There is a GIB feature on those links I sent, and yeah, the spade pitch lets it make. Never would of guessed that from where I was sitting. Also Myrmidon apparently could of made that 1NT even after the 5 quick spade tricks. But the moment he pitched 2h it was down 1, when he pitched the 6h it could of been down 2, and when he played the Qh from the board it could of been down 3!

But Bridgify lets you go card by card, and you can create alternate universes where people pitch differently, etc. GIB does trick at a time, and you're forced to only view the hand as played. [well, not forced, but bridgify is so cool! It's my new favorite bridge toy.]

BURN HIM!!!

R/W MPs

Q T
Q T 6 3
K J T 7
K T 6

We're playing SAYC.

I'm dealing, and I opt to pass (too tight?). It passes around to RHO who bids 1. I double, LHO bids 1NT, partner passes, RHo bids 2 and that ends the auction.

What's the lead?

If you pass any hand, there is no way any living human would open it

Too tight? Jebus, unless you are Meckstroth that looks like a pass to me.

J lead is standard here right to trap LHO if he has Q right.

+1.

DJ traps the DQ in either hand if partner has DA.

+ another for the diamond jack.

Need one more for a POG table on BBO right now.

All right, I'm glad I made the right lead then.

FWIW, I was very impressed with the general level of card sense in the team game. Some more than others were clearly very inexperienced, and had knowledge gaps. But the general understanding of the cards and "intuition" was very high.

At this point if you don't know everything, or even know very little, don't be discouraged. That stuff is easy to learn! Sure it takes time, but you'll get there. However card sense cannot really be taught. If you don't have it you don't have it, and you probably won't end up being very good at bridge if you don't have it.

My partner in particular, fcblcomish, I could tell was very very green, but he understood what was going on and had a lot of talent. Great!

Also, as far as my own play I made 2 mistakes. On the hand that Wyman pointed out, I knew what was going on but felt I needed to give my partner a clear signal because if he didn't play a spade it was over. I try to make life easy on my partners.

It was not my best match, that's for sure

Look forward to more 2+2 matches!

That spade signal was VERY helpful. I may not have made the switch.

Thanks for the encouragement!

3500th post!

I'm not an active enough poster in the poker sections to make a quality poohbah post there (besides, I am a limit specialist, and that isn't where any of the cool kids are - though I have done some research on face-up limit holdem and quantifying the value of cards. vs value of your opponent not knowing what your cards are.) So, the poohbah post has to go in the bridge forum.

Really wanted to write up something new and earthshattering, but that takes more time than I had. It did inspire me brush some of the dust off the articles section of my website, and start posting system notes with my reg p that I've not organized in way too long. If you're an advancing bridge player who plays online and you want something poohbah-post-quality, I'd encourage you to read my piece on the theory of defending against unfamiliar conventional openings. If you just like gadgets the newly released post on Michelangelo (part Michaels, part Roman Jump Overcalls) might appeal to you, though I need to add some more examples still.

I was also asked for a book recommendation list.

Here are just a few titles I especially liked, in each area of the game, listed within each section from most basic to most advanced. (For in-print books, there are more complete descriptions of most of them, and some additional recommendations, on my website. And of course, PM or email me anytime if you want my opinion of a book.)

General bidding / Hand Evaluation:
Root - Commonsense Bidding, Modern Bridge Conventions (both slightly oldfashioned; but both excellent. I'm not saying that "25 Conventions..." is bad, just that I like the older book better.) Readable even by almost-brand-new players.
Klinger - Modern Losing Trick Count
Cohen - To Bid or Not to Bid (yeah, it's a bit passe now, but in the early 90s, Total Tricks raises REALLY separated the fogeys from the modernists. Sure opened my teenage eyes to a lot of new ideas.) These last two are intermediate level, but very accessible.
Klinger - Cuebidding to Slams
Woolsey - Matchpoints

Specific bidding conventions:
Andersen and Zenkel - Preempts from A to Z (hard to find now. If you see a copy even at twice the cover price, snap it up.)
Bergen - Negative doubles; Seagram and Bird - Splinter bids. (both short 50-ish page books, very readable, very thorough. Not required reading by any means.)
Andersen - Lebensohl. (it's not a convention for beginners, but outstandingly well written for a "conventions book.")

Declarer play:
Watson - Play of the Hand (nobody has done it better even if the book is old now.)
Karpin - Drawing of Trumps and Its Postponement (everybody has forgotten him, but in the 60s era Karpin was THE person for intermediate bridge books. He also has a slam book and a play-and-defense-at-trick-1 book that are very good. His Dover-reprinted card reading book is harder, but also good.)
Anything in the Bird and Smith Bridge Technique Series if you like indepth coverage of one topic at a time (Squeezes Made Simple is the most readable intro-to-squeezes book, for instance.)
Lawrence - How to Read Your Opponents Cards
Kelsey - Countdown to Better Bridge (out of print. the the same title has been reused by Bourke and Smith; their book is good too but not nearly as hard)

Defense:
Kantar - Modern Bridge Defense, Advanced Bridge Defence
Rubens - Journalist Leads (even if you don't intend to ever play Journalist leads, best book you'll ever see that covers strengths and weaknesses of each of the leading non-standard lead methods.)
Granovetter - A Switch in Time (this was an OH WOW book on signalling for me. Hard to find now.)
Woolsey - Partnership Defence (won't do you much good to read this book on your own, but you and your regular p should both read it and see if you're giving the same signals in the same situations.)

