[Trinidad]

Vampyr, on 2014-October-29, 19:31, said:

Default where you live, I guess, but not everyone lives there.

I wasn't aware that we had extraterrestrial forum members. Thanks for pointing that out.



Rik

[aguahombre]

Good grief!! The guy was asked for a system context. And he said that his OP was within a plain old 5-card major system; using the word "default" is even sort of accurate here in the BBF. Unless someone states Acol, 2/1, Big Club, or somesuch I always assume something like a vanilla 5cM to be the "default" here such as SA or French standard.

[whereagles]

By the way, if you're curious about it, here are the hands:

Kxx
KQJxx
xxx
Ax

AT98x
Txx
x
QJxx


Game is actually pretty ok, but I think the only way to reach it might be


1♥ 1NT (kaplan inversion, 5+ spades)
2♠ 3♥ (not 100% clear this shows a dbl fit, but it's encouraging in any case)
4♥/♠

But fear not: hearts broke 4-1, so most people ended up with only 9 tricks

[MrAce]

whereagles, on 2014-October-30, 12:28, said:

But fear not: hearts broke 4-1, so most people ended up with only 9 tricks

Oh yea, we would be cold if hearts were 3-2! Which suit are you planning to touch, after a trump lead, which you were allowed to hold at T1? (playing 4♥)

-If you play a diamond, they simply play 2 more rounds of hearts and cash 2 diamonds when they get in with spades
-If you continue trumps same thing happens
-If you continue spades and try to establish spade suit first, then they will get a spade ruff.
-Do you wanna get the big bonus by letting us know what may happen if you play on clubs?

Playing 4♠ you will need ♣K to be on most of the time. Which reduces your chances % 50 of the time even when both majors split friendly.
See... you and I frequently see different things when we both look at same things and I bet you thought it was a well bid but an unlucky game contract, didn't you?

[whereagles]

Well, if you're playing 2♥ it doesn't matter much. If you're playing 4♥, it will probably be after a double fit auction, so a trump lead is unlikely. But ok this is all a bit academic.

Club hook was on, by the way.

[nige1]

whereagles, on 2014-October-29, 18:23, said:

System is default: 5 card majors.

Vampyr, on 2014-October-29, 19:31, said:

Default where you live, I guess, but not everyone lives there.

Trinidad, on 2014-October-30, 04:30, said:

I wasn't aware that we had extraterrestrial forum members. Thanks for pointing that out.

aguahombre, on 2014-October-30, 07:56, said:

Good grief!! The guy was asked for a system context. And he said that his OP was within a plain old 5-card major system; using the word "default" is even sort of accurate here in the BBF. Unless someone states Acol, 2/1, Big Club, or somesuch I always assume something like a vanilla 5cM to be the "default" here such as SA or French standard.

Many extra-terrestrials employ simple natural methods with 4-card majors. The OP waited until reply #35 to divulge to us that 1♥ promised 5+ cards

[aguahombre]

nige1, on 2014-October-30, 19:25, said:

Many extra-terrestrials employ simple natural methods with 4-card majors. The OP waited until reply #35 to divulge to us that 1♥ promised 5+ cards

So, now I know that your responses and "ratings" of the answers provided by others are based on a 4-card major system, unless otherwise stated by the OP. I sometimes wondered what they were based on.

I personally have no experience with such style after all these years, and have no opinion about its effectiveness. But, it certainly explains some of the responses I don't understand on BBF.

Perhaps Bridge World Standard's default should be changed accordingly, as well as the version of SA in the ACBL Bulletin "It's your Call".

[Vampyr]

aguahombre, on 2014-October-30, 21:33, said:

Perhaps Bridge World Standard's default should be changed accordingly, as well as the version of SA in the ACBL Bulletin "It's your Call".

I don't know about the ACBL version of SA, but BW Standard is decided by votes. Anyway if no members/subscribers are complaining, why change?

The general point here, anyway, is that unlike in the OP's case, these systems are made known to problem-solvers before the problem is presented.

[the hog]

jogs, on 2014-October-28, 13:02, said:

Don't feel alone. I would also bid 1♠, followed by 3♥. 3 hearts with a singleton opposite a known 5 card heart suit makes many tricks. These two bids describes the hand. Don't like the use of the term 'invitation'. I'll describe my hand. Pard should make the best bid possible with that info.

Jogs, where is the hand you were describing when you bid this way? It certainly was not the original hand posted by Whereagles.

