Bridge players thread

[rah]

My favorite bidding story is from when Ming and I used to play in tournaments. Anytime you bid, it's your opponents right, if they are unclear of your bid, to ask your partner what your bid meant. We were playing a hand where I had opened 1nt that our bidding system didn't account for a reason I can't remember. After a few rounds of bidding with interference, Ming paused and made a bid of three no trump and from what everyone else had bid, it made no sense. My right handed opponent turned to me and said, what does that bid mean. I responded with "I don't have a ****ing clue".

Needless to say "Mr director" was summoned to our table. After some discussion the Director determined that to be fair to all, Ming would have to explain his bid to our opponents. Since I had no idea what it meant, I didn't object. Ming looked at our opponent and said," we're obviously in over our head on this hand, and if we get the bid at 3nt, my brother will have to play the hand and not me, so 3nt in this case is a sign off bid." After our opponents stopped laughing they doubled and it was passed out.

After the opening lead ming layed down the dummy and after a few minutes of consideration, I promptly made 3nt doubled for a top board. One other team had made 3nt but everyone else had been in 4 spades down one, or making an overtrick on a partscore. Needless to say our opponents were considerably pissed, but it was their own fault for asking what the bid meant, without it, I probably would have run into a suit on the double and been set like the others.

RAH

[TCO]

great story. You can have a glass of red wine with your steak...

[TCO]

small funny story. had about 16 points. strong spade suit. and 2 clubs. (can't remember entire hand).

Bidding went like this:

opp: 1h
Me:1sp
opp:2h
partner: 3clubs
opp: pass
Me: 3nt

Partner layed down dummy and had 4hcp and very long clubs.


His comment: partner, what does 3nt mean?

My comment: Game.

His commednt: I bid with 4 points!

My comment: Yes...you did.

opponents: LOL

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by GP
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.

Hm, a 5 card suit is generally what is expected if you respond like that, unless you have a talk with your partner beforehand. Still, it is much easier to decribe your hand if you first make a negative/denial bid (either NT or the other minor) then switch to your major. In this case your partner will definitely know you have no 5 card majors, which makes life easier.

When your partner bid a minor, you definitely will have at least a 3 card minor in the other one, a 5 card major, or a 5 card support for his suit. So you pretty much can't go wrong with that.

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by rah
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.

They changed it a bit then. The sectionals etc. we went to tended to have weird hands that looked good but unmakable, partial contracts, or major games. The weird hands were ones you thought you could make slams but of course they just stacked it a bit against you so you couldn't make slam but could make a fifth level contract, something like that.

I remembered this one hand when we defended against a 6H contract, and my partner led the queen of hearts. I thought he went crazy, but it turned out that it was the only way to defeat the contract. The funny thing was he thought the trump suit was something else for a second, so he led off with a high-low in a doubleton.

[TCO]

Originally posted by Urban Ranger


Hm, a 5 card suit is generally what is expected if you respond like that, unless you have a talk with your partner beforehand. Still, it is much easier to decribe your hand if you first make a negative/denial bid (either NT or the other minor) then switch to your major. In this case your partner will definitely know you have no 5 card majors, which makes life easier.

When your partner bid a minor, you definitely will have at least a 3 card minor in the other one, a 5 card major, or a 5 card support for his suit. So you pretty much can't go wrong with that.

Bull****! How do you get a 4-4 fit! The whole purpose of using the best minor is to allow showing 4 card majors. To look for the 4-4 fit.

[Urban Ranger]

Easily.

Suppose you have 3 spades, 4 hearts, 2 diamonds and 4 clubs with 13HCP. Your partner has 4 spades, 4 hearts, 4 diamonds and 1 club.

So the bidding can go 1C-2D-2H-4H. Something like that.

[rah]

In that hand, For ming and I, the opening bid would have been a short club bid. With no 5 card suit the reponse bid would have been a straight point count bid. Assuming no interference.
<6 1d
6-9 1nt
9-12 2nt
13+ 3nt

As you can see our bidding encouraged 3nt bids over 4 of a major with 4-4 or 4-3 trump splits. We just felt more comfortable with that. Personal preference. And it gave oppenents less info for their opening lead. You could then really count on 4th from longest and strongest instead of a possible attack against the last or unheard suit bid.

The only way our bidding system allowed us to get to game in major with a 4-4 or 4-3 split was after a 1nt opening bid or on an opening double.

But that's the fun of bridge, everyone has their own preferences. Think of all the specialty bids/conventions.

RAH

[rah]

GP, one more question on Pogo. Do you think anybody uses instant messaging to cheat?

[TCO]

Originally posted by rah
GP, one more question on Pogo. Do you think anybody uses instant messaging to cheat?

There are a few cheats. But really pretty few. Not enough to bring the fun of the game down.

There are other ways to cheat. Using the phone. Making occasional table talk remarks in the open discussion. Double computers. And occasioanlly a staller. I really wouldn't sweat it though.

[rah]

Do you try to play with the same people?

Are there usually a lot of players around?

Are they chaneyheads?

How long are your sessions?

RAH
And why do you love 4-4 trump splits so much?

[Urban Ranger]

Stallers are people who just sit there forever? Are there any forums or other channels to file complaints?

[War4ever]

no one answered my question as to an online/sp version of bridge?

this sounds interesting, i remember spades, i have played that before..

[TCO]

Originally posted by rah
Do you try to play with the same people?

Are there usually a lot of players around?

Are they chaneyheads?

How long are your sessions?

RAH
And why do you love 4-4 trump splits so much?

Usually with different people, but you can check profiles to see if compatible. And there is a locate friends feature to see if others are on the site that you know.

There are always plent of players. Never a problem getting a game.

Some people are jerks. you know how bridge can be if your partner messes up. But there is some decent chat too. It's not too bad.

Sessions vary. At pogo, you play a rubber. people play fast, but it can get a bit held up with sacrafice bids and the like. Usually under an hour...but if you start sitting down again, it can go long. Easy to get that one more turn thing going. Watch a few hands, you'll see.

It's not that I'm crazy about 4-4 fits, it's that neophyte players who feel undcomfortable with one are in error. Goren has a good section where he explains why a 4-4 fit is better than a 5-3 fit. (It has to do with the chance of getting a 5-3 fit in a side suit which can be set up or generate ruffs.) I don't think it is a big deal, though. It's just if you ar avoiding 4-4 fits, that will hurt you. You will end up missing a lot of makeable major suit games and end up in partials or in 3nt and having a harder time when you could have been in an 8 trump major.

[TCO]

Originally posted by Urban Ranger
Stallers are people who just sit there forever? Are there any forums or other channels to file complaints?

Yes. You can boot them, provided all 3 others agree. The occasional staller is not such a big deal. I haven't seen one in weeks. And of course, you avoid ever playing with such a person again.

Just go check out the site. It is easy. You can watch a few hands to get a feel for it.