7 ♦AQ97 ♣K6 was suggested to balance 3♠. Being an indy, I figured I could have no obvious way to figure out how to continue after any response from partner after my 2♠ call. So (being an idiot at 1AM) I made the "practical" 4♠ call :). My partner wanted me to bid 2♠ (fine) OR X (what?) Surprisingly the book on balancing has no examples of a 4♠ call (heckling self--no need to pile on). Both opps also misbid, and most players with my cards faced a call after either: 3♥-P-P-? OR 3♥-P-4♥-? Holding my hand of KQT9xx x AQxx xx How would people bid in those 2 circumstances? fritz

[hv=d=w&v=n&s=skqt932h7daq43c87]133|100|Scoring: MP 2♥-P-P-?[/hv] Playing a MP indy. Your call in balancing seat after LHO opens a weak 2♥. thanks, fritz

Just wondering...has anyone see GIB transfer to spades and then pass with a big hand? This example plus 2 others I have seen have been transfers to hearts with big hands. Can we call this the Major Big GIB Bug? Any chance to use GIB with set hands to check this? fritz

If you always have the human with the best hand at the table, you better allow the human to declare when the human side wins the auction. The inferences available knowing you have the "best hand" at the table would be very helpful, and, unless partner GIB was told that info, partner GIB might misdeclare by comparison. fritz

Playing a fixed number of boards would give a later player more info. He could know future holdings and change bidding strategy on earlier hands with that knowledge. And if the "barometer" scoring is kept, there would be even more info/advantage to the slower player. (The barometer scoring leads to some interesting strategies as is and I'd hate to see it go) Maybe having a 2 "team" tournament for money bridge where each table gets the same cards and have 3 bots at each table. Cheating would have no benefit since it is player 1 with the cards versus player 2 with the cards. This would be a improvement on the money Bridge games.

Yes, if people want to play at the speed of the slowest player, you can make a tournament where " Every round of action shall continue only after human players finish their bids at all tables. " Maybe.. Even if your hand and (partner) GIB's hand are the same at each table..maybe one table declares and the other defends..then info can be passed. Furthermore, auctions at other tables may help you determine partner's HCP so that defending may be easier. The other suggestion is similar S hands all around. Then you must play at same pace, else you might be ahead, know you are going to get a 4 HCP hand, and play slowly to not allow BOTs to have increased chance of a game against you. fritz

I was booted from BBO also. I was in the MBT room (around 1:25 EDT +/- 30 minutes), not signed up. I came back a few minutes later, and I was booted. I believe I was booted after the tournament started, but I am not sure what time as I was not at the computer. Not sure if this helps the bug fix. fritz logged in at the time as: pdfprime

I think EAST gets to choose which of his 4 cards gets played on this trick. All the others are penalty cards. So wouldn't EAST get to choose an x instead of the K to throw on the spade? After that declarer gets to choose which penalty card EAST plays, allowing EAST to take one more trick? fritz

Did he concede all his tricks by throwing his cards down or did he make a verbal concession? I think there is a real difference. In one case, he has pitched a card on the spade and the remainder are penalty cards if he has made no statement. Someone can parse the rules (I tried) to see if he gets to choose which card he has pitched on the spade. And then I think declarer gets to choose which penatly card to play. Also I wonder if there is a difference if he makes a concession before or after his cards hit the table. fritz

4♥ bidder probably thought pard had an invitaitional hand and 3♥ was a game try. 3♥ bidder was probably thinking 1-2-3 is a "preempt" and pard is not allowed to bid (info you are allowed to know). Would you have brought this to the attention of everyone if they had gone down and you got a top? fritz

I think I was the pass vote (I don't even think I voted pass now..and wait...) The auction after 2♠ seems crystal clear (P-P-X) , and showed up at the table. The Stayman bidder is not bidding a garbage stayman unless my partner is void in spades. Therefore, invitational or better values. On a great day, I will make 2SX. On a decent day I will be down only one when 3NT or 4♥ makes. On almost every other day, I have just enrolled for a bottom. Yes, everyone can line up at my table for free tops ;>) fritz p.s. My initial gut reaction was 2♠ until I noticed that RHO really can not have a garbage stayman hand and i read the vul situation...although it would be nice to know what sort of hands my opps would start a stayman sequence with, I still think the odds favor pass.

Here is a link to a picture of a traveler: http://www.baronbarclay.com/MATCHPT.html When I enter the score in the traveler, I write the contract in the contract column and fill in how many tricks over a book it made (OR undertricks in the DOWN column). I have never recorded a contract as 4S+5, just "4S" and "5" under the made column. When speaking to someone, I would say "4 spades, making 5", but in an email or my personal score sheet, I would write 4S+1. Just my style. There is a difference between verbal and written conversational score and traveler entry. fritz

Maybe alert with a name "Multi" and add a character/button (uday/fred??) which means "ask for more info if needed". This will perhaps make it less intimidating to ask about the "FDCCC" helne_t mentions. Certainly those with hot keys or prepared text do not have much problem, but those are few and far between. Please do not quote laws about full disclosure. I know short matches/long matches/known opponents/tournaments/Main Bridge Club all have different needs in alerting and explaining. On the original question, I felt the explainer probably meant to type 6M or 22-24 as someone else mentioned. Unfortunately 2 typos showed, "m" for "M" and no space. fritz

You got it right, but you missed banning the griping player in question. Did the griper's partner ask for an explanation of 4♣ or was it freely offered? In this case, I cannot imagine the supposed self-alert was done to misinform the opps and prevent bidding on the 3rd round after them being quiet. You may want to check South's other boards JUST to be sure that there are no funny alerts. 2♣ auctions are just plain awkward anyway. (Out of interest, how many opened 2NT or 1C?) Don't you usually have a statement asking for people NOT to hold up play for a ruling as you can adjust later? This is the thanks you get for restarting your tourney.. fritz