Would you want to play in a tournament that mandates FD convention cards?

[mgoetze]

Imagine, say, a 10-board tournament where everyone had to use an FD card with all constructive bidding sequences up to first three bids (if below 2NT) defined.

[nige1]

Imagine, say, a 10-board tournament where everyone had to use an FD card with all constructive bidding sequences up to first three bids (if below 2NT) defined.

Excellent idea. Although, few of us have our own FD cards, we could, perhaps, use standard BBO cards for 2/1 or Acol or Precision or Polish club.

 

It would also be fun to have a tournament where everybody had to use the same, unmodified, FD file :)

 

I haven't been following the FD thread, although I think it's a brilliant idea. Two questions.

1. Is there an FD editor that starts with -- say -- a basic Precison FD file and allows you to modify it, interactively?
2. Is there a utility to convert (either way) between a WBF system-card and an FD file?

[mgoetze]

Hi Nigel,

 

Excellent idea. Although, few of us have our own FD cards, we could, perhaps, use standard BBO cards for 2/1 or Acol or Precision or Polish club.

 

It would also be fun to have a tournament where everybody had to use the same, unmodified, FD file :)

 

I haven't been following the FD thread, although I think it's a brilliant idea. Two questions.

1. Is there an FD editor that starts with -- say -- a basic Precison FD file and allows you to modify it, interactively?
2. Is there a utility to convert (either way) between a WBF system-card and an FD file?

 

yes, I would indeed encourage people to participate even if they had not written their own card.

 

As for your questions: 1. Yes, you can load Helene's Forum Precision FD card, which is one of the default cards provided by BBO, in your BBO client and switch to editor mode. I'm afraid it's not very comfortable but certainly minor modifications should be doable for most people. 2. I'm afraid not.

[matmat]

what happens if I psych?

[mgoetze]

what happens if I psych?

 

I'll write a recorder form and store it on my computer for reference during the followup tournaments, of course.

[hotShot]

I take it that in such a tournament, competitive auctions are disallowed, within the first 3 bids of the opening side?

 

I think the idea of FD is great, but there are some fundamental problems to be solved.

FD defines every bid trough the full bidding sequence and I think each sequence can only exist once.

There are more than a lot of sequences to define and since they have to include opponents bidding, you get in trouble. Assume you open 1NT(15-17), LHO bids dbl and your partner bids 2♥. Is this transfer to ♠, if e.g. opps are playing Lionel and dbl promised a 2 suited hand with a 4+ card ♠ suit?

Assume you open 1M and LHO overcalls 1NT. Is it irrelevant for your further bidding if this is 16-18 balanced or a 2-suited hand with the other major and a minor.

 

If your FD definition contains overcalls, is it irrelevant if e.g. opps 1♣ opening is from ACOL, SAYC, WJ2005 or precision?

What if opps open 1NT do your methods change depending on the NT-range (somewhere between 9-11 and 16-18).

 

If opps bidding has a different meaning than the bid defined in your FD file, FD starts to misinform opponents, and you will probably not notice that this happened. TD's will have much work handling all those MI cases that come up.

[mgoetze]

I take it that in such a tournament, competitive auctions are disallowed, within the first 3 bids of the opening side?

 

I think the idea of FD is great, but there are some fundamental problems to be solved.

FD defines every bid trough the full bidding sequence and I think each sequence can only exist once.

There are more than a lot of sequences to define and since they have to include opponents bidding, you get in trouble. Assume you open 1NT(15-17), LHO bids dbl and your partner bids 2♥. Is this transfer to ♠, if e.g. opps are playing Lionel and dbl promised a 2 suited hand with a 4+ card ♠ suit?

Assume you open 1M and LHO overcalls 1NT. Is it irrelevant for your further bidding if this is 16-18 balanced or a 2-suited hand with the other major and a minor.

 

If your FD definition contains overcalls, is it irrelevant if e.g. opps 1♣ opening is from ACOL, SAYC, WJ2005 or precision?

What if opps open 1NT do your methods change depending on the NT-range (somewhere between 9-11 and 16-18).

 

If opps bidding has a different meaning than the bid defined in your FD file, FD starts to misinform opponents, and you will probably not notice that this happened. TD's will have much work handling all those MI cases that come up.

 

No, that's why I specified "constructive auctions". Perhaps "uncontested auctions" would have been a better wording.

 

You are correct that conditional meanings of competitive bids are not implemented in FD. My policy would be that it's fine to assume the most common meaning for opponent's bids and manually alert any deviations incurred by opponents playing a nonstandard system.

 

Anyway, the idea would not be to have a tournament for ultraserious FD mavens with 100kB+ FD files, just to encourage FD use on a best-effort basis.

[shintaro]

nige1

 

logged in click on CONV. (in Green on Bottom Row)

 

Click then on Work Convention card (you may have to click on USE first)

 

At the top you should find General Convention Cards which you can alter

[Tcyk]

No, that's why I specified "constructive auctions". Perhaps "uncontested auctions" would have been a better wording.

 

You are correct that conditional meanings of competitive bids are not implemented in FD. My policy would be that it's fine to assume the most common meaning for opponent's bids and manually alert any deviations incurred by opponents playing a nonstandard system.

 

Anyway, the idea would not be to have a tournament for ultraserious FD mavens with 100kB+ FD files, just to encourage FD use on a best-effort basis.

 

I don't mean to sound like a know-it-all but you can assign conditional meanings to competitive bids or any bid for that matter. You can have defense against strong club and natural club in the same FDCC file. You enter the bid and then enter a meaning in the "Qualify" window in the lower left corner of the bid description window. I will add that this is how you run into the 1Mb limit to FDCC files. If you try to cover all the ins and outs the file quickly grows to become a humungus monster.

[mgoetze]

I don't mean to sound like a know-it-all but you can assign conditional meanings to competitive bids or any bid for that matter. You can have defense against strong club and natural club in the same FDCC file. You enter the bid and then enter a meaning in the "Qualify" window in the lower left corner of the bid description window. I will add that this is how you run into the 1Mb limit to FDCC files. If you try to cover all the ins and outs the file quickly grows to become a humungus monster.

 

I am aware that you can enter this information into your FD file. I am also quite certain that at the time of my writing it was not possible to actually make use of this information on BBO. Please feel free to enlighten me, however.