Do you have to explain your bid?

[pigpenz]

Having players alert not only their bids but their partner's bids is a bad idea because it can only lead to misinformation.

I don't understand that statement. Can you elaborate?

 

Incidentally, as I recall OKbridge (at least when I used to play it on the Telnet interface) used to facilitate alerts by either or both. A character was inserted in the bidding history next to the bid, that indicated who had alerted (or both, ie 3 possible combinations - 4 if you count no character as no alert). I do not recall the practice giving rise to problems at the table, but others may have different experiences.

i think what he means is that on BBO you dont know what partners bid is if alertable cause it doesnt show up on your screen as alertable. Where in the real world by alerting by bidding box or voice you know something is up, so on bbo you are taking a chance by trying to correct if you arent sure.