[sceptic]

Hi

Can someone explain what fun it is playing weird systems against pick up pards in the main bridge lounge, when there opps have no idea how to play against the system.

I realise that the opps choose to sit at the table, maybe curiosity gets the better of them, but surely if you play something like forcing pass system, you would want to only allow people of a standard that know the system, so that you get a decent game, it can't be much fun beating up opps who have no idea what they are doing

especially if the bids you make are not what is showing by the FD description

(this is not a personal attack on the two forum experts who post here, I just am curious why you would not want to play that system against expert opps that know what they are doing

[jtfanclub]

sceptic, on Jul 14 2007, 06:42 PM, said:

Hi

Can someone explain what fun it is playing weird systems against pick up pards in the main bridge lounge, when there opps have no idea how to play against the system.

Because you want to practice playing them.

[the hog]

jtfanclub, on Jul 15 2007, 06:56 AM, said:

sceptic, on Jul 14 2007, 06:42 PM, said:

Hi

Can someone explain what fun it is playing weird systems against pick up pards in the main bridge lounge, when there opps have no idea how to play against the system.

Because you want to practice playing them.

Hi Wayne,
There is the practice issue, posted above. I haven't played on line now for ages because I don't have an internet connection at home at the moment, but whenever I have played we have always made a statement that we DO play an unusual system, so that anyone who sits IS warned.

Don't forget too, that some players who sit want to play against something unusual, just to see what happens or just for fun as they don't get the experience in doing so in their own associations.

I have always liked playing against foobar and Todd eg, and I know some people have enjoyed playing against Richard and myself.

I will admit, of course, that we do get some players who don't read the warning and leave pretty quickly as well.

[DrTodd13]

It gets boring playing the same old system all the time. I play FP online for variety and for fun. It isn't much fun when people do stupid stuff like overcalling our implied suit and thinking it is natural. All-in-all, there isn't so much of this stupidity as to make it unenjoyable. The people who would tend to do stupid things I would imagine quit pretty quickly. As for FD, we don't look at the possible meanings of a bid before we make them so system forgets will sometimes make a hand not match the stated meaning.

[Elianna]

sceptic, on Jul 14 2007, 03:42 PM, said:

I realise that the opps choose to sit at the table, maybe curiosity gets the better of them, but surely if you play something like forcing pass system, you would want to only allow people of a standard that know the system, so that you get a decent game, it can't be much fun beating up opps who have no idea what they are doing

Maybe possibly because it's impossible to get people who know that system together, to play against online?

[awm]

Any time a practiced partnership plays against randoms in the main club it tends to be kind of silly. I think every now and then it's fun to just bid and play a few hands with a friend and you just play your normal methods, weird as they may be. There's not always time to arrange a set match.

On the other hand, any claim that results against randoms "show" that methods are good is quite ridiculous.

[helene_t]

IRL, it can be quite difficuly to find opps who like playing against weird systems. I play Precision with two IRL pds and Boring Club with another, those hardly count as "weird" systems and still we get some annoyed remarks from time to time. On-line, at least you can avoid those who dislike it.

I can imagine that it can still be difficult to find established partnerships with enough common sense to bid reasonably against a werid system. I think some more advanced "dating" facilities for main room opps and partners could improve things a little. Instead of just "help me find a game", table hosts could specify some parameters (kind of system being played, undo rules, number of boards intented to play) and then prospecitive opps could search on them. Maybe the reason why such facilities have not been implemented is an expectation that few table hosts would bother to specify such parameters.

[Gerben42]

Quote

Any time a practiced partnership plays against randoms in the main club it tends to be kind of silly.

I agree with this - it doesn't depend on system. Since I never play with random partners I always try to find established partnerships as opps also but it's not always possible.

[rbforster]

sceptic, on Jul 14 2007, 06:42 PM, said:

Can someone explain what fun it is playing weird systems against pick up pards in the main bridge lounge

Same reason you play bridge in general, because it's fun! Sure playing against randoms isn't ideal, but sometimes your friends aren't around.

sceptic, on Jul 14 2007, 06:42 PM, said:

...when there opps have no idea how to play against the system.

Despite what some of the other folks say around here, I think you can have a perfectly reasonable defense against most systems, even weird systems, based on natural bidding. Sure it might not be "optimal" (whatever that means), but it's sure a long way from claiming that they "have no idea how to play against the system". For natural bids, you overcall naturally and double for takeout. For artificial strong bids, you preempt naturally. For transfer openings, double for takeout of the shown suit and bid naturally otherwise. You don't have to have agreements for every cuebid or jump cuebid to play bridge. Most of us were playing a long time before someone taught us what 1♠-(3♠) might want to mean and we got along just fine.

[pbleighton]

Quote

I haven't played on line now for ages because I don't have an internet connection at home at the moment

Have you found a ftf game in Thailand, Ron? If so, how it it?

Peter

[the hog]

Hi Peter, there were ftf games in Thailand. The players were nearly all from the "upper social strata". there is very little middle class in Thaliand. I have actually been in Laos for the past 8 months. I am living here. There is NO bridge here at all. I am waiting hard to get an internet connection at home so that I can play on line - in about 2 weeks.

[Fluffy]

sceptic, on Jul 14 2007, 11:42 PM, said:

Can someone explain what fun it is playing weird systems against pick up pards in the main bridge lounge, when there opps have no idea how to play against the system.

Depends on what you mean by weird, I've played weird system just for fun, normally you penalice yourself for playing the weird system more than the opponents.