Storybooks / hand collections:
Darvas and Hart - Right Through the Pack
Kauder - The Bridge Philosopher (aka Creative Card Play)
Brock - Great Hands I Wish I Played

Also, one favorite tips-about-all-aspects-of-the-game book, truly exceptional in that it was a mass market paperback in its time rather than a specialty publication: Rubens - Secrets of Winning Bridge. Its hand evaluation chapters alone would make it a great book. Rare/out of print/etc, of course.

I omitted all the 2/1 books (Hardy, Thurston, Lawrence) and all the big squeeze books (Love, Kelsey, and Bird.) Not because any of them is bad, but because each of them is not-quite-perfect in a different way, so no one stands out as clearly better than the others.

A few specific warnings:

The Root declarer play and defense books are good, but MUCH harder than the two bidding books, so don't expect to be able to digest them as a beginner;
Mike Lawrence wrote a few really excellent books (HtRYOC, Falsecards, Card Combinations); several OK books on topics that nobody else has written much about, so his are the best that are avialable (Balancing, Takeout Doubles, Overcalls); several that are OK if you like his style but nothing special if you don't (2/1 workbook, Dynamic Defense, Opening Leads) and a few that really stink (Passed Hand Bidding, Hand Evaluation, I Fought the Law.)

Can we put this post in the OP?

How common are idiotic morally bankrupt directors on BBO? I was playing a tournament and made a valid claim for 10 of the remaining 11 tricks in 5H (having won one of the 1st 2), and the director immediately adjusts the result to 5H -1.

The hands, dummy first:

KQ7
QT
KT9873
J6

9
AK9876432
2
KQ

West leads the DA and DQ. I ruff in hand and claim, "2 hearts, pitch spade on DK, lose a club". I think the claim was rejected a second or so before the adjustment, but not sure. the director told my partner that it was adjusted to -1 because we were off 3 aces.

My impression is that a large majority of them are more concerned with keeping the masses happy than they are with following the actual laws (about psychs, claims, or quite a few other things.) I generally stick to set matches on BBO and avoid the tourneys, and play in the Swan Games tourneys. (Not that their directors are perfect. But they at least are SUPPOSED to follow the rules - and there is an appeals process.)

Still, this one seems awfully egregious for any site.

Is Terry still a director at Swan?

normally I play tournaments to prevent the constant struggle to keep a table full, unless I know a set of players. haven't had an incident like that before.

Ive had SOMEthing weird happen just about every tourney at BBO. Part of it are things that I guess most the player base accepts -- getting boards skipped in the middle of a hand if timer runs out -- but which I can't swallow happily.

Terry just graduated from nursing school. She's not been on Swan much this past year during the crunch semesters, but may be around and feeling celebratory more now.

It's a perfect 10–12 notrump opener, by the way.

I would definitely inquire with Uday/Fred about that one rchandra. I'm pretty sure that something can be done - possibly something sitting down and setting a director straight, or worse comes to worse removing their priviledges.

Um, yeah. That's like one of the most hilariously bad rulings I've ever seen.

Most of the BBO tournaments are for fun only. If you get a bad director ruling, it is really no big deal.

If you are playing the ACBL tournaments, then that is a completely different story.

Yeah, but still--if this clown is going around making these kind of "rulings" regularly, it's going to eventually put off newer players--and it certainly makes playing in the tournament less fun if you run into that.

yeah, and we were out of contention anyway. But still, this ruling without even a director call?

yes, quite.

more fun: my claim was actually for one less trick than I can get. diamonds are 3-3 so after you draw trumps and cash the DK, the ten and nine are good to pitch the clubs on. +1.

So, I went to the club game, and played with a newbie who has 4 masterpoints in the open game. We somehow managed to get 57.84% and place third overall, but I have a hand bidding question. We're playing SAYC:

W/R MPs, partner deals and opens 1. Opps silent.

J 9 3
5
A 8
A K T 9 8 6 3

I bid 2, partner says 2. How do I proceed?

(I know I can splinter or J2N, but I wasn't sure if my partner knew these bids or not).

You do NOT splinter or J2N with only Jxx in trumps - nor do you particularly like splintering when you're 2-7 in the unbid suits.

2C followed by 3 forcing spades playing SA. 2C followed by 2 forcing spades playing 2/1. Can't imagine anything else with a sound partner.

With a 4MP player, no telling what he may do, so you can make a case for just setting the contract at 4S. (Yeah, you're worth a slam try, and that's what the space between 3M and 4M is for with a good partner. But don't bounce someone into a risky slam unless you know he's a good declarer.)(