The only people i know irl that play this game are really old ladies, and they play every week. What is their general skill level? is it worse than or comparable to the old men who play poker every weekend and still suck?

yeah, pretty much the same

little old ladies (LOLs) who play every week are, on average, probably the dregs of the competitive bridge barrel.

they're often terrible and won't ever get a lot better. on average they probably experience some success at the weekly local competitions, but would probably never have a whole lot of success in serious competitions.

mostly just a social thing.

so yes, in poker terms they might have a little success in the cheeseburger stakes, but they would be losers in larger stakes.

ya i mean the first time i really played bridge was with a bunch of LOLs and me and my somewhat senile grandma finished 4th out of 16 pairs with her and my grandfather teaching me in 1 hour before i played.

at one point opp bid 1h she said 2S and i thought it was a jump shift rather than a weak 2. so ya...4th...all you need to know about that crowd.

Yeah last Regional I insisted on playing the open swiss instead of the u500 swiss. But when we area talking about a free trip to Nationals, I see no reason to keep with C flight if I can. I should of tried to play the NAPs with my Dad this past year. The GNT qualifier was in Columbus though which is a bit of a drive.

Worse. The worst of the LOLs can't go broke at bridge.

the first time i really played bridge, i played with 3 other guys from my bridge club at school.

we played a sectional board a match game, and our score out of 24 boards was 0.5.

2% games are difficult to achieve, but I'm the proud owner of one.

one woman would not bid with less than 15 HCP

one of the hands from this game, the opponents bid a 7D contract against us and it was a claimer at trick 1. We knew we'd lose the board, obviously, but were excited that our teammates might at least bid a small slam and make it, which is cool your first time.

alas.

And this, kids, is why you need to be really sure before you bid that grand slam at teams.

However...

When you play against a couple (man and woman, obviously married or similar):

• If they are retriement age, the woman is usually better (because she has played more);
• If they are younger than that, the man is almost always better (for two reasons: the not-PC one, and the fact that he wouldn't be playing with her if she were better).

It's funny to me that what to do when partner is barred gives most newish players so much trouble. I guess it's that they are not yet capable of stepping outside the box — in this case, the box they've been trying to build for themselves as they learn bidding.

my grandfather > my grandmother

although i think she has played more

so

wahoo>grandfather>grandmother.

obv.

also myrmidon is indisputable bridge skillz.

How do you stop a partner from bidding again after they have pre-empted?

Twice yesterday I was ready to slap a double on the opps when my partner decided to take it up 1 more level and we turned a top into a bottom.

Would it be wrong to knock over her bidding box and say "oopsie" ?

Just get a new partner. If she's anything but the rawest of newbs and still does that, she will never understand how to bid.

After you know what your suit is, any future doubles are for penalty.

Preempting says this suit is our suit. Therefore your doubles are for penalty.

Have you tried electroshock therapy? Get partner a shiny new metal bidding box, and press the button to electrify it after they've preempted. (Remember to turn it off afterwards though or you may find that you are the victim of a lot of passed out boards.)

Also, a polite "I heard you the first time, partner" usually gets the message across.

It's just the most dramatic example of a general phenomenon that plagues new, and bad, bidders: describing the same feature of a hand twice. So many players don't get that after one has made one or more calls, all subsequent bidding is done with the earlier call or calls in mind. This can be subtle (like when you conclude that your zero count is actually pretty good and worth a free bid, in the context of the bidding to that point, or you balanced 23 count not all that great), but the thing with preempts is that it's not at all subtle and anyone with the slightest clue should get it after the principle has been pointed out.

It can actually be right to bid on with a preempt, but those are rare cases. Say you elect to open 3S, white/red at IMPs, with QJT9xxx 6xxx xx —, LHO doubles, partner bids 4S, and RHO bids 5H. To me that's a 5S bid, but it takes something that extreme (almost always substantially more shape than you've already promised).

confirmed nasty bridge player

use profanity

I know this is a good rule of thumb, but what about balancing?

Like

1H - 1S - 2H - 2S - p - p

now, a double is giving partner a choice of where to go right?

That should be penaltyish, but IMO partner's very much allowed to take it out with the wrong hand.

I think double here is typically DSIP (do something intelligent, partner). This may be pass or bid 3H. Or he may offer up a 2nd place to play, but this says "i have some extras and need your input."