[woodych]

I would like to thank everyone who has taken the time out to reply to my questions, it is very much appreciated and I don't feel so silly asking them after all.
You have shown how complicated the game really is and that even at my tender age of 54 I have plenty of years learning still to do.

I recall I first played bridge in my early teens. I enjoyed it then, but of course then other past times took over and we can guess what they probably were....

It is only in the last 2-3 years I have started playing again and enjoy it very much.

Some times it can get very competative and I do feel bad about any partner I am with at the time when I make mistakes, but I realise we all make them however good we are, and that we make those and hopefully learn from them.

Thanks again:)

[Stephen Tu]

woodych, on 2015-September-22, 16:19, said:

I get it, bad hand still bid, good hand jump or game

Good hands also have the option of cue bidding the suit partner doubled when unsure of which game to bid and to create a forcing auction at a lower than game level.

BTW it's not a great idea to quote entire posts just to thank people for making them. It creates this massive wall of text that makes the thread hard to read and doesn't add anything to the discussion. If you want follow up, excerpt just part of the post and ask a follow up question.

Just do it like your last post, a single posting thanking everyone without quoting everyone's entire post.

[woodych]

I have taken the advice provided by players in this thread and I have since always responded to my partners double, especially where no bid from ops came after the double, however bad my hand might seem to me.
It certainly has been proved to be the correct thing to do.

Today I doubled a 1NT openner from ops as i had 18 facecard points.
No bid came from the other op and my partner passed too.

I admit my partner had zero face card points but he did have 5 spades.

As it turned out we lost big time. Op should have been in a much higher bid but of course I had no chance to make that happen.

The most frustrating thing about the hand was not that my partner passed but that he later sent me a private message after the tournament to say what a beginner I was and how he had added my name to his blacklist?

Was I wrong to double the ops 1nt openner?

I feel he should have replied with 2s at least to push ops above the 1nt doubled?

Thank you

[1eyedjack]

I would add that player to your blacklist.

It is normal to double 1NT with 18 points.

Although primarily for penalties, it is normal to remove said double if you have a very weak hand opposite AND you have somewhere to run.

It is likely that your general inexperience was apparent to an experienced partner over the course of the tourney, and I would not count your double of 1N as a likely contributory factor. Indeed if the hand contributed at all it may be because there may have been some slippage in the defensive play.

But none of that justifies discourtesy.

Your partner is absolutely entitled, if so inclined, to blacklist every beginner that he partners, or for that matter any player whose username begins in the range L to Z, but it does him no credit and I think it behoves him to keep it to himself.

Sad to say, this is not the last time that you will get someone passing such comments to you. Etiquette online is nothing like the standard that you would get face to face. Just have to let it wash over you.

[woodych]

Thank you 1eyedjack.
He was only a partner for one hand being the free automated tournaments, but perhaps he has seen me play in others.
But as you say no need for those messages and as you also say there will I am sure be others as there have been before this one, some not printable which I have passed onto abuse@bbo.
My average match points is around 45% which I didn't think was that bad but I guess some players hate playing with anyone below an intermediate but at least I do not hold myself out to be an expert, just someone trying to learn the game.
I will indeed let is wash over me:)

[1eyedjack]

---

MP

I shall not embarrass your partner by naming him, although anyone keen enough could find it out.

Every table bar one opened the West hand 1N. Every North bar one doubled. Every South bar your partner removed 1NX to 2S.

You got off to a killing lead and partner erred at trick 1 by playing the Heart 10 denying holding the 9, where had he played the 9 losing to the Ace he could reliably be placed with the 10 (holding AKT, declarer would certainly win trick 1 with the ten). Had he played correctly you would have had no trouble continuing with a low Heart instead of the Queen, when in with the Spade Ace, and still been on course to defeat the contract.

Incidentally, you possibly do yourself down. Over the month of September (to date) you have averaged 49.29% over 1227 MP deals. Over the same period your "partner" averaged 49.63% over 635 MP deals. It would be wrong to read too much into that: It is possible that he was playing stronger opponents on a regular basis (personally I doubt it). To be fair, as of today he only claims to be "intermediate" in his profile.

[mikestar13]

I think that woodych's virtually 50% record given the stage of learning bridge indicated by his questions is very impressive--back in the days when I was at that stage, I would be flattering myself to claim a 45% average. No question that his partner was full of ....

[woodych]

Thank you 1eyedjack and mikestar13
That has made a big difference to my confidence.
I was starting to feel like I was the one in the wrong all the time, thanks to private messages from the likes of that recent player you do not name.
I can think of quite a few words to insert there mike,lol!
Thank you both again:)

[wank]

how does one look up another player's results?

[Zelandakh]

wank, on 2015-September-30, 09:16, said:

how does one look up another player's results?

Go to http://www.bridgebas...hands/index.php and select the player's name after logging in. Records are usually available for the last 2 months.

[1eyedjack]

wank, on 2015-September-30, 09:16, said:

how does one look up another player's results?

As Zel mentions, most of the raw data is, for a while, available on the MyHands website, per Zel's link.

Some hands never get to that repository, such as Total Points hands, rubber bridge hands (Windows download client), solitaire, "Just Play Bridge", video poker style, and maybe a smattering of others (Bingo, perhaps? not sure about that)

Some hands that DO make it to the repository are only later available if you log into MyHands under a username that participated in the tourney. This is a security measure resulting from ACBL pressure and the cause for requiring you now to log into the MyHands site.

