Bridge players thread

[Urban Ranger]

I remember once I was quite dazed out at a bridge club. When my partner opened with 1NT and RHO bidded 2H, I went to 2S with 2 HCP not quite knowing what I was doing. It turned out all for the best however, since I messed up a 7H contract as our opponents were content in kicking the crap out of our 6S doubled.

Of course, they were all steamed after finding out they could make grand slam. One of them asked me if I always bid like that, to which I answered "yes" without thinking. The poor sods got all red in the face and called director on us.

The director told them that we had done nothing wrong since we didn't violate any rules and there's nothing on our card that specified otherwise.

I have no idea how they did after that hand, but probably not quite up to it.

[rah]

Yep, having that pysch bid box checked as frequent saved our asses plenty of time.

The older couple that drove us were a pair of life masters. If we were in the same group as them and finished better, there would be dead silence in the car on the way home, and ming and I would try not to laugh.

Actually we always performed best in the computer dealt/rigged tournaments. This was back when they first started doing it and it actually made things easy, because you could assume that every finesse was off and trumps would always split poorly. Or if there was only one possible distribution that would screw the pooch, you could count on it. We always scored considerable IMPs in those tournatments.

[TCO]

1771. Well into expert range on Pogo. The luck continues. Got a good book by Dorothy Hayden. Bid Better, Play Better. It is still written from a 4cm/Goren point of view (which is fine) but has some useful advice on when to change things and some real good tests.

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by rah
The older couple that drove us were a pair of life masters. If we were in the same group as them and finished better, there would be dead silence in the car on the way home, and ming and I would try not to laugh.

In handicapped matches, I presume?

Originally posted by rah
Actually we always performed best in the computer dealt/rigged tournaments. This was back when they first started doing it and it actually made things easy, because you could assume that every finesse was off and trumps would always split poorly. Or if there was only one possible distribution that would screw the pooch, you could count on it. We always scored considerable IMPs in those tournatments.

Are those ones the ones where every table gets a sheet of how to arrange the four hands? I have always thought that some people thought up those dastardly hands.

[TCO]

Pogo kvetch number 1:

Idiots who think that "5cm" means that any stated major must have 5 cards. So...I guess we never get 4-4 major fits. I thought that was the POINT of 5cm/best minor!

[TCO]

Kvetch number 2: People who play Stayman but don't know that 2d/2h/2sp are shutoffs irt 1nt when playing that convention.

[TCO]

Played in a few All-Purple games lately. Interesting stuff. Not mistake free. But tolerance for declarer play is a lot less by dummy. (dummy can see declarer's hands). Or defender mistakes.

People play pogoisms (I.e. going for slam when they need it on the second game) but they don't stall forever. Something I was scared of.

We beat a couple 1800+ers last night. Was pretty fun. Hit them with about 3 doubles of low-level contracts. Than they learned to stop sticking their neck out so far on overcalls. had a good partner who took me out of dangerous doubles and back to my suit when he needed to.

[TCO]

Originally posted by GP
Pogo kvetch number 1:

Idiots who think that "5cm" means that any stated major must have 5 cards. So...I guess we never get 4-4 major fits. I thought that was the POINT of 5cm/best minor!

what I mean is people who bid 1d and than when I reply 1h or 1sp, they get mad if my hand does not contain a 5cm. I thouht the whole idea of "best minor" was to show your 4 card majors even if weak ones.

[TCO]

Oh...just in case you're worried I'm spamming, rah. Your little brother said bridge counted as a legitimate other game. It's even a computer game...

[rah]

Gp, no not spamming at all (but you could have used less than 4 posts ). In fact I went out to pogo and since i didn't have an account set up, i didn't check into further and was going to ask you more about it. Assuming it's FREE.

UR. Handicapped, naw. ming and I were quite good when we were 15. You must remember that we were caddies when we younger so we were already masters at hearts, spades and many other card games. (you have to do something in the caddy shack waiting to loop) We were excellent at card memorization and were great teammates. We outplayed those life masters about 1 out of every three times. Since they were life masters, we thought that % of beating them was quite excellent. They thought differently They always assumed they must have had a bad night. They had a lot of them after they started taking us along
Needless to say my memorizations skills have deteriorated a bit with age.



And yes, those computer rigged deals were said to be computer random deals but it didn't take us long to figure out that human stacking had to be part of it. But what made them even more fun was that after the tournament, you'd get a booklet that explained every hand and what the expectations were. Since they were rigged, they had a propensity to encourage 3nt bids over 4 in a major (the extra 10 points back then usually made the difference between a top and average board). My playing skills were honed best on 3nt contracts so we had an extra advantage.

GP, Ming and I always played 5cm on the opening only, but we extended it to simple overcalls. (not required, but it was expected) I'm not a big fan of Moysian fits and would defer to NT if possible in those circumstances.

[TCO]

1. I don't know what a Moysian fit is. But a 4-4 fit is preferable to a 5-3 fit if you look at the odds. (better chances of making tricks in the side suits.) Lots of neophytes are scared of not having a long trump hand though. I prefer old-style non-5cm. But I can play 5cm. What blows me away is people who play 5cm but don't do it right. They might as well go back to old Goren than.

2. A simple overcall at 1 level should always show a strong suit in terms of the play. (but may be a little weaker than an open in overall points.) So it should be at least a 5 card suit. And not a weak one. It blows me away to see people who play 5cm overcall on Axxx of spades. Even in the 4cm system, you need a strong playing suit. Akxxxx or kqj9x or something of that sort.

3. Pogo is free. Just get set up. I am ApolytonGP there.

4. Sorry about the multiple posts. I'd actually like mulitple threads. See my comment in the Community section.

[rah]

Moysian fit is a 4-3 trump fit. 4-4 is ok, but are found through secondary bids. In most cases, imho, in 4-3 situations, you're better off in notrump. But alas, quite a few experts dissagree with me. But then, I'm a hack. Who made quite a few 3nt contracts while experts were going down in 4 of a major.

RAH

[War4ever]

is there a computer bridge game one can learn, i hear alot about bridge, but have never had the luxury of playing ?

is it tricks/trumps....kinda like hearts? or am i waaaaay offf base

[Sten Sture]

ditto that - I mean if GP, rah, and Ming can learn it, then War4ever and I should be able to figure it out.

[rah]

It's anti-hearts

Actually if you've ever played spades or any other game that employs the concept of trumps, you know the rules except for the bidding and scoring. The bidding is a science, but as long as you and your partner agree on a system and you can explain it to your opponents anything is fair game. There is a bidding system called standard american that is very easy to learn. When we filled out our bidding cards at tournaments, Ming and I used to list it as sub-standard american for laughs. Unfortunately most people didn't have a sense of humor.

RAH

God war, you'll post anywhere