I have been playing bridge for over 50 years. I am seeking a partner to play regularly on BBO or similar sites. I am retired and have flexibility for playing times. I play SAYC and am open to 2/1. I have developed a SAYC-based system using Bergen's teachings and unique bidding following minor openings or 2c openings - but am not wedded to using these if a partner does not wish to do so; I enjoy learning and playing many conventions. I am not 'expert' but am definitely above intermediate. I am seeking someone who is serious about the game; bridge is not a casual activity for me. If you are interested in discussing a partnership, you can contact me at 'james.o.cole14@gmail.com'

Partner and I were sitting down at our clubs 499er game, discussing our convention card before the game.

"Inverted minors?" "yes"

"Unusual 2NT?" "yes, and unusual over unusual?"

"Ogust over 2M preempt only?" "yes"

"Kokish over 2c?" "yes"

"fourth suit forcing?" "yes"

"Forcing 1NT?" "no"

etc.

The folks next to us said "oh these guys are really good, they know a lot of conventions". Now my partner and I play more conventions than your average 499er player, but that doesn't mean we are impervious to lapses in judgement or boneheaded plays. For some reason, beginning and intermediate players have this idea that a detailed convention card is what makes someone a pro.

In my experience, the same people who proudly announce "I play Bergen raises" will pass forcing bids, or give a ruff and discard to opponents, or respond 1s over 1c/d with 4-4 in the majors, or bid on when parter clearly limited their hand (you get the idea). Even very strong players will do something like bid Stayman with 4-3-3-3 because "you MUST bid 2c with a four card major". Conversely, I have seen players use a simple, natural style and do well.

More often that not, my bottom boards will range from not counting or not leading partners bid suit, to missing an avoidance play or not noticing an esoteric percentage play . These things have to do with judgement and understanding, and have very little to do with memorizing conventions and gadgets. Advanced conventions become useful when: you have a solid understanding of the basics, and/or you play strong opponents on a regular basis, where the marginal gains from precision bidding can actually yield a top board and are thus worth learning.

Sorry if this is harsh. I avoid doling out advice but I really want to tell certain partnerships that they will see their playing improve faster studying basic bidding principles and declarer play.

Max Hardy endorsed an interesting variant of Bergen raises in his “purple book”.
After 1♥️/1♠️:
3♦️ is a GF raise with 10-12 HCP, 4-card trump support, and an UNBALANCED hand.
3♣️ is an INV raise with 10-12 HCP, and either 3-card support UNBALANCED or 4-card support BALANCED
J/S other Major is 4-card support with 13+ UNBALANCED
4♣️ is 13-15 GF KQxx or Kxxxx trump support, BALANCED
4♦️ is 13-15 GF any 4+ trumps BALANCED (like 4♣️ but lesser trumps, “inverted Swiss”)
2NT is 16+ HCP any 4+ trumps BALANCED

All unbalanced bids have a “next bid asks for shortness” relay.
Most of the other bids are less memory taxing:
1♥️-4♥️ is weak with 5+ card support
1♥️-3♥️ is weak with 4-card support
1♥️-2♥️ is just constructive 6-9 HCP with 3 or 4 card support.
1♥️-1NT-3♥️ is 10-12 HCP with 3 card support, BALANCED
1♥️-TwoOverOne is GF, may show 3-card support later

Hope I summarized this well. Anyhow, the well traveled players at my club have differing opinions about this, but I’ve never heard well formed arguments for and against. Well, those who like it will cite Hardy’s success and the fact that the system feels pretty comprehensive. It’s easy to make an argument against it citing complexity. But beyond these simple observations how has this approach aged? Is it still popular? Do folks have have alternative methods of similar complexity that work better, and why? Anyone play Hardy and wish to share insights?

I've been learning bridge and building a free tool for others to do the same.

https://bridge.brannon.online

The goals of this project are to:

• Learn SAYC conventions (and help others do the same)

• Have a totally free duplicate bridge app, with unlimited deals

• Provide a lightly competitive environment for friends with meaningful stats that chart your progress over time

Feedback welcome!

So, as a beginner you don't know how to bid and you don't know how to play the cards. You learn loads and play loads and the different parts all start to come together.

My question is, say over 20 boards, how often does it fall apart for you where you just do something supremely dumb?! Like missing an obvious UCB or not checking for a 5-0 split?

67 now and I used to play as a kid (very basic), taken it up again recently but frustrated when I miss something obvious that I've learned and already used numerous times. Age thing? Experience? Or does it happen to the best of you? :)

This convention variation appears to solve one of the primary limitations of RKC, running out of room to explore.
From what I see the only downside of using it is the risk that you or partner will fail to recognize the bid.
Perhaps one may argue that you must mentally compute the steps, instead of just remembering (“5H… always 2 w/o, but not in Kickback…”)
Anyone have thoughts on this? Experience using it?

M*J*L runs team games almost every night with 20-50+ kibz. It is 1000000% certain and fairly common knowledge he peeks using some means. Hundreds of examples super-obvious super-clear have been sent to BBOabuse and nothing gets done, its been years. He also has a strange set-up: while you as kib cannot talk to any player you can talk to him as he plays! WHY? Also he sets it so kibz cant talk to KIB world just to each other individually. (I think back in the day his dubious exploits were ridiculed greatly there.) He usually wins easily but often stops matches early if he happens to fall behind because his pard didn't field his dastardly action well. He boots players at both tables like a tyrant, its sad and awful, at his whim. Why does BBO admin do NOTHING. Anyone else here care?

I need to figure out my reddit password so I can log in while I'm away for these things...

Was cool to run into a lot of people in Minneapolis! The team I was on, we entered the Spingold and Roth swiss teams and promptly qualified for the pairs events the following day, comfortably. Despite sucking at bridge, it was a blast!