Finally, assuming that you pass those hurdles, you have to know the player's ID (which may not match forum poster's ID).

To get average stats of performance over time I use a 3rd party Windows program Double Dummy Solver by Bridge Captain, which will download results from MyHands (where available, see above) a month at a time. If you are a serious stats nut, Stephen Picket's BridgeBrowser is rather more powerful.

[el mister]

Worth being aware of the consequences of failing to cash an ace at matchpoints versus IMPs - if you go to bed with an ace at MPs it could mean a bottom, whereas the extra overtrick at IMPs is not a big deal.

Just an extra thing to consider - As the other posters have said, it's far too wide and varied a topic to condense into a few rules.

[woodych]

Yes it is as I am finding out the more tournaments I play rather than relaxed with friends.
I do have another question though if anyone has the time to reply some time?
I have always been advised it is best to lead back the suit my partner does when defending a contract with the ops.
I tend to agree becuase my partner may have a singleton, may have a good face card etc
IT doesnt always mean that, but there is a good chance it does, so i do tend to almost always lead back what my partner first did unless I have a very good reason not to do so.
I only ask because in a few hands my partner/s never lead my suit back and we lost the hand because of that.
Many thanks

[Trinidad]

There are two things to consider.

• You want to lead the right suit (active).
  
• You don't want to lead the wrong suit (passive).

1.
The opening lead is made blind. You only see your own cards and you have the information from the bidding. All other leads have the information from the dummy as well as from the previous plays. Simply put: of all the leads that defenders are going to make during a hand, the opening lead is much more likely to be wrong than any of the other leads (perhaps even than all other leads combined).

So, if partner -with all the extra information that he has- knows that your opening lead was wrong, it makes sense to try another suit to beat the contract.

2.
Once the opening lead has been made, and it turned out to be a wrong lead, quite often the damage in that suit has been done: you blew a trick, but you cannot blow a second trick there anymore. That means that often it is better to continue the suit, rather than to guess to lead a new suit... and blow a trick there too. What you see often is that a spade lead would set the contract by two, but the opening lead was a heart, blowing a trick for the defense. Now the contract should be down one. But third hand, unhappy with the fact that the heart lead blew a trick, tries his luck somewhere else. With little to guide him, he now tries a diamond and a second trick is blown and the contract suddenly makes.

And, obviously, there is still case number 3: The opening lead might be right.

Rik

[1eyedjack]

woodych, on 2015-October-02, 13:34, said:

I do have another question though if anyone has the time to reply some time?
I have always been advised it is best to lead back the suit my partner does when defending a contract with the ops.
I tend to agree becuase my partner may have a singleton, may have a good face card etc
IT doesnt always mean that, but there is a good chance it does, so i do tend to almost always lead back what my partner first did unless I have a very good reason not to do so.
I only ask because in a few hands my partner/s never lead my suit back and we lost the hand because of that.
Many thanks

If I may make a suggestion, it really is better to start a new thread when you want to discuss a new topic.

But as to the question raised, you need to train yourself out of the "rule of thumb" mindset here. If you religiously return your partner's suit you will misdefend a lot of hands. If you religiously switch, likewise. Neither policy is necessary. You have a wealth of information at your disposal. You have all of the bidding. You can see the dummy. You can see your hand. You can usually infer a lot about partner's holding in the suit led, from the cards played at trick 1. You can make additional inferences from the fact that he chose to lead that suit. If you take all this into account and do a Brian Boitano, most of the time whether to lead the suit back should be clear without having to rely on rules of thumb. It may not even be at trick 2 that you are having to make your decision, and the later in the hand the less forgivable the error.

One point to bear in mind is that the opening lead is a VERY HARD part of the game. Partner may be a genius but that does not mean that he will find the best lead all of the time. But not finding the best lead does not mean that the defence is hopeless and that you should give up. Still, you have to make allowances, and build into your plan the possibility that trick 1 lead may not have been optimal.

[woodych]

Thank you for those replies, much appreciated.

[woodych]

Urgh, another private messenger moaning about my bidding. Maybe he should have asked me for aces he was the one with the big hand.
Yes I could have gone direct to 6NT but i have done that before and we lost so i just cant win!

[Zelandakh]

woodych, on 2015-October-04, 07:16, said:

Urgh, another private messenger moaning about my bidding. Maybe he should have asked me for aces he was the one with the big hand.
Yes I could have gone direct to 6NT but i have done that before and we lost so i just cant win!

Having a big hand does not automatically mean that you should be the one taking control. As an example, after a 2NT opening it is much more common for the weaker responding hand to take the initiative. In general, a less described hand with extras over what they have shown for the bidding to date will be the one making some forward-going move.

[woodych]

Thank you Zelandakh
The problem with the hand today was I had 14 points and I guess i should have jumped straight to 4NT? (or maybe not?)
But we are all human and sometimes do not bid what we know afterward we should have.
I have no problem taking advice when it is made in a friendly constructive manor, but when players message unpleasant complaints it just gets ones back up and one goes on the defensive.
That player has instead of passing on what might have been good advise has just made an enemy, although he probably doesn't care about that.
Such is life!

[1eyedjack]

You will tend to get more valuable help if you post the hand. Or, if that is too much hassle, a link to the hand in MyHands site.