[Trinidad]

nige1, on 2014-October-30, 19:25, said:

Many extra-terrestrials employ simple natural methods with 4-card majors.

Yes, I understand that now. And who knows, perhaps Acol is the universal bidding system, just like French perhaps is the universal language.

(Or might it be that you need to be British to believe that Acol can be a default bidding system in the world and French to believe that French is the world language?)

nige1, on 2014-October-30, 19:25, said:

The OP waited until reply #35 to divulge to us that 1♥ promised 5+ cards

You can see next to post #1 that the OP lives in Portugal. In Portugal they don't have the peculiarities that this group of islands surrounded by the North Sea and Atlantic Ocean have. Therefore, in Portugal, they drive on the right side of the road and play 5 card majors.

Rik

[NickRW]

Trinidad, on 2014-October-31, 01:23, said:

You can see next to post #1 that the OP lives in Portugal. In Portugal they don't have the peculiarities that this group of islands surrounded by the North Sea and Atlantic Ocean have. Therefore, in Portugal, they drive on the right side of the road and play 5 card majors.

Rik

No offense meant to anyone, but frankly I didn't know what the standard in Portugal was.

History about right and left hand driving

[Vampyr]

Trinidad, on 2014-October-31, 01:23, said:

(Or might it be that you need to be British to believe that Acol can be a default bidding system in the world and French to believe that French is the world language?)

You can see next to post #1 that the OP lives in Portugal.

So what you meant to say is that you need to be Portuguese to believe that whatever they play in Portugal is the default bidding system in the world. Is there a particular reason you brought the English and the French into it?

[wank]

as this thread is becoming a little embarrassing for british people, i should point out vampyr is american, not british.

[helene_t]

nige1, on 2014-October-30, 19:25, said:

Many extra-terrestrials employ simple natural methods with 4-card majors. The OP waited until reply #35 to divulge to us that 1♥ promised 5+ cards

According to Jeff Rubens, people on the bright side of the moon play SA while those on the dark side play a so-called Hors d'Euvre system in which you are supposed to open your second shortest suit, wide-ranging but nonforcing. I am not aware of any evidence of extra terrestials who play Acol.

Seriously, I think this discussion is a bit silly. Is anybody not able to guess which system Whereagles is playing if he doesn't specify it? Give me a break. OK, the exact range for the 2♥ bid is obviously not easy to guess but you can always ask. Not something to make a big issue of.

[beatrix45]

Obviously 2♥ is the book bid, but 1♠ is not crazy since you want a ♠ lead if you end up defending. If LHO is bouncing up and down in his/her chair in eager anticipation, you might just want to do it.

[Vampyr]

wank, on 2014-October-31, 03:44, said:

as this thread is becoming a little embarrassing for british people, i should point out vampyr is american, not british.

No, actually you shouldn't "point out" personal details about other posters.

[the hog]

For heaven's sake, you have yourself stated this fact on this site. It is common knowledge.

[beatrix45]

NickRW, on 2014-October-31, 03:04, said:

No offense meant to anyone, but frankly I didn't know what the standard in Portugal was.

History about right and left hand driving

Thanks for the erudite reference on left and right hand driving. I was just wondering about that earlier today. Am I correct in my recollection that Underground foot traffic in London keeps to the right just as Subway foot traffic in NYC? No matter, once a freeway system is built, that die is cast. Converting over to the other side of the road becomes too expensive. Changing over bidding systems is also not without cost.

P.S. The problems of driving on what for you is the 'wrong' side of the road are not to be sneezed at. I tried it in Australia once. When my Aussie cousins came to Canada, they planned to drive to see us and then go on to Toronto in a rental car. About 20 minutes outside the Seattle airport, they called for help. Needless to say, the rest of their round the world trip was mostly by air.

[wank]

Vampyr, on 2014-October-31, 04:16, said:

No, actually you shouldn't "point out" personal details about other posters.

people shouldn't talk a constant stream of shite and troll the forum with endless nit-picking either, but sadly these things happen. when they happen and make me look like a dick by association though it's too much.

[Vampyr]

the hog, on 2014-October-31, 04:25, said:

For heaven's sake, you have yourself stated this fact on this site. It is common knowledge.

Yes, it's true, and I hope wank has seen such posts and is not using real-life knowledge. This is what I was feeling concerned about, revealing a fact you know about a person because you know them, when you don't know whether they have chosen to share this fact online.