bridge players, come here

[Oldenbarnevelt]

Originally posted by Urban Ranger
24 or 28 boards? Wow, that's a lot. If you spend 30 minutes playing each one that's 12 hours

That doesn't seem right.

From The Official Encyclopedia of Bridge (5th edition):

BOARD. (1) A duplicate board. (2) The table on which the cards are played. (3) The dummy's hand (etc.)

BOARD, DUPLICATE. An oblong or square board used in various forms of duplicate bridge, slotted with four sections, each deep enough to hold one quarter of a standard deck of playing cards. (etc. etc.)

I am pretty sure that definition (1) is generally used by duplicate bridge players, native and non-native speakers of English alike. So board = hand = deal. Four boards are played in 30 minutes, so that's 3 hours for 24 boards, and 3 h 30 m for 28 boards. Changing tables every four deals.
You probably thought of definition (2)?

[Urban Ranger]

Hm.

I was using definition (1) too. The boards rotate in one direction and the E-W pairs rotate in the other direction. When I was playing duplicate in the US we used to refer to number of tables we had. Though number of tables = number of boards.

Number of hands are four times number of boards.

Do you have a handicap system in the Netherlands? Have you used those bidding cards?

[TCO]

Well, Rex and I had a good time playing on Pogo. He is an expert player and a gentleman. We won one rubber and lost one. But points-wise we came out way ahead for the engagement as we punished the other pair with mercilless defense several times in the first rubber.

I underbid a little or we would have come off better. Go to use the Stayman convention for the first time. Kind of neat since we had discussed it! (I had the book right next to me!) And Rex, we'll play it with the show-hearts-first method, next time.

[Oldenbarnevelt]

Originally posted by Urban Ranger
Do you have a handicap system in the Netherlands? Have you used those bidding cards?

Handicapping is not very common here. We have an inter-club competition (league) system (mainly teams (IMPs), but also pairs) where everyone can play at their own level, with promotion and relegation.

Bidding boxes are omnipresent. You won't find a club, however modest, where they aren't used. Many people have a set at home. It even feels a bit strange to have to announce my bids out loud, which of course happens once in a while. The pros of bidding boxes are obvious, and I don't know of any cons.

[Rex Little]

As GP says, we had fun. He may be still learning to bid, but his card-play is way above beginner level.

There was one very amusing hand from the rubber we won. When a player drops out in Pogo, he may (at the option of the player hosting the table) be replaced by a computer player. One huge flaw in the computer's game: it always passes, no matter what cards it holds. One of our opponents dropped out (in the middle of playing a hand, no less!) and his partner agreed to use the computer rather than wait for someone to come along as a replacement.

The next hand, we were bidding hearts and our one live opponent was bidding diamonds, all the way up to the 5 level. When the computer player's dummy hand went down, it contained EIGHT spades, to the A-Q-J-10. To add insult, the declarer turned out to have K-x-x of spades. We set 5D, but with a human to my left they would have had little trouble reaching and making a spade slam.

[TCO]

Thanks, Rex. I was playing a little bit above myself...but that's a lot more fun than staring at all those Goren exercises...

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by Oldenbarnevelt
Handicapping is not very common here. We have an inter-club competition (league) system (mainly teams (IMPs), but also pairs) where everyone can play at their own level, with promotion and relegation.

I see. In the US the clubs generally use a handicap system. The teams in duplicate matches get more MPs (match points) if they face a superior team in terms of MP/IMP/whatever.

Originally posted by Oldenbarnevelt
Bidding boxes are omnipresent. You won't find a club, however modest, where they aren't used. Many people have a set at home. It even feels a bit strange to have to announce my bids out loud, which of course happens once in a while. The pros of bidding boxes are obvious, and I don't know of any cons.

Cons? I suppose players need time to get used to use a box if they are accustomed to bidding orally. That means old farts like me

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by Rex Little
One huge flaw in the computer's game: it always passes, no matter what cards it holds.

That bites

As Oldenbarnevelt said even the best bridge program sucks at bidding.

Speaking of the hand, I'd gone preempt at 4S (at least 3) unless I also have opening points.

[tonic]

May I asssume my aside in the Chess thread had spawned GP's two threads?

Used to play duplicate at club level many years ago partnering my then spouse (which BTW is not recommended - endless post-mortems at home leading to cold war detente). I still think it is a great strategy game with elements of intuition which is why both sexes are well represented in the expert circles.

Contract is fun but luck play a bigger part.

I started with Goren but was much influenced later by the books of Terence Reece.

[TCO]

Yes...your comment spurred me.

You should read The Mad World of Bridge. It has some funny parts about bridge divorces and murders...

I agree that luck is more a part at contract....but I like that...and I like the way that the scoresheet plays more of a role in your actions.

[Oldenbarnevelt]

Originally posted by Rex Little
The next hand, we were bidding hearts and our one live opponent was bidding diamonds, all the way up to the 5 level. When the computer player's dummy hand went down, it contained EIGHT spades, to the A-Q-J-10. To add insult, the declarer turned out to have K-x-x of spades. We set 5D, but with a human to my left they would have had little trouble reaching and making a spade slam.

LOL.
Computer bots at websites are awful, not worth a try.
BTW, if you want to play duplicate (IMPs or matchpoints) for a change, check out the Gaming Zone (www.zone.com / zone.msn.com). You can play either MPs or IMPs at 3 levels (4 if you include the "Social Rooms"). A nice thing is that your score is adjusted all the time, as more people play the same hands. For every hand you have played you can get an overview of the scores, so you can compare your contracts and results to those of other players.

[Urban Ranger]

tonic,

Yeah, Reece is a good bridge writer.


Oldenbarnevelt,

Thanks for the heads-up.