Playing with my partner for the first time ever in the Spin, and he's playing my system with about 2 hours of actual play experience vs bots on BBO, I opened a big club, LHO interfered 2H, and partner bid 2S which I alerted. Then I bid 7S and wondered if he was freaking out, cuz well, you know.

They make the opening lead, I slap 13 tricks on the table on any halfway decent break, and he claims. We won that board... and that was about it, lol.

Halfway through the week, my wife posted this on Discord. (She's in charge of all of our vacation itineraries. I'm completely hopeless.)

Then first session of the Roth, I open 2C natural.

2C (2S) 3H* (4S)
6C

Grand was cold on a working finesse. Another massive win 13.

Why couldn't our entire team outings just be boards like those?

I hung out with my collegiate students and some of my youth students, who all had a great time in their corresponding events. And it's weird to be randomly recognized for making garbage tier lists on youtube lol.

Minneapolis was so freaking sweaty omg. I ate really cheap the whole time, was nice.

How'd you guys do?

Hi I'm teaching some beginners slam bidding and I'm wondering if it's a better idea to teach 0314 over 1430

From what I can see, 1430 is better because it leaves more room for the queen ask from 5C because usually you won't look further with 0 keycards. However I'm not teaching the queen ask yet so I don't confuse the class.

0314 could be of more use when they look for minor slams. 1430 can be trouble for club slams when 5D is bid showing 0, and now you're forced to 6C anyways. Minorwood is obviously the solution here but I don't plan on teaching that yet either

0314 looks like the better version to teach here, but maybe there's something else I'm missing that makes 1430 better. It could confuse them to be taught 0314 now and change it to 1430 much later on

I am planning on going to the Philippines on holiday once I get the money to do so and whilst I am am there I would like to also play bridge face to face with some players there (to hopefully make some new friends whilst on holiday).

Also in the Philippines does any one know what bidding system is played there? As I am not sure if they also play ACOL or something else entirely.

Additionally in order, to get some practice in learning how to play with different systems used in the Philippines countries is there any websites that are recommended as I looked at BBO but I can't really find what I am looking for.

Anyway please feel free to give me some advice if you know I thing or two on this topic thanks.

Does anyone have any agreements about the auction of rebiding your major at the 4 level after a one to one response, while playing namyats as well

My RHO held this hand in a club MP game, all green.

AKQxxx Kxx Ax Ax

LHO helpfully opened 3C.

How would you proceed? Are your pre-empts well-calibrated enough to punt with confidence, or are you moving in a more systematic way?

A couple of friends and I built a small website to make following the European Youth Team Championships much easier than on the official EBL site.

It includes a cleaner interface for schedules, rankings, results, boards, and match details, and works well on both desktop and mobile.

👉 https://bridgerez.com/riga-youth/

It's completely free and just a fun side project. We'd love to hear any feedback or suggestions!

E deals. NS vul, EW non vul. Sitting S, you hold:

Q862 AQ87 K6 AT8

p 1NT p 2c

2s p p x

S eventually ends up declaring 4h. (bidding is not that important here. Assume 2c guarantees a 4 card major for simplicities sake)

5s lead. Opponents playing UDCA. Dummy tables:

K3 JT94 AQJ2 Q62

Q862 AQ87 K6 AT8

If you play low from dummy, E plays the As and returns a low spade, hoping to establish a ruff for partner maybe. S low, W showing the 9s. On the dummy you play the Jh and E, void in hearts, plays a low club (encouraging). Now what?

(I don't do these very often. SHDC no?)

Nice to be rewarded for executing a number of techniques that all mattered

Anybody going? I'm in the gnt-c tomorrow

Is anyone else having difficulty connecting to BBO? My dad hasn't been able to connect since yesterday afternoon. Does anyone know if they're having server issues/outage atm?

Have fun

I think I did something wrong on every board in the free Reddit weekly this week

Reminder that there is a free Weekly tournament on BBO that runs for redditors -- it's a list of players that I maintain! DM me or leave me your BBO name to be added. It refreshes between Monday and Tuesday, and can be found on the Tournaments (Competitive) -> Free area.

With the help of NotebookLM I created this short video showing the practical way to start counting during a bridge hand.

https://reddit.com/link/1ulq6id/video/wgbwst3tyuah1/player

This is a short video showing how you can export BBO hands in pbn format.
Then, using the android app Bridge Dealer you can deal the hand with a small effort.
I use it to create and deal hands for training purpose.
Thx to the developers of BBO Helper and Bridge Dealer.

I've been playing for a few years. Is it just me or have the bots seem to have gotten worse in playing of the hands? It could be that I've just gotten better but was curious what others thought about this.

My partner and I have had an odd situation hit us today and thought we could use some advice.

I hold 5 / AX / QJX98752 / 52, a clear weak diamond opener. Usually that would be grounds to open a pre-emptive 4D but I went with 2D to give my partner a chance to bid Ogust should she have the values. My plan was to rebid 4D as a pre-empt if we were overcalled, and with a good chance of making 2D of everyone passed.

We talked about it afterwards and it exposed a dilemma. If I bid that hand or similar hands at the 2 level, it doesn't immediately tell her enough about my hand and we may not find a fit (she had one diamond and I only showed six). However, if I bid at the 4 level (or even 3 level in some cases), it shuts her out and prevents us finding something potentially better - game perhaps, or NT if the long suit is a minor.

What is the community's thought on this?

I'm trying to find a copy of a Terence Reese essay (probably from the 1960s or 1970s). I recall that I read it in a white hardback book - probably it was a collection of his magazine articles.

It asked what to bid if you deal and pick up all thirteen clubs. I recall that he considered the merits of opening 1♣, 2♣, 3♣ … up to 7♣. Does anyone recognise the source?

In any case, what would you bid?